Women in Red Racers - West Region

[bankergurl]

$50K - $100K List updated as of 12/15/13! $10,495.73 paid off in the last 2 weeks!! WOW!!
One Leapfrog, Pay-No-Interest from the South!
Congrats to dschmidt1007 from the NE for paying off over 15%!
Congrats to trojen3 from the South for paying off over $45K and over 45%!
www.notmsnmoney.proboards.com/thread/11190/wirr-50-100k-club?page=4&scrollTo=1805634

[snapdragon]

UPDATE: snapdragon 12/16/13 $20,782.53 (8/6/12 $28,849.00 WU 64,73,74,75,76,77)

Everyone have a good holiday! 

[Rocky Mtn Saver]

Dec 13, 2013 1:15:22 GMT -5 sealy said:

CC #1 spending habits for the past 4 years total spent $13,872 I didn't know that.  I've been paying on it so my balance is less than that.

Supermarkets    $3,475
Gasoline            $2,530 
Merchandise       $2,133 fabric, walmart, coat factory, amazon, target, etc
Services            $1,640 att, insurance, honey farm, etc
Restaurants        $1,555 
Travel/Entrtmnt   $1,199  Delta, price line theatres, etc
Gvrnmt Srvcs       $679    taxes and passport 
Automotive          $358    tires, oil changes
Medicl Srvcs         $130   xrays, copay
Departmnt strs      $98    Kohls, macy's
Home Imprvmnt     $75    floyd's, home depot

It all began in Jan 2011 and Sept 2011 to March 2013 I did not use my card.
Started up again beginning tax time $1,515 spent in the same areas over 9 days.

Tomorrow I will look at my bank card.  My CC#2 can't go over $5,600 so it 
has hovered in the same area for over a year I would guess.

This is a good place to start.  Are these expenses over 4 years or a smaller period of time?  It's a little confuisng.  

I'd focus on counting up your expenses (on both CC and Bank Card) for only the last 12 months to get an idea of what your current Cost of Living is.  That should give you a starting point to budget these items for now, then you can change that budget once you have tracked real expenses for a while. 

[Rocky Mtn Saver]

Dec 14, 2013 17:36:12 GMT -5 sealy said:

Thank you Minnesota.  I will keep kicking.

Going to go shopping for Christmas but 
will use my bank card and gift cards.

Not taking any credit cards.

How did it go?

[sealy]

The stores were too crowded.


My CC lets you look at your spending for up to 
48 months. It's really 2 years of spending. Sorry
about the confusion. I selected the 48 months
button that's why I said 4 years.


I will check out my bank statement soon.

[Rocky Mtn Saver]

Dec 16, 2013 18:47:07 GMT -5 sealy said:

The stores were too crowded.

Well, I guess that's a plus if it keeps us from spending money unnecessarily!

[ambellamy]

Hey everyone.

Just a quick update over here. We paid our mortgage again this month and since refinancing to a 20 year mortgage from a 30 year, we were able to watch $322.52 go to principle instead of $171.08. 

I have to remind myself of tha change from time to time... especially when we aren't sending any extra to the mortgage... 

I'm so glad we refinanced... That's principle change is almost double what we would have gained in equity... refinancing all by itself is now a permadent way to add extra to our mortgage each month 

ambellamy W 12/17/2013 $110,857.14 ($127,176.40)
 $16,319.23 paid
 $110,857.14 to go... (is my -$500 guy right??)

[jdnstl]

ATTENTION REGIONAL CAPTAINS!!!

I've emailed Nasagreen about putting together a State of the Union update for the new year. Since she is not online much with the new baby, please send me your latest update spreadsheet via email at purpleprincess06 @ gmail as soon as possible and we'll get a GSOTU posted next week.

