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How We Found $760 Last Week

Dismayed because our newly built and delicate basic emergency fund got hit again last month, my brilliant husband found us more than $760 that helped us get back on track. As you may know, we have started taking the Dave Ramsey Financial Freedom course. One of the first steps that he recommends is to fund the start of an emergency fund. This way, you don’t have to worry about getting into debt if an emergency should occur. The problem was, is that as soon as we funded this, it got hit for the whole amount, leaving us back to square … Continue reading →

Getting Out of Debt: Does That Extra Payment Go to the Principal or the Interest?

There is only one way to get out of debt on a loan: pay down the principal of it. Are those extra payments you are making actually going toward the principal of the loan or toward the interest or next payment. It is important to know the difference, or you may not making as big a dent in your loan as you think. What Is Principal Versus Interest? When you take out a loan the specific amount of the loan is the principal. Whether this is a $300,000 mortgage or a $2,000 student loan makes no difference. When you use … Continue reading →

Getting Out of Debt: Paying Off the Car

I really can’t believe that we are going to do this. Several weeks ago, we just assumed that we had to have a car payment. When our youngest child was born, a larger car was a practical necessity because three car seats wouldn’t fit across the back of our old car. So we made a purchase and wound up with car payments. We do love this car. It has given us minimal trouble and maximum flexibility for our family. We don’t love having the car payment or paying the almost $50 a month in interest on the loan. But as … Continue reading →

Extreme Couponing

Some of our previous neighbors were doing something called the grocery game. The two households shared one membership to the game’s website. The gal who ran the website would post the sales and bargains for the grocery stores in our area. She would list the coupons in the Sunday paper and then tell members what to buy at what stores using what coupons. The point was to get all groceries for nearly free. I was completely on board with that until my girlfriend told me that for a while you could not buy the things you wanted to buy. Instead … Continue reading →