Women in Red Racers - South Region

[ffhope]

Update: 1/16/2011 61569.04 (8/14/10 S394- 67906.08)

[jdnstl]

OMGoodness!! i just realized i never posted my january update!!! so here we go.

Name	Dec 1 10	Jan 9 11	Paid Off
CC1	$290.00	$485.00	($195.00)
CC2	$0.00	$850.00	($850.00)
CC3	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
CC4	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
CC5	$3,069.00	$3,038.00	$31.00
CC6	$3,770.00	$3,730.00	$40.00
CC7	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Auto1	$9,787.74	$9,438.42	$349.32
Auto2	$8,061.99	$7,770.72	$291.27
Totals	$24,978.73	$25,312.14	($333.41)
	Dec 1 10	Jan 9 11	Difference of
EF/Savings	$666.16	$472.13	($194.03)

Oops! forgot my tagline...

jdnstl: 1/9/11 $25,312.14 (1/9/08 $48,042.26 S34)
Total ptd - $22,730.12
Percent ptd – 47%

It’s my 3 year anniversary. WOW! Here is a quick update….I obviously went backwards. CC1 increased due to a last minute trip back home. CC2 is a balance transfer from CC4 that I was unable to pay completely back in October due to DH’s job loss. It is a 0% until next January that I hope to pay within that time frame. The EF dropped low due to needing it to cover basics until DH gets paid. DH is working again, Praise the Lord, but it was the night shift (6pm-6am) & was very difficult with DS, who got very spoiled spending all day everyday with DH. It was several rough few nights when we got back from NW Texas.

Goals for 2011:

1) Pay off CC debt to $4400.
2) Build EF up to $1000 and save at least $1500 for this year’s move.
3) And my super lofty 1-year goal is to have a balance of only $13,000 on December 31st, which means I’ll have to pay at least $12.3k to debt this year & DH needs to stay employed!!

[suzwantstobefree]

Oh No - Speech found the smiley chart. . Just kidding this is kind of fun discovering new smileys and new ways to add things to your postings. For some reason, I really like the angel.

Let's make 2011 one great year for the Southern Girls and Gals.

[jdnstl]

BUMP!

[swordguy]

MuffyInTheRed I work for a company that has a contract with the government. So while I'm a basic salaried worker, if they lose the contract, they can't necessarily keep everyone on the payroll. They certainly can't do it locally, which would require me to move to remain with them.

That said, it's not uncommon for the new company taking over the contract to hire 90% of the people on the old contract. It's also not uncommon to cut their benefits or wages, which is why I'm glad my "needs" on the "needs/wants/savings" continuum are running about 30% of our take home pay. Having that mortgage paid off really cut my non-loan "needs" expenses in half. We could live on my wife's salary alone, though we would have to stop contributing to the 401K.

Doing this, , is somewhat easier than getting an employee approved by the government to work on the current contract, and there's a limited number of folks in the area qualified to do the work. So unless I truly gum up the works I'm almost certainly able to be hired by the new company. After all, that means they can bill the government on day 1 of the contract instead of having to take several months to fill the vacancy. So, I've probably still got a job, but whether I would like the new salary or management or not remains to be seen.

I really, really, like the 50-30-20 budget, explained here:

articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/LearnToBudget/how-much-should-you-spend-on.aspx?page=1

It comes with a great tool to help you do the not-so-heavy lifting that goes with it:

articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/LearnToBudget/50-30-20-budget.aspx

I like it because it's truly simple and it works.

50% of your take-home pay goes to fixed commitments and needs. Food is a need, steak and lobster isn't, so don't confuse the two.
Fixed commitments include loan payments and minimum CC payments.

30% goes to wants.

20% goes to savings or EXTRA payments on debt.

Before you buy something on payments or credit, you check to see if it would take your needs over 50%. If it would, then you don't buy it.

With 50% of your money uncommitted to other things, there's fun money to make life worth living and savings to keep it that way when you retire. Plus, when Murphy comes to visit, you've got 50% of your take home pay each month to dig yourself out.

