When you are trying to get out of debt and it becomes that long, long road of seems like forever, it is easy to get bored and start to do stupid things again. All of us can suck it up for a little while and then we get frustrated, bored, lonely, jealous, unhappy, angry, you name what ever emotion triggers you and you are off spending.At least I am.
In order to not do this I have to feel like I am making progress. When you are paying off the smaller bills to snowball this very effort and progress can keep you going. If you use the strategy I have it is a long way between big pay offs like a car, or a major loan. This is where the small strategies come into play.
Now I have never been one to really look at small strategies. I go back to the lists of the" top 10 things you shouldn't buy to get out of debt". My miracle lists. (This is what I call them) If you read and implement this list you will be out of debt in a day or two. Well, actually you will just have given someone a hit on their account and that is okay. There is no miracle. There are some good ideas. If you do any research on this subject you will see they are the same ideas, over and over. So what do you do?
Well I poo, pooed most of them or I was already doing those things so they didn't help. (again looking for the quick fix) So I stopped being a spoiled brat and really looked at different things that I wasn't doing, (that I thought were worthless) and decided to implement them. Words pay no debts, but actions do.
1. study you bills make sure they are correct. What did I discover?
a. cell bill was wrong for a long time, I got a huge refund and a bill dropping from $156.00 a month to under $90.00. So add $66.00 more to our monthly budget.
b. Review insurance and switch company. 3 cars from $176.00 a month down to $66.00 a month. Savings of $110.00 a month. Yes that is right.
c. Watching internet bill and catching the reup date to keep the bill at low rate. Saving $9.00 a month.
d. Watching yellow pages add to make sure only shop was included in contract (I missed this last year). $22.00 a month savings.
e. Noticed points on an old card and insisted on collecting them. $100.00 gift card
This one thing alone garnered me $280.00 in free money, but also $207.00 monthly to put toward debt. That is a big old heap of change. Will it make a difference? You bet it will.
2. Study your utility usage and block the energy leaks.
a. I have been actively turning off all lights when not in use. I have (had a bad habit of leaving things on out of laziness and my dislike of the dark). Our electric bill is down about $25.00 from last year.
b. Actively hanging heavy shirts and pants to dry and then fluffing them for 10 minutes in the dryer. See above electric bill.
3. Staying out of stores. I don't have a total here, but believe me when you have no temptation you don't spend as much money. I can't even put a figure on this one. Just leave it to me to say I have more discretionary income. Most of which goes to my debt.
Have any of you ever implemented a new strategy that you thought was nuts and found out it worked?
Tomorrow starts a new month. A new month to see what I can accomplish on the pay off department. I am actually looking forward to March in so many ways.
Have a great and productive day staying positive while you are in the negative.
Kim
