[brenda67]

My only goal for now is to payoff all of our dept by this year(other then mortgage and vehicle)..The thought of it is so exciting..I can't think of nothing else but dreaming of when the day comes that we have financial freedom and piece of mind of not having to pay the credit card dept that has been hanging over our heads for 6yrs now...How about you?

 

[FrugalMomof3]

I once felt like that and even now if I use my credit card I make sure i pay if off within the 30 day grace period. Back in January, I was so consumed with using ALL our income tax refund to pay off debt and that's just what we did.

I hated not being able to sleep at night, wondering how we were going to pay this or that, that's when I had enough and finally took hold of our finances and said THATS ENOUGH! lol We are CC free, no student loans, no car loans, etc... All we have is a mortgage that on July 5th we will being making extra principle payments towards and continue to do that till out mortgage is paid off. We even decided that each year at income tax time once we got our refund we would put $1000 extra towards the principle again until the mortgage is paid off.

While our EF is well diminished we will work on getting that back up to our $500 goal in July 2007 as well.

 

[Grayce]

We just got back to being frugal last month after a few years of back-sliding. I used to wait to get my cheque so I could spend it. Now I want to get my cheque so I can put some more money towards debt.:hurray:

 

[Dancing Lotus]

At one point is was running my life. Every minute I was awake all I could think of was money and how was I going to pay this or that. NO MORE. It doesnt do me any good to obsess and it was robing me of a quality life. I now make a budget and stick to it. I pay the bills on pay day and then I dont give it another minute of my time. If I dont have any extra to put on my principle I dont care just as long as i make my agreed apon payment.

 

[thrifty gal]

I go through spurts. I'll be totally focused on paying off debt for a month or two, and then I'll go a month or two of being totally unfrugal. It seems, with me, that I can't just seem to stick with it or find some middle ground.

 

[frugalwanttobe]

I have to say that I think about my debt at least 10 hours out of 24 hours a day. I even dream about it. I daydream about calling Dave Ramsey and yelling that we are debt free except for our mortgage.

I enjoy the nicer things in life. ie fancy hotels, fancy room service, cleaning lady etc. I have had these things but this time I want to pay for them with money I really have.

Last summer we took my daughter to New York to the American Girl Place and we stayed at a hotel on Park Avenue. The staff could not do enough for us and I was thinking to myself I am being treated like a queen and my daughter is being treated like a princess because I have a really good "friend" called Citibank.

Well, I started becoming frugal in January of this year and I have already paid off 4 credit cards. Hopefully there is no stopping me now.:smirk:

 

[many houseapes]

When we use the CC, we make sure that it is paid off when we get the bill. We owe nothing except for the house...but that doesn't bother me b/c we don't plan to live here forever. If we were going to, we would definitely be putting larger chunks toward paying the turkey off.

 

[Marie78]

I admit I think about my debt a lot. I am getting better at just letting it be though, I only review my budget once a week now, instead of every night. As long as I stick to my budget we are fine. I just need to continue to make purchases carefully and save any extra money that comes my way.

 

[brenda67]

At one point is was running my life. Every minute I was awake all I could think of was money and how was I going to pay this or that. NO MORE. It doesnt do me any good to obsess and it was robing me of a quality life. I now make a budget and stick to it. I pay the bills on pay day and then I dont give it another minute of my time. If I dont have any extra to put on my principle I dont care just as long as i make my agreed apon payment.

It's not consuming me to the point that I worry about it..We have made some progress with paying off our 4-wheeler and 1 credit card in the past 2 months..
We always have money saved and I never really thought about paying off our credit cards until the past 6 months(we want a house)..Actually (not bragging) we could pay off our remaining balance on all the credit cards today... however we would have absolutely no money and I can't handle the thought of that..The reason I'm consumed by it (besides the house) is because I have my mind set(boneheaded German here) that there was never any reason to not have paid the dept off years ago..I do worrie about the inflation of food and gas prices soaring and a possible recession.. Getting rid of this dept gives us an extra $600.00 to put into our savings each month..I like the thought of that!

 

[autumnlynn]

I wouldn't say I'm consumed by it, but I really enjoy having a plan to be debt-free; hopefully by the end of the year. I used to hate it when credit card bills came in the mail, and now I enjoy it, because I know the amount has gone down. I find a lot of satisfaction to planning where my money is going and not flying by the seat of my pants any more. I'm a woman on a mission!!!

