Sell it all!! Part 2 - DVD's

OK, I have found most of the DVD cases for our movies and have them paired up. I do not think I can attach files in here but I have lists of the movies we have in PDF format. They have pictures of what the cover looks like and some details of what they are.

Here is a link to view all the DVD's, they are in a PDF format.

View Movies

I am asking $5 each for the DVD's.

I am also bugging Sherry to finish our Pampered Chef list of items to sell. Trying to coerce to not want to keep it all. Once we get the list finalized and I send it to my mother in-law for first pickings (Have to stay in good graces!!) I will post that list also!

Thanks Guys!

The Specifics

The worksheet I used to help determine when we would be able to pay off our debts using the Snowball strategy is at: http://www.vertex42.com/Calculators/debt-reduction-calculator.html

It is a very powerful spreadsheet that runs you through different strategies for paying down your debt. You can sort them in order of amount, interest rate, or a custom order. It will also calculate how long it will take only making the minimum payments without using the snowball formula. This one gets pretty depressing showing how much you will pay in interest and how long it will take.

Using the Snowball Strategy with paying down the smallest debts first we would be out of debt completely with the mortgage paid off in May of 2019.

Using the strategy of paying highest interest first we would be done in May of 2019, however we would have paid approximatly $2,000 less in interest.

If we simply pay only the minimum payment and do not apply the debt snowball strategy we will be done paying everything off in Feb of 2034, and pay over $160,000 in additional interest!!! Now that is depressing!

If we can stick to the plan and apply additional payments to our debt reduction plan as our pay goes up and we sell items we no longer need we should hopefully have everything paid off by 2015 or so.

I have already started to sell off things we really do not need. $135 for 3 items so far. I am working on Sherry to get the list of Papmered Chef items ready to sell as well has her baby grand piano. She still needs to get it tuned and appraised. A rough appraisal over the phone has it valued at approximatly $1500. But until he comes to tune and sees what the condition of the piano is we will not know for sure.

It is a George Steck Company Piano, I believe circa 1950, so it is solid wood, not the partical wood used today. If you are interested just let us know!!

Where is that battery charger?

Well I have a lot of things organized and ready to get on here, ebay, ALFI and any other place I can sell these things. But now I can not find the dang battery charger for our camera. As soon as I can find that I will have our recumbant exercise bike on here, a baby grand piano and anything else I can find.

Sell it all!!

One of the key strategies of getting out debt in Dave Ramsey's plan is to sell everything you can to pay down your debt. I had already started to get our DVD's organized to try and sell them so I was getting started.

We are in the process of refinancing our home, so Friday we had an appraiser come. To get ready for the appraiser we were doing a massive decluttering. Even better than spring cleaning. We have about 15 bags of garbage to go the curb. I also realized we had a lot of other things that we "needed" at different times in the past sitting covered in dust in the storage area in the basement so we are starting to get it all organized to get out of here. So I will have some things in here for sale, selling some at work in the ALFI, EBAY and on Amazon.

I am organizing Sherry's Pampered Chef supplies from when she was a consultant. I am working on a list of what she has for sale, and believe me there is a ton of stuff here. So if you are interested in any Pampered Chef items let me know and I will get you the list.

We also have a recumbant bike for sale. I will get the specs up soon on that.

High Cost of Medications

Thankfully we have insurance that covers prescriptions, but some of the copays are getting up there especially when you purchase a 90 day supply. Luckily Sherry was checking on the internet for coupons for all of our drugs. I had to refill my migraine prescription that normally costs $50 for a 3 month prescription. Sherry found a coupon for a 1 month free trial, and $20 a regular presecription. When I called the doc for a refril script I asked them to write my usual 3 month prescription and a 1 month.

I am so glad CVS is in town now as this is the only place we can go locally to get our 3 month prescriptions. I ended up getting a 4 month supply for only $30 thanks to my lovely wife!! Since they just opened a new store in our area we received a copoun in the mail for a $25 gift card if you bring in a new prescription. Sherry had one of hers to fill that did not have any coupons so we were able to get the $25 gift card on a prescription that only had a $10 copay!!

Lets Get it Started!

OK, today is the official start of our “climb out of debt”. We are documenting all of our revolving debt, home equity loan, and mortgage. Sherry and I have been talking about the mistakes we made to put us in the situation that we are in now. It was not hard to see the big culprits such as building a new home before the old one sold, building to large of a home when we only had one child and planned on two incomes, vehicle purchases and all the eating out. There are a multitude of smaller sins that have added to this debt, but I do not have enough time to list them out.

We never regret Sherry staying home with the kids. Our mistake was not planning earlier for her to stay home with them, and then not making adjustments after we made the decision. It is a hard decision to sell a “dream” house that you designed yourself. However in the end the dream was not so sweet!

Now that we have all of our debts documented we are working on a workable “debt snowball” plan to pay them off. This link from Dave Ramsey does an excellent job of describing the process and the emotional aspect of it. There are many debt snowball worksheets and calculators out there. I am looking for the one that will suit our needs the best. Once we decide on one we will post the link and our expected date of being debt free. I will also post more of our tactics and tribulations. It is guaranteed there will be some tribulations as Murphy is always around the corner lurking!

Anyway! Pray for us and check in on us from time to time to help hold us accountable!

Thanks!!!

New Addiction

Well I have been bitten by the free and cheap stuff bug. Sherry is somewhat happy about this one, i have been coming home with some pretty good deals on things we use. If I can get items dirt cheap or free I will also get them and take them into Church for the food pantry.

Hannah and I went to Walgreens tonight. Using information from Money Saving Mom and STL Mommy I was able to get over $25 of items for less than $5 cash after coupons and register rewards from last week.

Walgreens also takes coupons printed off from the internet. A lot of grocery stores do not take the coupons off the internet. Money Saving Mom and STL Mommy detail the saving you can get based on the weekly flier, coupons available in the paper and online.

Easy Money for Research

I am participating in my 3rd allergy research study. I like to crack jokes about it and make comments about growing a 3rd nostril, but it is pretty easy money for not much work. And by the time the medications have made it this far in research they are pretty safe.

I finally found something good about being allergic to rag weed and pollen. The current study pays $75 a visit. The first two studies that I participated in I was paid $299 and $399. The hardest part is filling out logs, but that takes about 5 minutes a day.

If you are interested contact Sneeze, Wheeze and Itch Associates. Or you can call them at 309-452-0995.