So, I should be in bed now, but here I am. To sum up the last few weeks. I took 2 weeks off from Job #2 (now #3) to get away, I was burning out and I had planned to use that time to find another more stable gig, which I did.

I ended up starting that gig one week in, so I never had much of a vacay and then when I knew for sure I was hired, I changed my schedule w/job #3 except they didn't and I ended up having to take off last week from the new job and actually started there this week.

Now, if that is as clear as mud, let's proceed ;)

This is the first full week @ the new job. So far, so hard. Not impossible, just different. One more day then I'm off till Sat, but then I go into job #3 fri and sat nite. The upside of it all, I'm 100% off on Sunday! I opened up another checking acct for that paycheck to go to and got a savings acct thrown in for good measure. I'm shy to say how many checking accts I have, it's really ridiculous, but it works for me.

This week I reprinted my budget, I need to revise it and I need to sort out what bills come from which checking acct. Right now the hours @ job #3, in my best guess, will be about 8-10 hours a week. I kept that job b/c it's on my way home both fri and sat, no extra driving, so it'll either pay for gas and it'll pay for clothes I already get @ a discount and I'll continue to sock away 10%. Anything extra will go for food and then bills.

Main job pays main bills, rent, utilites, food, car, student loans etc. Job #3 goes to pay off credit cards till they are paid in full, then it goes toward student loans and such.

So that's my not so brief update. I really suck @ promising to updated in xx days then vanishing for xx weeks, so I'll post when I post...how 'bout that :)

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 :\

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

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.

I update my loan repayment progress on or around the end of the month.

Here's the debt chart from Jan 07: (I missed updating in in February)

Here's the loan progress chart from Feb 07:

Here's my March progress:

The minimums are as follows:

Rollover minimums from 4 paid off cards: $185
Toyota Loan: $263
Total Minimum: $448

+

My 10% snowball is $236.84.

=

New car payment: $684

********

The chart dates are wrong, I'll fix that next month...and...MS Money calculates interest slightly different than the actual amount owed. For consistency, and b/c it's always more anyways, I'll go w/what my statements say.

Also, I didn't factor in any extra payments to my March progress just yet. I like the shock and awe approach of repaying debt...more on that next week :)

Now that the credit cards are paid in full, the poor little monthly progress chart is empty, well not for long.

I've filled it up w/the loans, which means for about 15 days I lived in pure bliss of having nothing but 0's only to see it all filled back up again. *sigh*

No worries...I felt the same way when I filled it up w/the credit card debt. :\

Once I get that car loan paid off, which'll be a huge milestone, I can ramp up payments to the Direct Student Loans debt.

Here's the loan progress chart from February 06:

I'll post this monthly chart towards the of the month.

Recently, I got an email telling me a payment from an old thingy I did was made. In the whopping amount of $1.58. :O

That, coupled w/my windfall are being promptly applied to the principle on my car loan.

B/c when I say I'm digging myself out of this hell hole $1 at a time (see logo above) consarnit...I mean it!

So, a few weeks back, Robin in Savannah asked me about my car loan. For some reason, that question stuck in my craw, and while I put it on the back burner so I could focus on paying off the final credit card, I knew I had to get to the bottom of something that was puzzling me.

A few months back, my amount owed was $5,004, I remember that # b/c I felt a huge relief knowing by the next payment I'd be under 5g's. Fast forward to January, I check MS Money, only to find, I still owed $4,999.

WTF?!?!

When I tallied up what I paid since using MS Money, it was well over a grand, yet the amount owed only went down a few hundred bucks. Not only that, I had to put in an account adjustment of $117 (more!) to get MS Money to be in synch w/what I owed.

I called up World Omni Toyota.

The rep, Chris, who was QUITE rude by the way, and this isn't the first time I've called them and been treated rudely. Matter of fact, in the 3 years I've had the car, it's only my 2nd call to them. BOTH times the reps act as if they are collecting money and I'm behind calling to make a payment. Just plain old surly and rude.

Anywayz...

