Debt IS An Emergency!
Let's face it, I am NOT the most ideal person to be telling YOU how to handle your money.
I only share what I do and what works for me ... it's obviously not the same for you, or you, or my neighbor, my sister, my best friend and so on. BUT what I do know is this:
I only share what I do and what works for me ... it's obviously not the same for you, or you, or my neighbor, my sister, my best friend and so on. BUT what I do know is this:
DEBT IS AN EMERGENCY!
And yes, I did make that the biggest font that blogger would let me use.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that what works for me or your best friend may NOT work for you ... but as long as you remember the big bold blue words above, you will find what does work for you.
I've been having a few issues lately that I've mentioned ... Hubby has been out of work for over 18 months. We call him semi-retired because we were banking on selling the house fast, paying off the mortgage and reducing our household expenses by 50% if not more.
Ahem. That has not happened just yet. Like really not yet. I came home today, on a MONDAY no less to a $600 quarterly homeowners insurance policy being due (August 10th), semi-annual car insurance due for $1,200 (August 7th) AND the other quarter of wind storm being due for $676 (August 9th). Oh, and our new medical insurance policy through the "Affordable Healthcare Act" is about $1200 a month WITH a $6500 deductible PER PERSON PER YEAR ... that means we get to pay $1200 for the next 5 months and up to $6,500 EACH until December 31st. Yup, that's pretty damn affordable, don't you think? Should we, by some bad luck MEET our deductible, we still have to pay 50% of all cost thereafter. Yup, certainly affordable!
I'll wait while you do the math.
Done? Yeah. That's a lot of dough that I wasn't quite expecting to come up all at once. I know it comes around, but sadly, we usually pay everything in full as it comes due but this year we were hopeful that the house would sell before the next payment came due. Ugh. So much for THAT.
DEBT IS AN EMERGENCY!
So. Back to those BIG BLUE WORDS above. I firmly believe debt IS an emergency and should be avoided as much as possible. Thankfully, I try to balance my savings ($500 a month automatically and then Digit kicks in) with my debt paydown. On the flipside, I have fallen for all those f*!%U# credit card offers AND used the damn things. WTF? Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to lose my cool :(
Want to know the TRUTH? I fell for them cards because I was dreaming of the point rewards ... uhhh ... not a good idea!
So ... the $600 I had requested from Digit on Sunday to pay off a credit card will now go to the homeowners insurance. I will also need to reduce my $11,000 savings account by $1700 or so to pay the other 2 policies that are due.
How am I going to make up for this? Kick butt and not spend. Seriously. I was thinking heck, we could do a pantry challenge in August BUT we have a little adventure planned the 2nd weekend in August (we are playing tourist in our own backyard) BUT I can certainly reduce the amount of funds we will need by raiding our freezers and pantry and taking stuff with us in suitcases instead of buying nearby while on the beach (booze, snacks, etc.) ... I was kind of hopeful of doing a fairly "frugal tourist staycation" post but now I'm questioning my ability to do so!
I'm also thinking that maybe I should just withdraw about $3,000 from savings and pay off a credit card and a half? The interest that's being charged on the card balances FAR exceeds the interest I'm making ... not to mention, if there really IS an emergency that requires a lot of money, then I would have a credit card available although I'm more inclined to use cash most days and almost always have cash in my wallet of some sort
Yes, I had $87 in my wallet WITH the credit cards!
FYI ... I've pulled all the cards except the debit card and american express out of my wallet ... why tempt myself?
What do you think is more important ... paying down debt or having a savings account?
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