My hubby and I were talking about bills and money last night and came up with a new snow ball plan after we reevaluated our debt. We discovered that we have an extra $13,000 in debt excluding cars, house, & student loans. Ouch! We are breaking that 13k in even smaller categories so we aren't too overwhelmed and can hopefully stay focused.
We had our first teeny tiny achievement today, too! Usually every Monday and Tuesday before payday we would be write checks to make it until Wednesday when I get paid and pray my paycheck went to the bank before the checks did. We would then already be short on that paychecks budget because of the checks we would write. Well, no more. I just transferred an extra $62 into my savings account because it was all left over money from our grocery/coupon and spend budget. Woo-hoo!!
I know I'm a complete newbie at this, so please excuse my stupidity. But, is it best to get your emergency fund funded before beginning to pay off some smaller debt?
If you go by Dave Ramsey, he will say get your $1,000 emergency fund first. That way, when Murphy visits, you have something set aside.
ReplyDeleteIf you already have the $1,000...then you would put it towards the smallest debt you have. This would be in addition to any minimum payments you have for that debt. It is called a snowflake!
And then you would snowball from there.
Hope that helps!
Yah... What Mysti said. ;)
ReplyDeleteI agree with mysti and carla...flake away
ReplyDeleteIsn't it grand! When you finally see that the plan works. I will never forget when I actually hit a point that I had extra money. I mean extra money. It wasn't much but when you have nothing $50.00 is a fortune. See the progress you are making?
ReplyDeleteI echo all the other smart ladies. I got my emergency fund together as quickly as I could and after that every extra cent that I had/earned/found went to debt. If you end up having to use your emergency fund then you stop your extra debt repayment and rebuild your EF as quickly as you can again then back at the debt.
ReplyDeleteAwesome job on having extra money!!! It's a huge accomplishment!
We are following the suggestions and putting everything extra in the emergency fund. It'll take a while, but we'll get there.
ReplyDelete