Update Thursday: 4th Week of May

Not a good week at all.  We ended up spending way over and above what we actually paid off.  Fortunately, now we won’t have to buy tires for the car for a while, but it is frustrating when I don’t see any progress, or even backpedal.  My wife’s birthday was this week, too, so we ended up going to a nice place (not as expensive as last year’s anniversary dinner, but still pricey), and I got her a good, compact camera.  I got a great deal on the camera, but it wasn’t in the budget.  Unfortunately, neither were tires, and so this week undid all the progress we’ve made this month.  Unless I dip into the emergency fund to pay for the tires.  So frustrating.

Start of the Month:	$4,280
Start of the Week:	4,012
Now:	4,573
Total Paid Off This Week:	-561
Total Paid Off:	-293
Goal:	428
Left to Pay Off for Goal:	721

 

That just burns me up.

Update Thursday: 3rd Week of May

Well, this week went better, but still not good enough to reach the goals.  To further complicate issues, vehicular malfunctions created a mess.

Start of the Month:	$4,280
Start of the Week:	4,096
Now:	4,012
Total Paid Off This Week:	84
Total Paid Off:	268
Goal:	428
Left to Pay Off for Goal:	160

I thought I was going to have some extra money through selling a ticket that I wasn’t going to use…  Sold it for $40, got back to the truck, and it wouldn’t start.  Fortunately, my insurance covered the towing, but it was well after midnight before we got to bed.  The next morning, the dealership ran diagnostics and discovered it was a short in the battery.  They sold me an 8-year battery – diagnostics and battery cost me $135 with a $20 mail-in rebate.  Our Fusion was in the shop as well for an air conditioning problem, but they called and told us that there was very little tread left on our tires, so those needed replacing as well.  After the service and tires, the total soared to nearly $600, so we’ve overspent our budget by about $700, and only gotten an extra $40 in.  This is killing our budget this month, but perhaps we’ll figure a way out of that.

I’m beginning to get burned out on attacking the debt so heavily – truth be told, last year I was running out of steam, even after seeing the incredible progress we’ve made.  I’m just getting tired of the little rewards, and then spending all our discretionary income on things we need vs. having enough left over after debt reduction and paying the bills to do something fun.  And I shouldn’t say that – we’ve bought a house, gotten some extras – a 24” monitor dipped to $200, so I got it…  but by and large, there has been too little to really do something enjoyable with the money.

I’m sure the price we pay today will be worthwhile tomorrow – and I know we’ve come over halfway in less than two and a half years…  but I still wish I could treat my wife to a trip to Mexico for a few days – or even just spend some time away from finances and worry…

On another note, my asthma is back, so I’m sure that will play into the finances before long…

Update Thursday: 2nd Week of May

Ugh.  This week did not go as planned.  There were a few unexpected expenses, and that pretty well threw our entire week off…

Start of the Month:	$4,280
Start of the Week:	4,100
Now:	4,096
Total Paid Off This Week:	4
Total Paid Off:	184
Goal:	428
Left to Pay Off for Goal:	244

Now that we’ve only got two weeks left, the progress made this week really ups the ante, so to speak.  Now, I must come up with more than $120 both weeks to hit the goal.

Amazing how the truck payment just absorbed into our general expenses – I am allocating more for groceries since the wife not working will mean a hit there, but still!  Hopefully more progress is made next week…

Update Thursday: 1st Week of May

This was a decent week – if we can keep on top of everything else going on in our lives, we should still make our goals…

Start of the Month:	$4,280
Now:	4,100
Total Paid Off:	180
Goal:	428
Left to Pay Off for Goal:	248

Fortunately, a little extra income came in from my wife’s dwindling job, helping us get a good jump start on the month.  We only have 3 more weeks, and I’ve got less than $130 allocated, so we still have a ways to go, but, with her income, we should be able to get close or possibly even beat that goal.  Getting the total balance below $4,000 will put us back where we were the 2nd week of December, except that we now have a paid off truck in the mix.

One of the disgusting things about this is that our interest charges for the month on the two cards were over $32, which totals the amount of interest I was paying on the truck, which had almost twice the balance!

I’m very motivated to getting that balance down, especially since I could pay for a MUCH nicer internet connection or over half of a fiber TV package w/ DVR for that price…  youch!

May Goals

Well, its time that I set some goals again.  I now have over $4,000 in credit card debt, so I’ve got to attack that.  For the time being, I’d like to at least see 10% worth of progress every month against that number.  That’s fairly aggressive, since I’m only allocating about $160 against that in my budget.  So, I’ll need to figure out how to get the additional $264.  This pays the credit cards off by March of 2010.  I’d really like to be done with the credit cards this year, and be down to the student loan, our car, and our house.  We’ll see how this all works out.

So, I’ve got $4,280 in credit card debt.  My goal for May 2009 is $428.  We’ll see if its a doable goal, and adjust June as necessary.