Getting Gazelle using Craigslist! :)

**Sumacaroni** · 09-13-2011, 11:11 PM

Seriously can't stand the idea that we started with our "plan" to attack debt 1/1/11 and to date have incurred $3000 more in new medical bills, $1900+ to replace the house roof, and a $650 vet bill. Then my husband incurred a $200+ speeding ticket OMG GRRR! Just as we were getting started back in January, Murphy paid us a visit with unexpected medical and home catastrophes! Dangitall. Of course.

Anyway, I'm getting better now healthwise and so is the dog . And actually, thanks to the inspiration from DR and everyone on these forums, we've been able to keep current on all of our bills even with me working limited hours for the past several months. We have even been able to continue knocking down some of our 2009 medical bills in the meantime. It just seems like 1 step forward, 2 steps back sometimes.

So!! I'm getting GAZELLE and started going beyond just trimming the "fat" and sticking to the more limited budget. I had a real revelation and am coming to terms with my medical issues and ongoing physical therapy -- making it obvious that the best option is I'd have to sell my horse and my horse trailer since I am unable to ride for the foreseeable future anyway. The horse is sold! The trailer is on it's way down the road this weekend (we hope!). I am scrounging through the barn and dusting everything off and we're SELL SELL SELLING everything to really attack this nagging DEBT! No more, no more, no more!! It has to go away

You either have to MAKE more or SPEND less or BOTH, right? -

We've been in emergency mode and I cut the budget everywhere I could think of - now I'm thinking there HAS to be MORE I can cut. I'm checking into discounts for our cell plan, we can drop the horse trailer from our insurance soon, might up our deductible on the vehicles to $1000 for a short while. We have no dish or cable, just the $9 Netflix and a regular tv antenna. I am going to go thru the house on a thorough energy audit to try and reduce our electric and heating bills. I'm looking for input here, any other ideas are welcome!

We also just have to have more income = SELL STUFF! Here's to hoping that craigslist is fruitful and the money becomes more plentiful! Go CL!

I have another surgery where I'll be off work for a couple weeks in October but I've made arrangements to work at home and it looks like I might be able to increase my hours to 4x/week instead of 3x so I'm really aiming for debt payoff by the end of 2011 - I really think we could do it. I'm going to work on getting my husband to sell some of his "stuff" too

**sinopa27** · 09-13-2011, 11:19 PM

You can do it!! sell, sell, sell........I wish you lots of luck and keep us posted.
what caused you to get gazelle suddenly?

**krbshappy71** · 09-13-2011, 11:20 PM

Way to get gazelle intense!!

I have not had good luck with crags list lately, I am seriously considering slashing my prices to ridiculous level and cutting my losses, the stuff isn't making me a dime sitting around.

**Debbie-cat** · 09-14-2011, 12:23 AM

Good luck!!! You can do it!

**sinopa27** · 09-14-2011, 03:49 AM

Originally Posted by krbshappy71

Way to get gazelle intense!!

I have not had good luck with crags list lately, I am seriously considering slashing my prices to ridiculous level and cutting my losses, the stuff isn't making me a dime sitting around.

how does craigs list work?

**HappyMama** · 09-14-2011, 06:09 AM

Sending you hugs and blessings. Good luck you can do it. Keep us updated. Remember it is always darkest before dawn, things will get better.

**TheRootedNomad** · 09-14-2011, 07:03 AM

I applaud you being able to be logical about selling your horse since you won't be able to ride for awhile anyway. I would think that was a hard decision. Sometimes we let our emotions make decisions for us that are better made with our head.

That said, when you are doing your energy audit one of the things I found here is that the biggest money saver for us (energy wise) is if we can get by with not useing the dryer. We do a lot of laundry but even if you don't your dryer probably eats more energy then most of the other stuff. Fall is a great time to not use it. Winter sucks to go without it. Honestly, even though I know it saves us a huge chunk I am nowhere near as good with this as I should be. If you are an avid dryer user though, I challenge you to go a month without it and see the difference in your bill.

**Dancing Lotus** · 09-14-2011, 07:50 AM

Go for it, you can do it!

**Sumacaroni** · 09-14-2011, 08:34 PM

Originally Posted by sinopa27

You can do it!! sell, sell, sell........I wish you lots of luck and keep us posted.
what caused you to get gazelle suddenly?

Hi sinopa, it's not so much "suddenly" as "finally" being able to get GAZELLE intense since we started down the DR pathway on 1/1/11 and then got a few Murphy curveballs thrown at us in February and September. We've been able to stay current because of the inspiration found here and by continuing to aim for getting past Emergency Mode. Now that all the medical bills and a vet bill are in and we can see clearly again because I've gotten through most of my treatment.... We've now found some semblance of stability - finally - back to work and back on track

Tally of sales to date:
$950 sale of horse minus $150 fuel to deliver her = $800
$35 horse rain sheet
$20 horseback riding helmet
$10 lacer boots
$865 TOTAL so far

**Sumacaroni** · 09-16-2011, 08:16 PM

Tally of sales to date:
$950 sale of horse minus $150 fuel to deliver her = $800
$35 horse rain sheet
$20 horseback riding helmet
$10 lacer boots
$20 tie ring
$80 portable corral kit
$965 Total so far

**Sumacaroni** · 09-17-2011, 05:05 PM

More Craigslist sales - it's all adding up nicely

Tally of sales to date:
$950 sale of horse minus $150 fuel to deliver her = $800
$35 horse rain sheet
$20 horseback riding helmet
$10 lacer boots
$20 tie ring
$80 portable corral kit
$75 purple winter horse blanket
$6500 2horse trailer!! YAY

$7540 TOTAL

Excellent, I paid off the $650 vet bill, $6890 left. Still trying to sell enough to pay off the two student loans -- and we're almost there!!! yippee

**Sumacaroni** · 09-18-2011, 06:29 PM

I think we can payoff the student loans!! Will review the monthly budget and make sure....

Tally of sales to date:
$950 sale of horse minus $150 fuel to deliver her = $800
$35 horse rain sheet
$20 horseback riding helmet
$10 lacer boots
$20 tie ring
$80 portable corral kit
$75 purple winter horse blanket
$6500 2horse trailer!! YAY
$70 lead/halter/stick

$7610 TOTAL

**Palooka** · 09-18-2011, 11:44 PM

Wow, that is wonderful! You are doing great.

**Sumacaroni** · 09-23-2011, 08:48 AM

Paid off one student loan today!! the bigger one! Wahoooo

And this morning my Mister is in court fighting his traffic ticket to try and get a fine reduction *he's a good boy heh heh* Will see what comes out of that.

Worked this week to reduce my auto insurance bills by $400/year - $60 less for the horse trailer I sold, the rest was just trimming stuff we don't need like comprehensive coverage *Sumac bangs head on table*

We are looking at the rest of the Gazelle income and will possibly pay off half of the other student loan after a thorough review of other cost-savings measures we should do like a wood-burning furnace and we MUST replace our basement patio doors for weatherization - they are a horrible drain on the home heating costs. If it looks like spending the money on those things will save us enough off the propane costs (last year $2600) then we either need to SELL more stuff or make more INCOME so I can pay off the second student loan. But for now the Mister said to set aside $2200 until we can make a decision. Fair enough.

**krbshappy71** · 09-23-2011, 09:50 AM

You are doing amazing!

Thank you for this thread, it helped inspire me to do Craig's List again and the deep freeze DID sell!!! $40, it was about 10 yrs old and had a large dent in the front but still worked.