Dumping Debt and Remodeling

I have been needing to do a few things around the house here to get us back on track.  I find that when we are all working and running around do the Holiday thing, the house just becomes a mess and it seemed like finances were a payday to payday issue, so I needed to take control.

First off, I wanted to get our finances under control.  I was getting many sleepless nights or anxiety attacks wondering how I was going to get everything paid, have a Christmas and feed my family at the same time. We needed to make some changes.  We needed to eliminate some debt.  We needed to eliminate some things that were sucking up our money.  I started thinking about the items we could sell.  We had a motorcycle that was never going to be ridden and my Jeep with it's blown engine that was never going to get fixed.  I was still making monthly payments on it and having to keep full coverage insurance, which amounted to around $270 a month.  That's a lot of cash. However, I still owed close to two grand on it, but with a blown engine, I am not going to get very much money for it.  But, I figured between selling the motorcycle and the Jeep, I could possibly pull paying it off and free up $270.

Update:  I did sell my broken Jeep, and with the money I got from its sale, the motorcycle and some cash in my bank account, I eliminated this altogether.  I am now sharing my daughter's car and helping her with her payment instead.  So that is a savings of $133 a month, instead of $270, because now I am helping my daughter with her payment, but I do need a vehicle to drive, so this is a good plan.

Next, I will be calling all of my expenses, by way of utilities, cell phone and internet/landline companies within the next week to see what I can get lowered.

Update:  I did call our internet/phone company and I was able to get our bill lowered by $50 a month for the next twelve (12) months, that is a savings of $600.

I have also been going through each room in my home and doing the "spring cleaning" and eliminating clutter. I dislike clutter.  I have been able to eliminate so much stuff and sell some of it on craigslist and the facebook yardsale pages in our area and have made some cash.

My laundry room has been a catch all for so many unwanted items.  So, I really needed to revamp this area. Luckily, I already had the paint, the cabinet which I have redone to work better for us and make my laundry room feel more like a place I want to be in.  This project was a free project and it looks much nicer. I am still tweaking this area and cleaning items out, but at least it is starting to feel a little more organized.

I will do an update as to my year end totals and my totals for Christmas and how I saved.