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Flashback: Dream big!
Make Love, Not Debt hosted Carnival of Debt Reduction #36, and this week’s Flashback from that carnival is from Blogging Away Debt: What hit me like a brick yesterday.
What hit Tricia like a brick (not yesterday, but a couple of years ago) was that she wasn’t thinking big enough. Up until that point she felt that she was sabotaging her efforts to become debt-free by telling herself that she didn’t want to be a millionaire.
If the thought of money leaves a bad taste in your mouth, it’s probably natural to not want to have to deal with it, let alone deal with a lot of it. Or it’s also natural to just want to get by rather than really succeed. But it’s not the money that’s the problem, it’s the way it’s used. Becoming debt-free involves all kinds of transformations: financial, habitual, relational, and even spiritual.
Don’t be afraid to think big!
According to Tricia’s chart over at the No Credit Needed Network, she’s more than three-quarters of the way toward killing her debt! Woohoo!
Flashback: Have a plan for your debt-free life
Savvy Saver hosted Carnival of Debt Reduction #35, and this week’s flashback comes from Debt Sense: Once the bad debt’s gone, then what?
What a great question to ask!
It’s so easy to get immersed in the debt reduction swing of things that once the debt is gone and there’s all of this cash floating around where there once wasn’t, it’s a bit of a shock to have the burden lifted. Now, it’s a very good shock to have, but having a plan for the money that was consumed with credit card repayment is key to staying back on track.
The snowball method of debt reduction works wonders, but the snowball is biggest at the end, and needs to be actively controlled or it will just go up the hill, come back down, and roll over you. There’s a lot of free cash flow that needs to be controlled. Formulating a saving plan, setting up extra roadblocks to avoid missteping into credit card debt, and just not going nuts with the shopping to celebrate go a long way to accomplishing this.
Flashback: Mind over matter
Frugal for Life hosted Carnival of Debt Reduction #34, and this week’s Flashback comes from Get Rich Slowly: Two Approaches to Debt Elimination.
Facing debt reduction isn’t easy, but if several debts are in the mix, which one do you attack first — the small one, or the high-interest one? JD found that even though paying off the highest-interest debt first would have resulted in the most saved interest, it didn’t work, because those debts just kept hanging on, and they defeated him time and again.
Then he tried knocking out the smallest one, and that worked. With one less payment to deal with, knocking out the others was easier, both financially and psychologically.
Flashback: Cut your expenses a bit
Free Money Finance hosted Carnival of Debt Reduction #33, and this week’s Flashback comes from Debt Sense: Cutting Expenses.
In order to make extra payments toward credit card balance it helps to find places to cut expenses. Here are six places that Debt Sense suggests:
- Move to a less-expensive apartment. Or get a roommate if that’s possible.
- Cut utility costs. Get rid of cable or just conserve energy.
- Look for extras to cut. Nice-to-haves can be had later after the credit card balances are gone.
- Be a grocery cheapskate. Shop smarter.
- Skip the land line. If you can get by with just one type of phone, it costs less.
- Drive smart. Watch the speed and the extra trips.
There are as many other ways to cut expenses as there are hairs on your head. (Unless you’re bald. Then there are as many ways to cut expenses as there are grains of sand on the beach.)
Flashback: Blog away your debt
Consumerism Commentary hosted Carnival of Debt Reduction #32, and this week’s Flashback comes from Money and Investing: Blog for Debt.
This blogger had only $300 in consumer debt but getting a blog, monetizing it, and putting the income toward the debt is a great way to pay it off. Others have successfully gotten rid of a lot of debt. The Carnival of Debt Reduction’s regular contributors and hosts are living proof that this money-making activity helps reduce the debt. Two that come to mind immediately are No Credit Needed and Blogging Away Debt.
You don’t have to blog away your debt but it’s certainly easy to get started doing this. It can cost nothing, and there are ready-made communities like the No Credit Needed Network to get you off on the right foot.