I can picture your avatar now!
Thank you for the advice (

Click Here)! I always welcome ideas!

I have already gotten rid of one vehicle, and no longer have that $455 payment. I am not yet ready to give up the van, we will drive it until it is dead, and never finance another vehicle again. And as of right now, we owe less than what it is worth (not a whole lot, but still!). We will spend 2010 paying off the van, and it will be paid off 4 years early. We are very excited about that.

I just sunk 2k into our 98 F-150... the engine died. Otherwise it’s in excellent condition. We used cash. I have never been able to do that before!

In regard to Verizon, Internet, Allowance, and Satellite...

The allowance amount is not very much compared to what we would spend if we didn't have it budgeted. $50 is for my husband, $50 for me, $20 for my teenage son, and $15 for my ten year old daughter. If they don't behave or complete their chores as assigned, they never see the money - it goes straight into their ING account. I've seen the damage we can do; I think the allowance amount is small compared to others I have seen. And as of right now, we both have those fifties in our wallets -- still not spent.

The other items you listed are all things I would love to cut back on (or out completely)... however, I do need Internet for school and work. I will check to see if I can save some money by omitting the never used Caller ID, Call Waiting, and VM. That could save me abt $10, I think.

For Verizon and Satellite - we have contracts. To get rid of Verizon, it would cost us $200 a line ($1000) to cancel the contract. We have a line for my mother-in-law and sister-in-law to share. They watch my son during the day, and they don't have a phone (they can't afford even a basic one from the local phone company) - I am their only source of income at the moment. I take the $10 it costs me per month and reduce it from daycare costs, so it works out in the end.

I have to check with DishNetwork to see what we have left on our Contract for HD. My husband works with them, and we get a $40 credit each month, so as soon as we can, I will be knocking down our programming to the bare minimum, so if there will be an amount owed, it might be for a Pay Per View movie or something.

I am proud to say, our snowball is currently $860 a month. January was an "off" month for us, but we are back in the game... We will be debt free (except the van and school loans) by the time I am laid off in September.