One of the biggest reasons for creating MommyLuvs2save was to create a community of moms and dads who want to help their family save money when buying essentials in order to free up money for debt repayment. My own family has paid off over $111,500 in consumer debt including credit cards, student loan debt and 2 vehicles. I am a teacher at heart. I want to use the skills that I have learned to help YOU ditch debt. I want to encourage each of you in your efforts so that one day you can feel the freedom of being debt free. I’m not quite there yet either (we still have a mortgage) so I need encouragement as well 
It can be very difficult to pay down debt. There are many temptations to spend money. We live in a culture that encourages debt and spending. In addition, expenses come up and there never seems to be any extra money for paying down debt. I want to urge each of you to participate in a challenge. Just leave a comment about one positive step you’ve taken for your family each day. Did you eat in instead of going out? Did you save money at the grocery store? Did you pay extra on your credit card? Leave a comment below and we will cheer one another on every day and every step of the way.
The challenge is to leave a comment about what YOU have done to work on getting debt free each day. One winner will be chosen to win a $50 Amazon gift card at the end of each month. To participate in the challenge you must comment on at least 10 posts during the month.
* I will also be sharing my progress from the day prior.
My Progress: I had a pretty good day yesterday. It was a NO spend day. I had a long meeting in the morning, so that took a big chunk of the day. The meeting was at my (old?) work so I stayed and had lunch with my old class after I ran to the store and bought the kids drinks and gum. It’s a residential treatment facility, so the kids don’t get a lot of that fun stuff. It was nice to see everyone. I paid our Discover in full and it was more than usual this month. I’ve decided to go on an all cash diet for a few months to see the impact on the budget. I don’t like it when the Discover gets too high because it impacts the amount of money I can put in savings or on the mortgage.
I got chosen to host a House Party skin care party. I will be sent a party pack to share with friends and family at a little get together. It should be fun I made breakfast and packed all of the lunches. My sister’s baby turned one yesterday and she asked if she could have the party at our house. They brought all of the food and my parents made the cake, so there was no money spent there. I had a gift in the gift closet and I had made a FREE card a few months ago on Cardstore.com. We had a good time together. Money is a little tight for their family right now, so I insisted she “shop the stockpile”. I sent her home with 4 bags of groceries. It felt good to be able to help out.
I spent some time organizing the stockpile yesterday. I took some pictures as promised. I’ll post them in the next day or so. It’s coming along. I have another big cabinet upstairs with the health and beauty items. It was a good mail day. I got some of the grocery items that I ordered on Amazon with FREE credits (hence, the stockpile organization). I also did a lot of cleaning in preparation for the party. We have 2 more days until the puppy arrives. My girlies are getting excited I did some surveys and requested a gift card from a survey company last night. I also received and got an instant Paypal payment from ibotta. I like it that you request as little as $5 via Paypal and it’s intant ! My parents brought over a small crate for the puppy so we don’t have to buy one. I’m hoping it will be okay. We’re still having name issues. Everyone talked us out of our two pics (Max and Biscuit). Now I’m at a loss ?! Ideas ??
What did you do? Leave a comment We’d love to hear about it You could make 2013 your year. Who will the January winner be ? We’ll see…
Paid off a bill yesterday and it felt good. It leaves me a little pinched until next payday, but it’s gone. My mil fell and broke her pelvis last night. Not good-she’s 89. 4-5 mo. In rehab.
Looking at options today. The financial aspect is pretty scary. Praying for the best and for all of the ml2s ladies.
Will be praying for your MIL and continue prayers for you and your family.
Having worked in rehab centers and now with my own mom living in a LTC facility, I know how tough this can be. I’ll be praying for your family.
Awww, poor lady. I’ll say a prayer. As for the bill pay off – yay u ! I continuously felt pinched after paying off bills, but you’ll be so happy that it’s GONE ! Congrats
Thanks as always, y’all, for your continued sharing of faith and fellowship. This site has been a godsend to me not only for help with my budget but for my peace of mind, too. Blessings.
