I don't know where to start... have been lurking on this thread all year.
Other than mortgage, our only debt was a car loan that we took on about 2.5 years ago (I think I posted about it, it's was an impulse buy...) and then last year we had to start paying on my husband's student loans. When I started my nursing job we were doing really well and stopped watching every penny. When our son was born last year I went back part time for 3 months, and then in January I went down to PRN (I work 16 hours month if they need me). Somehow it's taken me since then to realize that we are spending more than we are making... we had a decent savings account build up and had to dip into it. It probably didn't help that my husband broke his foot and had to stay off work for 8 weeks and his STD checks were basically a joke. Anyway... I'm back to budgeting and watching every penny. We really don't spend a lot of money on things, we're not "stuff" people. We don't have credit card bills. Last month was a wake up call when I realized this Anyway... we've talked about it and we would love to be debt free but I don't know where to start... right now we have the house, which I'm not worried about but would love to get rid of the car payment, and my husband's student loans. The payment is small on the student loans but at this rate we will be paying on them until 2031 - no thanks! I keep seeing posts on this Dis about people that used Dave Ramsey's method and were debt free in 2 years, and it sounds like they had a whole lot more debt than we have. We're working on building our savings account back up, but my husband also wants us to continue going to Disney. I'm not sure we can get rid of the car payment, student loans AND still keep up with Disney. We aren't "stuff" people, we would rather spend our money on vacations and memories with our son and I'd hate to give that up while he's little (and still free!) how do you find a balance? We don't live paycheck to paycheck and we don't go on vacations unless we have the money to pay for them (we save the money in a vacation savings account). Do we have to give up Disney or is there a way to save for Disney AND pay down those loans?
dtr_angel
Since January you have cut way back on your work hours, to the point of not working but a few hours a week, then your husband was injured and also had a pay cut. Both of these events are major. While you say you are not "Stuff" people I guess you mean that you didn't have credit cards but trust me you are "Stuff People" because you are spending more than you make on something which is stuff....
Your mortgage payment is good, I wouldn't worry about this payment just keep paying as scheduled.
Your SUV payment is something that you would like to get rid of, the payment on the SUV is only part of the expense of owning a large vehicle like this, your insurance rates are higher and your gas expenses are major depending on how much you drive a month The price of gas just to keep it on the road could equal the payment. You said it was a impulse buy and that you would like to get rid of it what about your husband? You could trade this car in on something much less expensive to maintain. You need to go over your expenses and see just how much it is actually costing to operate a month. If you decide to keep it just try to cut down on the expense of operating it fewer trips to store, shopping anything to save gas. Then check on lowering insurance anything you can do to leave you more cash available during the month that you could then use to pay off the vehicle early. Every thing extra should go to paying off this loan or the replacement so that once it is paid for all the extra money can go toward paying off those student loans.
The student loan payments are usually low to help young people just getting started, but by keeping the payments low and extending the pay off allows them to charge interest making MORE MONEY off you. You could start slow on extra payments then snowball you car payment to them.
You said you went over your expenses last month, where is your money going?...the other Stuff is where you can cut back and save money...eating out, cell phones, land lines, cable packages, internet, food, eclectic bills, water bill, insurance homeowners and car.
I believe in vacations so if you can cut back in other areas and still be able to save for trips to Disney...go for, it but it's like PrincessKymm said it will take longer to reach other goals.
While some people can pay off all their debt in two years it can take other less time and others much longer I think it took me four years total.
The first goal should be no new debt.
You can do this we are all striving for the same goal, to be Debt Free.