Frugal Five Meet Wendy

Wendy is a frugal mom from Wisconsin who is working hard to pay off her debt- Dave Ramsey style! She shares her journey at Debt Freedom fighters What is your financial life? 16 years of marriage and debt. Coincidence?? Double Income that varies month to month. Still owe over $70K as of 1/1/08 including 1 car (which will be paid for in half the time of the original loan) 4 credit cards with balances ranging from $900 to $16K & our "creative financing" HELOC. One teenage son who is working to help support his own spending habits. Entering 6th month of our Total Money Makeover (book by Dave Ramsey) and free of NEW credit card debt. What is your budget buster? Right now, it's getting my real estate taxes back into my budget. I had a surplus of funds in an account for taxes when we made the decision to get out of debt in gazelle mode. I stopped auto transferring money into that account and started my first zero based budget without it so there was more money to start the snowball rolling. Now, with the new year, I have to figure a way to get $300 back onto the budget and still maintain our CASH ONLY standing. What is your favorite money saving tip? I have two: 1. If your bank has an auto transfer to savings program -- DO IT. If you have to purposely take money and deposit into savings you won't. If it comes out automatically it becomes a BILL and you will have savings. 2. Get to know your grocery store's coupon policy & reward card policies and take full advantage of both of them. You'd be surprised how many shoppers are clueless on the basic rules of couponing. I've saved 1000's at the store combining sales and coupons this past year. If you had an extra $1000 what would you do with it? I'd put 3/4 of it towards my lowest debt and the other 1/4 I would use to stockpile my pantry and freezer of our basic use items. NOTE: I would LOVE to take a weekend vacation, but right now - the money is best served into my current pickle. What is your best resource for frugal living? LLNOE, other blogs in my blog roll, and my LLNOE mentor, Pam