A Dime at a Time

Navigating life and finances

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Learning From Others

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Feedback welcome!

Ever since embarking on this journey to get debt free, personal finance blogs have become my all time favorite thing to read. From beginner blogs to the very established and well polished blogs, I never tire of reading them. To say that I follow a lot of blogs would be a gross understatement. While I don’t always necessarily agree 100% with what I read, there is usually something I can glean from each post. The key is in being open to learn from others!   [Read more…]

The war on debt: Going to Battle

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“When are we going to start the snowball?”  

Yesterday my husband voiced his first words of frustration. We are now two and a half months into starting the Dave Ramsey plan and he is feeling antsy. No, he hasn’t changed his mind on wanting to do this. He is simply eager to start throwing those snowballs. He wants to go to battle! Our conversation got me to thinking. The war on debt really is a lot like going to battle. We’ve identified the enemy (our debt) and my husband is eager to take it down. I am too, but also want to feel fully prepared (or as best we can) to tackle this enormous giant. Over our years together, we’ve won a few small debt wars, but have never gone against one as big as the one we are currently facing. In order to be completely victorious (meaning ridding ourselves of ALL our debt!) there was some planning that had to be done. [Read more…]

Rearranging Our Financial Seasons

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Spreading out irregular expenses throughout the year.

Today we had a load of wood delivered. Next week we will have yet another one delivered followed by yet two more in May/June. We heat our house (or least try to!) primarily with wood. It is far cheaper than using our propane furnace, plus we love the even heat from the wood stove. Once the heating season is over, we will have our chimney cleaned and inspected. Just a couple of weeks ago, we had our propane tanks topped off as we still qualified for an introductory rate. Why are we doing all these things now with Spring just around the corner? We are trying to rearrange our financial seasons!  [Read more…]

Taking on extra jobs

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Increasing the snowball.

Today I accepted the seasonal position I had previously written about. It was actually a job I worked last Summer but was on the fence about doing again this year. Not because we don’t need the money, because we mostly certainly do! I simply needed to be smarter when it came to negotiating the position. This year I said no to being on salary and also when presented with the hourly wage, held my ground for more. I also wanted to have some regular hours rather than just being on call. While in the end I won’t necessarily make more money from this job for the season, I will be working a lot less hours. Less hours at the seasonal job means that my regular part time job and also my growing business, won’t be negatively effected as they were last year. Since we have been managing for the past 6 months without the pay from this seasonal job, it will all be applied to our snowball. [Read more…]

The slippery slope of Dave Ramsey’s Baby Step One

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When is enough, enough?  

First it was save $1,000, then $2,000, then $3,000…now? When it comes to Dave Ramsey’s plan to get out of debt, my husband and I are avid fans. We do not, however, agree with his recommended $1,000 baby emergency fund which is baby step one. My guess is that he set it at that amount since it is achievable. To tell someone to save $3,000 fast would no doubt leave them feeling that the plan is impossible and just not for them. But when is enough, enough? That is the struggle we are currently facing. [Read more…]

Sweet Relief!

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Taxes are completed and we don’t owe!

Oh such sweet relief to see that we don’t owe! These darned taxes have been weighing me down since the beginning of the year. First to gather all the information for our accountant and then waiting on the outcome. Admittedly, I stress over taxes every year. This year felt a little worse with having started a new business. I worried about the books, I worried about not paying enough, I worried about being hit with a huge tax bill, I worried about getting them finished on time, I worried about everything! [Read more…]

Welcome!

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Welcome!

So thrilled to have you as my first visitors!  

The past few days have certainly been busy ones.  I’m still doing some unpacking, changing a little decor, and sending out notices of my official move, but I feel I’ve made enough progress to finally invite people over!  So as not to confuse anyone just now stumbling across my blog, I moved from Blogspot to self hosting.  I also decided to change my blog name to a domain I already owned.  You can read all about that right here.  I’m feeling so good about this move and hope you like the changes too! [Read more…]

New address, new name!

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Yes, I am moving and changing my name…er, I mean my blog is!

So, when I first started The Line has been Drawn, I really didn’t know exactly where it would go. All I knew was that I was finally completely ready to get out of debt once and for all and while doing so, share my journey with the world.  Having started two other blogs before and subsequently ended them, I wanted to be absolutely sure that this time was it. One of my other blogs was about what it is like having a “work-away-from-home husband.”  That ended mostly because I ran out of fresh material to write about.  I felt like it had reached a dead end.  My other blog was supposed to my journey about getting out of debt.  Problem though was my husband and I weren’t quite yet on the same page.  Not to say that you can’t go it alone, because I know others have done it. Ultimately that combined with far too many other distractions in my life (selling a house, moving over 400 miles away, new jobs, health issues, etc) I just had far too much going on to remain focused.

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Sometimes you just need to spend money

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I broke down and brought our senior dog to the vet.

Today I took our elderly dog to the vet.  Although his balance was getting better, he still wasn’t himself.  I hated watching him get weaker and weaker from lack of nutrition.  Although the vet couldn’t’ say for certain, it would appear that he is suffering from Idiopathic Peripheral Vestibular Disease, which is also referred to as Old Dog Vestibular Syndrome.  I declined to have blood work taken, but did agree to a round of antibiotics, and anti-inflammatory injection and also another medication to help with nausea.  I also purchased 12 cans of the high caloric prescription diet.  $170 later, hopefully this will do the trick and get this old boy back to feeling better.

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No Patti, you are not alone!

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“Ya know, we (all 3 of us) are scarily alike in our situations……I am so glad I am not alone.”

 

These snippets from a comment left by Patti on yesterday’s post really struck a chord with me. She is 100% completely right! When my husband and I embarked on this journey to get out of debt, I felt very much alone. The majority of blogs seemed to be written by people far younger than us. Even most of those doing their debt free screams on the Dave Ramsey show seemed to be the younger crowd. God bless them for being smarter than us. If we could turn back the clock 20+ years I know we would do things differently but we can’t. We must deal with where we are now and we are.  [Read more…]

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