Thursday, June 25, 2009

Update Thursday: 4th Week of June

Yech.  What a week.  I’ve started the “Couch-to-5k” program, and was on week 2 when one of my knees started acting up.  After talking with a few people, it was decided that it was my 12+ year old tennis shoes that were causing the problem.  Correcting for my foot cost me nearly $110, but hopefully this will allow me to continue on the program.  So that set me back a bit on catching up this week.  Still, we made our goal for debt reduction, so it wasn’t all bad…

Start of the Month:

$4,049

Start of the Week:

3,988

Now:

3,932

Total Paid Off This Week:

56

Total Paid Off:

117

Goal:

117

Left to Pay Off for Goal:

-0-

 
Now if we can just get caught up on bills.  I think I am about ready to invest in a timer for the sprinkler.  Two nights since we’ve moved in, I’ve forgotten about the sprinkler in the front yard.  I’m sure our water bill will be through the roof this month.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Update Thursday: 3rd Week of June

Well, this week saw my savings account getting zapped for service charges (due, I believe, for the balance dropping below $100).  As a result, although there was still forward progress made, it still wasn’t as much as I’d hoped.

Initially, our balance in our checking account dropped below $1,000 for the first time since fall of last year.  Coupled with the fact that we have no emergency fund in place makes things a bit sticky.  However, even with the transfer, we also had some extra income, and it allowed us to get current in all but two categories.  I anticipate getting caught up in those by week 1 of July.

Also, my current plan is to see about getting some passive streams of income going.  I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to do just yet, but I do know that I’m not happy with the amount of progress being made – I’d like to have an extra $1,000/month to throw against debt, and be done with it in the next 2-3 years.

Start of the Month:

$4,049

Start of the Week:

4,017

Now:

3,988

Total Paid Off This Week:

29

Total Paid Off:

61

Goal:

117

Left to Pay Off for Goal:

56

 
The economy being what it is, I’m grateful I’ve got a job and that the numbers continue to decrease, though.
 

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Update Thursday: 2nd Week of June

Somehow, in the midst of everything, I forgot that we were taking an overnight trip out of town for my wife’s sister’s wedding.  So there was a lot of eating out, and a hotel stay thrown into our plans.  Needless to say, this was another pretty pathetic week.  All in all, though, I’m not displeased.  We still paid for the weekend and paid down our debt.  In addition, we made some good progress towards improving our checking account, so we are only down in 4 categories now, instead of 6.  I’m hoping to make some good progress against the debt this next week, and hopefully put two of the categories back in the black.  Then, in the final week of June, I want to get the final two categories back, and finish off the debt reduction goal.

Start of the Month:

$4,049

Start of the Week:

4,034

Now:

4,017

Total Paid Off This Week:

17

Total Paid Off:

32

Goal:

117

Left to Pay Off for Goal:

85

 

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

I’ve been Tagged!

This is seeming to make its rounds in the PF Blogosphere, so I’ll bite…

The Rules:

  1. Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
  2. Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
  3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and links to their blogs.
  4. Let them know they’ve been tagged.

The Original Tagger

Seven Facts

  1. My wife is expecting a baby next month.  I already presume that this will have an immense effect on our debt reduction.  (It is already beginning to show signs)
  2. We were putting the better part of 50% of my gross income against debt until December.  At that point, we started saving for the baby and the house.
  3. I have recently begun the “Couch to 5k” program.  Interested in seeing if there is a correlation between fitness discipline and money discipline.
  4. Up until the end of last year, I had more debt than gross yearly income.  Up until the beginning of the year before that, my debt was more than twice my yearly income.
  5. I have a turntable, and use it on occasion, but look forward to the day that I have an amplifier to go through, vs. the computer.
  6. Sad thing is, if we could sell all our media for face value, we would not have a debt problem whatsoever, telling me that I am heavily overinvested in CDs, DVDs, and record albums.
  7. I don’t have great confidence that the answer to our nation’s fiscal problems is spending more money.

My Tags

  1. Undercover Vixen at Debt and the City
  2. Mrs. Accountability at Out of Debt Again
  3. T.W. at A Fool and His Money
  4. Ron at Post Divorce – Reclaiming My Financial Life
  5. Tammie at Booting Our Debt for Good
  6. Staci at Staci’s Money Help
  7. Andrea at Ditch My Debt

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Update Thursday: 1st Week of June

Well, the interest charges hit the credit card this week, so over $25 of our reduction went to pay those back down.  yech.  Spending money every month in interest is definitely no fun.  But at least that card’s interest charges are out of the way for the month, and the rest of the debt reduction will be to actually reduce debt, instead of just cover the expenses.

Start of the Month:

$4,049

Start of the Week:

4,049

Now:

4,034

Total Paid Off This Week:

15

Total Paid Off:

15

Goal:

117

Left to Pay Off for Goal:

102

 
Hopefully, next week, we’ll have less than $4,000 in CC debt.

Monday, June 1, 2009

June Goals

With only 1 more month until the arrival of the baby, we’ve got to buckle down and really get things straightened out.

I think that part of our problem last month was that we made good progress at the beginning of the month and then burned out once the unexpected popped up at the end of the month.  After the unexpected hit us, we completely fell apart, abandoning budget, debt snowballing, and reason in order to get what we wanted when we wanted it.  The thing to do now is remember the experience, learn from it, and go on.

I read a blog post recently from Alan Schram over at Saving for Serenity (great blog – if you don’t subscribe, you should) explaining his personal goals on how much to spend repaying debt.  He makes several good points, but the part of the post that really caught my attention was when he said:

Saving For Serenity is about achieving a financial life free from stress or strain. Obviously, having no debt would be a significant stress release! However, I am not willing to sacrifice quality of life to become obsessed with debt repayment.

I think the point is valid, at least for us.  The whole point of reducing my debt was to be able to not think about money every second of every day and how it was dragging me down.  I think in my push to get out of debt the past two years (since we have paid off more than $46,000), I lost the purpose of getting out of debt.  Since we have been so “gazelle-intense”, we have paid down debt at an enormous rate, averaging over $50/day for 880 days, including holidays and weekends.  But that intensity is beginning to burn us out, since we have only progressed 3/5ths of the way through our debt.  Because of this, my goal for June is going to be a bit different.

Due to the last week, I’ve now got the balance of my credit cards spread across three different cards.  So, a total of five consumer debt vehicles.  I am going to aim to put $550 against the five, which, although it horribly reduces the amount I’m paying against the cards, it will allow some overflow to 1) rebuild my emergency fund from “breaking the glass” to cover most of the screw-up of last month (thanks, Jim), and 2) allow some “flex” to the rest of our budget so that we, hopefully, don’t have a repeat.

I am going to see an allergist on Tuesday, and don’t really have the money set aside for that, either, but hopefully there will be enough flex that we can pay for whatever the insurance doesn’t get.

The payment on the car and the student loans equal $433, so our goal against the credit cards is only $117.  However, there are a few holes in our budget that we will plug up this month, and hopefully make some progress to restoring our emergency fund as well.