Two months str8 being on time, and 3rd time proves to be the charm in breaking that record. Anyhoo, lets get to the meat and potatoes:

Here is where I was 6/8/08:

Here is where I am as of 7/8/08:

1. William & Fudge. Last month $2,426.81. Now I owe $2,276.81.

2. Direct Student Loan. Last month $7,336.31. Now I owe $7,250.40.

3. Target Visa (+ Federal Taxes). Last month I owed $8,445.19. Now I owe $7,764.96.

4. Sallie Mae. Last month $23,192.30. Now I owe $23,061.73.

Grand totals: Last month I was $41,400.61 in debt. Now I am $40,353.90 in debt.

In the last 30 days I have paid down $1046.71.

Something is terribly off in my figures this month and honesly, I'm too tired to try to figure it out or even care @ this point. It's been a LOOOOONG month. Not sure if it's purely the dog days of summer getting to me, the fact that I'm fast losing interest in Job#2, I'm feeling stuck, @ a stalemate, unmotivated, etc, but I'm just over it right now.

I didn't add this into the overall picture, though it counts. I transferred $950 from Target to a 1.99% promo w/my Wamu Visa. That will be paid off before the rate resets in February by paying $118.75/mo for the next 6 months. The interest is a few bucks, I'll get more specific about this in another post, but after crunching the #'s, I'll save about $100-150 in interest charges w/that move.

Why the numbers just DON'T freaking add up, if I add back in the $880 that is currently owed on that card, which remember originally comes from Target, I end up being in MORE debt this month than last month.

I'm hoping by August 8th, thing's will fall back into place, I'll see the change in monthly finance charges for Target, but most importantly, I'll get my motivation mojo back :\

So I get bal trans checks for 1.99 APR thru Feb 2009 from my paid in full Wamu Visa card. I'm not sure if I should bite. The credit limit on that card is $1k and right now, it doesn't see to be much of a dent to anything. The worst I'll be doing is spreading my debt across yet another card and I'm thinking of putting it onto the Target Visa.

If I do that and knock the balance down by $1265.00 this month, I did the number crunching and the finance charges will dip from $145/mo to about $124/mo. Not a huge drop, while I'll have to pay $145/mo from July to Jan to get the card paid off in time.

So my minimum payment on Target my drop by $100 and I'll know pay 1.99% on 1k of debt vs. 19.24 for 7 months. Even the time it'll take to do the math doesn't feel to be worth it so for now, I think I'll pass.

I have till 7/30 to use the checks.

- Numbers don't lie, finally did a budget and um, yikes! - Lean months are coming - Going back to school?? - Taking a step back to see what I have accomplished so far

Tackling the remaining topics I left dangling

1. Numbers don't lie, finally did a budget and um, yikes.

After getting up the nerve to see why my cc balance was moving so slow, I got up even more nerve to look @ my spending. Having reached a key point in the year, the first quarter, I had 4 full months of statements to tally. It was painful, it was shameful and more than the final amount of debt I owed, 2 months since doing it, I can say it has been the most significant thing to have turned me around for the better.

See, I always had a vague idea of what I was spending but didn't realize how obscenely above my means I was living. The allure of plastic kept me in denial and in the dark. I mean I could be in the negative dollar wise, but so long as my card had room, still manage to charge up a couple hundred dollars in clothes and shoes.

Did I mention shame?

I did it all in an Excel spreadsheet making a category for each expense. Then I made a new sheet w/my income from job #1 only and all the expenses. I was in the red and bleeding badly. I trimmed all the "non essentials" still in the red. How the hell was I doing this? Two words, credit cards. I was using the paid off ones and paying them in full, leaving myself w/less overall money.

At that point, I took out every single credit card out of my wallet and put them in a drawer. As of this today, I only walk w/2 pieces of plastic. My debit card and my rewards card for gasoline purchases only.

I kept trimming and trimming and if I cut out ALL non essentials and budget my food, I could make it. I won't be happy, but I'd make it. The final step was to see how much I net from job #2 on average. While I never wanted to be financially dependent on it, I came to a happy medium.

In my current budget, I have enough to pay the minimums on my debt. That allowed me to shift Target card payment to job#2 and use the "extra" $265 to pay off the smaller debts. Whatever extra I net from job# will also go towards it and this serves 2 purposes.

It gives me a bit of breathing room in my monthly budget, yet if something happens to my hours @ job#2, the main job will still cover me and that'll just be a "lean month". When hours are plentiful, I'll pay off the smaller debts that much sooner and have even more money to pay down the Target card.

Which brings me to...

2. Lean months are coming

Oh how I kvetched when the reality of my situation kicked in. It wasn't fair! How can I live like this? The horror the horror. But as wounded as I felt, I also felt a bit of relief and dare I say, control. For the first time in like ever, I knew, raw #'s knew, what brought in each month and what went out.

It's been a little over 2 months since I decided to take better control. This debt pay down journey has been a long time coming, hard sloughing, and I still have a ways to go to get to where I want to be. I can't say that I'm on a budget or spending plan or whatever. I can't say I'll go bare minimum on money I can control like food. But I can say I have stopped the bleeding by not using cc's only to pay it in full @ months end and I am more aware of what I have allotted to each expense.

The last Excel sheet I created was to trim down my expenses to the most necessary, there is still room to cut, and each month I plug in what I have and the numbers in little box @ the top tell me if I am ok, by staying black, or showing up in red, meaning I am overspending. I have also taken to posting my debt in advance in MS money so even when my online acct says I have a few hundred, I tend to remember the amount MS money projects me to have till I get paid again.

3.Going back to school??

Uh. Yes. I took the plunge and applied and now have to finish my song and dance routine to get in. Long story short, if I go back now, I *may* get a job in my chosen field or internship or something that I can use while in school vs. waiting to pay off all my debt and try to go back later. I am going to do community college route first, to get all major and minor course out of the way for cheaper, then get my BA at the 4 year school.

The biggest part is, I'm paying as I go. Even if it means taking 1 or 2 classes each semester till my finances and employment situation changes, so be it.

4. Taking a step back to see what I have accomplished so far...

I started to write about this b/c I was getting depressed by the enormity of my situation and realized I needed to take a step back to really grasp @ where I am. I was going to do it every quarter, but when I got out the spending pattern and the lean months wrapped around my brain, I started trying to pick up as many extra shifts as possible @ job#2, which explains the times I don't post as much here.

Now it'll be a mid way report and I'll try to pick it up again in 3 months and from then on out, do it quarterly.

This last clifhanger will be addressed @ the end of the month.

Back in May I said there were a few topics I was going to tackle in coming weeks:

- Compound Interest is kicking my ass - Numbers don't lie, finally did a budget and um, yikes! - Lean months are coming - Going back to school?? - Taking a step back to see what I have accomplished so far

Naturally, I have forgotten the major points of said teasers, so this'll be easier than I thought. I'll be able to wrap this all up in one post.

*****

1. Compound Interest is kicking my ass

I didn't full grasp the evils of compound interest till I mused my Target bill and it's ever so slow downward creep. It seemed like I was paying interest on interest. Feeling frustrated and like I busted a credit card doing something sue-worthy, I opened up calculator and tried to crunch the numbers I never touch. The ones behind the scene. What I found out, floored me.

Looking @ my 3/5/08 statement, my previous balance was $9,323.79, w/a minimum due of $262.83. I paid 262.93 and made a mental note my next bill would be around $9,060.86.

It was actually $9,205.81.

Curious as to why I was so off base, I looked @ the bottom of the statement. In the purchases box (mind you I don't use the card) I saw a "purchase" charge for $145.00. It was labeled finance charges. I felt sick. For that amount of loot, I could've walked into Target and gotten myself $145 worth of stuff.

Taking a deep breath, I did some googling. That was the day I learned about compound interest.

I opened up my 4/5/08 statement. Previous Balance, $9205.81. Paid $265. Finance Charges $153.03.

It felt like for every two steps forward ($265 payment) , I was talking a step back ($265 -$153 finance = $112 actually paid).

Now I can't get too upset w/myself. The way I structured my debt pay off, to go from smallest to largest was for a valid reason. I need the mental hooray that comes w/each debt I knock out.

I know myself, had I attempted to pay this card off first, I'd still be paying it down, granted there'd be a considerably smaller balance maybe in the 3k range, but I'd also have 8 other mini debts nipping @ my heels. Visually, I like focusing on 4 debts, so while I an gripe, I am realistic and used my energy to figure out this money maker worked for Target and it goes a little something like this:

Average daily balance x daily interest = monthly finance charge

Got it?

How do they figure daily interest you say? Easy. see that annual % rate, mine is a tasty 19.99%, you take that and divide the # of days in the year, this case 365.

That gives me 0.054767123287671232876712328767123%, let's say 0.05476% for short, as my daily interest.

