Now that I've made the decision to become more financially responsible, how do I do that? I need some sort of game plan. To establish some accountability for myself I have set a list of goals for the week, to be accomplished by the end of Saturday.
Last year I had the opportunity to take the Financial Peace University course, designed by Dave Ramsey. I did not put it into practice at the time though. Why? I don't really have a good answer for that. I could say I was too overwhelmed by life at the time, but that would be just another excuse. The truth is that my financial situation scared me (it still does!) and it was easier for me to ignore the situation and continue being an ostrich with my head in the sand, than to actually face my finances and take care of them. I like the idea of "Baby Steps". I'm not ready to move too fast so baby steps are about my speed right now.
Goals for the week:
1. Reread all material from the Financial Peace University.
2. Order a credit report from freecreditreport.com
3. Total all outstanding debt and categorize. (Ex: student loan, car loan, medical, etc)
4. Contact a realtor and list lot for sale.
5. Use handy-dandy little notebook to keep a running list of all $ spent to see just where, exactly, my money is going.
I know that roughly my income right now is around $2350/month, not including tips from the restaurant. My monthly bills look like this:
Rent $400
Cell phone $150 (2 lines)
Auto ins $60
Cable/internet $120
Nat. Gas $15
Utilities $150
Car Payment $250
Student loans $120
Too be honest, I'm not exactly sure how much goes out each month for food. I know quite a bit is being spent on gas as I've been driving to the big city once or twice a week since mid-May (roughly 200 miles round trip). There are other bills but those listed above are the basics. They'll also be changing once we move in August. The only bills that will stay the same are the student loans and the car payment. I'd like to lower the cell phone bill but am not exactly sure how.
I need to be very diligent in tracking where the money is going. This should be interesting.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
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3 comments:
When we need to cut back, the first thing to go is cable tv. we keep the internet b/c it makes us money, but TV can go. You could try to lower your cell bill by lowering your minutes and/or getting rid of extras like texting, etc. That's the best I can do b/c I am not nearly as good with money as I should be.
Great list of initial to-do's. Please remember that freecreditreport.com is not the actual free credit report website. The only free place to get a credit report is annualcreditreport.com and you can get one from each reporting agency a year. I split mine up and get a different one every 4 months. Good luck to you!
Have you done the freecreditreport.com yet? My sister says not to go that route. (She's a loan officer.)
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