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.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

8/15 - 9/15

Each month I'll outlay my monthly goals for the month. Each week I'll post a weekly wrap up highlight all the things I got done and noting any hiccups. All this is done as an attempt to get organized and track my progress.

Month #1 is dedicated to me getting my bearings. It'll require me setting up and using MS Money 2003 every day. I'll track all my daily expenditures starting today, no matter how small & I'll get caught up on all outstanding household bills.

As far as this site, I'm thinking it'll work out something like this. At the end of each day, I'll log in how the day went. I have some ideas on earning extra money, but before I get ahead of myself, I just need to see where I'm at, so that'll be my content over the next few days. Eventually I want to post articles & tips I come across as well as motivational money quotes. That may not happen till Month #3 or 4. The recurring theme over the first few days/weeks is me facing my fears on even doing this and I expect to be repetitive.