Now take the average daily balance, in my case $9,014.65 and multiply it by 0.05476% (be sure to hit the % key) it'll give ya 4.93642234, lets just say 4.94. Which really means $4.94 in daily interest. Finally, we multiply that by the days in the billing cycle, 31 and voila, $153.14 in interest. Just wow.

Learning that tidbit, has made me extra focused on paying off this debt and made me check out the interest on what I have left. Granted my student loan debt is simple interest and it makes more sense to pay the least amount of money possible, I am just @ the point where I'll just consider it a lesson learned and continue paying my debt smallest to largest.

It irks me that in a years time I'll have forked over $1800+ in just finance charges, but @ this point, it's a silly debate to have w/myself.

This was much longer than I intended, so here's another promise ;), I'll pick up the other 4 topics in a few days.

Twice in a row being on time, not too shabby. Ok, let's get to it.

Here is where I was 5/8/08:

Here is where I am as of today:

1. William & Fudge. Last month $2,576.81. Now I owe $2,426.81.

2. Direct Student Loan. Last month $7,425.99. Now I owe $7,336.31.

3. Target Visa (+ Federal Taxes). Last month I owed $8,710.19. Now I owe $8,445.19.

4. Sallie Mae. Last month $23,381.49. Now I owe $23,192.30.

Grand totals: Last month I was $42,094.48 in debt. Now I am $41,400.61 in debt.

In the last 30 days I have paid down $693.87. again, not a heckuva lot of progress. A chunk of April and May monies went to paying off bills in real time vs. putting them on my credit card to worry about later. I think this will be the last month (knock on wood) of bare minimum payments and I am hoping to rebound in July w/an attempt to @ the very least splith my smallest debt in 1/2.

Suprisingly ontime this month, considering the fact that every fiber of my being hurts, but I'm off tomorrow so it's all good right?

Here is where I was 4/8/08:

Here is where I am as of today:

1. William & Fudge. Last month $2,726.81. Now I owe $2,576.81.

2. Direct Student Loan. Last month $7,513.69. Now I owe $7,425.99.

3. Target Visa (+ Federal Taxes). Last month I owed $9,093.84. Now I owe $8,710.19.

4. Sallie Mae. Last month $23,542.20. Now I owe $23,381.49.

Grand totals: Last month I was $42,876.54 in debt. Now I am $42,094.48 in debt.

In the last 30 days I have paid down $782.06, resulting in not much progress. Or so it seems. Let me just say, compound interest is a bitch, more on that later.

In my defense, I can't always have stellar months where I pay off cards in full, it was exentuating circumstances the first few months of the year that helped me pay off the smaller debts, plus I had more motivation. Now I'm tackling the multi thousand dollar debts and compound interest is totally working against me. I also gave up on the third job last month, I had a HUGEEEEE tax bill to pay, I have car tags and insurance due, it was my mom's bday and mothers day, so the extra hundred of dollars that could've went to my debt had more pressing matters to attend to.

So it goes.

A few things I need to do and while I am HORRIBLE @ following up on my blog cilffhangers, I promise to try better.

- Compound Interest is kicking my ass
- Numbers don't lie, finally did a budget and um, yikes!
- Lean months are coming
- Going back to school??
- Taking a step back to see what I have accomplished so far

Doing this 2 days early b/c I'm scheduled to work EVERY FREAKIN NIGHT this week...*ahem*

Here is where I was 3/8/08:

Here is where I am as of today:

1. Capital 1 Gold (+ GA Taxes). Last month $4,873.29. Today it is Paid in FULL!.

2. William & Fudge. Last month $2,876.81. Now I owe $2,726.81.

3. Direct Student Loan. Last month $7,603.81. Now I owe $7,513.69.

4. Target Visa (+ Federal Taxes). Last month I owed $8,940.81. Now I owe $9,093.84.

5. Sallie Mae. Last month $23,734.48. Now I owe $23,542.20.

Grand totals: Last month I was $47,883.20 in debt. Now I am $42,876.54 in debt.

In the last 30 days I have paid down $5,006.66, resulting in me paying off 1 more credit card and consequently, my GA Tax bill!!

Put it like this, when you do not see me updating this blog for weeks on end, I'm offline trying to make money...heh

I'm not sure what's up w/the Target balance of going up, I didn't make any purchases on the card, if anything, I was more likely to have been bleary eyed when I did the update last month. Oh well.

For some reason, I'm not feeling accomplished. Looking @ the numbers on paper, I can see something was done, I can grasp that 5k is nothing to sneeze @, yet I still feel like I'm not getting anywhere. I don't know exactly @ what point will I feel like I'm making progress, maybe when all cc's are paid off? when I have 1 student loan left? I dunno.

********

So I quit job #3, it was insane and I'll leave it @ that. No regrets nor any rush to find another job#3. I've just been taking it easy the last 2 weeks, enjoying a few days a week off and as of last week, decided to open up my availability for job# 2 and as much as that place irks me, it's pretty much a no brainer to just show up and get my job done.

Plus for better mental health, I've changed my time to leave @ 9pm Mon - Thurs, Friday nights I'll stay till whenever, plus I don't mind going in on Friday, traffic is off the wall, why not get paid right? On the weekends, I work till 2pm. This week, being my first since the change, I have 25 hours which is pretty good, and I'm off on Saturday.

Does it cut into my overall plan, just a bit, but again, my goal is do pay an extra $500/mo to existing debt an as you can tell from last month, I exceeded that goal by $4,000...hee!!

One more thing that soured my mood a bit, is that I lost out on some ad money last month. The good thing is, I never rely on that money, it's always in addition to what I make @ job #2 so on paper, it's no biggie. I also got a smaller ad, so I didn't completely lose out on much.

********

One last note on payments, I made a strategic decision to pay off the capital one gold card before the smaller debt. Reason being, that debt has no interest. Matter of fact, interest is the main reason I cleared out an old acct to pay off that card. @ the start of the year, I was earning 5% interest, and this week it went down to 2.96%. That day, I also happened to open up my cc acct and checked the monthly finance charge.

You know where this is going right?

I'd have been a dope to keep holding onto that $1,500 and earning about $3/mo when that 5k in debt was costing me $65/mo. I totally feel the same way about the Target debt. I cringe when I see how much interest I'm doling out, so the new plan will continue. Pay that off as soon as I can, and pay the minimum on the W&F loan, which if I keep @ the minimum payment of $150/mo, will be paid in full by Sept of next year.

********

Yet, I'm still all blah. I think I know what the prob is, while I'm working so very hard to become debt free, I have pending debts that can't be avoided, 2008 Taxes, state and feds (due in April); car registration, car emissions, insurance renewal (all due in May); tires, tune up, hair care (flexible I guess) and a few more things, so guess what kind of catch 22 I'm stuck in?

Either use existing cash to pay the new debt, or pay off the cc and end up putting the new debt back onto the paid in full cc. Ugh. Yea, that's what's been sticking in my craw for the last few days.

It has helped me reevaluate much of what I'm currently doing, I haven't been being super strict w/myself in terms of my finances. I can possibly squeeze more money out of my daily spending to set aside for the upcoming debt. I can pick up extra hours from job#2. If I can avg 25 hours/week for the rest of this month, I can get $700 and use 1/2 of that to take care of the car, still leaving $350 to pay down on debt and I can try to eek out and extra $150 from my main money (job #1), which if I tighten the spending belt, may be doable.

We'll see. Stranger things have happened to me, who knows. Maybe that fairy debtmother will shine her light and give me the 43k I need to make the rest of my debt completely disappear.

Had I posted this on the 8th, my mood would be very diff't. I'm in a pretty big funk lately. Things are NOT going good on the home front, I'm tired, I feel myself getting depressed. I started doing some "extra" shopping and don't even get me started on my eating and weight. It's been a long day and an even longer week so while i have time, I'll update where I am debtwise. Here is where I was 2/8/08:

Here is where I am as of today:

1. Old Navy Card. Last month I owed $432.86. Today it is Paid in FULL!

2. Toyota Car Loan. Last month I owed $1805.40. Today it is Paid in FULL!

3. William & Fudge. Lasst month $3,026.81. Now I owe $2876.81.

4. Capital 1 Gold (+ GA Taxes). Last month $4,873.29. Now I owe $4,727.29.

5. Direct Student Loan. Last month $7,690.45. Nw I owe $7,603.81

6. Target Visa (+ FederalTaxes). Last month I owed $9,205.81. Now I owe $8,940.81.

7. Sallie Mae. Last month $23,897.83. Now I owe $23,734.48.

Grand totals: Last month I was $50,723.33 in debt. Now I am $47,883.20 in debt.

In the last 30 days I have paid down $2840.13, resulting in me paying off 1 credit card and my car loan. Like I said earlier, I was way more pumped when the car was paid in full, but my mood is so blah now. I was driving today, heading to the mall for some moderate retail therapy, when it hit me, this is how it begins. I stop caring, it feels like too much work, it's so hard, I'm getting depressed and I tune out for a few months.