[shanendoah]

State of Shanendoah 4th Anniversary Post
Yesterday was my 4th anniversary with the Women in Red Racers. Per the Hallmark site, the traditional gift is fruit or flowers, while the modern gift is appliances. I could use a new stove or dishwasher, if anyone felt so inclined. (Here are my 2nd (post #1365) and 3rd (post #1959)anniversary posts.)

When you look at our debt, 2013 seems almost like a failure. We paid off less than $2,000, after paying off almost $24,500 in year one, $12,775 in year 2, and another $25,000 in year 3. There is a part of me that struggles with this. I look at my student loan balance and at my savings account balance and think, I could be (non-mortgage) debt free with just a few transfers of cash. I could be done with this NOW.

Instead, I don’t think we’re still even on the original 5 year plan. At the current rate of pay down, it will be 2018 or 2019 before my student loan is paid off. That’s another 5 years from now, putting us on a 9 year plan. Ugh.

Do I honestly think it will be that long before the undergraduate student loan is paid off? No. But if 2013 has taught me anything, it is that my emotional need to be debt free cannot take priority over our very real financial need for a strong emergency fund.

2013 was a year. I will give it that. After paying off my graduate loans in December 2012, we decimated savings in order to refinance our house (which I don’t regret). We finally got our foster care license. I received a lay-off notice. Our daughter was placed with us April 30. My last day at work was May 3. I got a very generous severance package and took two months off to bond with my daughter. Then in July, I started a new job and had 4 months of double pay, thanks to the severance, and rebuilt our savings. A week before Thanksgiving, we officially adopted our daughter, paying all legal fees in cash.

We talked about paying off the debt, but decided to save for a down payment for a larger house. We have a condo out of state to sell that we should clear over $50k on, and that combined with our current savings gives us a very nice down payment. The plan was to find a place closer to my new work location, making my commute a little less awful.

But then, a few weeks ago, I learned I would not be staying in this job. (You can read about that over on my YM Off Topic thread.) Because we have a lot of liquid savings, we’re in fine shape for me to take some time finding a new position. As the sole breadwinner for the family, I hate being out of work, but it is so nice to know that I don’t have to jump at the first thing that comes along. And also that, if I turn out to be wrong about what the right next job is (as I was this time), we’re still in decent shape, financially.

C is still in school. He should be done at the end of summer. We’re also considering adopting a 2nd child. We’ll likely move on that process after he is done with school.

We did take on new debt in 2013, which I am not racing. We got new windows on a one year SAC deal. They will be paid off next summer with no interest paid. We have continued our trend of not paying any credit card interest.

So that is 2013 in a nutshell. It was a crazy year. Debt payoff went not so great. Work situation has also been not so great (though I officially won’t lose my current job until Jan 10, so 2104). Life wise, it’s been great. We are so blessed to have our daughter in our lives, and I wouldn’t change that for anything.

So Happy Anniversary, WIR Racers. Thank you for putting up with me through the ups and downs. Thank you for not holding me to artificial timelines. I know I’ve been a little distant this year. I cannot promise that will change, but I want you to know how much I appreciate you being here for me whenever I do have the time. And I promise to stick it out, as long as it takes.

[jdnstl]

ATTENTION REGIONAL CAPTAINS!!!

I'm working on the Galactic State of the Union update for the new year. Please send me your latest regional update as soon as possible via email at purpleprincess06 @ gmail. TIA!!!

[nooccar]

Update:

nooccar (2): 1/3/2013 $48921.14 (11/4/2010 $73475.09 WU197)

I hope every one has a happy new year!

[jdnstl]

Hey West WIRR, do you guys have regional captains that have the update spreadsheets? I'm working on the GSOTU to post & it will be ever so helpful if someone has it & can email it. Thanks!!!

