Debt free the Fly lady way - anyone?

Tondella · 21 November 2006 at 4:00PM

UPDATE: The first seven days of the plan have been posted in a separate thread, which you can find permanently at the top of the DFW board, join in whenever you want, and then come over here to chat about how well you are doing

REMEMBER - you are never behind!

Lurking over at the old style board I have recently become initiated in the fly lady way of house keeping. Basically, it gets you to develop a house cleaning routine by building up habits one by one. You start small (firstly by making sure your sink is clean - ie you have done the dishes - every evening) and then adds in new habits so that before you know it you are doing things by second nature. Linzpower is selling her house using these principles.

I thought this might be a great idea to apply to us debt-free wannabes. When i started here a year ago and had my lightbulb moment my first instinct was to try and tackle everything at once. People had so many suggestions for my SOA (statement of affairs), I didn't know where to start and was feeling overwhelmed. A year on I have managed to tackle some of the big things but I'm still not as organised with my finances as i could be. I set aside a regular amount for debt repayment each month but could do with making the money left go further.

so I thought i would try and use the fly lady principles to manage my debt. Join in if you want to, They'll be a challenge for each of 31 days, by the end of this you should have formed habits that will last a lifetime. If you're reading this sometime in the future then just jump in and pick up the routines one by one in your own time. YOU ARE NEVER BEHIND

chralph · 21 November 2006 at 4:07PM

I think this is a good idea, something like it was done before i think if i remember correctly.

I may have to join in even tho im debt free at the moment ..

Chris!

pudding06 · 21 November 2006 at 4:08PM

:T :T :T :T :T :T

I agree - sometimes we are so eager to help newbies on the dfw boards that we overwhelm them :rotfl:

but you do need to take some steps initially.

I set my self small steps to doing it - eg week 1 was to collect everything for my soa together

week 2 was to post it, and read the replies

week 3 was to register with pigsback and start doing clicks etc and with quidco.

week 4 was to register for mystery shopping companies to get more work. etc etc etc.

sometimes I was so motivated I did serval things in one week, Other weeks I've found it hard going . this months is the spending diary which has helped enormously.

baby steps - but once youve changed your sky package, gas and elec , and phone, etc you can make huge inroads!!! and you dont have to think about it again for a while.

pudds

dinkylou · 21 November 2006 at 4:15PM

I think this is a great idea. After all, it can be very daunting to try and do everything at once and it can so easily all fall down.

And also, this way it keeps people motivated as they find new things to add to their DFW agenda as they go along. Even us old school DFW's need a bit of help from time to time.

Good idea Tondella.

Broken_hearted · 21 November 2006 at 4:19PM

I think this is a great idea. My way of doing debt is the one debt at a time road. Everyone sits just over min payment, then any spare money goes in a big chunk of the one debt I am trying to clear. The higher apr bills go first.

jessicamb · 21 November 2006 at 4:21PM

great idea - one step at a time

Tondella · 21 November 2006 at 4:21PM

Yep, a year in and I'm still wondering where the money has gone at the end of the month. I never got to grips with writing things down so I'm really going to work hard with this habit.

Pudding06, you're right, one-off things like changing packages really help too, and need only be done once or twice a year. As well as building up habits flylady also sends out announcements for less frequent activities and I reckon we could build this into our debt free fly lady, say have a utilities day, where we check our package and switch if necessary.

Tondella · 21 November 2006 at 4:24PM

Broken_hearted wrote:

I think this is a great idea. My way of doing debt is the one debt at a time road. Everyone sits just over min payment, then any spare money goes in a big chunk of the one debt I am trying to clear. The higher apr bills go first.

snowballing is a great strategy and one that i have been using for the past year. However, now I want to start developing some money management skills that will last me into my debt-free years.

sign up sign up for the debt free fly lady!

loopyloulou_3 · 21 November 2006 at 4:24PM

great idea - i need to do this, so im with you on this one!

Tondella · 21 November 2006 at 4:27PM

welcome loopyloulou!

Uniscots97 · 21 November 2006 at 4:34PM

Broken_hearted wrote:

I think this is a great idea. My way of doing debt is the one debt at a time road. Everyone sits just over min payment, then any spare money goes in a big chunk of the one debt I am trying to clear. The higher apr bills go first.

Totally sensible and brilliant advice. Every penny counts! You'd be surprised how many people don't prioritise their debts and pay off the highest APR one first.

Debt free the Fly lady way - anyone?

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