The fact that I told myself just come home and get the stuff updated and actually sat here doing just that for the last 1/2 hour means a lot. I'm sure things will be better in coming days and by then I'll be more in the mood to blog about money and debt.

Re: my cat, the grief is still there, but I'm feeling bette. We are looking into becoming a foster home for cats/kittens that need nurturing. Doing that in a way to guard my heart from what happened, not ready for the permanent replacement just yet. Also, I do have an idea of the cat I want next and until it shows up, this is a way to fill the hole in my heart and bring some kitten antics back into the house.

********

Now onto my debt.

What I am going to do, from now till the final pay off date is, track my progress monthly. The graph on the right side of the site will change each month (hopefully downward motions only...lol). In the blog part, I'll break down where I was and where I am. Also in the far right column, I have a quick and dirty cheat sheet of debt. Ok, here is where I was 1/8/08:

Here is where I am as of today:

1. PayPal Buyers Credit. Last month $112.50. Today it is Paid in FULL!

2. Capital 1 Visa. Last month $468.92. Today it is Paid in FULL!

3. Orchard Bank MC. Last month $1,027.70. Today it is Paid in FULL!

4. Old Navy Card. Last month I owed $683.44. Now I owe $432.86.

5. Toyota Car Loan. Last month I owed $2,057.68. Now I owe $1805.40.

6. Target Visa. Last month I owed $2,470.1. Now I owe $2,126.78.

7. GA Taxes. Last month I owed $2,183.74. Now I owe $2,183.74.

8. Capital 1 Gold. Last month $2,910.32. Now I owe $2,625.43.

9. William & Fudge. Lasst month $3176.81. Now I owe $3,026.81.

10. Federal Taxes. Last month $6,934.03. Now I owe $6,934.03.

11. Direct Student Loan. Last month $7,776.56. Nw I owe $7,690.45.

12. Sallie Mae. Last month $24,050.68. Now I owe $23,897.83.

Grand totals: Last month I was $53,121.83 in debt. Now I am $50,723.33 in debt.

In the last 30 days I have paid down $2,398.50, resulting in me paying off 3 credit cards. Now for some fuzzy math, bear w/me, this is a convoluted story, try to stay awake ;)

Back in January, I got "pre approved" for up to 10k @ 8.99% w/free balance transfer. Let me back up a bit more. When I first added up my GA Taxes, I must have missed a year, b/c I was off a few hundred bucks, actually owing bit over 2k and not the $1500 or so I thought.

Ok, so I'm getting these offers and then I get the tax bill and then I get a "convenience check" from Capital 1 Gold.

(There is much more going on behind the scenes, including 3 phone calls to the GA IRS, finding out one of the years went into collection, DESPITE the freaking fact that I already paid it and now I have to call them tomorrow and figure out why this all happened.)

Anyway, anyway my thinking was this: use the CC check to pay the tax bill then do a Balance Transfer to the new card.

Well, I ended up getting approved for $600 bucks. Yup. Before I knew it, $500 went to Cap 1 Gold. @ first I was pissed, but believe it or not, this all worked out for the greater good.

Remember the miscalculation on my part? (2k not $1500?)

Well I wrote out the CC check for the $1500 and mailed it on the 14th, bill was due on the 15th. After my 2nd call to the GA IRS, realizing it was over a week and no check posting, I went online and paid each year w/the cc.

By doing a balance transfer of $500, I was able to free up much needed space and the next day I went ahead and paid it off (that Juniper card will ONLY be used for car related purchases such as gas and oil changes, minor things I can pay in full each month).

*Whew*

Long story short, my cap 1 gold now has my GA Tax bill on it.

Now the next part of the story is, I felt my "true" debt didn't reflect the actual picture so I made a minor change to the chart and how I'll log things.

Target Visa card is the card w/the Federal taxes on it. I went ahead and removed the taxes from both credit cards. Each month I will report the pay down amounts separately. It won't be an exact science. Until the credit card part of the debt is paid off, I'll just leave the tax debt as is. All payments will simply count towards the older debt. Of course I'm not factoring in interest. When the cc part of the debt is paid off, I'll count the final payments on the same card, as tax debt. If that makes any sense @ all.

So now what? According to my overall breakdown for this year, updates in bold.

With that amount, @ the very least I'll pay off all the smaller credit cards:

PayPal Buyers Credit - (Paid in Full!)
Capital 1 Visa - (Paid in Full!)
Orchard Bank Card - (Paid in Full!)
Old Navy Card
Ga Taxes
Toyota Car Loan
Capital 1 Gold
and $1900.72 toward Williams and Fudge.

In the short term, that means over the for the next 10.5 months I need to pay off the Old Navy Card, Capital 1 Gold Target Visa*, Toyota Car Loan, GA Taxes and $1900 towards Williams and Fudge for a grand total of $8,448.78.

*since breaking out the tax debt from the cc's, the target visa balance was smaller than the cap 1 gold card.

********

Last thing, as this is my first full week w/o job #3 and I'm almost caught up on missing sleep. I started to reread a few entries and realize I left a few things hanging. I PROMISE. Tomorrow I am going thru all entries since the year started and conclude the cliffhangers.

Now that I've taken a chunk of my overall debt and spread it out over a 5 year period of repayment, I have to stay proactive and keep it front and center 24/7. I realized last spring/summer as the credit cards were being payed down, I started slacking, getting distracted, cocky even. So this year, I commit to posting monthly updates on where I'm at with the first fifth of my debt goal, $10,624.36.

With that amount, @ the very least I'll pay off all the smaller credit cards:

PayPal Buyers Credit
Capital 1 Visa
Old Navy Card
Orchard Bank Card
Ga Taxes
Toyota Car Loan
Capital 1 Gold
and $1900.72 toward Williams and Fudge.

God, if I can knock out 6 of 11 debts and *only* have student loans and taxes to deal w/for the next 4 years, I'll be pretty proud of myself.

Now how the hell am I going to pay 10624.366 in a year, easy, 885.36383333333333333333333333333 a month *snerk*

Seriously, here's what I'm thinking. So long as the 9-5 covers minimum payments, I need to make $500-600/mo in my 2nd and 3rd gig. I was netting a bit more than that in Nov and Dec, but hours are drying up and I personally cut back my availabilty. Working 80-90 hours for 2 months w/no days off meant I was heading for a burnout, I made a mental promise to take it easier in January, relax a bit trim my hours, being happy w/10 hours a week from Job #2 and 20 hours a week fro Job #3 and by February, I'll ramp things back up again.

Plus, I have been making a bit of extra loot on the side (more on that later) but herein lies my next obstacle, I am 3 days away from giving my 2 week notice on Job #3 [insert scary music now] and I don't quite have a back up plan to make up the money. I'm really doing this all on faith that something will come to me. I haven't been doing nothing, I have some leads and put my feelers out in the last week, but it's hard to get my resume and interview face on when I am working every night. One of the benefits on leaving is, I'll free up a few afternoons and hopefully I'll get another gig w/in 2 weeks or so. Oh and more on why I decided to walk away later too

In an effort to be 100% transparent and honest to myself, for the rest of this week I'm going to spell out exactly how much I owe, it burns me up I don't know my state taxes yet, where applicable, give a brief background on how the debt spiraled back out of control (specifficaly the credit cards)

As of today, I owe the following:

1. PayPal Buyers Credit (PBC) $112.50 out of $900.00
2. Capital One Visa (C1V) $468.92 out of $950.00
3. Old Navy Card (ONC) $683.44 out of $750.00
4. Orchard Bank (OB) $1,027.70 out of $1,1100
5. Capital One Gold (C1G) $2,910.32 out of $5000.00
6. Target RedCard Visa (TRV) $9,404.13 out of $9500.00

Card #1 - PBC $112.50

Logged into PayPal to make a purchase, took a chance in opening another line of credit, instead of getting the actual card, I got a line of online purchasing credit.

Card #2 - C1V $468.92

The majority of purchases on this card was made before I moved and a few household items.

Card #3 - ONC $683.44

Plain and simple, a lack of self control and thinking after all my "hard work", I "deserved" nice clothes. This after me spending the weekend of Black Friday returning almost $1k worth of clothes and goods. I vowed to myself, I have enough clothes and shoes to last me for a long while. Nothing, no matter how cheap it is is worth the hours I put in w/the part time jobs and when I really look @ how many hours, how much my feet aches to get a bi weekly check of about $250 if I'm lucky, and I can just charge up $150+ w/in 10 minutes, it makes me queasy.

Card #4 - OB $1,027.70

I thought I was doing the right thing by putting my food shopping on this card and paying it off in full each month by making $75/week payments. I had everything scheduled w/my online banking and must have missed the dates b/c the weekly payment stopped and next thing I know, the card is just about maxed out.

