Our main financial goal in 2015 is to pay down our non-mortgage debt. My hope is to have it all paid off by the end of 2016 and to do so we need to get creative and resourceful.
Where can we find extra money? I have scrutinized our budget tirelessly and I really feel like there’s nothing more to cut, so my focus is turning to finding money to put towards debt. As I find extra money, I will of course share with you and I’d like to also hear where you found extra money too.
In January, I found $370 to put towards our debt:
1. We use a Discover credit card to pay for monthly expenses at our business. It is very un-Dave Ramsey-like but it works for us. We pay the balance off at the end of each month and have never carried a balance from one month to another. We earn reward points from our Discover card and you can buy gift cards with the points. I haven’t redeemed points in a long time and I had $300 worth of points that I redeemed for Discover gift cards. I used that $300 gift cards to buy groceries and took $300 of January’s grocery money and put it towards a loan.
2. We have Aflac supplemental insurance and I received our yearly $40 wellness benefit.
3. When our kids were young I signed up for Upromise to earn money through their coupon program. I haven’t participated in years and didn’t realize I had $20 in my account. I requested a check and will most likely discontinue my membership.
4. We cleaned out the foyer closet. We didn’t find much to sell, but I did find $10 worth of quarters from years ago when the US mint was distributing state quarters. I was collecting them at the time and forgot all about it. I kept the quarters and sent the book holder to the Goodwill.
Have you found some extra money lately? Tell us about it in the comments.
For more ideas about finding extra money, read 31 Days to Find $1000.
This post is linked to Thrifty Thursday.
I love your creativity. I agree credit cards are a big no no when it comes to Dave Ramsey but if you are smart about them they can give you extra benefits. We personally received thousands of dollars off our last car from GM rewards points on a credit card we use for our business.
I’m with you and Trish on the credit cards. I wrote a post about why I don’t think credit cards are all bad as long and you treat them like cash. We haven’t paid interest in years, but we get cash back almost every month.
I wrote a post recently called 17+ Things We Don’t Pay For. Among some of those tips are using rechargable batteries (eneloops, specifically), having our trash picked up every other week rather than weekly, and other tips.
Great job on paying attention to the details. They may seem like simple things, but they really add up by the end of the year.
Thanks for always being such a great example to us, Kristia!
Heather @ My Overflowing Cup recently posted…The Gift
Thanks, Heather!
Fab post Kristia – I need to go on the penny hunt around our house, am sure there are pounds a plenty lurking in various jars, pockets, drawers etc. Pinned.
Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment. It’s amazing how much we can find around the house–good luck!
Hi Kristia, I found you on the Thrifty Thursday link party & have a background similar to yours (corporate woman turns stay-at-home mom)! I want to invite you to another blog party – just for MOMS with blogs. No need to stick to thrifty articles – we showcase all awesome content from online moms. I hope to see you at the Mom Blog Party: http://www.momresource.com/mom-blogs
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I have to admit that I love my Discover Card too. We have always used our for regular family expenses each month in the same way that you use yours — paying it off, never, ever carrying a balance, etc. But we’re trying to full-out Dave Rams-ify our financial life right now, so I took the $500+ that we’d accrued in rewards and applied the whole thing to our January payment. I’m definitely hoping to go back to using the credit card once we figure out the best way to do things for US.
Yay for finding extra money! Here’s our February budget update.
Elise @ Harvey Ever After
Elise @ Harvey Ever After recently posted…Mission to Financial Freedom: February Update
Good for you putting that $500 towards the balance and not spending it on other things–it can be so tempting! LOL, especially when Discover offers discounted gift cards.