Are you trying to get out of debt or saving money?

**CountryMom** · 03-29-2002, 08:24 PM

We have no debt except for our house payment and our car payment, so we are more focused on saving money right now. We would like to move in a couple of years and possible build our dream house so our savings is earmarked for that.

I have a personal question for you too. Feel free not to answer if you don't want to. How much of your income are you saving each month? We are currently saving 28% of my dh's take home per month. Dh is due for a raise in a few months and I hope to push our savings above the 30% mark with that.

Christy

**Ilovesewing** · 03-29-2002, 09:57 PM

We also have only a mortgage and a car payment so we're saving. Right now it's 20%, and I get a 3% raise on April 1 so I'll add that in. We're not saving for anything special ....just the proverbial 'rainy day'.

**KathiS** · 03-30-2002, 05:26 AM

We just paid our house off. We just have our minivan payment now. My husband wants to retire in three years so, we are really into tax defering and saving. Actually we have been doing those things right along but, when you see retirement so close, You really get into saving every dime you can.

**Deanna** · 03-30-2002, 06:37 AM

I'd say a little of both. We're working on our credit card (down to about 5000 and school loan 7000) and we're also saving for a down payment (hopefully used this fall) on a house and also saving for savings sake. We save a total of $200 a month off the top then save whatever is "left". DH takes home about $530 a week so we work hard to save as much as we can.

**PumpkinNoodlie** · 03-30-2002, 07:35 AM

Both. Recently (and this has changed since he made his business a side business, and now has another fulltime job) including 401K, we're save up to 1000.00 (maybe a little more? Just depends) per month (dh has a side business, so it often depends on that). I also pay about 500.00 more a month to debt.

**Michelle** · 03-30-2002, 08:05 AM

We're just getting by right now. Hopefully my dh will get a raise soon (hoping to find out next week actually), and then we will be paying off the CCs that were at $0.00 until the rough economy hit and he had to start taking unpaid time. I wish we didn't have to try so hard to pay them off, but I am viewing it as a "challenge" right now.

I hope we will have them paid off by Christmas.

**Jerseygirl** · 03-30-2002, 05:57 PM

Our only debt right now is our mortgage-14 years 8 months left to pay, so it is savings and day to day expenses for us.

**Lori Biever-Launder** · 03-30-2002, 09:10 PM

We have money that is put into our IRA each month as well as some more that is invested. Then we keep a bit in savings as a buffer. We only have our mortgage and a loan for our sewer line to pay off. I figure that the latter will be paid off in two years and some odd months. I hope to put the difference into the kids' braces then...sigh...

**mommashappy** · 03-30-2002, 09:14 PM

After such a long time, we are finally getting to do both. We paid off 2 cc and have 2 to go, but I don't want to use them again, so we are saving money too so just in case something happens. The way we have it figured out we should have everything but the house paid off by May 2003. After we get to a certain amount in our savings though, we will put it all on the debt and hopefully pay it off sooner

**blueknitter** · 03-31-2002, 10:09 AM

We're just getting by right now. I start med trans training in a little while, and DH is staring down a major layoff, so hopefully after I get my training done we'll be doing a little better. We're praying that the layoff doesn't come until after I get my training done, so I won't have to work and do the schooling as well. I'm afraid my flaky lil' ol' mind couldn't handle that.

**MicheleMomof3** · 03-31-2002, 08:36 PM

We have no debt, the house is paid off. And we are saving 30-35% a month toward the purchase of a bigger house. We are hoping to do it without a mortage

~Michele~

**MANDERS** · 03-31-2002, 11:01 PM

We are doing both.I am using the snowball princible to pay off our debts,just paid off cc,student loan and home depot bill.Now we just have our house,van and equity line of credit.We are selling the van and putting that money towards the equity line(we put the money we would spend on the bills we paid off towards the equity line.)We should have the equity line paid off by this time next year,we just got it in Dec.We also plan on selling the house next year or the year after(just depends on how much money we have saved up)

We put in $200 a week into our cd no matter how much dh brings home(working 40hrs he brings home $550)We also have $50 a mo taken out for the cd too.We also put $20 a week into a jar for disney.We are planning on building our dream home on 10acres of land,so we might save for a year or 2,next year if we save it will be so much easier since we will have $700 extra a mo from debts we paid off.And when we build our new house that will be our only debt,we will get a 30 yr mortgage and add $500 a mo to pay it off in atleast 9yrs.

**milach** · 04-01-2002, 05:41 PM

For a while, I was putting away $100.00 a week. But then odd expenses kept popping up like my car needed a new hub assembly, the tractor needed $150 in parts, car registrations. Last month I paid off 1 CC from savings, now we have 1 left, plus mortgage and 2 car payments. Right now, my main concern is saving in order to finish off the upstairs of the house. I'd rather pay cash for that rather than using the money to pay off the CC just to rack it back up again.

Laura

**Shell** · 04-02-2002, 07:32 PM

Hi! I joined today. I used to be on Frugal Mom's. I see there are a lot of other ladies from there as well! Nice to see you again!

I am doing both. I put money away monthly into an emergency fund, put money into an RRSP (IRA) and I am also paying off my credit cards since my big move. It should take me 1-2 months.

**littlewolf** · 04-02-2002, 09:01 PM

Hi!! We are trying to do a little bit of both!! I want to get the cc bills paid off SO BADLY!! It gets FRUSTRATING to see the cc bills NEVER really go down because of the interest charges!! But I know one day that we will see the light at the end of the tunnel!!

Hugs,
Debbie