Add to it, a spontaneous order of a product I saw on TV, buying it for the house, back in Sept/Oct I was buying up a storm on household improvement items as you'll learn in later purchases, this is where I stand.

Card #5 - C1G $2,910.32

This card financed me moving, from renting the truck, to buying furniture for my room. It also fed me, despite buying food on the OBC, I started eating out more and more and more.

Card #6 - TRV $9,404.13

The bulk of the damage on this card came from buying a whole lotta clothes and household furnishings, then returning almost $800 worth to free up room to pay my federal taxes.

Ugly ugly ugly.

My plan of attack, is to go back to a tried and true method that worked for me in the past, the debt snowball. Working 2 part time jobs, I was able to put away a chunk of money to tide me over in the coming lean months as hours dry up and I may take a leap of faith and leave one job to find another that pays more. My modest goal is to continue to pay the minimum on all cards, while I throw @ least $500 to the smallest debt, then roll that over + the old minimum payment to the next highest.

Using that method alone, I shold have the C1V and the ONC card paid off in 2 months, and will then have $500 + $12 + $40 to add to the OBC and so on and so on.

********

On a positive note, I finished my first personal finance book of the New Year, truth be told, it didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, but it is a good reference and gave me some background insight on specific debt issues I had, like the federal taxes. Let's just say I'm glad I nipped it in the bud when I did, like I actually had a choice.

Next up, I'm going to give Suze Orman's new book a read. That book I got mainly to get the free $100 from Ameritrade. Even though it's an investment account and my funds are tight, I can put aside $50 a month. After 12 months, she gives you $100 reward, which is way more than I'd earn having $600 sit in a traditional savings account.

To be 100% DEBT FREE by January 1st 2013.

********

New year, new start and all that good stuff. I spent this week doing the hard work and by hard I mean taking pen to paper and reflecting on my finances for the last 3 months. There is no easy way to say this but, I blew it. Big time. I let my spending get out of control and deluding myself into paying off credit cards in full each month only caused me to spend more. I fell into a funk, other factors involved and just ignored my money problems and whipped out whatever card I could find first. I ended up having 3 ISFs to wachovia, due to not caring missing a due date and slapped w/a late fee and misc bank fees for ATMs usage not @ my home bank.

I've kicked my on ass so many times I'm now wearing it in front of me.

So now what?

First thing I did was get 4 books on money and debt @ various stages. Due to wachovia only seeing fit to refund me $51 of the $101, despite the fact in the 11+ years I have had the account, formerly w/SouthTrust, I did not have ISFs, I have decided to take my business elsewhere, ING Direct. The added benefit is that they pay me interest and offer me free overdraft protection, just in case.

I've been reading the first book, not quite following it to a tee, I'm too chicken shit to see my credit report right now, but I get mobilized.

Thursday, my first evening off in almost 2 full months, I printed all my statements from the last 3 months, banking and credit, and before I got online and aloofly plugged them into MS Money, I got a out my notebook, gave each category a page and plugged in my spending patterns. It was sobering and humbling.

It took me about a day to absorb, truly absorb how much I bring home, not including Jobs # 2 & 3, and how much I spend and to really see how I've been financing my lifestyle w/credit.

Then I took the categories and broke them out into 4 blocks. First bills, the ones I must pay or else, basically food, shelter, utilities, car and my loans and taxes.

Then secondary then third then 4th. When I broke out my spending and what I take in, I barely have enough money to cover my First bills, I have no idea how I managed to spend so much on secondary thru fourth-ary, expenses, yet I did. And that made me ashamed and queasy.

Today, my first full afternoon off in almost 2 months, I don't head into work till 7, I cleaned my room, cleaned out my purse, took all the credit cards out of my wallet and put them up, threw away the overtaxed wallet that is freakishly loose with only 2 bankcards and my DL and finally came online to update my wachovia acct, which hadn't been balanced since the end of Oct I think.

Now all my accounts are current and bills are paid. In the last week I also got a plain monthly calendar, for me to note when which bill is due, I plug them in 3 days early, since working so much I don't have much leisure time and ended up paying my capital one visa the day after it was due. When I went into wachovia to ask for a courtesy refund, I also got a blank check register to log my spending, which'll be used for my ING account, and I got a notebook to jot down my financial plans, like which bank account will be my emergency fund savings and which will be my long term.

I still don't feel good about my situation, I know I've taken steps in the right direction and can't change the past, but I still feel foolish about doing so good for the last year and now this. Then again, I was in denial about my tax bill for so long, I was only sorta doing goods so perhaps this is for the best.

As I stated in my first line of the year, I resolve to be 100% debt free in 5 years or less. In my head I think I'm about 50k in debt, including taxes, still havne't gotten the state ones back so it's a guesstimate. My financial goal is to pay off 10k in debt each year, divide by 12 you get the monthly amount, but I'll let that stay fluid since some months I'll be able to pay more and others I'll pay less.

I committ to putting @ least $500/mo to my current debt, as I pay the minimum on the rest and if I make over $500 that month, all excess will go towards it till it's paid in full and I roll over it's minimum payment + $500 to the next smallest debt and so on and so on the snowball goes.

More later this week, I want to catch 40 winks before I head out to work.

I should've known better than to balance my finances right before bed. My mind is reeling. I avoided even looking @ my money from about the end of Oct till today and totally up all I spent, on what I spent has me feeling so queasy, so embarrased, so dejected. I am tired, but not even sleepy.

I half caught myself thinking I should've went into Job #2 and worked the over night shift from 11pm to 6am after all and it hits me, the desire to call out sick today, from both jobs, I am in no position to do that right now or any time soon. The grueling nature of both jobs, the tiny amount of pay, the extreme hours, I can't even bring myself to count, I think I'll faint @ the reality, I am so screwed right now, if I wasn't so weary, I'd likely be crying.

As hopeless and low as I'm feeling right now, I have no intention to turning to my credit cards or wanton spending to cheer myself, or exorbitant eating out, b/c the 2 months of denial has not only gotten me way deeper in debt, I've also gained so much weight, the goddamn clothes I spent a fortune on don't fit. On a happier note, I also spent the last week of November returning stuff like mad and tried to keep the frame of mind that, if I didn't wear it, can't describe it, I won't miss it and I actually don't. Well I do miss one jacket that was really cute, but I'm glad it's gone.

In the bit of down time I do have, when I'm not napping between jobs, I've taken to walkign w/a notebook and just putting my overall plans to paper while they are fresh in my head. Also, when I got around to opening email to this account, I have some good things on the horizon, so while I could kick myself for being out of comission, I do have some things in the works.

Being that I have to get up in a few hours for the main 9-5, the following paragraphs will be really random.

********

To sum up how I'm working. I do the M-F 9-5. Thurs to Sat, I do 5-midnight & Sun 8am to 3 @ Job #2, a retail gig. The last few weeks I've averaged about 20 hours working 3 of the 4 days. There is a chance as we get closer to Xmas, I may max out @ the entire 4, I don't even want to know how many hours that is. Then Sun to Wed I work 5-10:15 @ Job #3, more food related, you can say I'm an order taker/preparer, but I never touch food ;) It's not fast food, it's actually an online food biz and I process orders. I like it most b/c the hours, on a good night I'm by 10:15, 10:30 the latest, which give me plenty of time to unwind and get to bed @ a decent hour and even watch an hour or so of a Netflix movie.

It's a strenous job, on my feet the entire shift, no formal break, I eat when it's slow and it can get hectic like tonight. I was told we processed, faxed/called in about 100 order in a little over an hour.

So that's my week, w/that job I work about 24 hours and what I like is my shift is my shift. W/job #2 the hours vary, not exactly set schedule and w/so many other people, or shall I say slacker, I'm always frustrated that people just won't do their job. On the plus, b/c I worked @ that store before and w/that company even before that, I got more than the usual "seasonal starting wage", I got my old rate.

The down is that I also spent a LOT of time and money shopping in the early days, I've been there over a month now, just got my 3rd check. But like I said earlier, I returned so much stuff it's not even funny. Put it like this, @ one point in November, my rewards card w/the store had me @ over 2k in points, I was pretty close to my limit as well. By last week, w/o even making a single payment, my points were down to $200 and I owed about $25. I almost made it a game of all the things I could return, a way to cheer myself up so I wouldn't feel so deprived I guess.

Now Job #3 has it's own perks, we have an "account" and can basically order whatever we want, @ a discount, but it comes out our check. I just told the mgr today, I've got to stop snacking so much, I mostly do b/c I don't get a break and spend 5 hours discussing all sorts of food in varying kinds, from sushi to mexican to steak and dammned loaded potatoes, I just break down.

Plus @ the house of remodeling hell, we still have no kitchen so I eat on the run when I can, and the mini fridge has been full w/o any of my own stuff. The ordering in will also change this week.

********

How long can I keep this up? What about school?