[redruby]

Red Ruby

JAN, 17 2011

$135,496.73

(1/21/2009 $163,872.74) S561

[swordguy]

It's a new year, so I went ahead and recalculated how I'm doing on the 50-30-20 budget plan. Right now, I'm running at 33-20-47. Most of the savings are going to the 401K rather than debt reduction, or I could this debt faster.

I suppose I could stop spending as much, but I don't see the need to go to a zero extra spending budget, i.e., 33-0-67. I just don't have that much debt and it's going away quickly enough. Both the PFCU Loan and the PFCU Car are 3 year loans. I'm 14 months into the PFCU Loan and I've paid 19 months on it already.

My goal is to pay off the CC by the end of May and the PFCU Loan by the end of the year. My aggressive goal is to pay off both by the end of August Once the CC and the PFCU loan are paid off, I'll only have the car payment of $275 a month, and I won't be sweating that one at all, particularly at 2.99% interest. I'll just pay a payment each time my wife and I get a paycheck, which will pay it off at triple the rate. That should pay it off in 2012, a year or more early.

However, I expect my wife will need some hip surgery this spring. We'll see what it costs, because that will surely have a bad impact on the budget.

[ready4achange]

Thanks everyone for all the "welcome backs". I had forgotten just how nice everyone was on this board

Speechchick & Forwardwego: I do payroll for a company. So just thought I would share with you what I know about the decrease in FICA taxes. Everyone should be paying 4.2% FICA tax (Social Security & Medicare combined). These changes took place effective 1-1-11; however the employers have until 1-31-11 to implement the changes. If an employer did not have the changes in effect by 1-1-11, then as soon as they implement the changes they should correct and refund any over-withholdings as soon as possible but no later than 3-31-11. Hope this info helps some. It could explain why there seems to be an inconsistency in the amounts right now. I know personally our tax/payroll software has not been updated yet. So as soon as it updates, it will automatically configure a refund for the employee on the next pay check.

[forwardwego]

Well done jdnstl, you held the boat almost perfectly steady during a very rough time there ! AWESOME job!
Nice update ffhope, pretty soon you'll be out of the 60K range into the 50K's !
SwordGuy Good job being so well situated in these times of uncertain employment. Sorry to hear your DW has a probable hip surgery looming. Glad she has you.
Thanks bunches ready4achange! It's nice to understand what's up with the 2% SS tax thing. So it's probably working out pretty good for me & DH then...he(we) will get a little "retro" money while we're seeing the savings in my check right now.
Yep, this board is awesome. Thank goodness it's free, i couldn't afford to pay for the value of what i've gained here.

[suzwantstobefree]

Off the subject, has anyone ventured out to the other boards? I think this is my home and I like it best here. Some of the people are really mean on the other proboards.......

Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to update I am very excited, and glad to see that everyone is starting off 2011 so great. Even those who have increased have had such small and manageable increases. I am so proud of us. The only sad part is that there are a lot of people that are going to win their race this year and I will miss them, but am proud of them at the same time.

[speechchick71]

Suz: I'll probably be winning my race (barring any crazy emergency) in the next 4 weeks but I'll still be around. Once I find a group I'm comfortable with, I tend to stick around.

Yep, I've looked around on the Everything Else board. Some of the threads are just conversations, one liners and such, going back and forth. I like reading the car repair thread on EE...the guy is good!

Speaking of car repairs, I had to get my car worked on this weekend. The vent wasn't changing directions and the motor on my seat would go forward, up, and down, but not back. I dropped it off the night before because I had a 7am appt. By 1pm the next day, I hadn't heard anything so I called and they didn't even have an answer for me. I called at 4pm and he said he had been trying to call me but couldn't get thru on my line. Anyway, I complained about how long it was taking (they couldn't even start on the repairs without contacting me) being that I had the first appt of the day (AND the guy told me the technician started working on it the previous night). The long and short of the story is that they knocked a great deal off my bill which was good for me. I have to start working on my savings budget because one of my categories was for car repairs so I need to adjust the $300 repair.....and the repair bill is still smaller than a car payment!

