Here's the monthly update under storm cloud conditions.
Credit Cards:
Chevron $2,313
Capital 1 $1,879 (down by $120 since last update)
Amazon $6,564 (down by $70)
Non-Card Debt
Car $11,724 (down by $472)
Phone $54 (down by $290)
Student Loans
Loan 1 $4,043 (down by $3)
Loan 2 $4,972 (down by $3)
Loan 3 $8,167 (down by $3)
Loan 4 $5,559 (down
Spouse: Why is there so much money in the bank account?
Me: We're in storm cloud mode.
Spouse: *looks outside* It's not going to rain.
Me: $1000 was supposed to go to debt, but we're holding onto it in case Bubbles needs it for cancer treatments.
Spouse: We were going to pay $1000 toward the debt?
Me: *starts to cry* Yes... and all I want to do is pay off the card but I can't right now and it's so hard not to use it to pay the card. *So
I gave myself a good talking to, and now I think I am ready to conquer the mess. I have to get the clutter out of my house. Started yesterday moving a bunch of stuff, more to go tomorrow. I need to paint all the rooms (8 rooms and a stairwell), one at a time. I made a list of the rooms from worst to best, and I think that's the order to paint them in. I need to figure out how much paint and primer and stuff to get...thank goodness my sister and my dad are both good at that!
I just need
So this is more of an intense update since my last couple blogs.
As the title of this entry implies... We are getting a divorce. I'm not going to go into it in loads of detail here, but it's something that needed to happen (regardless of how happy we may have appeared) and the decision will likely benefit both of us in the long term. We are being amicable, he still lives in the house today but we have a deadline date set for him to be moved-out by (Saturday June 3rd). He has plans to move his s
Thank you all for your thoughts of Bubbles. She went to the Oncologist today who started a new set of diagnostics. I had started a sinking fund for Bubbles when we first got the news so I already had $400 dollars set aside for this. I'm hoarding my planned snowball and I was very surprised that the visit was only $580 with examination, aspiration, cytology testing. So, My snowball is smaller but still there. It makes me happy to know that my family vet didn't just send us to a specialist who is
So it has been a while since I posted anything, mostly because I was afraid that he would find my entries and read them, even though in reality I know that is very unlikely. Last week, while he (I can't call him DH because he isn't dear to me any more) was out of town on business, I got a letter from the mortgage company that they were going to accelerate into foreclosure (for the FOURTH TIME), a shut off notice for the electric, and a cancellation notice for the car insurance.
This is more
I just put myself in a weird situation. I've been donating plasma and they give you a debit card for payment. When you're new, the payment schedule is
1st donation: $60
2nd donation $75
3rd donation $60
4th donation $75
ect,, for like the first 6 donations or something like that.
Then, it drops to $35 and $45 thereafter.
The thing about the debit card is that it has fees and some rules:
The first transaction is "Fee-free." but there are fees for A
I actually had lunch with the big boss last week for being a top performer. He asked about them. I told him that they represented the debt that I accrued by making silly decisions.
I followed it up by saying that after analyzing the data I realized that needed a plan to address it. The bracelets simply provide a creative visual for me to stay focused.
Then, I tied it into my performance at work
"These bracelets have actually have been saving this company a lot of money... I sta
Here are my debt bracelets!
I ended up doing one for each debt instead of the original plan to do them representing $10K each (9 would've been a bit much).
The big fat one is my loans since it's the biggest debt. Our car is grey so I put grey in that bracelet. The Amazon card was green and Capital One is blue so they are color coordinated as such.The skinny one is for the phone since it's the smallest debt.
I can't wait to start cutting them off as they get paid!!!!
I just made a payment of $801 to the Capital One card. That one extra dollar means that I reached my low end goal of getting the balance under $2000.
So, here's the update!
Credit Cards:
Chevron $2,313
Capital 1 $1,999 (down by $1,921 since last update)
Amazon $6,634 (down by $96)
Non-Card Debt
Car $11,724 (down by $236)
Phone $344 (down by $24)
Student Loans
Loan 1 $4
I just wanted to say that I am soooo proud of Spouse!
Spouse wanted to take over grocery shopping. Fine by me! Spouse went shopping for the last 3 weeks with Envelope in hand. I wasn't too thrilled last week when we didn't have eggs because "they weren't on sale."
I came home today and Spouse is beaming! "Look in the fridge! I got eggs! I ask got cake, stuff for smores, and STEAK..."
Umm... I was getting worried. LoL
Spouse says, "... and you can't get mad because I have $
Winter quarter ended last week, boy am I glad! I went into it thinking it would be easy but I feel as if though I suffered quite a bit. I decided that due to a couple of planned out of state trips in the next 3 months, that going to school Spring quarter might be pushing it. So my plan is to go back this summer and either do 1 or both of my final 2 classes needed for the AA.
