As time goes by..............

Probably due to years of uncontrolled spending, I still get the itch for new stuff (toys?) periodically. Just
recently, I had a big list of such expenditures being considered and I spent quite a bit of time number crunching
to see just how doable they all were budget-wise.
After a while I either decided that:

A. We really didn't need/wouldn't use one of those, or

B. We could fix up or make do with what we had, or

C. We should get it, but not right away.

I have found that after a while you can stop fretting and
let your subconsious take over these decisions.
In a little while the solution is frequently obvious
where before I was thinking it to death. This works
for me in all venues, and many times just delaying a
decision by itself has saved my bacon. In a sense
not making the decision is making a decision.

JG

[Tadpole]

I remember my parents saving up for a new water heater. I am sure they approached many things this way but the water heater is the one I remember.

When I decided to take control of spending, I started to move money to a money market account each month for planned purchases, property taxes and insurance payments. If an emergency arises we tap the frivious budget part of the money market account. It also gives us a cooling period to really determine which frivious purchases we really care about. You may not need this discipline but we do because we are still working and that paycheck goes into the account every two weeks and begs to be spent.

By the way - I am now debt free. Paid off house in January and last car this month. Credit card at "pay in full" level each month. Now my husband is thinking of things he wants to do that cost money. I see why people have such a hard time budgeting. Someone gets to be monster-lady/man.

[JWV]

By the way - I am now debt free. Paid off house in January and last car this month. Credit card at "pay in full" level each month.

Congratulations, Tadpole! What a good feeling that must be.

Judy

[bow-tie]

...By the way - I am now debt free. Paid off house in January and last car this month. Credit card at "pay in full" level each month...

Outstanding... were you able to pay it off early? I personally can't wait to get out from under ours. If all goes according to plan, we'll have it conquered by the end of '06.

[Tadpole]

Outstanding... were you able to pay it off early? *I personally can't wait to get out from under ours. *If all goes according to plan, we'll have it conquered by the end of '06.

About a year early on a 15 year mortgage. It never occurred to me to do this until last year. I ran it through the forum here a few months ago and that "go for it" was just what I needed to do it.

I now have the cash to put into my Roth and emergency fund. Actually, I've tightened the household budget for this year, not loosened it.

[laurence]

Congratulations on paying off your house! I only have twenty years to go :P but hey, maybe I can start making extra payments soon....

[indymom]

We paid off the house a few years ago. Just last month we paid the last $700+ per month installment on the van we signed up for 1 year before we both got laid off from fairly good paying jobs. I figure if we could manage with that albatross payment around our necks, we should be able to do OK for the foreseeable future.

[kayelem]

Congrats on being debt free Tadpole. Now just make sure you keep paying that money that used to go to the house right into savings!

[BUM]

Way to go Tadpole. I've said it before....For me, no debt is better than any debt. We own 3 properties outright, zero credit card debt, BUT I do have about $14k still due on a 2002 SUV at zero percent interest. And I am agressively paying that down.

BUM