From Chris I got some basics, the percent is 7.4% and the pay off amount is different than what I currently owe b/c they factor in 10 days of interest. She's going to mail me a history of my payments, which since I pay by direct debit, I don't get. I went ahead and opted to have my statements emailed to me.

I went back into MS Money, deleted the old account and made a new one w/the new figures. Worked like a charm. Give or take a few cents, it now matches what I see online.

I also saw if I pay online, as in sending extra ducets, those bastards charge me $9.95 for the privilege. How kind of them *gag*

Bump that, I'll be paying them for free via my bank account thankyouverymuch. The one bright spot, there is no prepayment penalty, I'm past that point. You better believe I'm paying this sucker down pronto.

Now I have a similar tale about my Direct Student Loans, minus that nasty customer service, so I wont go into more details. To sum it up, interest rate is 7.125%, I deleted the old account, added the new one and that too is matching what I see online.

All of this made me think. Perhaps I should leave the William & Fudge debt for last, I'll have to double check w/Sallie Mae, but W&F aren't charging me interest. Though psychologically it'll feel good to get that paid in full, just like my rationalization on why to pay the car first, the $100 I pay getting added to another debt is far less than adding say $263 from the car or $131 from Direct or even $318 from Sallie Mae.

I don't mind them hanging around a bit longer if I can get the interest charging loans out of the way first.

And I'll put it out there, again, I'm really looking forward to having the Toyota Car Loan PAID IN FULL by the end of May, which would be so awesomely amazing if all I have left to tackle in the last 1/2 of 2007 are my student loans.

;)

So one of my plans when I pay off the Capital One Gold Card, is to turn my attention, and debt snowball, towards the next highest debt. Right now that position is just about tied by my Toyota Car Loan and one of my Williams and Fudge Student Loan.

My original game plan was to pay off the car loan next, that way I could drop my insurance and save an extra $60-$75 a month. But after talking it over w/a friend, that may not be the best thing to do.

I thought after 3-4 years the car wouldn't get anything back in case of an accident. But she told me I should look @ the blue book value for the car 1 year older than mine to now. If I pay off the loan by next year, it'll be the same amount of time. B/c it's a Toyota, which holds it's value, I may still get a few thousand.

Unless that is what I save when I reduce my insurance, doubtful I'm guessing it'll be about $720-$900 ($65/$75 times 12) then I should keep it fully insured till it the blue book value is less than what I can save on my own.

Makes sense.

The student loan isn't racking up interest, it's just a total amount due that I'm paying monthly, but I thought I can make a bigger dent paying off the car then rolling over all the monies + the $263 car payment to the student loan vs. rolling over $100 from the loan to the car.

*shrug*

It's not a huge deal, as they'll both be paid off, but I'm just fishing for ideas. Any pros/cons to paying either off first? Are @ this point are they both equal?

The major pro point is the psychological boost I'll get from paying off the car first, 1 less debt. Other than that, I gots nothing.

What do you think?

Yet another debt I don't wanna get into. Just cuz I'm finally fessin' up to it all, doesn't mean I want to gab about it *pouts*

As of this posting the owed amount is: $26,912

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

Ah...even more student debt to record. What fun. NOT!

As of this posting the owed amount is: $8,203

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

2/1 Update: I realized I owe more on this than originally thought. The total amount owed is $8,700.

Another "adult" debt, car loan. I have a 2003 Toyota Corolla. Long sordid story, my first car died and permanent death. I then got a 2003 Toyota Echo. On the way to work, in a fluke accident, it was totalled. I then got the Corolla.

The car was about 12 grand w/a down payment of either 3k or 5k. It's been 3 years so it's fuzzy. My monthly car note is $263

As of this posting the owed amount is: $5,432.65

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

Now that the credit cards have been 'splained, lets move on w/the more adult debt, loans. Boo!

First up, we've got Williams and Fudge. This student loan got me my degree a few years back.

I originally owed 5645.11 and started out paying back $25/mo. Then moved to $50 and earlier this year, $100.

As of this posting the owed amount is: $4,927.00

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