Peaceful night to all!

[suzwantstobefree]

I like Rick's car repair thread too, but I really haven't had much of a need for it (thankfully). I read it because I am interested in everything about cars - especially since I am a dealership employee. What you experienced is really quite common. Our number one complaint from customers is that the dealership doesn't communicate with them about their car repairs. I am glad you got a good deal on your repairs.

One of the girls called dealerships a mafia organization and that has set me off wrong!!!! While everyone has a complaint about a car dealership, I know that there are good ones out there too. It seems like the EE thread is a lot of high school like drama I think they enjoy pissing people off

[nasagreen]

nasagreen update : 1/18/2011 $106,931.07 (7/20/07 $144,371.70 S373, S385, SU395)

Lots of drama. Sick of being frustrated all the time. Had to pony up $2k for our upstairs bathroom drain in the shower stall (which has to be removed and replaced) because it was leaking onto the first floor. Grrr. I feel like this is the only place to vent, so thanks for being here.

[nasagreen]

Shoutouts from your captain, nasagreen:

TXRacer81 - great update, glad you are back with us! Congrats on your engagement
CraftySarah - good update, way to go with the new zero !!!!!
freshnewday - wow, it has been a year already ? That is amazing! We are glad you are here with us
ready4achange - You put that you joined back in September of 2009. If that is true, did you use a different screenname? I can't find you on our list, but if you let the captains know, we would like to fix that so we can keep your previous progress as well. If you'd rather not and just start over, I understand too. For now, I just added you as a new member.
younggrasshopper - great to see you around So sorry to hear about your dog. I've been taking one step forward and two steps back as well. Just keep with it, it will get better!
speechchick71 - wow, great payoff, you should be proud!
redruby - glad to hear your daughter is fine...sorry about the car! Good update, you have two party hats now...so close to the halo
tri2bfree - Oh I'm so glad you're back! I'm with you about getting the CC monkey off my back.
Deepintx - Guess what??? You have a party hat now! Yay! Yay! Yay! You are welcome for the template too, glad it is working out
paynointerest - Holy Smokes, what a fabulous payoff. Wish I could speed along like that. You are getting so much closer Good luck with the remodel.
muffyinthered - great update, keep them coming! I put a table template on page 4 or 5, you have to add some formatting to get a table to appear, but it isn't a problem. If you still need help, PM me.
forwardwego - thanks...rough weekend for me though. Lots of personal issues to deal with and we have a $2k leak in our upstairs bathroom and when trying to sell a house, that is terrible. I just bit the bullet and fixed it. I owe my mother $2k now, but at least it isn't on CC. I feel like I'm never going to have the baby though.
redracerris - great update, and good job finishing your goals. i need to set mine lower so I actually accomplish them.
ffhope - good update, more than 1k paid in one update is amazing
jdnstl - happy WIRR anniversary!

And here are the updates for this week (sorry I'm a day late):


Updated: 1/18/2011 thru pg. PB9
= $100, = $500, = $1,000, = $5,000, = $10,000, = $25,000, = $75,000, = $100,000, = $200,000, = Location Needed

