Live Debt Free

Pay off debt. Save. Give. Live your mission.

PF Bloggers Weight Loss Challenge Week 8 Results

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Where Do We Stand?

We just entered into our FINAL WEEK of the weight loss challenge & so many people have done an INCREDIBLE job!

As a group of 30 people, we have lost a total of 130 pounds over the course of 8 short weeks!

Some people/teams faded away into the evening sunset but the majority of teams & team members are still going strong… great job everyone!  You are all very encouraging and very inspirational.

To change it up a little bit… I’m going to ask that each member of the weight loss challenge leave a comment detailing their biggest key to success.

I will start the forum off by giving my two largest keys to success here:

  1. I stopped gorging myself at meals & switched to smaller more frequent meals.
  2. I switched to eating predominately local, organic, healthy foods as much as possible.  In an effort to not waste money or make to extreme of a change, me & my wife committed to finishing up our “bad” groceries then buying increasingly more healthy from that point forward.  What kicked it into high gear for my wife was watching the movie Food, Inc.  It is a MUST watch.

Week 8 Results:

Winners – BETA TEAM!

As a team we have lost a total of 31.5 total pounds in 8 weeks!

Congrats to everyone and especially to the Beta Team.  Keep on truckin…

The Standings heading into the final week:

Heading into the 9th and FINAL WEEK we are neck & neck in a dead heat between Team Beta & Team Zeta grid locked at 31.5 pounds each!

  1. Beta Team – Total weight lost = 31.5
  2. Zeta Team – Total weight lost = 31.5
  3. Gamma Team – Total weight lost = 28
  4. Alpha Team – Total weight lost = 19.5
  5. Delta Team – Total weight lost = 11
  6. Epsilon Team – Total weight lost = 8.5

This is the kind of stuff that separates the boys from the men not to mention the girls from the women! Who wants the title?  Which team is hungry?

WE SHALL SEE!  We will find out next week when the numbers are tallied and the final results posted for all to see!

GO TEAM BETA – work it like a strizzo!

Debt Reduction with The Debt Snowflake Method

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This is a guest post by Jessica Ward — a freelance writer based in Seattle. She writes on family, business and money. She’s also a personal finance blogger at pennywisefamily.blogspot.com

What’s bigger than pocket change, but smaller than a debt snowball payment?

A “snowflake.” Confused?  Don’t be… “snowflakes” have helped me to pay off more than $14,000 of debt since the beginning of the year – no joke.

When was the last time you made a debt payment on something you didn’t get a bill for? Have you EVER made a payment without a bill?  Logistically, if you’re an old school paper-check-writer like me, it can be a little tricky  (Yep, believe it or not… I still write paper checks to pay my bills)!

Here I’ll show you how I handle multiple payments in one month, and how I make my “snowflake money.”

Paying the bills.

It’s likely that Sallie Mae, and Visa aren’t willing to accommodate your debt-free aspirations to the extent that they would mail you three to five bills per month to pay from.  Their loss…

Here’s how I do it—I fax myself a copy of the bill. I stick the invoice/statement into my fax machine and hit “copy” (alternately you could scan and email it to yourself).  Then I keep a copy of the bill around for next time I have a little spare change.  I’ll have to use my own envelope… but I’ll manage (Frugal confession—sometimes I grab an envelope out of a political solicitation and use that instead).

For those debts that don’t have a nice little invoice to pay from (like the big IOU to mom), I make a sheet of mailing labels. On the back, I keep the dates I’ve paid and the balance owed, and on the front is the address labels to the person I’m sending it to.  If you’ve got an account someplace that doesn’t bill, you can also put your account number there, below the address.

How big is a snowflake?

They’re tiny, silly.  That’s why they’re snow-flakes, and not snow-men. Every little bit truly does help.  Because all the regular paychecks in my household are deposited automatically, any extra check — or snowflake — that needs to go to the bank gets a deposit slip written, and a check for the same amount written back out to the next debt on the list.  And I mail it right away, regardless of the size.