[bankergurl]

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! The WIR are here to take down debt - Bring it on 2014!!
$100K List updated as of 1/4/14!! $6837.38 paid off in the last 2 weeks!! Great start to the year ladies!
- Two Leapfrogs, Minnesotagirl3[7] from the Midwest and ambellamy from the West!
- Congrats to DizzyIntellectual from the Midwest for getting under $155K!
www.notmsnmoney.proboards.com/thread/11187/100k-club?page=5&scrollTo=1823345

[bankergurl]

Here we go ladies n gents! Let's make 2014 a great year for paydowns!!
$50K - $100K List updated as of 1/5/14! $667.19 paid off in the last 2 weeks!
3 New/Returning Members!! ProCras108r from the South, Maryland Monroe and idle_chatter(2) both from the Northeast!
2 Leapfrogs - Crazylady14 and Banker Gurl, both from the Midwest!
Congrats to Wudnit from the Northeast for getting under $70K!
www.notmsnmoney.proboards.com/thread/11190/wirr-50-100k-club?page=5&scrollTo=1823826

[sealy]

I only owe $500 on my sculpture!!! YAY!!! 
              

I am very tempted to take my savings and pay
off CC #1 but I learned from last time that I 
need to keep my savings and plug away at
getting rid of that debt.  I haven't used
CC #2 so I'm doing very good.

[snapdragon]

Jan 5, 2014 17:33:42 GMT -5 sealy said:

I only owe $500 on my sculpture!!! YAY!!! 
              

I am very tempted to take my savings and pay
off CC #1 but I learned from last time that I 
need to keep my savings and plug away at
getting rid of that debt.  I haven't used
CC #2 so I'm doing very good.

Sealy that is great to hear! 

[sealy]

thanks snapdragon

[ambellamy]

Jan 4, 2014 9:58:45 GMT -5 jdnstl said:

Hey West WIRR, do you guys have regional captains that have the update spreadsheets? I'm working on the GSOTU to post & it will be ever so helpful if someone has it & can email it. Thanks!!!

I have no idea... I just came back after a long hiatus...

[ambellamy]

Jan 6, 2014 13:07:33 GMT -5 snapdragon said:

Jan 5, 2014 17:33:42 GMT -5 sealy said:

I only owe $500 on my sculpture!!! YAY!!! 
              

I am very tempted to take my savings and pay
off CC #1 but I learned from last time that I 
need to keep my savings and plug away at
getting rid of that debt.  I haven't used
CC #2 so I'm doing very good.

Sealy that is great to hear! 

That's exciting!!!

[sealy]

I don't know either


Thank you very much ambellamy.

[sealy]

It's pretty quiet here.

I hope everyone's year is off to a good start.

do we have any challenges?

I now owe $400 on my sculpture.  I am getting
a check tomorrow so I'm hoping to either save
more $ towards my independence or use it to
take care of the remaining balance.  

I am now headed to the land of dreams.  
Hope they all are good ones.

[ambellamy]

Sealy, do you have any ideas for a mini challenge? I always liked those. What about this one:

What ever day you pay your next bill (or for however many bills you can), try to add that many dollars to the total.

So if you pay your car payment today, try to add $10 more to the payment since today is the tenth of January.


Glad to hear your sculpture is getting paid down! 

[ambellamy]

I haven't seen this done in a while, and I don't have a spreadsheet, but I went back a few pages of posts to see if I could do an update post since they were talking about a GSOTU.


WEST REGION ACTIVE MEMBER MILESTONES

=$100, =$500, =$1,000,

=$5,000, =$10,000, = $20,000, 

=$25,000, = $50,000

=$75,000, =$100,000, = $200,000

= LOCATION NEEDED!!!

