The 12/12/12 project!

**Ponderer** · 11-13-2011, 10:18 AM

Good morning all!

A big welcome to Sumacaroni! It is going to be awesome for us to see you reach your debt free day early in 2012 and be able to celebrate not only that achievement with you....but to then see you building your EFF. I am really glad you joined us here. You are going to encourage me more then you know!

Ok...so today I was checking on some stuff and realized that my overall debt amount was $40 too high. That total number may look daunting but I was still really really excited when it dropped the $40. LOL

I am doing some cooking today for next week and have been working on focusing on what is in the pantry as well as doing some meal planning. I would also love to make a debt thermometer for my home office wall...does anyone have a free template or any info they could share?

**Sumacaroni** · 11-13-2011, 10:58 AM

I made a debt thermometer for MS Word that might work if you just want an 8x11 sheet of paper or you can modify for any size sheet of paper you like, I suppose.

**midlight21** · 11-13-2011, 06:44 PM

I think I need to join this! I still have yet to add up all our debts but I'm gonna have to do it very soon....

**mateosbaby** · 11-13-2011, 07:22 PM

Talked to my dh briefly today, and he seems to think this might be a good idea for us, too. We are debt-free, but we are having trouble getting going on the FFEF. Mostly because of everything seeming to break down at once... At least we had enough in savings that we haven't had to touch a credit card.

We are going to talk about it some more tonight, and the "debt temp" thing is a great idea! I think we might make a poster of one, so we can color it in as we add more to our FFEF. We should easily be able to fund it by the end of next year!

**Ponderer** · 11-13-2011, 08:11 PM

Good evening all.

Sumacaroni thank you for the thermometer. That was nice of you! I actually wound up getting my sharpies and graph paper out today and made one to hang on my office wall. I guess I needed some arts and crafts time. LOL

Clarissa I actually think the not knowing is scarier then adding the numbers up. At least then you know where you truly are and can take control of your situation. Good for you!

Sara I am glad to see another here who will be working on the FFEF. I actually started crunching those numbers today to make up my goal for 2013...but I am not sure how I will do it since I cannot seem to find 13/13/13 on any calendars. LOL

I am looking forward to making my FFEF thermometer someday......that one is going to be green instead of red. That is the good stuff!

**danni** · 11-13-2011, 09:51 PM

I think I am going to join you too. Here are approximate numbers for us right now:

$1900 credit card
$4700 loan
$8800 van loan
$4500 new furnace(not sure of the exact amount yet it will be installed in a few weeks and we qualify for a few rebates so will know soon)

I love the idea of the thermometer!! I think I will be making a big one on poster board for our wall too. Thanks!!

**Ponderer** · 11-13-2011, 10:27 PM

Danni welcome! Congrats on your success so far...well done!

I will hope that you get alllll kinds of rebates on that furnace deal too. :-)

**danni** · 11-14-2011, 01:45 AM

Thanks!! It looks like we will definitely qualify for about $800 worth of rebates just not sure of the rest yet, so we are keeping our fingers crossed.

**wwe11** · 11-14-2011, 06:02 AM

I'm in. I have alot of debt, so I will say half will be paid off by the end of next year.

**Ponderer** · 11-14-2011, 11:35 AM

Originally Posted by wwe11

I'm in. I have alot of debt, so I will say half will be paid off by the end of next year.

Welcome to you!

Will you be considering your mortgage in that number or all debt other than the mortgage?

I am not going to ponder my mortgage quite yet...for now the other debt and my FFEF are all I can wrap my head around. It is all about one step at a time for me. :-)

**kimmy4433** · 11-14-2011, 02:19 PM

I'm on board with this!! I need to add everything up again, as most of our credit card debt has went to collection and we are now being offered some great settlement offers. $1,500 on a $15,000 debt for example. (Not that I am proud to do it, and when we borrowed the money we had every intention to repay it, but with job loss set backs what can you do?)

So that will be my project for this week. Reworking the budget, figuring out total debts and to see just how much we can pay off by 12-12-12!!

I need to be more efficient in the kitchen with cooking and meal planning so that will be next weeks goal!

**Frizzysky** · 11-14-2011, 06:28 PM

Originally Posted by Ponderer

Getting one car and two credit cards paid off with part time employment is not too shabby at all!!! I pray your DH finds FT work too!

Thank you. I do have a full time job working for the state (making pretty good money for the OKC metro area).

We paid the car off today. The scheduled pay off would have been April 2012. It's just a $200.00 a month payment, but I sold some photography equipment and we've saved beyond the $1,000.00 emergency fund, so it was time to decide what to put the money toward debt.

When we started Financial Peace classes, DH was also working a temp job with the state. We started saving then and haven't looked back.

I pray everyday that God gives us time and the resources to do this.

**Sumacaroni** · 11-14-2011, 08:20 PM

I, too, am very much looking forward to switching to a FFEF green thermometer! That will be so awesome.

Frizzysky, I always get nervous when we accumulate a snowball over and above the BEF then apply it and the savings is gone again. It makes me nervous to operate with only $1000 in the bank and, like mateos, we've recently had some appliances to replace and a patio door to replace... yadda yadda yadda, it seems neverending but it always make us really think through how to most frugally handle the situations. We make do with less or do without and God continually blesses us with a way to make it through. Every time a door closes, it seems a window opens and it can only be explained through the grace of God!

**Ponderer** · 11-14-2011, 08:30 PM

Good evening all. Getting ready to pull stuffed green peppers out of the oven for dinner tonight. I have a meeting later with the homeowner's association, I am a board member. This is actually my first meeting since elected, should be interesting.

Pretty low key day for me but all is going well. I am just anxious for my next payday, which is not until the 25th, so that I can make a big payment on my Visa card. I want this debt gone...now!!

**Frizzysky** · 11-15-2011, 06:07 AM

Originally Posted by Sumacaroni

I, too, am very much looking forward to switching to a FFEF green thermometer! That will be so awesome.

Frizzysky, I always get nervous when we accumulate a snowball over and above the BEF then apply it and the savings is gone again. It makes me nervous to operate with only $1000 in the bank and, like mateos, we've recently had some appliances to replace and a patio door to replace... yadda yadda yadda, it seems neverending but it always make us really think through how to most frugally handle the situations. We make do with less or do without and God continually blesses us with a way to make it through. Every time a door closes, it seems a window opens and it can only be explained through the grace of God!

I understand completely!! Our emergency fund is at about $1500.00 and I really want it higher. The amount over the $1000.00 is for taking care of things like plumbing or car stuff (that we should be doing a sinking fund, but we are just trying to work this plan the best we can). When we saw how close we were on DH's car, it we decided that an extra $200 to apply to the smaller credit card would be the way to go.