Climbing Out » progress updates

Four Thousand Dollars Later, the Wait is Nearly Over [UPDATED]

the Dad — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 02:57:33 +0000

Tomorrow is the vote.

In the past 8 weeks we have been hustling; hard. I’ve picked up two new side jobs — one tending bar and one doing freelance visual effects while The Wife has worked diligently turning last year’s October debacle into a pillar of savings.

In the last two months we have added four grand to our emergency fund and paid the bare minimum on our remaining debt.

By this time tomorrow we’ll know if we will need it to live on while I look for my new career or if we get to drop it on the last credit card.

Thanks for hanging with us. You’ll be the first to know.

the Dad

Update: No: 135, Yes: 87. Sigh of relief and tomorrow morning $4,000 goes right on to our last debt!!

One Year, Two Baby Steps, Three Missed Snowballs

the Dad — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:37:58 +0000

DOMAIN RENEWAL NOTIFICATION: Your domain Climbingout.net is going to expire!

Wow — already?!

I can hardly believe it has been a year since we started on the road to financial peace. First, a thank you to all of you who follow our journey and offer encouragement. To those of you doing it with us, HIGH FIVE!

So how are we doing? It’s been 12 months since we started this journey and this blog.

For 12 months we have

Lived on less than we make
Maintained a small emergency fund
Operated our finances on a budget
Borrowed NOTHING
Paid down our debt

Looking at our debt chart we have paid down about 38% of our total debt or around $18,000. If you’ve been following us for a while you know that’s around 20% shy of where I wanted us to be. Nonetheless, we are on our way to debt freedom.

I have some observations after a year of following Dave Ramsey’s advice; some surprise me.

Making a budget every month has become easy, but still takes about the same amount of time.
I mean, it’s downright SIMPLE now. The mechanics of filling out the line items, adding in the unusual things for the month, chatting about it, and printing the final budget to hang on the fridge are second nature. Still, it takes about an hour each month.
Emergency budget committee meetings still happen almost every month.
This one surprises me and maybe it’s because we’re getting complacent, but nearly every month we have to get together at least once to cover a screw-up or unexpected event.
Homemade bread is awesome.
The Wife is out of control in the kitchen. Homemade meals every day. Homemade bread, yogurt and granola. She even made our own almond milk.
Kids’ commissions need their own line item and can really add up.
Okay, listen to me. Don’t underestimate this one. It’s all great teaching the kids to be Dave Ramsey fanatics like us, but those commission payments can get pricey! Budget them in.
It gets BORING.
Seriously. The months when we can send two thousand dollars to our debt are awesome, but when it’s only three or four hundred for a couple months in a row I start to lose interest (pun not intended).

This year I am down right antsy. Antsy, I say! I want out and I want out now. The freelance work I picked up recently is in high gear and should be done in about two weeks. The pizza delivery work is surprisingly hard to come by, but applications are in. The kids start full-time school in the Fall and The Wife should be able to double her hours.

It’s a marathon, you say? Not a sprint? Well, staying the course for the long haul is really… long! Nonetheless, it’s the only option. Getting out of debt ain’t easy. It’s just worth it.

Or so I hear.

Thanks again for sticking with us, everyone.
the Dad

The Good and the Bad of Arbitrary Goals

the Dad — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:46:16 +0000

[W]e may have to accept a new time-line. Debt-free in May 2011 seems more likely than October 2010.

We’re not going to make it.

The wife and I have been running the numbers and talking it over for about a month and we realize that unless we take extreme measures or a financial windfall drops in our laps, we are not going to make our goal of Debt-freedom by our tenth anniversary next October.

Like accepting Darth Vader is Luke’s father, it’s demoralizing and takes the wind out of my sails, folks.

”A goal is a dream with a deadline.” said Napoleon Hill and I gotta be honest, unless The Wife and I can drum up another grand each month, we ain’t gonna make ours.

Can you hear that? The deflating of my spirit? You see, math can be downright fun, gosh darn it, when the stuff to the right of the equal sign fits what we want! Today the numbers look like this:

Remaining debt: $32,400
Remaining time: 12 months

Payment per month: $2,700

Currently we are sending about $2,000 toward debt each month. Those of you who have been reading Climbing Out for a while know how we got here and that cutting another $700 out of the budget is unlikely… so that leaves the income to work on.

Can we generate another $700 each month to reach an arbitrary, albeit emotionally important, goal like next October? Or is it unrealistic?

I’m not sure. Some days I think we can conquer the world and others I’m simply grateful for how far we’ve come.

One thing I know: I. Am. Tired. Sundays have truly become a day-of-rest at the Climbing Out household. I think the kids are as ready as we are to just throttle back and relax after watching Mom and Dad kicking it all week. I am full time with a commute that pushes three hours. The Wife works 6 days each week part time and wrangles the crumb-snatchers the rest of the time. Understandably, not much gas left in her tank after that.

So where does that leave us? I have some freelance work I am doing that will help to the tune of about $3,000, but am finding it hard to make time for it. Other than that I think we may have to accept a new time-line. Debt-free in May 2011 seems more likely than October 2010.

Getting out of debt isn’t easy, it’s just worth it.

I believe that. We’ll keep going. We’ve done it the other way and it sucks.

At least Darth turned out to be a good guy in the end.

the Dad

How to Get Debt-Free: Month 6 of the Journey

the Dad — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:18:59 +0000

Has it really been six months since we pulled our heads from our butts and started this plan to be debt free?

Looking back at all the posts and great comments it seems ages ago that we did not live on a budget, but it also feels like the last six months have flown by.

Time for another state of the union update. If you recall in February we started with nearly $47,000 in credit card and medical bill debt.

Since then we have

I think The Wife will agree the past six months have not only changed how we handle money, but our marriage as well. Money and talking about money has become nearly enjoyable as we have taken this journey together as a couple and as parents.

So how have we done?

We have paid off nearly $12,000 or 25% of our debts since February. That means we are averaging monthly payments of $2,000 on top of our regular household budget. If you had told me we could do that a year ago I would have laughed at you! I cannot believe how far we’ve come making less money than we were at this time last year.

I have added a debt-progress bar on the right and a graph showing our remaining debt. We will update their numbers about once-a-month so you can watch our progress and either make fun of us or cheer us on .

Thanks for coming with us on this ride these past six months. We hope yours has been as transformational as ours.

Cheers to the next six,
the Dad