April brings a 2-day fitness convention [put on by the format I teach] in Pittsburgh. I am really looking forward to
Since I've realized that I may not reach my low-end goal of getting the Capital One card under $2000 this month, I've decided that it isn't over until March 31st.
Tonight, I've started cleaning out my closet to look for things to sell. I didn't come up with much since I really like throwing things out. When we moved (9 months ago), I threw out so much stuff that I didn't need. Spouse is always telling me that I'm going to throw out too much and regret it one day. I'm not regretful... ok, m
I made a payment toward the Capital One card today for $486.
$120 was the regular snowball, $337 was budgeted, and $29 is from being under budget. There's another category in the budget that we were under by $15 but I forgot about it in my calculations... So, I may be making a tiny payment of $15 after this one posts.
Capital One, your days are numbered! I actually called them today to update some info with them. I was talking to the agent who offered me a Rewards card.
Quoted from Mary
So how did the talk go on Friday?
Spouse will cover the expenses to get there. Getting back will be budgeted out. I also have a plan to cover the wedding gift. I just won a Sound Bar with a wireless Subwoofer from my job, so that will be their wedding present for their house. They have a wall-mounted TV so the Sound Bar can be mounted below it. The one I won sells for $199 and it was free (and non-taxable). So yay!!
Spouse has the task of pricing out
My job was running a lot of incentives this past week. I finally got to redeem the cards that I won. I have two $10 Cold Stone gift cards and three $10 Wal-Mart gift cards. I also got 2 free movie tickets.
Yesterday, Spouse and I went to the book store for Spouse to spend their blow money. I went "shopping" and found a few books that caught my interest. After carrying them around the store for a while, I "checked out" by putting them on hold at my library and put them all back!
As we
How strange things have become... I just got a wedding invitation from Spouses BFF. Instead of being all excited for them, I immediately thought, "This is going to be expensive."
Geez...
If I'm being completely honest, I don't want to go. Not because I don't love Alex to pieces, but because I don't want to be thrown off track. If it were a wedding in the same state, fine... I'd get a dress from the thrift store, some shoes that I could stand wearing for a few hours, bud
Quoted from Kelvan 80 "What did DH say when you told him that first card was getting paid off?"
The response was laughable. This was literally the conversation:
Me: We have managed to not only save $1000, but I just submitted the final payment to the Chevron card! It's paid off!
Spouse: Good for you.
I let it go at first, but after we finally got to spend some time together, we did talk. Spouse was only bitter about me not sticking to the "budget" when they
I am so exhausted after this week's overtime, It's time for a milestone update!
I am $88K in debt! Still daunting, but doable.
Here it is... in all of its treacherous glory. (I've rounded the change for the list, but the total includes every penny)
Credit Cards:
Chevron $2,313
Capital 1 $3,920
Amazon $6,730
Non-Card Debt
Car $11,724
Phone $344
Student Loans
The check that I'm getting on the 3rd of March will cover dates from the end of January. So, it will be the last check before I went Gazelle! You can tell by the measly 4.5 OT hours (over 2 weeks). However, with my OT + Commissions, my snowball for this check will be a staggering $492!! The snowball for the following check is already at $297 without OT.
That means that no matter what, I'm getting this Chevron card PAID OFF by the end of the month! Wouldn't it be nice if we could all
With all the great news, I figured Now was as good a time as any to throw the snowball!! I just made an Ahhhhhmazing payment of $1,134.00 to that silly ol' Chevron Card! I planned to wait until Payday (March 3rd) to figure out what would be left after the budget. But I just couldn't! It's ALL SNOWBALL Baaaabby!!
Also, I felt like I was falling behind. I didn't want my ONLY payment in Feb. to be $488.
So, here's the breakdown of this payment:
Budgeted snowball
Great news x2!! So it's great, GREAT news!
1) Work is doing an overtime incentive that I plan to take full advantage of! $10/hr extra for any hours from 41-45 and $15/hr extra for anything $45+ hrs. Since I get commissions, my hourly is only $13.75 so this is really great! Plus, I was going to work overtime anyway. Sure, why not get MORE money for it!!
2) I asked Spouse if they would be willing to read TMMO anytime in the near future. "Yeah, sure. I'm doing a reading challenge and I d
Quoted from Clever Username:
"Congrats on hitting the Starting line!Let's get out ahead of one thing. Your husband, the budget, his credit card and his second job. I like your thought if you get one thing from him, let it be the budget. But here's where credit cards get sticky. You lost me with the mine that his second income goes towards his credit card with a zero balance.This is not a debt question, this is a Budget question. Refuse to talk about it in debt language. These are expense