Even the time I got a refund back from Visa for overpaying my credit card by $7.  I sent the $7 right to MasterCard the same day I got the check. I empty the ashtrays in my car and my husbands and dump it into a bucket where he keeps pocket change.  Then we roll up the coins, and write a deposit slip and a check.  Ditto for babysitting money, bonuses, mowing the neighbor’s lawn, and the manufacturer’s rebate from the new computer purchase. “Snowflake” it all.  And don’t get smart and think you’ll remember all those little transactions and make one big snowball payment. My money says you won’t.  Just do it, while it’s fresh on your mind.

Sometime you’ve got to make it snow

You’ve heard of rainmakers.  Sometimes you’ve gotta’ be a snow-maker.  Solicit a babysitting or dog walking job via Care.com, sell stuff on Ebay or Craigs’ list or pick up a little freelance work via HireMyMom.com or FreelanceJobs.com. Answer questions for kgbkgb.com. Take online surveys, whatever tickles your fancy.  Roll up those coins from the sofa cushion. Whatever you’re able to do, do it.  Every little bit helps, and best of all when it’s these little tiny increments — you don’t miss it.  It’s not like making a $1,500 avalanche payment on your student loan.

Good luck in your quest for debt-freedom! Looking forward to meeting up with you again on the other side.

A Journey of a Thousand Miles begins with A Single Step

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In our Wealth Pilgrim Radio interview yesterday evening Neal Frankle & I talked a lot about passion.  What my passions are, how I discovered them, etc.  In an email to Friends of The Simple Dollar Trent Hamm recently asked for “a key piece of advice that really changed the way you saw the world and helped bring about real change in your life.”

The combination of these two events inspired me to write this post.

How I lacked the ability to set goals…

Historically I had always been a man of no specifically set goals.  I was never sure exactly why or how I developed & maintained this aversion to process oriented accomplishment.  Whatever the problem was — whether I just couldn’t find the time, didn’t place enough value in achievement, or maybe just didn’t want to be bothered — I had the problem.

Setting goals was not something I regularly purposed to avoid, but rather I had always been a “fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants” type of guy who just didn’t find it commonly necessary to assimilate goals into my life.

I may have grown tired of this character flaw at different times, but never had the proper set of circumstances materialize to spur me into actually implementing change.  I suppose I always found goal setting to be overwhelming, rendering me frustrated and unable to formulate a personal achievement plan.  Looking back now, I can see how the truth of that last statement may have embodied my goal paralysis.

What finally woke me up…

In January of 2009 the stars finally aligned so to speak when I found a desperately simple piece of advice that would finally remove the scales from my eyes allowing me to understand the incredible value process oriented achievement could bring, and just how I could implement a goal setting strategy that worked for me into my life.  This lucid quote brought it all together for me:

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”  – Lao Tzu

Glancing over the quote after typing it I suppose the key could lie in the way the quote combines the wonder and excitement of travel & discovery with accomplishing established tasks in life.  Whatever brought me clarity — whether it was the element of adventure, the lack of desired achievement, or the hope of future accomplishment — I have that clarity.

How setting goals has helped me achieve…

Since first reading that quote early this year, I have established life achievement goals and worked to break those down into smaller, more achievable and tangible short-term goals.  I have also been able to successfully implement goals into every aspect of my life, including my personal finance.  The understanding gained also goes beyond goal setting and helps me better work toward achieving anything I set my mind to because I am no longer overwhelmed with the entire process.  I have been able to set up a working, living, family budget.  I have been able to increase my ability to read and finish books.  I have been able to lose nearly 40 pounds.  I have been able to grow more and more self-reliant.  I have been able to change my eating habits to include predominately healthy, local, organic foods.  I am closer with my wife and I am closer with my God.

There are other examples of implementation but I think you understand the power this simple quote has allowed me to find within myself.

What about you?

Are you naturally a goal-oriented person or did you need a similar eye opening piece of information to help you finally adopt a goal centered, and purpose driven life?