Almost a year ago we started in on paying down our debts using the debt snowball method. I’m happy to say that so far we have paid down $22,000.
This is amazing to me. We have been paying on our debt ever since we got married (and before that, separately, of course), but we never saw any kind of traction. A year ago we had six credit cards. Now we’re down to two, and by the end of the year those will both be gone as well.
Thing is, I know we could be doing even better. We’re not really on the full-speed-ahead intensive plan. We are still spending money on going out to eat and random things we “need”. But we’re working on it. A lot of the extra stuff we might buy comes from my husband’s second job money, which isn’t factored into our monthly budget.
Thankfully it appears we are saving a good amount of money on our groceries, even without clipping coupons or stockpiling. According to the USDA the “thrifty” budget for a family of two adults and one child under five is somewhere between $361 (two adults no kids) and $524 (two adults two kids). In June we spent just about $325 on groceries. This is actually more than I would like to be spending, but I’m still amazed that what we spend is considered a very small amount. After all, we’re spending $82 a month on our CSA share and I try to buy high-quality whole foods.
But I’m also cooking a lot from scratch and not buying prepackaged convenience foods. OK, we do have chicken nuggets and toaster waffles (I have a toddler after all) and my husband keeps buying ramen noodles, but dinner these days is almost always from scratch. And you know what? Macaroni and cheese is just as easy to make from scratch as it is to buy a box of Kraft. You’ll get one more pan dirty but the trade off is worth it. Plus, for the same price you get twice as much pasta. And, you know, it actually tastes like cheese on there.
I do get frustrated with it sometimes. I’d love to be able to buy the stuff I want, especially camera gear or kitchen gadgets. But it feels good to laugh at CapitalOne when they let me know they sent the new card “I requested”. Little do they know it was cut up immediately after it arrived.
We have a spreadsheet that tracks all of our bills and I love putting the new balances in. Honestly, I will spend hours calculating the budget and trying to project when each thing will be paid off. I’m a dork that way. But it gives me something to look forward to. I already feel like our lives have changed, not using the credit cards. I wonder how different life will be once we are debt free?
what recipe do you use for mac n cheese? nice work on paying down those cards too!! we are trying to do the same, but it’s a little hard on 1 income right now!
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To make the cheese sauce, all I do is melt a tablespoon or so of butter in about 1/2 cup milk, half and half, or cream. Once it is heated through I take it off the burner and put in the cheddar cheese, and stir in figure-eights until all the cheese is melted and it’s smooth. If you leave it on the burner it gets all gloppy, but this method has worked really well for me!
Plus I buy our shredded cheese at Costco and divide and freeze it, so the cheese itself ends up being pretty cheap.
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