Gazelle Speed: Debt Down!

The Randolph's have done it again peeps! We have paid off another debt. Hot damn!

I was so excited to write the check to pay off one of our many loans. It wasn't a lot but $220 is a pretty big deal in our household. We have one more asset to add to our list.

Since we still don't have a clear idea of what my full checks will be for the new job so I am not quite sure how the Debt Snowball will look. We are still fighting one of our doctors offices because they want to charge us for 2k when they did not properly file with our insurance some of the procedures they did during Matthew's surgery. I really hope that it comes out in our favor but of course the doctor's office is dragging their feet.

I don't believe that I have given you the link directly to the man himself. The man behind the idea of a debt free life, Dave Ramsey. Please make sure to give his site a look and you may get some ideas to make your life/budget a little easier.

http://www.daveramsey.com/home/

Do you remember me telling you about the Baby Steps. I have attached the link for the Baby Steps. We are still on number two but we are staying strong with our budget and paying off our debt. I have had people tell me, "You don't need Dave Ramsey to pay off debt!" I politely retort with, "Well For the past 7 years Mr. Randolph and I have tried to relieve the debt but have failed. WE need Dave Ramsey!" I am not ashamed to say that he is the one that got us on track. We are on track and have a plan, a mission, a way of life. Why would you try and be negative about that? I know why.....because you are seeing that I am showing results!

It's not for everyone, but if you just need a little shove in the right direction then take a gander.

http://www.daveramsey.com/new/baby-steps/

Here a debt free story I pulled off of the site!
Soldier: Married W/ 2 Kids 3 years to freedom

Original story submitted by CW2 Hensley on August 17, 2011

I am a US Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 (CW2) Blackhawk pilot. I have a wife and two children ages 3 and 1. My wife is a stay-home mom, so I am the sole bread winner. I make about $70,000 per year including benefits.

In the spring of 2009 I was beginning a year long Afghanistan combat tour. At the time I had a net worth of negative $30,000. My debt was in car payments and student loans. Fortunately, I had no credit card debt. I also had a mortgage with very little equity in the house.

Another soldier gave me a copy of Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. I watched all of the videos over the course of a week and took copious notes.

I aggressively paid off the debt, established a $3000 emergency fund, and maxed out Roth IRAs for both my wife and myself. I sold my Jeep that was paid off, refinanced the house for 15 years, and began paying an extra $700 per month on the mortgage.

It helped that in 2009 and in 2011 I was deployed, so my salary was tax free and I wasn't buying gas, food, or other living expenses for myself. Of course, I still support my wife and children.

Now 2.5 years later I am half way through another year long tour in Afghanistan, but my finances have changed. I now have no debt, except the mortgage balance, and I now have a retirement portfolio worth $40,000! That is a $70,000 swing in net worth in under three years on a soldier's salary!

The house will be paid off in less than 7 years, and at the current portfolio growth rate, I WILL BE A MILLIONAIRE BEFORE MY THREE YEAR OLD GOES TO COLLEGE!

Thank you Dave. The future looks very bright.

No tonsils, no uvula, and some sinus fixin..

DH went under the knife on Wednesday, so for memories sake I am going to dedicate a post to him and his hopefully improved life.

He has had sleep apnea for an unknown amount of years and therefore always felt very tired, unmotivated, and chronically sick. It's amazing how the lack of sleep......lack of REM sleep...can make one very miserable.

About the same time we put Potato in day-care DH started getting sick. His sinuses would act up and he would be miserable for 2-3 weeks. Doctors would give him antibiotics and he would get better. Then not even a few days later he would get sick again. This was such a vicious cycle and because his first doctor did not care enough DH was given antibiotics so often it caused him to get colitis. Sucked!

Well after speaking with our sister-n-law's mother she directed us to DH's new and soon to be God sent ENT. (Small world...the ENT was actually the niece of DH's back surgeon.) She stopped giving him medicine and got to the root of the problem. Dr. Eldridge found out that he had such a bad deviated septum that he had one nostril completely blocked and unable to pass air. The other nostril had a huge bone spur about to punch through the skin. Gross I know!

Dr Eldridge sent DH to a couple of sleep studies to determine whether or not he had sleep apnea. He had/has it. They tried to use the C-PAP machine to see if he would be able to sleep better. The machine made it feel like he could not breathe. I have heard the machine described as this...Imagine yourself riding down the interstate at 90 mph with your head out the window. I guess I would not be able to breathe with that much air blowing in my face. It is suppose to force you to breathe through your nose and well he had too much blockage in both nostrils for that to work.

So Wednesday the 25th she commenced fixing my poor hubby. She had to remove his uvula(throat bobber) because it was so long it was going down his throat. Pretty disturbing! Dr Eldridge also removed some of his soft pallet and his tonsils. The surgery did not take to long but of course I paced the waiting room like a mad woman. DH made me pinky promise that I would not cry....I did not cry...but there were a lot of anxiety attacks. Thankfully DH's mother was there to keep me calm.

We had a great day nurse but the night nurse almost got an ass chewin from me. She was horrible and I can't wait to fill out the little survey on her. Anyway we went home Thursday morning and I am being a great nurse! I am sleep deprived but if it gets my honey better I will survive. I love him so much and he is long over due some physical peace.

Now on the road to recovery. I hope he enjoys his 3 weeks of peace!