Advice on reducing debt

[canny]

The wife and I have been looking at ways to increase the amount of $ left in the bank at the end of the month. Neither of us are heavy spenders, however teachers don't make a ton and life is expensive...lol. We have a mortgage (1,300), 2 auto payments (under 700 per month total), and a boat payment (200). We are not scraping at the end of the month, just would like a little more comfort zone.

My boat is already FS and as much as I would like to buy another I'll probably just hold off

I have a 2013 F150 4x4 with 65k miles. I have about 10-11k in equity in the truck. I have considered selling it and using the equity to purchase a vehicle where I can buy it out right or finance only a couple grand for under 24 months and have it paid off. For instance I was looking at a 2003 GMC 2500 4x4 that is immaculate and has 115k miles on a 6.0 l gas engine. I liked those models and they seemed to run forever. I could get into that truck for 12k ish which would give me a small payment for only a year or so then its paid off. I do not drive but a couple miles to work every day so my yearly mileage is not very high.

Finally, we are looking at dropping Dish Network. We have Netflix that we use some. But I was looking at picking up Apple TV for what one month of Dish Network costs. My dad has it and it seems like it offers an adequate amount of network channels to stay fairly current.

Any advice?

[Dusty Britches]

I think you are on the right track. We have not paid for TV in 15 years and we do not miss it. We watch DVD or download movies to watch about once a week. The rest of the time, we read.

Several years ago, we decided not to finance cars purchases any more. At the time, we bought a 2001 Impala with 88K miles on it for $6,000. I put 200,000 miles on it and just sold it.

What I love about paying cash for big ticket items - it is amazing how negotiable the price becomes.

[k-town]

don't know if you have credit cards or not but ...
Best thing I ever did was pay them off . Now I carry one card for convience.
I am VERY careful to pay off the balance every month in full ...
best advice I can give you ...

[TxAg]

Sell the boat and drop the dish. Eat at home more. I'd probably keep your truck. Take care of it and it will last you a looong time. Fight the urge to buy a new one a few years from now. Might also look at refinancing your mortgage... Rates are low low low right now.

And the main thing..set up your accounts so that when you are paid savings are skimmed off the top. Then make due with what is left. You'll learn to live on it.

[RiverRat1]

Invest wisely the money you do save.

[doublearrow]

A few things that helped us out when doing Dave Ramsey as we ate out less like mentioned. We budgeted a date night very couple of weeks. Groceries, my wife has gotten really good at not buying unnecessary stuff at the store. We sit down every two weeks and make a menu for every night. We go through pantry and see what we have/don't have, and we also have made our own laundry detergent for the last 7 years.
We also never budget for more than a base paycheck. I work a lot of overtime due to the shift work and we never plan on it or budget for it so it goes into savings.

[canny]

Sell the boat and drop the dish. Eat at home more. I'd probably keep your truck. Take care of it and it will last you a looong time. Fight the urge to buy a new one a few years from now. Might also look at refinancing your mortgage... Rates are low low low right now.

And the main thing..set up your accounts so that when you are paid savings are skimmed off the top. Then make due with what is left. You'll learn to live on it.

Good advice, thanks. We currently already skim money off the top each paycheck into our Credit Union accounts. I will look into those other options as well.

[Outdoor Legacy]

You are clearly on the right track and thinking things out well. I was talking to a fellow business owner yesterday and we were talking about saving money, spending less etc and I told him the older I get the more I realize the old saying "A penny saved is a penny earned". It's true. It's a lot easier to save a penny than earn one sometimes.

It sounds like y'all are living reasonably and not spending like crazy which is a huge head start over most. My advice would be to stop any leaks, such as over spending and cancelling services you don't really need or use much. Next I'd figure out if there is any way to reduce the amount of interest you pay. You didn't mention credit cards but if you are paying on them, get them paid off first. If your other loans are just home, auto and the boat then you are doing good. The idea about buying another truck that you can get paid off quickly is a good idea if you are serious about getting out of debt and you are willing to take the risk of having to put repair money into the older truck. If you got it paid off, you could still put money in it for repairs and be ahead vs paying a note every month.

You are definitely headed in the right direction. If you are bogged down in a huge debt and you aren't spending more than you make every month, then this really isn't that hard. It just takes some intentional thinking, determination and resolve. Trim the fat. That's the easy way to save money.

Good luck!

[scott1022]

tithe, pay off all debt (except for house), write down every penny spent.

once you start seeing exactly where the money goes you will get a little frustrated with yourself.

as for paying down debt...throw money at debt until it hurts, then throw a couple more dollars at it.

[topshot]

sell the boat and the truck. cutting those two out will increase your cash flow by $550 or more per month. you can use the cash from the sale of both to purchase a nice used vehicle.

we are 1 income with 2 kids, we have 2 reliable vehicles, paid off, both over 200k miles and total value of less than $8000

we are in debt but have a plan to be completely debt free by January 2017 - oustside of a mortgage.

the plan - sell our house and use the proceeds to pay off outstanding debt, the listing goes active this Friday, June 17!

[Throwin Darts]

Sell the boat and drop the dish. Eat at home more. I'd probably keep your truck. Take care of it and it will last you a looong time. Fight the urge to buy a new one a few years from now. Might also look at refinancing your mortgage... Rates are low low low right now.

And the main thing..set up your accounts so that when you are paid savings are skimmed off the top. Then make due with what is left. You'll learn to live on it.

This is good advice. Don't try to save from what's left after you pay all your bills. Save first, then pay everyone else with what's left.

[Aggiechick]

tithe, pay off all debt (except for house), write down every penny spent.

I have a bi-weekly budget and I write down everything that we spend money on and it helps put things in perspective when you want to go out and run by the grocery store again...you start thinking about what can I use at the house which helps a lot, and you start seeing how much money you are saving by making those decisions. Husband and I are on our last cc and doing this has helped a lot!

[RR 314]

Good work so far. Boat and truck are a great start. My dad told me long ago, "(With few exceptions) If you have to finance it, you can't afford it." Words to live by going forward.

[jer_james]

I have a bi-weekly budget and I write down everything that we spend money on and it helps put things in perspective when you want to go out and run by the grocery store again...you start thinking about what can I use at the house which helps a lot, and you start seeing how much money you are saving by making those decisions. Husband and I are on our last cc and doing this has helped a lot!

Have to agree - Documenting and taking time to look at everything going out is an amazing tool to help cut down.

We just bought a new house in January and only debt currently is the mortgage and her Grand Cherokee.

Pay off one thing at a time and focus on a goal.

Also, having money taken directly from your paycheck really helps savings because you never see the money and no temptation to use it.

[Mayhem]

Get a 2nd job.