aintnoeasywayout: 12/27/2010 $27,832.00 (6/3/2010 $33,378.00 SU327,SU390)
CarolinaKat: 1/6/11 $19,772.00 (3/5/10 $26,019 SU189)
CleanSlate09: 1/5/11 $33,787.38 (1/16/09 $32,236 S564)
Coloradobound: 1/9/11 $29,158.69 (5/5/10 $35,641.03 SU296)
CraftySarah: 1/11/11 $3,678.59 (2/10/2010 $14,784.50 SU126)
DeepInTheRed: 11/27/2010 $82,990.00 (12/8/2006 $180,462.00 33,S934,SU112)
deepintx: 1/15/11 $42,385.82 (7/12/10 $53,089.66 SU365)
dimplesnlj: 12/22/10 $41,568.00 (1/2/2010 $46,531 SU21,SU26)
dizzleisdone: 1/8/11 $4,149.19 (1/17/09 $8,400.95 SU553)
Elderkind: 1/1/11 $4800 (1/1/11 $5000 SPT2)
exyankee: 12/16/10 $90,000 (5/30/07 $282,416.71 N99, SU442)
Ffflex: 12/15/10 $23.070 (6/29/10 $27,320 SU352, SU372)
ffhope: 1/16/11 $61,569.04 (8/14/10 $67,906.08 SU394)
Forwardwego 1/7/11 $5474.00 (3/21/10 $9,559.00 SU223)
freshnewday: 1/13/11 $17,051.00 (1/19/10 $41,981.59 SU63)
jdnstl: 1/9/11 $25,312.14 (1/9/08 $48,042.26 S34)
JerseyGirlinFlorida: 12/21/10 $13,965.00 (6/18/09 $26,597.00 S794)
lula110: 12/1/10 $94,924.30 (11/2/06 $135,504.74 SU479)
muffy in the red: 1/15/10 $91,593.63 (9/9/08 $121,227.00 S373, S385, SU395)
nasagreen: 1/18/11 $106,931.07 (7/20/07 $144,371.70 N312, S108, S180)
Nckls4603: 1/1/11 $7,506.83 (1/4/10 $11,089.47 SU25)
pay-no-interest: 1/15/11 $130,200.00 (5/16/07 $369,884.00 N23, S25, SU358,SU359)
ProCras108r: 1/6/11 $67,511.80 (3/1/10 $69,896.89 SU178)
rdy4blck82: 1/6/11 $17,698.11 (1/28/10 $25,166.93)
Red Racer Ris: 1/17/11 $125,770.00 (3/20/10 $134,904.00 SU220)
Red RUBY: 1/17/11 $135,496.73 (1/20/09 $156,570.04 S561)
ReduceMyDebt: 12/12/10 $30,624.65 (1/2/10 $39,768.00 S20)
ridmydebt1: 12/27/10 $154,665.50 (12/30/09 $194,819.99 SU9)
Roxy in Red: 12/30/10 $24,592.58 (3/21/08 $52,359 S141,SU37) ;D
speechchick71: 1/14/11 $3,969.00 (12/31/09 $25,073.00 SU16)
SuzWantstoBeFree: 12/18/2010 $493,092.15 (01/01/10 $515,627.40 S101)
Sword Guy: 1/8/11 $20,205.00 (7/31/10 $63,749.00 SU382, SU466)
Tri2BFree: 1/15/11 $38,750.24 (5/16/07 $58,717.96 N10, 461, S311)
txracer81: 1/10/11 $14,617.00 (10/20/08 $23,685.00 S444, S466, S966)
younggrasshopper: 1/14/11 $11,677.02 (1/5/09 $12,934.83 S530)

NEW MEMBERS
ready4achange: 1/14/11 $5,627.95 SPT7

[suzwantstobefree]

Nasa - thanks for the update and the smiley's. So sorry about the home repair . I know you just want that house sold and done with.

[ready4achange]

Nasa: I can't even remember what my screen name was in 2009...lol. So I'll just start over fresh. Thanks though for trying to find me.


Well finally I found all the options for bold, underline, etc.

[Elderkind]

MuffyInTheRed: Great Update! You had movement in the right direction in spite of Christmas so kudo's to you! ;D So sorry to hear about the water heater and hope it won't be too expensive to repair!
ForwardWeGo: LOL! I will never take modern plumbing for granted again!
RedRacerRis: Wonderful paydown and congrats on the job and the care!

Well, I have to get back to work! It's been a crazy day with the first class day!

[freshnewday]

suz: I am so glad you are here. It would not be the same here without you!!
nasa: So sorry about that leak! Arg! I hate it when those things happen. How frustrating! I'm so sorry about the mess too.

swordguy: You are so on top of things. Thanks for sharing the 50-30-20 budget. You guys are rocking that budget! Wow.