Well I still haven't heard back yay or nay from the school I applied to, they keep aps open for a year so even if it's late Spring/Summer vs. the start of '08, I'll be happy. Actually I plan to use that Sat AM/Afternoon I have free to take @ least one class and / or go online.

Given the choice, as crazy hectic as it is, I do like the variety. I hate retail more, it's just such a burned out beast, but 4 days @ one place, gives me enough time away my first day back I have a vague memory of the place, plus holiday time makes the night go quick and after Xmas, we go back to the sane closing time of 9pm, being out by 11pm, home by 11:30.

Job #3 pays crap, but after I've been there 30 days, they see my work ethic yada yada, I'm going to press for more money. Will I be wiling to walk away if not? I might.

The one thing I haven't done is mixed my monies. Job #2 goes to a diff't checking account and #3, until direct deposit kicks in, haven't even been cashed yet, but will also go that that checking account.

The other cool perk, I guess, is that I get paid every week. Actually, that' really is the saving grace. Job #2 is every other Wed, Job #3 is ever other Friday. But like I mentioned earlier, I am so freaking busy, I see the money in the acct, but haven't had time to start up my next debt snowball.

Back to school though. over the weekend I caught the documentary Maxed Out and one of the segments had a woman call Dave Ramsey and in debt he made a comment like, get a (nother) job, forget about school for now and pay off that bill.

Realistically I am not going to put off going back to school till all my debt is paid off b/c I'll be a li'l ole lady by that point, or not. But I am willing to push back my start date b/c 1) after the holidays, Job #2's hours will cut back, even if they keep me on and make me officially part time and while I'm running on adrenaline now and am hopped up on coca cola and iced coffees, @ some point I will be on fumes and I may just use the entire month of Jan to hibernate and catch up on sleep.

********

The ultimate irony of course, is that up till I started the 2 gigs, I had a pretty sizeable chunk o' change from online and for some odd reason that has gone done considerably. Matter of fact, when I get my energy and wits about me, I'm going to check to see if the extra money I make p/t is the same I'd been making online, wouldn't that be a lovely kick in the tuckus?

********

As far as my debt, tonight I got all my credit cards and bank accounts, except for wachovia, balanced and current. There are new minimum payments to be made, and by new I mean WAY MORE, so I'll have to figure that out again, my primary goal for working these two jobs was to net an extra $500/mo to pay off my debt. My main checking account from my 9-5 goes to pay my expenses as normal and my 2nd checking account gets all the deposits and the first of the following month, I make a $500 GET OUT OF DEBT payment to the first victim of my debt snowball. @ this point I don't even know who gets it, so the money is still in my account.

What if I make more than I planned? as I did last month? I dunno yet, I'm tempted to let it sit there to cover the month I may be short a bit, but I really don't know just yet.

********

Taxes, that too is holding me back. As of sometime last week, or maybe the week before, my fed taxes are PAID IN FULL and I HATE to think how much extra I paid both in fees and penalties for dragging it out so long and in futre interest for putting it on my credit card, but I just couldn't take the letters and while my EA was going to present me as an "uncollectible" I just wanted the drama over.

NOw the state taxes are still pending, we got that return out last Friday, he said it'll take about 30 days for me to get current in the system and he can see what I owe. So another kick, this time in the teeth is, say I pay off one of my credit cards, I may very well have to put all that tax debt back on it, but I'll worry about that stress when it hits.

********

So this weekend I was tempted to call out. I worked Fri till midnite, was actually off Thurs afternoon which I now cherish my days off, I just want to veg and actually enjoy my room and my cats, I got a new kitten last month. I went in @ 7-midnight Sat, after I spent the first 1/2 of the day actually putting up curtains and rearranging the room so I could actually get to the computer easily, hence me posting twice in day and reading email.

And Saturday AM/Afternoon is truly the only day I don't officially work a "double" Thursday was an unscheduled day, but again as we get close to Xmas, and I volunteer for more shifts, I could very well work all week.

And the store was a huge mess on Saturday, I'd love to rant about how customers tear up retail stores and whatnot, but why bother. So we worked our tails off, and by we and really mean this other girl I really like that works hard, we teamed up and both of us closed out 4 shops. I got home @ midnight, keyed up, talked to my mom for a bit, I think I watched a movie then tossed and turned till 2, b/c I had to be back @ work for 8 AM and work Job #3 later.

Oh how tempted I was to call in sick, I laid there and figured what'll I really make, when is my next day off, I really want to finish my room, do some laundry, go grocery shopping so I can stop eating out, update my blgos, sell some stuff online, read my email, freaking sleep, but part of my was like, you are almost 50k in debt (this was before balancing MS Money) you spent money like you were a socialite, you've been eating out every day, and the hard truth is, I am in no position to take the day off.

Don't get me wrong, I won't work myself till i drop, @ least I hope not, which is why I hate telling people offline my jobs, they start gasping and making all these negative remarks whereas right now I am super focused and need supportive, get it done feed back. But anyway I just felt like I did before, in a few weeks, I wont remember how much the day hurt, especially when I get the check, the last check from Job #2 was a little over $300 and I am pretty sure I bitched and moaned and someone pissed me off but seeing that money for the least hours I worked did my heart good.

And the next two week si the only time I can make the hours I make, in January on, I'll be lucky if I get 2 shifts/10 hours a week and even w/that I can make about $250/mo and pull the other 1/2 of my $500 goal from Job #3 and have more days off to boot.

So I guess all that to say, I can sleep in January.

********

This may be the last point/update/stream of thought, It's funny, when I drive in, I see the lotto sign climbing each week, over 100 mil and as much as I wish I could just win it, but am too lazy to make it into a gas station and buy a ticket, part of working so much is just my way, like if I had that much dough, for sure all my debts would vanish, but what would I do w/my day, what would my purpose be? I guess I've spent so much of my adult/working life in debt, paying debt, dealing w/debt, it's just who I am. Right now I am working to pay it off and perhaps, just perhaps, I got too close, I sabatoged myself, so I'd have something to "do" w/myself and now I work as much to keep busy, as a punishment too if truth be told, but also b/c it just feels right, in some twisted way.

I don't want to do it, I pretty much hate doing it, I've resigned myself to doing it, yet, I feel I can't not do it either. It's weird, I'll keep thinking it throught, but now it's quarter after 2 and I hope the mocha frap has finally worn off.

My story/experience falling into Capital One's Credit Trap.

A few years back having fallen on hard times, Capital One and Orchard bank for that matter, were the only people offering me credit cards. The first one I had w/Capital One. I believe the credit limit was $300-$400 and then settled in @ around $750.

For as long as I had them till recently, I carried balances on that card. I had went back to school and was using it for books and emergency tuition payments. One week, my old car needed lots of work. Just in the nick of time, I checked the mail and got an offer for the current Capital One Gold card. The credit limit was either $1000 or $1500. Enough to get the repairs done.

I continued to carry a balance on that card as well, noticing the closer I got to owing the full amount, they'd either raise my limit a few hundred bucks or send me offers for new cards.

Too gun-shy to get rejected, my credit was really shot, I just ignored those offers, ripping them up before I gave into temptation. I did however use more money when they upped my credit. Luckily, the one thing I did right was, continue to pay the bill each month. It may have been the minimum, some months it was may have been more, but I always paid.

Now that reached the end of credit card debt, I've been looking ahead a bit and will one day work to clean up my credit report. As I searched for credit related info, I found a few stories on how my experience w/capital one wasn't that unusual, matter of fact it was by design.

The idea is, to give people w/limited credit, 4-5 cards w/low balances. Why? Well, if they default on 1, it's only $29 late fee, but if they default on 5, you do the math. Ka-Ching!

That is so disgusting to me. Yes I know people have a choice and no one forces them to sign up for, much less accept, more credit cards. But shouldn't there be some sort of built in system where Jane/John Doe are not allowed to get further in debt b/c it's almost always a given that once they juggle payments on 5 cards, all it takes is one ball to drop for it all to come crashing down?

I dunno, being new to being credit card debt free, I'm extremely sympathetic to others. Like overeating and the abundance of food, there is so much pressure to spend spend spend.

In my current financial situation, I tend to put blinders on when I go out to face the world. Besides, most things I want, I can't afford. But it's not that simple for everyone. Between the TV, movies, radio, magazines, newspapers, we are over stimulated to spend and eat. And if anyone doubts advertising work, just take a look @ the amount of overweight, in debt people walking around.

So I got a bit spoiled this month. Nothing too bad or out of control, but I ended up using the money that would've gone towards paying off the car loan ASAP on...stuff.

Firstly it was my godsons birthday, then I just needed to stock up on household and personal items and lots of stocking up on healthy eats that I'm now more health conscious, instead of buying 2 fers that are loaded w/refined carbs and HFCS, I'm opting for $3 for 3 lemons. You get the idea.

