Comments on: Sprint vs. Marathon Finances…

By: Ryan @ Planting Dollars

Ryan @ Planting Dollars — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 07:07:46 +0000

I think I’m a bit of a mix. Sprint for a year or so, then toritise for a month or two, then back to sprint.

Do you have a particular date you’re aiming for to finish the marathon?

By: Beks

Beks — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 03:09:41 +0000

It seems like there’s room for sprinting and marathoning – each has it’s own time. I can’t wait to marathon again.

By: ellen

ellen — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 17:09:06 +0000

It’s mostly a marathon here, with occasional sprints. It’s as much about changing habits as it is about clearing the debt. Every little notch of belt tightening makes it easier to change the next naughty habit.

By: Abigail

Abigail — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 02:08:20 +0000

I wish we could sprint. But the fact is that there’s only so much we can do right now. My husband is still on unemployment, and I can’t work more than part-time. We cut our costs for the most part, but my bad health means we eat convenience food more than I’d like. And my husband’s ADD means it’s extra difficult to rein in spending. He has made huge strides, but, unlike me, he can’t just sit around every night and watch TV and chill out. He gets antsy.

So we keep spending down where we can, have our setbacks, and generally keep our eyes on the prize, as they say. That said, I’m pushing a little harder than I have been, since it looks like my contract work will end in June. With some luck (ie, not too many more unexpected expenses), we should be able to just about done with the credit cards by then.

By: Dogfood Provider

Dogfood Provider — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 01:35:25 +0000

I needed to hear this today.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:45:25 +0000

Way to go!! You’re doing awesome and you should be proud of yourself : )

By: Ginger

Ginger — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:24:39 +0000

Thank-you so much for this great post. I’m a lurker here and have been for sometime now even before you took it over, but I just had to make a comment on this post.My husband and I live in S.C also and are trying very hard to pay off the second mortgage we have, but every now and then we need to buy our favorite coffee as well.

By: Rick

Rick — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:55:28 +0000

Great Post.
You can sprint for a while, but you’ll never finish the race doing that.
I’ve sprinted for the last few months, but now I will fall in to a marathon pace.
As long as you can show progress, you’re doing good.

By: Bucksome

Bucksome — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:52:02 +0000

I’ve sprinted in the past, but right now I’m at the marathon pace. It’s something I can live with long enough to get all the debt paid.

The best thing is that our debt load has been consistently going down since June and we haven’t added any new debt.

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:34:54 +0000

Ha! Great post. If you’ll notice, my URL is called debt-marathon. So I guess you can see which side I’m on. I need to enjoy life and splurge once in a while or I burn out very quickly, so does my husband. So we still have a restaurant budget. We still save $50/month so we can splurge on bigger ticket items (currently saving for a new TV). I made room in our budget for new clothes, dates with my husband, gymnastics class for my daughter, etc. But it’s about balance. Before my husband was laid off we were saving about 15% of our take-home income so while we were treating ourselves each month, we were saving far more than we were treating. And we did the same while we were getting rid of our debt too.

By: Sharon

Sharon — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:09:10 +0000

I’d say we do a little of both. We sprint, we walk, we jog. We are ALWAYS moving and going forward though. Our goal is to finish the marathon rather than get to mile 18, tired, burned out and tell ourselves that it’s good enough.

By: Mysti

Mysti — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:08:15 +0000

As a whole, it is a marathon. But we sprint at times. There are things that we are cutting out of our budget…there are things we aren’t willing to at this point.

The thing we all have to learn is moderation. It is ok to spend a little extra….sometimes. Not all the time! Most of us got into debt because moderation wasn’t part of our vocabulary (in our case, most of it didn’t have to do with this problem, but there is a chunk that was pure want over need).

I think if you sprint too hard and too long, you burn out and then binge.

By: Melanie

Melanie — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:00:34 +0000

This is a good post…you can’t be frugal about everything all of the time…unless you have to. There have been times where we’ve sprinted and times where we’ve marathonned. We sprinted when we first bought our home on just my income. Then, I got a raise, and we slowed down. Now, we’re paying tuition for the both of us, and we’re ramping up for another sprint come January. Frugality is doing what you should do most of the time and doing what you have to do when you have to do it, eh? It sounds like you’ve got it absolutely right.

By: Mona

Mona — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:20:41 +0000

I am a turtle. The alternative is to crash and burn. That does not work for meg. Turtle it is.

By: Jenn

Jenn — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:18:39 +0000

Definitely marathon over here… I started out sprinting and discovered that denying myself everything just doesn’t end well. Eventually I crack and undo a bunch of the progress I worked so hard to make. So I go slow and steady and it might take me longer, but at least I’m still moving forward!