Christine's Personal Finance Blog

My only credit account right now is through them, and unfortunately it's a pretty large balance that we havn't come to yet in the debt pay-off. I got a letter in the mail saying they are raising my interest rate due to the 'economy'?! My rate would jump from 12.99% to 17.99%. I always pay my bills on time, obviously they are getting my money. I called them up and told them that it was unacceptable. Thankfully they kept the rate the same without even having to speak to a manager. Sheisters!! I can't wait to be out of credit card debt forever.

Well this month we totally lost track of what money was spent out of which envelopes, and half are empty and we can't figure out where it went. This is where holiday weekends get us when we aren't home enough for me to cook and organize. On the bright side, we had saved a few extra hundred last month we will have to use towards gas and groceries. Not that big of deal I suppose.
We get paid on Friday, and tomorrow I am sending out the pay-off check for our Medical bill. One more debt off the list! These first two were our easiest. I'm sad to say the others will all take quite awhile. But we will keep chipping away at it.
August we have some big expenses coming up. Our SUV needs new tires for inspection and I really need to start buying materials for a horse barn so I can move them home before November.
Sometimes I can't help but wonder if it is better to just save save save and pay off each debt all at once? It seems like it would happen quicker. I don't know where that logic comes from though. Our next debt to tackle is our CC. We are skipping the septic for now as we are trying to claim it on our title insurance. We should get a hefty chunk if it goes through.

We made it through the month! Tomorrow is payday, but it's the check that comes when basically all of our bills are due and we take our monthly cash from. I only foresee one large expense in July, and that is that we need a new bathtub. I will never understand why, the prior owner/house flipper spent gosh knows how much to put tuscan tile all around the shower walls and floor...but not replace a 30 yr old ugly tan acrylic bathtub with scratches and a big pressure bubble in the middle? Which has now cracked. We've been sealing it with silicone for about 6mos..but it just isn't lasting. The bath fitter guys are supposed to come Monday evening for an estimate. (crossing my fingers it's not high)

The end of the first month we have budgeted is starting to close in. I managed to 'over-budget' it a little. so unless anything unexpected happens, our 'free spend' money will still have 102.00 left in it. It is going to go on top of our next debt...the medical bill. Father's day is coming up and we've decided to cap off each our Father's gifts at $30.00. We did this with our Mothers in May anwe managed to get some nice little things.

Please tell me, what is it with 20-something guys and planning?! My DH was invited to a very good friends bachelor party this weekeend TODAY. Yes, this weekend, 4 days away. The 'event' includes a stretch limo, night at the clubs, and an in-town hotel with service....all expected to pay for themselves and chip in for the bachelor of course! We should have seen this coming but these are all people who live very paycheck to paycheck and never can afford anything...I really didn't think it would be so extravagant. I'm bumming, but can't deny him a night out with his friends. I have offered to pick him up at 1am so he can get out of the hotel part though!

Well, we got paid today and I was able to pay off our $700.00 best buy card, with $400.00 leftover to go into savings!! I am super excited that the plan is working. I am even more excited that I have one less bill to remember to pay every month. I have a feeling we will be doing a little more spending this month (very busy with company) then usual but we still met our goal of paying off a debt.

Yesterday we went 140 miles (round trip) to my sisters for my BIL's B-day. It cost us less then $6.00 in gas. You can't beat that with a stick! Our bike is owned outright and the insurance is only $30.00 a month. Too bad it wasn't summer year around here.

and it's WORKING! We are doing the cash envelope system..and I even brought a calculator with me to get groceries. That hasn't happened since I was a poor teenager. For some reason I did get some sort of satisfaction out of paying for groceries and gas with cash. I figured I would feel like someone on welfare (you know the types with so much debt owed to the world the don't put money in the bank because they have so many overdraft fee's?). That didn't happen though. I felt like I had more money then when I used plastic.

I didn't blog at all last week. We had some deadlines at work.
I am very pleased to say though that when we get paid Friday, we will have our 3 months income in savings!!
This means we will be able to start snow-balling the plan to have our wedding, septic, hospital bill, and TV paid off by January 2010. The student loans and SUV are the goal for 2010, hopefully along with having our first baby.

It has taken me some work to convince my husband to do this. He is a saver and is all about money in the bank not about paying on debt. I had to tell him (in great detail) how much MORE we can save by not paying interest and payments on all these things over the next 5 years. June 12th, is the official snow-ball start date. We're very excited to see how quickly we progress for motivation! I may stop by the library and get Dave Ramsey's book....can anyone tell me if I can learn alot from it? Other then the budgeting and dumping all extra money into debt that I already plan on?

We had a very productive weekend. Got the rest of the wood stacked and cleared where the new septic is going to go. We also got the chain link dog fence moved out of the way (not fun when the posts are cemented in). Tonight we have to move some of our driveway edging and it will be ready to go! Can't wait for it to be over. I've already paid $5.96 of spare change onto the loan
I think that minus gas this week, we can make it through with little to no extra spending. There are no trips into town planned as I got the staples yesterday. That helps

Well, I'm very happy to realize that my husband and I will receive three paychecks this month (paid bi-weekly). This gives us an entire extra paycheck to put toward some big expenses coming up. I will be able to get some body work done on my car. I had a minor accident with the garage door back in March when we were unloading a generator. I had let it go due to this seemingly minor accident costing $600.00 to have fixed. (note to self: learn auto painting skills so I can make $60.00+/hr). We will also have no problem paying $1,500.00 for the septic out of pocket.

Looking ahead...I see this wonderful phenomenom of three paydays in one month is going to happen once more in July, and possibly October. Bye-Bye Hospital Debt and T.V. Debt! We will also meet our goal of having 10k in savings. Good Lord willing and the creek doesn't rise of course.

Yesterday we made it through the day without spending one cent. I love these days! They usually involve staying home and getting caught up on house-work and yard-work. I am faxing the estimate for our new septic system to the bank today. I guess the contractors will be here by the end of the month to do it. 6k from the bank and $1500.00 out of pocket for us. Yuk. Unfortunately it's something that has to be done and at least we won't have to worry about replacing it again for years to come. We have vowed this will be the last time we take out a loan as long as we can help it! Not a very good start to getting out of debt.....but we don't have much choice.

So it began....I have decided after having read others blogs on www.savingadvice.com for the past month that I should start my own, and document our getting out of debt journey. It's been a long and bumpy road that We started with our bonues check in March. We paid off $1,600.00 in Credit card debt and a $3,400.00 student loan. Wow did that feel great. To date: we have $950.00 owed on a flat panel T.V., $1,000.00 owed on a hospital bill that are our next goals...eventually moving on to $8,400.00 for our wedding, $6,000.00 for our new septic, and $9,000.00 in student loans. Eventually we will tackle my SUV payment and mortgage...but those will come with time. Wish me luck!