October Goals – and other things

Well, I went for an interview on Sunday @ Wal-Mart, and they offered me the job (part-time cashier) pending background check and drug test. Could be called in for orientation as early as Saturday. The way I figure it, that will bring an extra $100 or so per week to the table, further reducing our debt. My wife has an interview tonight, so we’ll see if she finds something extra on the side as well.

I got another credit line increase with one of my paid off credit cards. I’ve been hesitant to cancel the cards, because I’d really like to get into a house before I start messing with my credit, and I’ve got the self-control not to turn back to the cards. Its absolutely insane that I have as much credit available to me as I do – I could buy a small house purely on credit.

Anyway, on to the October goals… There should be some extra income for both of us, and we have 5 weeks worth of time to reduce debt. This means that our goal should be somewhat easier than September's. I’m going to put it down that I want to cut our credit card balance on the American Express by more than a third this month. Starting with $5,802.24, I’d really like to see our balance drop below $3,400 this month. Somewhat aggressive, but we should be able to beat that if both of us are working extra. Last month, we would have paid off just over $2,000 had we not spent that extra $700, so with an extra week, we should be able to get close to $2,500, without any extra work. If we are trying to get the AmEx paid off by the end of the year, this will put our goal to just $1,700 in November and December, which should be easily achievable goals.

The Common Sense Fix

For those of you following the Congressional bailout for Wall Street, check this out:
Dave Ramsey’s Common Sense Fix
The dude is right on the money on this one, in my estimation.  Write your Senators and your Representative and let them know.
If there was EVER a time to let them know what you think, now is it.

EDIT: He even mentioned on his radio show today that this isn't his idea, its just that he has a "pulpit to preach from" on it...

Fourth Week of September Update

Well, I had forgotten that I was going to be out of town part of this past week, so I was away from blogging and just about everything else on Thursday. So this is a couple of days late, but better late than never, eh?

Our balance on the American Express card starting the week was $6,118.24. We had a payment on the other card come due, and with my trip out of town, there were a few miscellaneous expenses that ran just a little higher than if I'd stayed home, so we were able to make some progress, but we still fell quite a bit short of our goal, which was to get the AmEx down to $4,600. Our current balance is $5,802.24, a full $1,200 less than what my goal was. True, we did have the extra $700 worth of expenses this month that would have allowed that balance to drop even more, but it would have been nice to at least within $1,000 of our goal. Perhaps I set it a little aggressively.

Still, we paid off $1,309.83, and that works out to about $43 per day. Not too bad, but it could have been better. We would have just broken the $2,000 barrier if not for the $700 worth of expenses, so, all in all, it was a really good month. We are within a week of having credit card debt under $10k, and I'm VERY excited about that - I can't even remember the last time I only had $10k worth of credit card debt. It must have been at least five years ago.

I'm excited about the progress being made, but am so very ready to be completely debt free. The cards will be a major part of that, since I see them and the student loans as being the only "bad debt" that we have.

My Debt Reduction Strategy

Jim over at My Debt Blog asked me on one of my September updates what our strategy is going to be for paying our debt down.

Here is what I am currently thinking about:

The credit cards are getting absolutely pounded, and should be dealt with by Summer 2009.  That will leave student loans and two car payments.  One of the car payments is at 0% interest, so we are just going to let that one pay out as it will.  By August ‘09, I’ll have 3 years left on it.

The truck payment will be the lowest balance left, but the student loans will be the highest interest rate (and balance).  At this point, there may be a pregnancy involved, so our current plan is to just start piling up cash.  Once I get a good emergency fund going (somewhere around $12,000), I’ll probably re-assess where we are, and go from there.  One direction I’m considering is attacking the student loan after the credit cards and emergency fund, since it is the largest financial drain on our finances (interest-wise).

On the other hand, I could eliminate a car payment by paying off the truck, then drop the Comprehensive & Collision insurance I have to carry (or at least raise my deductible), and trim the amount of money going to insurance.  This will also allow us to add another $200 or so per month to our student loan reduction.

At that point, barring a change in living circumstances (no house, no pregnancy, no increase in rent), we will be able to lump over $900 per month against the student loans, paying them off in about a year and a half.  When the student loan is paid off, there will be an avalanche of less than 6 months, and we’ll be finally debt free…

This Just In!

Got a call today for going to interview to work at Wal-mart on evenings and weekends, at least through Christmas…  Everything I earn there can automatically get thrown against the debt.

I’m not going to place too much on this, but that should also help lower our grocery/consumables budget with any employee discounts I would get…

It will be rough going for a few months, but I believe it will be well worth the sacrifice.