Anonymous wrote:PP, not sure what your question is. Our mortgage is $6500. We make about $280,000. We bought when houses were appreciating like crazy and the the crash happened. We can't afford to sell because not enough equity.

do you have a lot of other debts and expenses? if not, you should be able to make that payment pretty easily.

PP, not sure what your question is. Our mortgage is $6500. We make about $280,000. We bought when houses were appreciating like crazy and the the crash happened. We can't afford to sell because not enough equity.

Www.skipa.com i think?

Just FYI, 4th/5th graders ski for "free" in Pa. if you sign up (worth it just for the lessons/rental/ski pass the first time)....an adult has to ski too, saves lots of $$. This is how we have skiied last winter and will this. Bet lots of ways you can find to do what you want with your kids snd save $$.

what combination of income, savings and job security would you need to have a mortgage of $6K/month? Assume no student loan, no long-term credit card debt and cars (for now) paid for.

10 years ago I lost my job and wasn't able to find a new one for a year. I managed to find some freelance work which helped some, but I was also working on a grad degree and had lots of school bills as well. I ended up $17000 in debt, mostly in consumer loans from a credit union and credit card bills. When I finally found a new job I lived extremely frugally for a year and paid off all of the debt. I never want to feel as stressed out as I did then again, so I just don't spend what I don't have. I put a little money away in savings every month to cover unexpected expenses, like the plumbing emergency we had a few months ago or the gum surgery I needed this year that my dental insurance paid virtually nothing for. We charge very little to our credit card and pay it off every month. The only things we charge are 1) work expenses that are reimbursed, 2) online purchases for which we want the insurance, and 3) larger expenses that we might need two paychecks to cover. If we can't pay it off in a month, we dip into the money we put in savings for this purpose and replenish those funds as soon as possible. Or, if it's not a necessary purchase, we save up until we can buy it without going into debt. I live a much more stress free life now, and I think the year of extreme frugal living was worth it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have some credit card debt. I could pay it off, but it doesn't bother me that much (this is recent, in the past few months, before that it was paid off every month). Mortgage and heloc combined are less than the house is worth, car debt will be gone in a year. I'd rather let the kids (and me) do their sports classes and wear decent (not designer) clothes that fit than worry about paying an extra $100 a month toward my credit card bill.

It doesn't bother you to pay outrageous interest rates? Depending on how long it takes you to pay it off, you're paying many times the price for the items that you think you are.

We've got some people here who need some serious lessons in finance/ economics?

They make the economy go round--2/3 of the economy is consumer spending. But at the same time they also helped put us in the economic hole we are all in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you feel like you shouldn't spend any money on anything but bare necessities? We have pretty significant consumer debt and I know we should be putting every dime towards paying it off. We also should be saving money for college (paying off the debt will help a lot with paying for college). If we watch every penny we might be able to pay it off in 3 or 4 years. But that means we don't do anything extra (take kids to the movies, sign up for kid sports, go anywhere, buy DD "cool" clothes etc) It means our kids can't do a lot of what their friends do (private school). But I know the sooner we pay it off the more money we save. It just means restricting our lifestyle a lot. If you have debt, are you paying it off aggressively and not spending on much of anything?

You shouldn't be doing private school unless you are getting a discount, Some schools will give you a tuition discount even if the debt is reckless and at fault of the parents (credit cards, fancy cars, mortgage refis, vacations etc...)

If I found out that either of my kids' schools did this, I would be furious. That would be the end of my contribution to the annual fund, auction, etc.

Anonymous wrote:We have some credit card debt. I could pay it off, but it doesn't bother me that much (this is recent, in the past few months, before that it was paid off every month). Mortgage and heloc combined are less than the house is worth, car debt will be gone in a year. I'd rather let the kids (and me) do their sports classes and wear decent (not designer) clothes that fit than worry about paying an extra $100 a month toward my credit card bill.

It doesn't bother you to pay outrageous interest rates? Depending on how long it takes you to pay it off, you're paying many times the price for the items that you think you are.

We've got some people here who need some serious lessons in finance/ economics?

Anonymous wrote:This thread reminds me of the latest TLC gem that was on, if I remember correctly, on Wednesday. "Extreme Cheapskates", or something like that.

There was a family there that saved money on toilet paper by using old cloths to wipe their butts, and then rewashing those cloths. Saved them 20 bucks a month.

And another guy was cooking goat heads for dinner. Now, that looked even more disgusting that reusable toilet paper.

Are they cheapskates because they are extremely poor and trying to save every penny? Or can they afford things but just want to be cheap about it?

This thread reminds me of the latest TLC gem that was on, if I remember correctly, on Wednesday. "Extreme Cheapskates", or something like that.

There was a family there that saved money on toilet paper by using old cloths to wipe their butts, and then rewashing those cloths. Saved them 20 bucks a month.

And another guy was cooking goat heads for dinner. Now, that looked even more disgusting that reusable toilet paper.

To me it depends to some extent on how you got into the debt. Was one of you out of work for a time, or is it just plain old living beyond your means? If the latter, I think a fairly drastic approach is called for. We watch every penny, even though we are not in consumer debt, because our income is reduced while DH works parttime while he gets his masters. So today it's Friday, and I'd like to have pizza, but we only have about 50 cents left in our grocery budget for the week, which ends tonight. So we're having omelets for dinner instead. But I acknowledge it would be harder to buy cheap clothes and cut out activities if DD were older than a toddler.

Anonymous wrote:We had over $200K in student debt for both me and my husband and we make it a top priority to pay it off but not at the expense of bare necessities. I don't consider "cool clothes," movies, and other outings bare necessities so we do cut down on that alot. Because of our frugalness the last three years, we will be out of our debt within the next two years, which will be amazing.

$200K in two years sounds fantastic. May I ask what kind of work you and your husband do?

We owe $43,000 on a home equity loan that was used to pay off credit card debt. The biggest obstacle to our not paying it off is that we do not have a budget. We go along and pay it down pretty far, and then before you know it one or both of us has a huge credit card bill that month, and there goes the huge payment for the loan, and we might even draw on the equity line more.

My New Year's resolution is to make a budget. All by myself. For years I've been waiting until we could do it together. And I need to get DH's buy in. He spends less day to day but when he wants a toy, it is always crazy expensive. He has $20K set aside for the current toy he is getting. It is shocking to me that we do not do a better job of managing our finances. He used to do it and be good at it, but it stopped working once we had kids. He relies on the panic theory - if something comes in he wasn't expecting, he says I can't spend any more money on anything that month. Yeah, ok, but little Joey needs diapers...

OP, I would make a spending schedule as well as a budget, so you see what you can do instead of what you can't. I can go to the movies once every two months. Or I can spend $500 for new spring clothes for the munchkin. Don't see it as can't.

I'll give it my best this year, and hope you will be, too. We can totally do this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mtg payment is $6K/month. I paid off my car and student loans just by making the regular monthly payments - so my car is 7 years old but zero car payment (now it has 105K miles, but hopefully last me another two years?).

There's the problem right there. $6,000 a month on the mortgage???? Insane.

SERIOUSLY.

OMG...that is a seriously high mortgage payment. But then again, our house is small and comes with a small mortgage payment. I don't think I could deal with the stress of a high monthly payment, and it wouldn't matter the monthly net income, it's the payment itself. We based our mortgage on one income, taking into consideration one of us losing our job, which could be a reality. I'd sell that bad boy.