[ridmydebt]

My sister told me about this new website she found. Its called bookoo.com. Its an online garage sale. It is free to sign up. All you have to do is register then post items you want to sale. You can put as detailed of a description as you want on the items and post pictures. You can post your email address or phone number (whatever you want people to contact you). People can actually send you messages on your items also. The think I like about this is you can see how many people have viewed your items. I posted a view things last week and sold something this weekend. Just thought I would let everyone know.

[Elderkind]

ffHope: Great Update!
Jdnstl: Happy 3rd Year Anniversary! Love your 2011 goals and will totally do a virtual dance for ya when you make them in December!
SuzWantsToBeFree: LOL! As you can imagine, I am having mucho fun with the new smilies...
Sword Guy: I like your 50-30-20 ratio. I have been using the 60% Solution articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/LearnToBudget/ASimplerWayToSaveThe60Solution.aspx with pretty good success and it is very similar to yours. Is your retirement included in the 20%? My retirement is an automatic 6% monthly deduction (matched at 6.8%) that all state employees are required to do so I count it as a fixed commitment. I have almost have my fixed commitments down to 50%. They are sitting around 54% right now and I am putting about 30% back into my house/EF fund. Oops, just scrolled down and you answered my question already. Sorry to hear about your wife's impending hip surgery.
RedRuby: Wonderful paydown!
SpeechChick71: Bummer on the car repair but kudo's to you for getting the bill knocked down! I am definitely going to have to check out the EE thread!
NasaGreen: Fantastic update! Murphy has not been kind to many of us this month, has he... Hopefully, that bathroom repair will be it and the rest of the year will be smooth sailing! Many thanks for the similes updates!
RidMyDebt: Many thanks for the online garage sale link! It sounds interesting!

[pammy831]

Loan	Starting	Current	Paid Off
Providian CC - 20%	$5,058	$0	$5,058
USAA - 5.99%	$18,333	$0	$18,333
USAA - 5.99%	$10,644	$0	$10,644
SL - 5.5%	$31,912	$30,329	$1,583
Star Card - 9%	$1,704	$0	$1,704
BofA CC - 1.99%	$2,522	$0	$2,522
Citi CC - 11.5%	$1,532	$3,669	($2,137)
Fifth Third Auto - 5.34%	$22,986	$22,440	$546
BofA Auto - 5.25%	$26,991	$26,352	$639
	$121,681	$82,790	$38,891

Well thankfully it seems like I have the table down now lol. I need to modify my spreadsheets now to incorporate this table thing into all the stuff I was using before lol. Yes, as I said before, I did go up this month. I went on a bit of a spending spree and bought myself a new wedding ring set. Luckily I only went up around $800 though since the price of the ring, $1600, was offset by my other monthly payments lol. My new tagline is as follows:

Pammy831 1/18/11 $82,790 (8/29/07 $121,681)

I'm glad to see that we've still been having lots of posts on the board and I think we have more than most of the other regions! Let's go Southern Dixie Debtinators!!! ;D

[speechchick71]

Nasa, thanks for the update. I know you and Pammy have upped your work with no-clue having to take a "leave of absence"....btw, has anyone heard from her recently? I have to say, looking at all of those numbers, we are incredibly amazing. Look at Pay-no-interest: she's paid over $250k; exyankee is closing in on $200k; and lots of people who have paid $10k, $20k, or $30k but even the ones that are only $500 less are amazing! Those are impressive numbers! And for some of us, the debts that are being raced are not all the debts we have!

I keep thinking about how much I've paid in bills over the past 12 months and it's close to $30k (I have a CC that gets PIF monthly so nothing to race). And I keep thinking that people live on less than that! I paid off more in one calendar year than I made my first year working (16 years ago). In fact, it took me 4 years to make MORE than what I paid THIS YEAR ALONE.....and in the meantime, I lived very well this year! I traveled quite a bit, bought nice presents for people and myself, ate well, went to concerts...I HAVE NOTHING TO COMPLAIN ABOUT (and yet I do anyway...sorry...I need to learn to be quiet sometimes).

