2 ways to reduce debt - from NCN blog

I will be posting my thoughts and my intended actions on the blog "33 days of reducing debt and saving money" posts in order to help myself and possibly even others. Although I doubt anyone really reads this except my wife - Hey, she hasn't even subscribed yet! Busted online! Anyhoo, here it goes.

Day 1: Eliminate Fees
The main point in this blog is to check all of your bills and accounts to make sure that you don't need the things people like to charge you for. I don't think I have too many of these, but it is a good exercise to double check and make sure. I could check around on pricing out some of my services like car insurance. I'm sure there are some annual fees that I have on some accounts that I miss. I need to start working on my budget anyway, so I will have to take out my bills this last year and check for fees!

Day 2: Brand Disloyalty
Are you basing your purchases on price and value or habit and repetition? We are very habitual when it comes to insurance or doing our taxes. When it comes to dispensable products, we buy whatever is on sale, therefore we eat whatever is on sale! His final words were: Why are you using the products and services that you are using? Are you making fiscally responsible choices? I believe that we are now, it's just that even when you are being financially responsible, you can't make up for lack of income, which is where we are.

I have to go mow the lawn, so I will be back to finish later. :)

How to Save Money and Reduce Debt in 33 Days - from NCN

This just posted on ncnblog.com's site. I am going to try and read and blog on it as much as I can. It is 33 days of reducing debt and saving money. Look for some comments later today!

Setting up a budget

My sister from Oklahoma who I haven't seen for ever has been in town the last two nights, so I have been busy. My nephews - one who lives in Germany and the other in Oklahoma are also here. So was my cousin from Valley Springs. We had a great time tonight just hanging out. We are hoping to get to Germany to visit my nephew before his contract is up - 2010 - which leads me to this blog(A short one, because it is late and I have to get up very early). We need savings to travel, and that is not possible without a budget.

Here is my topic - budgeting. I have never done it, and although I strive to, it never gets done. A friend of mine emailed and said they would help us with this debt, so I am looking forward to starting the budget process. I had a discouragement reading an article the other night. It said that on average, your housing should be 25-35% of your overall budget. Right now, our housing is over 50%. Do I just need to make more money? Should I turn this into a money making blog? Maybe one day it will be, but realistically, somehow we need to make more money to get back in the black.

If you have any comments, I am open to suggestions!

It's a sign! MSN has article on "The plastic life" & I go public

Today I opened up the Internet and there it was... "The Plastic Life". Four links popping out at me on the screen! 24 tips for beating debt here - http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/ManageDebt/Your5MinuteGuideToManagingDebt.aspx
I took it as a sign that this is the right time for me to do this. I have been wrestling with the fact that I need to let all my friends in on this so they can help us be diligent through all of this. I am a little embarrassed by the fact that I have all this debt, but mostly I guess it is pride getting in the way. So be it. I will let everyone know. That is the reason to do this right?? So I will post my new blog on facebook tonight. My next blog I am going to try and post some goals so I can be accountable.

2 places for good financial advice + 1 more

I just have been searching around this whole blog thing and have found 2 good sites that apply to me and another that is interesting for debt purposes.

No Credit Needed - has a great little ebook and in depth articles about being in debt. I like his story, it is similar to my reason for starting this. He has a family and was fed up about being in debt. Thus the debt blog was born. Cheers to NCN. I love it.

Money Blue Book - I emailed this guy and he responded right away and gave me some great info on helping me start a blog. I also read his article on using wholesalers for eBay. As Yoda would say, Informative this one is. I am a sucker for eBay. Good money research on his site, check it out.

Another interesting one is Blogging Away Debt- It is very encouraging to see where this person has been and where she is going with her debt. She is very open with her finances and I wish I had the discipline to do the budget like she does. Good stuff.

I am going to be reading all of these frequently and hopefully getting out of debt!

Dad in debt

OK,
I am admitting I am in debt. I think the best place to do it is out in the open where everyone can read it. I am hoping by doing this I will stop procrastinating and do something about it! I am a born procrastinator. All through college I did all my assignments at the last minute, finishing in a flurry of typing out pages and the glory of finishing at all hours of the day. I am really close to the last hour of my debt. I still have a tons of credit left on my credit cards, but the monthly payments are getting hard to face and we skipped our first one last month(not intentionally). I will always be looking for advice, and hopefully soon will see success and be giving some of my own. I do believe in God and know He is wanting my obedience to be financially responsible, so the only way I know how is to pray for help and not hide the fact I am in debt! This actually feels kind of good. How about that, a therapy session and the starting point of getting out of debt! Good times...

OK, here are the juicy details. I am married with three children, twin 7 yr olds and a 4 yr old boy. My beautiful wife of 10 years is a stay at home mom who works part time mostly doing payroll and research for our friend's small business. We just built a house 2 years ago and are trying our darndest to pay the mortgage every month. I will go into that later.

Our biggest problem financially right now is our debt. We have three credit cards with balances of about $3000, 8000, and 10,000. OUCH. The two highest ones are the ones we use to buy groceries and gas because we use our checking account to pay our mortgage and bills online. It seems like a constant vortex of debt that wont stop until we do something... what that is, I'm not quite sure. I would like to cut up the credit cards, but in reality, we need them to keep our house. But somewhere it will become impossible to stop the cycle, and we will lose our house. We have cut back on almost everything there is. Newspaper, cable, movies, going out to eat, buying coffee, etc. You name it, we don't have it anymore. It would also be hard to sell the house because we may not get enough to cover the actual mortgage on it (About $360,000/or $2500 per month).

Please let me know if you have any suggestions!! :)
I will try and continue to post my ideas and thoughts toward this...

Dad in debt