Anyhoo...I had allocated making an extra $500 payment to the car this month, but I'll now need to use that to pay off my already paid off credit card...lol...odd I know. I don't put more than I can pay off on any one card in a given month. And I only charge things I'd end up paying cash for anyways, like gas, groceries...etc. Nothing frivolous and aside from my godsons Birthday and my DVDs, I've been a good girl.

It's not catastrophic by a long fall...I'm pouting a bit b/c now I'm a bit off in paying back the car quickly, but I'll catch up again. Plus all I did, I enjoyed, liked, wanted. No harm no foul.

I also think I needed a mental break from the PAY IT DOWN NOW mode I've been in since November thru February. After falling off the wagon so to speak, I'm ready to get strict again.

After I pay off the car, a few things I'd like to work on:
- Setting up a gift fund, where I put aside say $20/mo. That's almost $250 in a year and more than enough to cover bday functions. My godson is really the only person I'll do something for.

- Setting up a grocery budget. Since I've put buying clothes on hiatus, I tend to spend my extra shopping hours in the grocery store. Which in and of itself isn't bad. But I'm also constantly playing w/meal plans so now that I have one I plan to stick w/for the next few months, I need to go twice a week, once on weekend once midweek and I need to take it easy @ the Farmers Market. I go nuts when I see all the fresh produce and it only lasts but so long.

- I need to budget period. I don't have much monthly bills, like gas, electric, cable etc. All my bills are fixed, so I need to do a better job of paying the fixed (actually I do an excellent job @ that) but I need to do a better job of managing the money that's left over so I'm not 1) putting 100% of it towards my next debt, then feeling deprived till I get funds again or 2) spending the extra b/c I'm no longer paying off credit card bills.

*whew*

Ok, things feel a bit clearer now. So yea. To sum it up, I went out of control. Regained control. Need a game plan for the future future.

Laters.

Two weeks ago, I read how Capital One preys on people who are near the limit on their credit cards, by offering them, even more credit cards.

Cap One's Credit Trap

By offering multiple cards, the lender helps land some subprime borrowers in a deep hole and boosts its earnings with fee income.

I'll post my thoughts/experiences w/that in a few days.

Lately, and I'm not sure if this is due to me paying them off so quickly, but I get tons of "Use this check" blank checks from them.

But it's not just them.

Every year, Toyota sends me a note that for being such a good customer, I can skip my next months payment, presumably to pay off holiday bills, and something about that payment will just be tacked on to the end. I'd much rather them be nice on the phone when I call, but that's an old post from an old day.

And every year, I ignore that sweet nothing whispered in my ear and just pay my bill. As good as it sounds, I can't help but feel it'll only bite me in the butt later.

So it was/is really hard for me to clear out monies to pay off my credit cards. I knew I'd do it, but I was very reluctant. I much rather have the money sit there so I can look @ it...just in case...*shrug*

So for this final pay off, I had to play a game w/myself so it wouldn't feel as overwhelming.

Every other day I'd transfer a set amount of $'s into my checking account and then the next morning, pay that same amount to the card.

It also helped spur me to action the day I saw the monthly on that $3000 balance was costing me each month, $45-$55! :O

vs.

The piddling $2.50-$5.00/quarter in the savings account.

That really what tipped the scales so to speak.

Besides, w/Capital One having a slogan of "What's in your wallet?"

At the end of this year, I'd like to smirk back, "Cold. Hard. Cash."

Wonder if that one will win me any contests.

lol

Just checked my account and got the $5.47 credit. Also called to cancel, again. May this merry-go-round finally cease.

I originally stated

Going forward, I'll update my monthly progress after the 15th. All my statements end the end of the month and the two capital one cards ends around the 7th.

Being that my credit cards are now paid in full (bwah!) this is my final update!! (booyah) In it's place, and the new category I alluded to, will be the Loan Repayment Progress Chart (boooo!)

Here's the credit card progress chart from December 06:

Here's my January progress:

Thanks for the memories...NOT!

Curious to see what my savings would be over the course of paying off my credit card debt, I used CNNMoney.com's trusty debt reduction planner calculator. Say that 5 times fast. ;)

First up, if I pay the minimum of $92/mo:

3 years and 11 months?!?! Booo!!!

Now that the other credit cards are paid in full, what'll happen if I rollover those payments and add it to Capital One Golds $92/mo for a $170/mo minimum?

1 year & 10 months???? Meh!

So what'll happen if I not only rollover all those payments and tack it on to the Capital One Gold minimum, but I also add my $236 10% snowball...

9 months??? Okay okay okay...

So how about this? What if I add up the rollovers, the $236 10% snowball AND I toss in all recent bonus monies?!?!?

Why, I come up w/this:

Huzzah!!

As promised, as of today January 31st 2007...I am now 100% Credit Card Debt Free! It's been a long slough, in coming days I'll regale you all w/tales of the debt pay off. Later I plot the loans pay off, for now, I dance.

Oh, and b/c it always helps to accompany credit card pay off posts w/the obligatory money shot...here it is:

I update my credit card progress on or around the 15th.
Here's the debt chart from November 06:

Here's the credit card progress chart from November 06:

Here's my December progress:

The minimums are as follows:

Rollover minimums from 3 paid off cards: $96
Capital Gold: $89
Total Minimum: $185

My 10% snowball is $236.84.

Towards the end of the month, I'll update the debt chart to the right and post the numbers for the other 4 debts: Williams & Fudge, Toyota, Sallie Mae and Direct Loans. The last day in each month I'll post my revised Net Worth.

I've done the deal.

As of today, I've paid off 3 credit cards:

Target
Orchard Bank Mastercard
Capital One Visa

I may not have been ready, but I bit the bullet and got it done. What does this mean in the long run?

A few things.

The minimums now get added to the 10% snowball, $236.84 ,and all go towards the Capital One Gold card.

The minimums are as follows:

Target: $48
Orchard: $27
Capital Visa:$21
Capital Gold: $89

Making Decembers payment $421.84. Not a bad chunk of change. On that card, I have 2 more majorly necessary purchases to make. I knew they were coming and while I've been stalling on getting the work done, I'm just going to get it over with. That'll make that card go up a couple hundred dollars this month, but that will be the last charges I make till the big payoff.

Man, if I can end the year credit card free, can you imagine? It's like the antithesis of the season. Now's the time people go into debt up to their eyeballs and worry about it in January. I have the chance to just have loans to focus on the 07. That'll be a great day! :)

There's no value in resenting what must be completed. Just get it done, and then there will be nothing to resent. Don't waste your time worrying that something will go wrong. Just get started, and cross each bridge as you come to it.

Stop looking for excuses and reasons to put it off until later. Focus instead on the real value that will flow from making it happen right now.

Instead of seeking to avoid effort, look for how you can put real joy into that effort. Imagine choosing to get it done and really meaning it.

Be delightfully free of the unfinished business that follows you around and holds you back. Get busy and get it done.

Add energy to your moments as you transform your burdens into blessings. Choose right now to get it done. - Ralph Marston

God, I could bold the entire text in those words of wisdom.

That said, last night I paid off the Target Card ($427) and Orchard Bank Mastercard ($692.77).

*big gulp* and I don't mean the 7/11 drink ;)

This payment is the 10% snowball monies ($236.84) + bonus monies I made in Oct/Nov, I still have to tally it all up to see if I have some more I can put towards the next credit card debt, Capital One Visa.

Starting next month, the minimums I was paying to these too expired cards, $48 + $27, will now rollover to the Visa card, for a whopping December minimum of $332.84 ($48 + $27 + $21 + $236.84)

Also coming in December, I'll start logging the bonus monies I net.

Here's where the credit card debt gets scary, it's in the thousands. See Target, Capital One Visa and Orchard, all gives me a sense of, it's not that bad, it's under a grand. Then I see this card, and want to puke.

They also recently raised my credit limit. Double!

From $2500 to $5000, not sure what I did to warrant that uptick, but I got it.

As of this posting the owed amount is: $3,027

I will update this post as I pay down on this debt. A caveat, I forewarned this card will be going up in the shorterm.

12/15 - I have 5 more short term charges for this card. 2 more vet visits, oil change & wash, tires, tune up. I should have these short term charges completed w/in a month. From January 15th on out, the only transaction on this card will be, pay offs!

I currently owe $2,863

1/31/07 Update: This card is has been paid in full!

Following Capital One Visa, is my Orchard Bank Mastercard. According to their site, I've been a Valued Cardmember Since 2001. Bwah! Anywhoo, another card I came periously close to paying off, till I lost my damn mind. They also raised my credit limit from last summer. I think it was $700, and is now $1000. I think they smelled a big payoff coming and got scared. Heh

As of this posting the owed amount is: $693

I will update this post as I pay down on this debt.

11/24/06 Update: This card is has been paid in full!

Going forward, I'll update my monthly credit card payoff progress after the 15th. Two statements come in @ the end of the month and the two capital one cards comes in around the 7th.