Anyway....keep up the great work. Even when you backslide a little bit, you all are keeping your eyes on the prize. Everyone has stated goals that are so positive! We are, collectively, showing everyone that it can be done.

[forwardwego]

nasagreen, thanks for the updates, shoutouts, & smilies ;D! i like my 4 guys with shades... looks like a jazzy quartet. Hoping to replace the "group" with a winky smiley soon. Doggone that leak, hope you get it remedied smoothly & quickly.
CONGRATULATIONS on your new job redracerris

I'll probably be winning my race (barring any crazy emergency) in the next 4 weeks

This is getting exciting speechchick! BTW when you win your race your "line-up" will be one gorgeous lone angel.
Nice updates RedRuby & Muffy.
Suz i like the angel too. Looking fwd to your update.
OH Elderkind, did you notice your smilies are twins ?

[redracerris]

jdnstl: Great paydown, I think those goals are great. Sometimes we need a lofty goal to keep us going strong.
swordguy I've read about both the 60% and 50% budgets, and I think that may eventually work for me, but right now I'm on a zero based budget because of how much debt I have. It's sad to hear about your wife's pending surgery. Is there any chance for you to start saving for it now so that it doesn't affect your budget too much when the time comes?
suz Can't wait to see your update, you seem so excited.
speech you are so right about car maintenance and repairs still being cheaper than car payments.
nasa Thanks for updating the smileys and the shoutout. I always enjoy those.
elderkind Hope it wasn't too crazy today. I've been done with school for a year and I'm glad for it. Won't go back for a while, if ever. Although, I do enjoy learning.
pammy I think the midwest has more posts than us, but yeah, I think we're second as to how many people keep up and talk. It's really nice.

[redracerris]

Hey nasa Do we have any goals for this board, like the 3.5 million paid off before the end of last year? I know we didn't make it and it's been crazy with moving to PB and finding a permanent home, but I liked those challenges.

[swordguy]

Jan 18, 2011 23:48:32 GMT -5 redracerris said:

jdnstl: swordguy It's sad to hear about your wife's pending surgery. Is there any chance for you to start saving for it now so that it doesn't affect your budget too much when the time comes?

Not really. I'm putting everything I don't spend into paying down the CC. We're going to try to spend less.

[suzwantstobefree]

suz Can't wait to see your update, you seem so excited.

I am hoping it is over $2K - many more have done much more than that, but I am excited. It is hard to keep pumped up about paying off debt, so I have to find a way to be excited about it

Speech I cannot wait to see your posting about how you paid off your debt, how much, etc. I keep thinking the same thing - I paid off $24K last year and that is more than some people take home in a year. At work we were talking about cars and how few people own their car outright - we do - and it makes me really proud. At any rate, we all are remarkable if for no other reason then that we are sticking to this. It would be so easy to slip back to our "old ways" but we are pushing through and giving up stuff to do it. However, we are getting so much more - especially in terms of freedom to live the life we want without the shackles of debt. Have a great morning everyone.

[nasagreen]

redracerris - I checked on our progress for the $3.5 Million paid goal, but since we added new people, we are back up to $41,000 until we meet that goal. So I hesitated putting that in the update. But that currently is our goal

speechchick - haven't heard from noclue, i think she is still overseas. i think it might be a long-term situation and i know she has very limited internet where ever she is. we are doing well, if this goes too long, then we might start looking for another co-captain, once we have a permanent thread set up on this board and things are more settled

[nasagreen]

This message has been deleted.

[Elderkind]

Pammy831: Sounds like you got a great deal on your wedding rings! How is life over your way? ;D
SpeechChick71: Your reflections over the past year have given me pause to think over 2010. I have nothing to complain about either even though I sometimes can feel very, very sorry for myself...
ForwardWeGo: LOL! I did notice I had twins on my similes... Workin' towards the triplets now!
Red Racer Ris: Yes, if I can get through the first two weeks of school, life will get better... Most of the students and faculty are great but we have these problem children that pop up every semester and can't seem to tie their shoes, much less attend or teach a class...