Updated: 1/10/14 through Post #2301
3 members lost to lack of updates: GAMA13, Scarlett81, Twinmama85[3]
Welcome CKTC and welcome back to Onestepcloser and ambellamy[2] (me)

ambellamy [2]:  12/17/2013 $110,857.14 ($127,176.40)

CKTC: 11/1/13 $36,426.37 (3/20/13 $42,189.14 W70)

dsunshine: 10/12/2013 $15,726.27 (12/17/2008 $42,344.29WPT8,WPT50)  

LaramiK: 11/13/2013 $13,851.33 (6/23/2007 $55,051.61 N220)  

megaptera: 12/02/2013 $296,464 (7/30/2012 $309,224 WPT58)  

nooccar [2]: 01/03/2013 $48,921.14 (11/4/2010 $73,475.09 WU197)    

onestepcloser: 10/22/13 $3,368.03 (??)

rosebud30: 10/28/13 $0.00 (8/7/2008 $40,810W349)  

Saving4Norway: 9/22/13 $0.00 (1/1/2012 $19,528.44 WPT60)

sealy#1: 12/07/13 $23,419.12 (2/1/2013 $24,042.81 WPT 68)   

shanendoah: 10/14/13 $12,650.99 (12/30/2009 $76,536.33 WU7, WU31, WPT512)  

snapdragon: 12/16/13 $20,782.53 (8/6/2012 $28,849)    


I appologize if I got anything wrong or left anyone out. (last update was on page 74 of the thread)

[sealy]

ambellamy,
I'm going to try it on my CCs to get
them lower.

According to my bank I only have 19 months
left on my car payments.  It's acting a lil weird.
It has over 111,708 miles on it now.  I was
going to refinance it but then I was told that
it would raise my payments.  No thanks but they pulled
my credit hopefully my credit score won't suffer
too much.


 I made my last payment on my sculpture.
 YAY!!! Now I just have to wait till he brings
it to me.  
gonna go get some milk and celebrate
with myself.

[snapdragon]

Jan 10, 2014 17:12:58 GMT -5 sealy said:

ambellamy,
I'm going to try it on my CCs to get
them lower.

According to my bank I only have 19 months
left on my car payments.  It's acting a lil weird.
It has over 111,708 miles on it now.  I was
going to refinance it but then I was told that
it would raise my payments.  No thanks but they pulled
my credit hopefully my credit score won't suffer
too much.


 I made my last payment on my sculpture.
 YAY!!! Now I just have to wait till he brings
it to me.  
gonna go get some milk and celebrate
with myself.

SEALY -- great work on getting your sculpture paid off! Now you can enjoy it and the new 0 that comes with it!

[snapdragon]

Ambellamy  - thank you for doing the smilies!

[sealy]

Thanks snapdragon.


I would love to have CC #1 paid off by June 
and have $10,000 saved.  I'm trying not to
stress too much about it though.

[jdnstl]

hey WIRR!! i'm still working on the galactic state of the union. i'm sorry for the delay but i've run into some challenges & so i'm working to get it done by the end of this month. that is 3 weeks away so keep on racing & posting!

[megaptera]

Hey all! Hope everyone's doing well; not a lot of activity in here.

I was wondering how much trouble it is to add another, separate race. My only other debt besides the mortgage is DH's student loans, and I haven't been racing them, but I think this is the year to do so. Even though the interest rate is fairly low, the payments are low and we're paid ahead, I'm tired of looking at it on my spreadsheet. My goal is to have it paid off by the end of the year, but if it interferes with the savings goal, that may not happen. Let me know if this is okay or if I should just add it to my other (mortgage) race.

megaptera (2): 1/14/14 $3,340.00 (1/14/14 $3,340.00)

Sealy: Congrats on the sculpture payoff!

Ambellamy: Thanks for the updated list!

Have a great rest of the week everyone.

[ambellamy]

Okay, I did the mini Challenge. I added an extra $13 to my mortgage this past month when I paid the bill on the 13th. Over all, it saved me around $13 in future interest, but its a start so i'll take it. (My interest rate is only 3.75% on a 20 year note...)

Since last update, I've paid down: $336.59 (including that extra $13 from the mini Challenge)

$16,655.82 paid  
$110,520.58 to go...    (It looks so tiny with only 3 bad smilies...)


ambellamy 1/15/2013 $110,520.58 ($127,176.40)