Quote Originally Posted by Tradd View Post
I’ve been hanging my laundry to dry. We’ll see if that makes any impact on the electric bill. I have an electric dryer. I do a couple of loads of clothes a week, plus maybe a couple more for towels/bedding, depending on the given week.

I will NOT give up using the dishwasher. I despise doing dishes. Always have. Using the DW keeps me eating at home, so o consider it necessary to bring frugal. LOL.

Reducing my long hot baths to an hour (instead of the current two hours- I’m not kidding!) would also help with the gas bill. My heat continues to be set at 60. But the weather is going to be in the mid to high 50s for at least the next week (except for a day or two), so I might just turn it off.

My car’s ac broke last spring. Shop confirmed it was totally out of refrigerant last fall when in the shop for something else. They couldn’t fit it as it takes a newer kind of refrigerant/machine they don’t have. I hate being hot but I think I’m going to go another summer without ac in the car. Most of my commute is at least 45 mph so I just roll down the windows for the breeze, go faster when I can, and keep cold water to drink on me. I’m just cheap and can’t be bothered to spend the money on the repair now!
You are a gazelle intense frugal zealot, Tradd!! No wonder your debt and savings goals are al going in the right direction!!

We finally have proceeds from the NJ house, and I thought that would alleviate a little anxiety but it's almost increasing it. It's not a lot of money, if you think about what a normal person needs for retirement. When I look at our expenses I panic. As I've said before, you guys should have kicked me out of this group!! I don't belong!

But my plan is to contribute the max to my Roth IRA. I'm going to put a good chunk in a HYSA as an emergency fund, and I'm going to pay down about one third of the debt. I am petrified to do more. I've said to myself: just pay off all the debt and then pay yourself back with the same amount that you would have paid to the minimum monthly payments. At least the "loan" to myself would be 0%. But I'm terrified that I wouldn't pay it back into savings. I did pay off about $15,000 in debt so far, so at least that's something. I'm definitely doing this in a "peel the bandaid off slowly" mode.

On a good note, 2024 has been much better from a business perspective so far. My income will be exceeding my outgo for at least a couple of months! I should be good through April at least.

Tradd, thanks for the inspiration!