Tuesday, January 20, 2009

267 pounds down ~ 9,733 to go

For this last week, I sent a large bag of misc clothes to D.A.V. I also freecycled a few things. I sent 7 books out thru paperbackswap.com. And we paid down $250 on some debt.

If you're working on debt reduction, I highly advise Dave Ramsey. Get the books from the library, listen to him via internet or just check out his website. He has various ideas ~ not all will work for everybody, but something might spark you. I personally like the giant poster of debt reduction. It's a big spreadsheet that I bought at the school supply store. The debts are listed on the left side and we designated each square to be 'worth' $50. So, we'll highlight as many squares as needed to represent the debt owed. Then, as it's paid (we do the snowball method too), we black out the squares to show the debt going down. It's a very visual reminder of where we stand. I have a smaller sheet for the immediate debt, the full sheet is for the long range debt.


We also have one for savings that we color in as our savings grows. My only caution is if you have people over, they may stand around and read your charts. This bugs me like you can not imagine. So, now I take them down if we're expecting company.


5 comments:

Leasmom said...

I don't have any debt but one...my car payment. I could use that method for keeping up with that. But, I also declutter alot and will keep doing so because no matter how much I get rid of...theres still more to get rid of somehow.

Jennifer said...

I like this idea, and I have a thing for charts and graphs anyway so I think I will try it. Thank you for the very helpful suggestions!

Janelle said...

I love your chart, I think this would really help my hubby to visualize the debt. Credit cards were shredded this week, step one done :)

Anonymous said...

Way to Go Melissa! I love the chart and might end up making one up for myself. Like you, I think I may be taking it down when company is expected.

I posted the html widget code for adding the "Lighten the Load 2009 Challenge" on the facebook group wall. I am hoping that our group grows and we have lots of participants with plenty of great ideas to share.

When we have a few more participants, I will put together a collapsible blogroll for participants AND I looking at possible weekly "contests" as well.

Can you tell I am very excited?

Anonymous said...

LOL. I also have one and it drove me nuts when my carpet cleaner was over and noticed it. I take it down now for visitors. We also have one that tracks our monthly income and outgo on one chart so we can visually see the gap grow (hopefully) between income and outgo.