Since we’re working hard to get out of debt, I’m doing what I can to take on some extra work. I’m a computer geek, so most of what I do is computer related. I’m currently trying to get some work on <a href=”http://www.odesk.com”>oDesk</a>, which is a site for consultants looking for work. The hard part about this for me is that there are a lot of people willing to work for virtually nothing.

I’ve thought about taking a second job, but my hours are so unpredictable that it would be difficult. My wife babysits (both for the cash, and because she loves it!), but I really can’t think of anything like that to do besides consulting work.

So, for now, I guess my plan is to sell stuff on eBay, and to try to get small consulting gigs. I’d appreciate any advice on other ways to bring in some dough!

Updating our debt stats. Not the best month for credit card debt — there were a few accounts that I thought were enrolled in autopay, but apparently weren’t, so they didn’t get paid on time. SIGH! Since I never make payments late, I’m going to try talking to the banks and get the accounts in autopay, and see if they will forgive the late fees, etc. I am dumb.

• Total Debt: 425695.13

It seems like everyone is blaming Bush+co for the gas prices. I just don’t get it — the gas prices aren’t set by the government here, so why would it be their fault when it goes up? I also don’t understand why the majority of people think that we should be taxing the oil companies because they are making large profits.. remove the subsidies, sure, but tax their profit higher than other companies? WHY?

I hate paying the high prices for gas as much as anyone, but personally think this is one thing that actually is not our government’s fault. Am I wrong?

I no longer see any need for a recipe book.

If I am interested in cooking something I’ve never made before, my first instinct is to hit up foodtv.com and search for ‘ Alton Brown’; if that fails, I go on to Google. I’ve never failed to find a multitude of recipes for whatever I’d like to cook in this manner, and most of the recipes also have user generated comments attached to them with ideas on how to make it better.

I haven’t touched the recipe books on my shelf in a couple years.. might be time to put them on eBay before other people stop seeing the value in them!

If you still find them valuable, please tell me why — I’d love to have a good reason to keep ‘em around!

We get a boatload of magazines, and haven’t ever paid more than $1/year for any of them. A little bit on Internet-fu can really help you out here!

Some advice:

• If you are interested in a particular title, always do a google search for something like “ free”. If it is a trade-related rag, there are often companies that will “sponsor” your subscription. For example, “eweek free”
• Check sites like fatwallet and SlickDeals for running discounts on magazines.
• Never, Never, EVER subscribe using the magazine’s subscription card. I have never found a price on one of those cards that couldn’t be trivially beat by one of the discount magazine providers
• Check eBay. Seriously.

Oh, yeah, if anyone wants a subscription to Maxim, post a comment with your e-mail address and why you’d like it [I will strip your e-mail before actually approving the comment].. I’ve got like 6 more years for free, and never read it!

One of our larger monthly expenses that isn’t a total necessity is our family cell phone plan. I keep asking myself why I really need this, versus just having a home phone with voicemail.

So, reasons to get rid of the cell phone:

• Save some green!
• When I’m away from home or the office, I’d actually be *away* from home or the office.
• Less temptation to talk while driving, which would decrease risk on the road.

..and reasons to keep it:

• I like having the internet in my pocket.
• It’s nice to be able to call people from where I am.
• In case of emergency
• Because I want one!!

I knew before I posted this that I wouldn’t be cancelling my phone. I wish I could bring myself to do it.. it was really nice in the “old days” when there wasn’t that constant distraction.

My wife and I walked into the grocery store the other day. Out of habit, we picked up the coupon book they provide right inside the door. As we walked through the store, she looked through the coupon book, and told me about the good deals. At the end of our trip, we ended up buying about $40 of stuff we had no intention of buying — because they were all great deals!

I think coupons are great, but they can be bad for impulse shoppers like us in cases like this — just because something is cheap doesn’t mean you’re saving money.. you can save more by not purchasing the item to start with!!

So, another Ramsey-ism — if you’re in debt, sell everything until you’re not in debt!

I’ve been doing quite a bit of this — finding extra stuff around the house that we no longer need, and putting it up on Craigslist and eBay. However, one of his big recommendations always seems to be to sell your cars. Even if I had any desire to sell off our cars (one financed, one leased), it would be a huge money-losing proposal for us (we owe more than $3k more than the financed car is worth, and selling off a lease is never profitable.) In a year or so, however, we could easily sell the financed car and buy a cheaper one.

Am I an idiot? Should I lose money on my cars, just so I can say I sold them??

A couple weeks ago, JoeTaxpayer discussed the need for an emergency plan. I found his post very interesting — basically, no matter what happens, if your choice is between a 401k with match or an emergency fund in the bank, your 401k is probably the better bet. You can always borrow the money back if needed, or in a really bad case, take it out as an early distribution.

Of course, there are a few downsides to this approach that I see:

• You’re saying that you can touch your retirement. Not a bad thing in itself necessarily, but this could quickly become a “slippery slope”.
• Once you start contributing above the company match, you may be better off just putting the money in a bank account for emergency purposes.
• 401k’s can lose value! If the economy crashes, and your mutual funds plummet, you may not have the money there.
• Even though access to funds from your 401k is relatively quick, it still takes time. For this reason, I’d still keep at least a couple thousand dollars in a bank account.

Certainly something to think about when we’re getting to the point of trying to build up a real emergency fund.

So, in my last post, JoeTaxpayer mentioned that it’s worth considering taking a loan against your 401k to pay off high-interest rate debt. I took a quick look at that, and it really does look like an appealing option - I could drop ~$10k of my debt down to 6% interest over a 5-year period. Dave Ramsey absolutely hates consolidating debt into lower rates, but I just don’t see the logic in that — if you do, would you mind explaining it to me?

I also took a look at some of the consolidation offers out there.. MBNA/Bank of America has a consolidation loan that allows you to borrow up to $50,000 at an interest rate of as low as 8.99%, and a term of as long as 8 years. Even assuming that I’d only qualify for an interest rate of 11.99%, this loan would be able to help us get our minimum payments down to our base income, and would make it easier for us to do a “debt snowball” style plan where we’d throw a lot more money at smaller debts (preferably the ones with higher interest rates), and could get us out of debt a lot faster. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t qualify us for the loan. Sigh!! If anyone has had experience with banks that are actually willing to look at your overall situation, budget, etc, and help you out with a loan at a reasonable rate, I’d love to hear about it!