A Personal Finance Plan

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Well, I finally laid my debt out on the table. My husband was not happy. Although, I could have been more careful with my spending, a lot of what I owe is due to the rise in the cost of utilities and gas prices. This has gone on for several months and I have been taking out cash advances to cover the excess. Two months ago, I decided there would be no more cash advances.

My husband has agreed to sit down and look at out finances as a whole instead of his and mine. We are going to make up a budget and see if we can stick to it. I think after a few months we can have the past due amounts caught up and then it will be time to make a plan to start paying the credit cards down.

I am optimistic. I have been dreading this conversation for a long time, but I was to the point where something had to give or it was going to start affecting my health. It was long overdue and if I had brought it up earlier, we may not be in the situation we are in now.

Tomorrow it will be time to look at our expenses and income. If my son has time, I may work on it with him. The experts say that you need to teach your children about personal finance.

Tags: personal finance, financial recovery, debt relief plan, get out of plan

What do you Consider a Necessity…

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A recently read an article on what people consider a necessity and I somewhat shocked at what people had to say. Although, I don’t know why I am surprised, they are all things that everyone has. Here are some statistics revealed by the survey.

68% of adults now believe that a microwave oven is an absolute necessity, up from just 32% a decade ago. Fifty-nine percent say they absolutely must have an air conditioner in their cars, up from 41% who thought so in 1996. Roughly half of all respondents say that a home computer and a cell phone are needed to function in day-to-day life.

Many people fail to realize that 30 years ago, none of these things existed and we did just fine. I did not grow up with any of these things and do not believe that I am less of a person as a result. Cell phone, cable and internet service are a good place to look if you are trying to cut the fat out of your budget. What do you consider a necessity in your life.

Tags: saving money, frugal living, money saving tips, becoming debt free, getting out of debt

Planning your way out of Debt

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This is the week I will make some major changes to my plan to get out of debt. The first thing I am going to do is talk to my husband. We have paid bill separately for about 10 years. Paying bills separately has its advantages and disadvantage, just like everything else in life.

I am to the point where if there is not some collaboration between us, I will have to file bankruptcy. He recently paid off his car and he is in a position to help me, but without talking we are never going to get anything resolved. I am to the point where I can no longer take the stress.

We seem to do pretty good keeping out money separate, but it is not healthy when he does not realize that I pay out as much as I bring in. This is without buying gas to get to work. In the past year the price of gas, all my utilities and our car insurance has gone up and may income did not go up at the same rate.

I am working at increasing my income, but it is a slow process.

Tags: debt reduction plan, get out of debt, bankruptcy