Here's the credit card progress chart from October 06:

Here's my November progress:

The minimums are as follows:

Target: $48
Orchard: $27
Capital Visa:$21
Capital Gold: $89

My 10% snowball is $236.84. That + $48 will go to Target, the rest will get the minimum.

Towards the end of the month, I'll update the debt chart to the right and post the numbers for the other 4 debts: Williams & Fudge, Toyota, Sallie Mae and Direct Loans. The last day in each month I'll post my revised Net Worth. Or in this case, shall I say Net Lack...heh

Are we havin' fun yet? *groan*

Continuing the tale of my debt, next up we have Capital One Visa. Hmmm...I've had this card for about 5 years now. Credit limit started about $500 and is now, $950. Meh.

If you've read this blog for more than a few months, you'll know my dirty little secret. [small voice] I paid this card off months ago. [/small voice]

So how'd I wind up back in the hole for the same amount?

I moved and lost my freakin' mind.

Ah well, that was then, this is now.

As of this posting the owed amount is: $698.73

I will update this post as I pay down on this debt.

11/24/06 Update: This card is has been paid in full!

Kicking off the series of "what my debt is" posts, I present you my Target Card. By far my favorite store in the whole wide world, alongside IKEA, Old Navy & The Gap.

Target is my first credit card in about 4 years, I didn't think they'd give it to me, but on a whim, figuring I had nothing to lose and @ the time buying enough big ticket items for cash, I went for it, got it and 10% off.

My starting limit was $200 and about 2 months later, they raised it to $500.

As of this posting the owed amount is: $427.00

I will update this post as I pay down on this debt.

11/24/06 Update: This card is has been paid in full!

No time like the present to dust off an old category. Let's all hope this go round, I make it longer month 8 eh? AND I don't relapse...*snort* Bringing this monthly feature back, I've also revamped the chart. Included on it is ALL my debt car loan and 3 student loan payments. I feel more honest doing it this way...patting myself on the back for nearing paying off my credit cards was 1/2 hearted as I always knew in the back of my mind there was more. Way more.

As I'm restarting, this month'll be just where I'm at. Next month the compare & contrast fun begins!

Here's the debt chart from October 06:

The green arrow is the debt I'm paying off first.

Here's my standing in spreadsheet format:

The minimums are as follows:

Target: $20
Orchard: $28
Capital Visa:$25
Capital Gold: $97

My 10% snowball is $236.84. Seeing that it is more than I owe on Target, the extra will roll over to my Orchard card...and so on and so on...

I have an ambitious goal this month, to go from 4 credit cards to ONE!

Paying off: Target, Orchard Band and Capital Visa. I have a few more returns to knock out this weekend and by nex t Wednesday, the credits should appear. Then it'll be time to gather up all monies I have stuffed under the mattress and get to payin'.

I will have zippo in my savings account, an idea that scares me to the bone, but it's a short term sacrifice for a long term benefit. Ok, I'm out till I see the counselor Monday. A thought that brings a bitter bile to the back of my throat, keeps my tummy in knots, and gives me the dry heaves...

Another kudo for us debt busters...

The credit-card industry has a problem: Although Americans are deeper in debt than ever, they are paying off bigger portions of their monthly credit-card bills. For card issuers, which profit by collecting interest on unpaid balances, that's bad news. In the past, when interest rates crept up, as they are doing now, fewer cardholders could afford to pay down balances.

Considering my rough calculations, I have "robbed" the credit card company of aprox $900 in interest payments. Boo-fucking-hoo!

Last year, banks notched pretax profits of $30.6 billion on credit-card operations, down 3% from the year-earlier period, the first such decline since 1998.

Oh cry me a river...

To make matters worse for card issuers, federal bank regulators issued new guidelines in 2003 meant to ensure that cardholders pay off more each month than just the fees and interest charges that have accumulated. To comply with the rules, many banks have raised minimum-payment requirements, bumping up the payment rate further.

In an effort to build customer loyalty and increase spending, issuers have launched a slew of new cards and have introduced new checkout-counter technologies to encourage more card use. They have spent billions of dollars to grow through acquisitions, buying rival card issuers and specialized credit-card portfolios from retailers.

See, that's what pisses me off...on the back end they are squeezing every penny out of us, raising fees, penalties and the like, but on the front end...they want me to be loyal to them....bwahahahahahahaha...that is RICH!

When my Orchard card is paid off...I am done w/those clowns. I have two teeny expenses, monthly hosting fees on 2 of my blogs, ($5 a piece) each of the Visas will have that as a recurring charge that will be promptly paid in full each month. I will use the Orchard card once a week for two real life purchase, gas and groceries. That too will be paid in full each month.

For the first time in my life, all 3 card transactions are going to be done for my benefit, not theirs.

I hate debt, but love crunching numbers. I was curious to see how much interest charges I've saved by paying off both capital one cards so soon. In other words, instead of by October when the first plan was to divide the debt by 12 months and make that the minimum across all 3 cards, and vs. if I just kept on paying the minimum till it was all gone.

Using an online Credit Card Minimum Payment Interest Calculator, what I found out, while not perfect, is vewwy vewwy interesting...

Take the smallest debt first, the capital one visa.

Back in August, I owed $690.

Had I paid the minimum, $16 or 3%, I would have shelled out $577 in interest in 76 payments over the next 6 years/3 months.

Gadzooks!

Next, capital one gold card.

Originally owed $990.

Paying the minimum, $27 or 3%, I would've shelled out $403 in interest in 52 payments over 4 years/3 months.

The annual interest rate is lower on the gold card hence the shorter repayment time and smaller interest. I'm guessing, I'm not finance person.

But as I was doing this experiment, I found something else out, know all those changes to the bankruptcy laws and how the minimum payments were going to increase across the board? Another reason for me paying these monsters down like a fiend. Well, it appears the gold card was going to be hell to pay very soon.

Back in late fall/early winter thru March, the minimum payment and annual rate was the same. In April, the Minimum Payment Percent jumped to 6 freaking %. Meaning, had I still owed the original amount, $990, my numbers would look like: minimum due $60, interest would be $152, total years, 1 year/6 months.

Granted, I would've paid it off quicker and w/less interest, but what if I couldn't afford the $30 jump? Remember, back then, gasoline ahd gone up. There's no guarantee I would've been able to handle that jump.

Man, I can't quite wrap my head around all these numbers, so just doing this mini exercise is mind blowing. :\

Jeebus, 8 months? Has it really been that long?

Well let's get too it shall we...

Here's the debt chart from April 06:

Now for May of 06:

The green arrow is the debt I'm focusing on first.

Here's what the progress in spreadsheet format:

As you can see, as of today, 5/17 I am Capital One Debt Free WoooOooOOO HooOoOoOoOo!

Orchard Bank, I am now lQQking @ you. *snort*

I'll now start paying them the old $62 I was throwing @ visa, plus the required minimum payment, $32, making their total monthly payment: $94.

Last month, it was quite iffy whether or not I'd get visa taken care off what w/@%$% gas money and driving out of town, but I pulled it off and as professed, am quite happy :D

Now that I can just about see the end of this particular debt tunnel, what's next? Man, the REST of my debt. *sigh* I'll have to face it all @ some point but doing it w/the momentum of being credit card debt free, considering how LONG I've been in credit card debt, will be a great motivation.

Later on I'll update on the gas/water fiasco.

I keep forgetting I promised to tell the tale of why Orchard goes up or down so little each month. I confess, I use the card. *sniff*

Bu--bu--but...not to charge up lavish gifts and such...noooooo! First of all I'm too close to the limit so there's not much room to go. Actually I use it online when I make a purchase from a company I don't want to have my debit card # the only catch is, I must already have the money and the plan is, to pay it off as soon as the charge clears.

Sadly, I'm not always on time w/that.

So I forgot to add that on to the minimum payment and end up bumping up the balance ever slightly. It's not a *huge* deal b/c the following month I either double up or end up paying off the recent charge, but by that time I tend to forget and rather than send Orchard more funds, I put that towards the Capital One Gold card.

Ideally, I'd like to have 1 card that I use and pay off in full each month. On that card will go gas purchases and maybe groceries, though that bill tends to be rather high and I rather pay it weekly. But gas is good and while I'm not terribly interested in having huge amounts of credit, I'm really toying w/having the Capital One Gold card reduce my credit to $1000 from $2500, I want the card to be used and paid off for reporting reasons.

While my credit may suck in every other possible way, I can have 1 bright mark amongst the blemishes.

Not only am I timely, I'm early this month ;)

Mannnnnnnnnn...I can NOT wait to be done w/these credit cards, I'm gettting so close...so very close....

Here's the debt chart from March 06:

Now for April of 06:

Just a reminder on how the chart works. The green arrow & text is the debt I'm focusing on first.

Here's what the progress in spreadsheet format:

The repayment plan continues on track. I'm tossing a minimum of $62 to visa and all bonus monies @ it. Orchard gets the minimum, around $32 and when visa is done, the new minimum will be about $94.

