Car Payments

My husband and I did a very stupid thing 3 years ago....we purchased a new minivan, with a massive car payment of $477 per month....our income no where near covers this, so my mom is graciously paying this for us in order for us to have a vehicle to use for the kids. We thought we only had 2 years left on the loan, but today my mother called and was told we had 38 payments left. YIKES!!!!

So we are contemplating options....we could sell but there is body damage, so we could only get about $9k for it....we owe $14k, so we would have to make up the $5k difference, plus have another 2-3k to get another vehicle large enough to carry everyone (including 2 car seats)...but as Dave Ramsey says, owing 7k is better than owing $14k.....so the jury is still out on this one for now...

But there is NO WAY WE WILL EVER HAVE ANOTHER CAR PAYMENT EVER AGAIN!!!!!!!

NO MORE!

NO MORE!!!!!!!!

Creating the dream budget

Well, I decided to sit down and calculate what a dream budget for us would look like, given my husband's current salary and what I would like to net with my business. It would essentially double our income, and would make it a heck of a lot easier to care for all these pets properly - and we could get out of debt quicker, too.

Now we just have to make the dream budget a reality! :)

Reality Check

Today I started by calculating my husband's yearly net income. He's salary, and is eligible for bonuses, but the bonuses are hit or miss, so I didn't calculated them in my net income total. I currently stay at home with the kids....we live in kind of a rural area, so to commute to a PT job would not net anything after gas...plus, my husband is management, so I would need to work around his schedule, too, which could get really complicated.

So, anyway, for a family of 2 adults, 3 children, 6 cats (2 of whom are on prescription diets, and one of those 2 is diabetic), 5 big dogs and 2 ferrets, we are surviving on.....(are you ready for this?)

$28,600/year.

No wonder our paycheck is so tight every pay period! As Dave Ramsey would say, we not only have a debt and spending problem, we have an income problem as well.

So now the goal is to get the income up. I am trying to get something going on Ebay, but it's been a tough haul so far...I'm hoping things pick up for Christmas. (In case you are interested, my Ebay store is Art Prints Shoppe - I could always use a sale! LOL!)

Changing the Course

Well, here we are. A blog! A getting out of debt blog! Original? No, probably not. But, hey, it gets me back into writing. :)

I've titled my blog "Changing the Course" because that's exactly what my family is doing. Dave Ramsey calls it "changing the family tree", and that's a good way of putting it, too.

So, the whole focus of this blog will be my family's journey of getting out of debt and starting on a new road to Financial Peace. I will try and detail as much as I can about our ups, downs, sideways LOL....hopefully it's one you'll enjoy reading and will also inspire YOU to get out of debt!