Yesterday was a no spend day here. But in a way, I sort of/not really “made” over 400 dollars! Let me try to explain. My husband gets paid only once a month, at the very end of each month. So for example, he got paid on 1/29, and I immediately used our bill pay in our checking to pay all of our bills for February. (We have to pay ahead because of this scenario.) But as I was shredding the bill stubs (or whatever you call them), I noticed that some of them accept credit cards as form of payment. So I ended up checking ALL of our bills, and I found FIVE that I can pay by credit card! So I was able to go into my bill pay in my checking and cancel all 5 of those pending payments. And since these bills aren’t due until the middle or end of February, I can go to each site online in a few days and pay them all with my credit card. And then I will pay off my credit card at the END of February (I ALWAYS pay in full), so this “buys” me an extra month since I don’t have to pay so far ahead from my checking. So for just this first time, I was able to have an extra over 400 in my checking since that no longer is going to those bills. And now every time I pay bills, I will get 17 dollars in rewards cash on capital one (1%). Woo hoo! I love it when you all of a sudden get a lightbulb moment that earns you a bunch of money.
A little money spent but not bad. Dinner was free bc a new store is opening in town and they gave all the firemen in town a card for a free sub, fry, drink and dessert. The hubs got two cards so me and the oldest are there and the hubs ate a sandwich. Sold the items on eBay so I have to mail those out today. Have a fabulous day loves.
I spent a little money on milk and hotdogs at the commissary, but it wasn’t bad and I had happy kiddos for dinner. I made $20 watching my friend’s little boy and we hung out at the house a lot. I ran to the bank and deposited the birthday money. Hubs told me to use that $$ for registration and start saving tuition for our son’s school this year and just take the $$ I was going to use for that and put it on the credit card. Makes sense, especially since it’s such a pain to transfer money to the bank we really use and that our card is issued on.
It’s payday, which is awesome! I got some good deals at the grocery store and other than grabbing produce as we run out, I should be good to go.
Going to pay bills and make the Target list for this week since it’s such a drive that it takes about a half day to do, but I’d much rather go there than WalMart or KMart.
Someone at work has stopped drinking and gave me a gallon of vodka. Perfect for making vanilla and mint extract for gifts! Spent $30 on a huge ham that was on sale and carved it up into sections for freezing—by my calculations, I will get 20 meals out of that ham so it was a good deal. Plus scraps for the dog!
I’ve never personally tried it, but I read somewhere that vodka is also good for cleaning.
Went to Target and finally did the pasta deal. I had a ton of other clearance clothes in my cart but told myself you don’t really NEED anything right now. I have $1,600 left to go on a student loan and then we are debt free except for the mortgage(s). I can’t wait!!!!!!! We are going to celebrate by joining the gym as a family, right now only mommy gets to go to work on her baby tummy!
No spend day here. I really wanted to eat out but talked myself into cooking even though my head was hurting horribly. So we had livermush and eggs. Finally finished my coupon binder, now to get my meals together for the week so I can organize my grocery list and use my coupons wisely and get the most bang for my buck. I have slowly been de cluttering the house. I am tired of all the junk. I get the FLYlady email newsletter and it is a big help at reminding you that 15 mins is all it takes to get stuff done. Keep those sinks shined! This is the end of the first month using the Dave Ramsey plan so I am excited and curious to see the bottom line. I will let you know
It was a low spend day. Took advantage of Rite Aids deal on body wash. Won’t need to buy that again for a long time. Prayed for all the ML2S readers.
Went to my weight watchers meeting today & I was SURE that I was going to be up over a lbs but it was actually a 0.4lb loss. I almost did the happy dance at the meeting!
Stopped by grocery store & used $37 in gift cards so spent $44 oop & we should be good until next weekend. Today was my payday & we should pay 2 credit cards in full. These shouldn’t have a balance anymore as we’ve stopped using those.
I need everyone’s opinions- my hubby is going to start grad school in summer or fall (we aren’t sure yet) to get his master’s in education. We are paying on his student loans now from undergrad- should we reduce the amount we are using for debt snowball to save the tuition so we can pay in cash for the 2 classes each semester or should we take the student loans & pay back after grad school is over? I hate the idea of adding to our student loan debt but it’s that or pay down the credit cards (which are higher & nondeductible interest) as fast. I see advantages to both ways so I thought I’d get your opinions.
If it were me, I’d slow your snowball down and save to pay cash for the classes.
Congrats on the weight loss
My hubby and I are doing the same thing with the school take although he is currently taking a little break. My advice is to cash flow the tuition even though it will slow you down a little. We paid off over $31,000 in student loans and I know I’m not willing to take out any student loans. Imagine how good you’ll feel when he graduates that you haven’t gotten further into debt for it.