*If* and it's a BIG if, since next month I'll be driving (@%$% GAS!) out of town AND it's my mothers' birthday AND it's Mother's Day AND it's Memorial Day, I'm able to pay of the visa, I'll be quite happy.

But, since I don't want to go into further debt for all those events, I *may* use the bonus monies to cover those expenses, notso much the holidays, I doubt I'll spend much and since I'm going to see my mother, why that's gift enough dontcha think :D

But gas and driving around and going to events while I'm away is what'll do me in, so I'm going to tentatively say I'll only pay the minimums next month and won't predict huge action on the charts.

As w/all things...we shall see...

Going from this

To this

No? Ok, how about from this

to this

Still no?

Fine. Nothing can top this

Now, don't get on me about the interest rate, the short of it, my credit SUX and forget about the teeny $950 balance, I tackled the smallest owed first so I could claim a victory before I moved up to the big ones. The credit balance was me jumping the gun a bit, but I got that taken care of.

Oh and lol @ visa trying to win me to use the card by using the word Platinum, which I think they threw up when I started paying the debt down like a bandit towards the end of last year. Whaaaaateverrrrrr.

Watch out Visa Gold, you are next >:)

A much more timely update than last time ;)

Here's the debt chart from February 06:

Now for March of 06:

Just a reminder on how the chart works. The green arrow & text is the debt I'm focusing on first. Since Capital One Visa has been PAID IN FULL, I retired it from the list and shifted things around. I even got fancy and updated the arrow to make it...er...greener...and...um...bolder...lol

Here's what the progress in spreadsheet format:

As for my repayment plan, well I'm still doing the revised minimum of $62 and tossing all bonus monies @ it, which this month *crossing fingers* I may have a few tricks up my sleeve. Details to come...

As for Orchard, it's the bane of my existence, more on that later too.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!! Oh and Happy April by the way :).

That overzealousness in capital one visa has been righted. There was no ghost interest sitting waiting to scare me, so I called up the rep, I won't even get into how tortuous that call was, if she apologized ONE MORE TIME, I would've flown a plane over to her part of the world, *cough* and given her something to apologize over. By the middle of the call I was craving a crude New Yorker on the other line, but I digress.

She transferred the payment over to the gold card, I threw down an extra $100 to push the balance down further and of course paid my revised minimum of $62. To say the gold card doesn't have long for this world is a major understatement ;)

Matter of fact, things go according to plan, it may vacate the premises by the end of this month, if not sooner!! That's what the above YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!! was all about...lol.

I need to tally up some monies, perhaps later tonight. I guess while I'm @ it, I can go ahead and update the chart, though I may be updating it again in a few weeks. Oh what the hell, downward movement is so sweet, it's worth it to change it over and over so long as it's going down...

My ideas are still brewing in the background. I just need some solid time to get the sites up, I've narrowed it down to 2 and they'll both be hobby/biz sites. So I'll enjoy doing it anyway and they have the potential to garner some small traffic. My mother threw out an idea for a site too, a quite good one, but I need her to do the groundwork, as it stands I'm already juggling a few of my own and don't want to take time away just yet, else that capital gold and orchard bank will be sticking around way long than necessary, if you know what I mean.

Later this week, I'll update my debt stats and that chart. Oh and a few strange tales of other sources of online income that seem to have dried up.

Laters!

$703.20 down from 11/14/05 to today. One of the reasons the Capital One cards are so easy to focus on, is I don't use those cards @ all. Matter of fact, I don't even know where they are. I either cut them up or hid them many moons ago.

The Orchard bank went up slightly, more than slightly I paid $100 this month out of shame on how high it got, is b/c of vacation travelling.

I drove to see my mom and used it to pay for gas and an oil change on my car. Not sexy purchases by a long shot, but still. It was the one card, I still walked with and each month would put a purchase or two on it. I made sure to pay off the recent purchase + the minimum balance but obviously haven't made any huge dents. As of this month, it's hidden too.

The Gold card is down $66, and while part of me feels like, :eyeroll:: big whoop, considering the damage I put into the Visa card, I'm happy. Especially since back in November I dreamt I'd be making a huge dent in the Visa card.

March's dream? If all goes well, I can make a big dent in Capital One Gold over the next two months.

Sounds familiar? It should.

:)

Next time I check in, I'll examine whether I should go ahead and start up 2-3 more websites.

Here's where the snowball starts picking up some steam. I was paying $25/month to the Capital One Visa card, I'm going to roll that over to the Capital Gold card where I've been paying $35 a month, even though the minimum payment is $27.

Now I'll keep paying $35 + $27 (from paid off Visa) for a new minimum payment of $62/month. Any extra monies will get thrown towards it at the end of the month.

Tomorrow I'll explain why the Orchard card went up, way up, but how I kept it down. *Barely*

Been a few months since I updated this puppy, but that doesn't mean I haven't made any progress. ;)

The last time the debt chart updated was in November 05 and it looked a little sumthin like this:

Here's how it look as of February 06:

Just a reminder on how the chart works. The green arrow & text is the debt I'm focusing on first. Now that the Capital One Visa is dunzo, my Capital One Gold is next in line.

Hard to seen the moves in the graph, but the data looks like this:

When I next update the chart, the end of March, I'm going to remove the zeroed out visa graph, when they are all zeroed out, I'll bring them all back for a final encore. I'll also update the total owed #'s to remove everything above 1800. The way it reads now, my total debt looks less than each card I'm repaying.

Tomorrow, my repayment plan. On Wednesday I'll tackle why the Orchard card went up 15 bucks.

I don't think it's hit me yet how much progress I've made.

I'm so giddy about this I'm queasy and am getting a dull headache. After finally tallying up all the monies I netted from the last few months, I have enough to pay off the balance on the Capital One Visa card as of now!!

[updated 30 mins later]

Ooops...lol...I played myself. In my excitement I paid off $448.32, thinking that was the balance, but it seemed so low. Especially since I've been in the 500-600 range for the last few months. I went back and reread all my statements thru Sept and caught where I read my available credit for what I still owe. :blush:

I can't make another online payment for 24 hours so on Monday I'll pay off final $53.36 and am really paid in full as of Tuesday.

I expect next month to have some residual interest charges, I'm too giddy to even fight it, whatever, it still doesn't take away from the fact that this card is dunzo.

Tomorrow I'll update the chart on the right and on Tuesday I'll lay out my repayment plans for the remaining 2 cards. Keep in mind though, I have way more debt than this, various loans, but it's too much for me to comprehend so I'm focusing on the credit cards first. Doesn't make the pay offs any less sweet, but I'm trying not to get uber excited either.

Just did a quick calculation of all the extra monies I netted in the last month and I'll know for sure tomorrow but it looks like I have enough to pay off the capital one card. *squeals*

I need to go through my spreadsheets to check some #'s and get my checks ready for depositing on Monday.

Yesterday I teased that I have another source of extra loot. All of which is going to pay of the capital one card w/the lowest amount owed. It's also part of the reason I haven't had much time to update this blog.

Back in January a blogger I know asked me to write a few articles for their biz site and they'd pay me a set amount per post. We agreed to do it 3x a week for 6 weeks based on my rate, which was higher than they suggested, but they feel it's working out really well they want me to write 5-7 times per week. I did the math and if I do it 7 times for a month I can have that card paid off and make a dent in my next highest card.

Only prob, I'll burn out. I know it. It's not a topic I am exactly passionate about, I know it ok, and I do have more to say there than here, but it pays so that's a motivator. Still, if I put money first too much it won't be worth it, and writing 3 times a week is enough to give me something else to do, plus I do want to find more outlets to write in, but 7 will make it feel like a job, so I think I'll go w/5 for now.

Will I do it forever? Doubtful, likely till I get @ least one card paid in full and then for as long as they'll have me and my interest is there.

Tomorrow, my 2nd source of extra loot ;)

Good news on the repayment front, though I skipped updating the graph for two months, more b/c I was avoiding this site than anything else, but I've made a bit of a dent.

Now, the last time you saw the chart for August 05 it looked like this:

Here's November 05:

Hard to seen the moves in the graph, but the data looks like this:

$200 down in 2 months, I meant to make more progress on the Capital One Visa debt, since that is my focus, but, Orchard Bank membership fee set me over the edge, I got them to refund that one by the way, and gas prices in late Aug/all of Sept threw me for a loop. I ended up charging gas, but paying it off, in addition to what I pay each month just to keep Orchard from getting out of hand.

If all goes well, I can make a big dent in Capital One Visa over the next two months. Today I just made my payments as normal, but by the end of the month, I'll pay $200 and in December @ least another $200 if not more.

Tomorrow I post an update on my $100 investment experiment. It's turning out to be a tad more tedious than I hoped, but there is still hope so I'm going to stick with my plan.