 

[Emsworth]

I stopped using credit cards entirely a few years ago. I had been good with them for years, and had even developed a good relationship with my primary banking agency. My credit score went up to 710. I then had a series of problems occur in my life over a one year period. In coping with my personal issues, I found that I stopped spending my usual time focusing on my finances. The next thing I knew I was declaring bankruptcy as I had financially destroyed myself, lost my job, and on and on. That was over seven years ago now, and I have successfully abstained from using cc's, despite their sending me constant offers for them. I did have to resort to using a payday loan company a few times, and did not find them to be as evil as I had been led to believe (It could be who I used: nationalpayday.com, although I didn't try anyone else). All the same, I no longer have any need for such loans, and have rebuilt my financial health. Credit cards can be useful, but they can also be dangerously easy to lean on when things go wrong. :fence::dishes::cowwave:

 

[peanut]

When we first were married, I didn't worry about money at all. But DH fixated on it and blamed me for a lot of what he considered frivolous spending. We just didn't have the same priorities in life. I could never get him to sit down and see that. We've never been in CC debt that we couldn't pay off each month.

What woke me up was watching my mother in her debt problems, and looking at the size of our mortgage...and figuring out how much we'd be paying including interest before it was paid out! Then I started to panic.

Funny thing, DH wasn't moved by the mortgage. To him it was just a fact of life! I bargained, begged, pleaded, cajoled and demanded we pay extra on the principal every month...with support from his siblings and father, whom he always seemed to listen to when it came to money. He associated me with my mother and just never has listened to me about money.

Then late years I started to really worry. Retirement is rearing it's head, DH started his career late and made some unwise moves, the Canadian gov't keeps talking about taking away some of it's guaranteed pension for seniors (which would really put us in the poor house), and we didn't start saving for retirement until 15 years after I first suggested it to DH. Some things really aren't worth the fight! As far as DH is concerned, we should be able to live off the government pension. (sigh) Quality of life means nothing to this man.

So last year, when we paid out the mortgage, I was jumping for joy! I had to sit DH down the fall before and point out how close we were and how we could make the end come a few months quicker. He finally saw that.

I was relieved to not have to worry about money finally! Then Mom dies and I have to deal with her estate...worry about money again. I am sooo disenchanted with executors and financial planners right now. If they can find a way to screw things up, they will!

Jean

 

[Luv2BeFrugal]

I would say yeah, I'm obsessed with debt...not to an unhealthy level, but I am always planning how much extra we can send to this or that... I want it GONE!

We have a long ways to go, but we ARE making progress...just got another card paid off a couple weeks ago... Gearing up to "attack" the next one...we'll send the first extra payment to our next CC debt on Friday! Woo-hoo!

 

[Its_Donna]

I once was obsessed with becoming debt free and now that we are debt free except for the house I can now focus on retirement. It's a wonderful feeling to get out from under those car loans and CC's.

I am now obessed with getting this home paid off in 7-10 years. We are set up on bi-weekly mortgage pymts and every extra dime I get I put on the principal. I too dream of calling Dave Ramsey and screaming "We are Debt Free...including the house"!! :tay:

 

[babymakes5]

I am obsessed with getting out of my house I hate and getting into my dreamhouse. Each kid will have their own room, and the sq ft is twice what we have now. Plus, we will have all custom finishes and designs as well as all knew furniture. I bet I have furnished it in my head over a 1000 times already.

 

[Spark]

Totally Obsessed. Every dollar is accounted for. I know how many paychecks between now and all our debts being paid off. It's less than a year and I am soooooo excited! :cheer4: I'm dorky excited. It is so awesome to know we can plant next years tax return into savings, that we'll be getting paid interest on our huge monthly payments to savings accounts and investments rather than paying them to someone else. At the end of this month, we'll have less than $10,000 in debt (not counting the house) and I'm STOKED!

 

[sdrjeolsen]

yep, pretty much think about it a lot. I don't worry about it, just think about it. Even when we were completely debt free and had the house paid for, I still was extremely frugal and invested the extra, just couldn't bring myself to spend it. I think it is in my blood to be frugal and focused. My parents were cash only, Dad paid cash for his farm, they raised 8 of us kids in a 1000 sq ft house in the city, (that he built himself to save $) to save up the $ to buy the farm. My grandpa (dad's dad) died at 57 years old at the tail end of the depression and left my Grandmother and their 12 kids 6 years worth of salary. How he saved that much through the depression while raising 12 kids, I'll never know. I don't think I could shake it if I tried...maybe its genetic, lol. To me it is all I know and it feels weird to not be always conscious of where every penny goes and that it is well spent.

 

[chatterweb]

I am really trying to focus on paying extra to our principal on our primary mortgage.

My goal is to pay it down 15-20K each year!!

But I still eat out at work, however, I cut back in other ways and earn extra money so I guess I am not too consumed.:angel2: