- 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.

Now that I've gotten a better grasp on how interest is working on my loans and have come to the cold hard reality I owe *gulp* more, I find mucho hope & motivation in the following article:

Huge debts, paid off fast A $150,000 mortgage erased in five years. About $49,000 in credit cards, almost gone in just a year. These debt-payoff champions share their secrets.

Greg Cards of Newark, Del., was saddled with $154,000 in debt after his divorce.

Cards is on track to own his home free and clear later this year.

Wanda Wilkinson of Santa Fe, N.M., had $49,000 in credit card bills, a daughter in college and a husband facing a potential layoff.

Wilkinson eliminated half of her debt in a year.

How did they do it?

Among other things:

• They made debt payoff a priority, although most continued to save for retirement as well.
• They kept their basic living expenses as low as possible.
• They looked for creative ways to speed up their debt repayment, and some took extra work.

(Cards, for example, volunteered for overtime and took a second job. Wilkinson, a lawyer, moonlighted as a package loader on a FedEx loading dock.)

Your situation might be different from theirs in the details. But if you're facing a big debt hole, you might find their stories offer inspiration and ideas you can use.

He's done this on a base salary of $60,000 by volunteering for overtime, picking up a second job and trimming expenses wherever possible. To keep his living costs down, Cards:

• Opts for basic TV service -- no premium channels.
• Chooses a dial-up Internet connection ($9.95 a month) over high-speed service.
• Buys food in bulk to last for months.
• Takes his lunch to work.
• Makes a budget for the holidays, birthdays, etc., and sticks to it.
• Applies "extra" paychecks to debt (a biweekly pay schedule had provided a third check two months a year).
• Applies any bonuses toward his debt.
• Sets the thermostat in winter to 63 degrees.
• Sets the air conditioner to 79.
• Buys compact fluorescent light bulbs to reduce electric bills.
• Takes out $25 in "walking around" cash each week. When it's gone, he doesn't spend more.
• Keeps the credit cards at home.
• Shops with a list and buys only what's on the list, and avoids looking at anything else, including sale items.
• Keeps his car tuned up to avoid bigger expenses.
• Doesn't keep up with the Joneses. He says he doesn't care what they drive, where they vacation or what they wear.
• Avoids buying coffee or food "on the go" but instead eats at home whenever possible.
• Stays away from vending machines at work.
• Doesn't play the lottery.
• Buys broken bags of mulch and fertilizer at deep discounts.
• When shopping for appliances, buys last year's model.
• Budgets vacations and looks for coupons wherever possible.

[source]

I'm happy to see that I'm already doing some of the things Card is doing. What really gives me hope is most of these people are making it happen on a regular old salary.

Reaching the recent milestone of becoming credit card debt free, and before tackling the next hurdle of debt, my loans. I said before I'd reward myself every step of the way for a job well done.

Admittedly, I went a bit overboard. What can I say, columbia house had a GREAT sale...no tax, free shipping and all DVDs were 60% off...the movie buff in me couldn't resist. So what these original 5 would've cost me via amazon.com...I got more...waayyyyy more *smirks*

B/c it's so inspiring to see someone live their dream.

B/c Christian Bale is HAWT, the music rocks and Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine tickle me. Oh and Liam Neeson makes bad look good...RAWR

Though I'm a girl and str8, this movie touched me. Gut wrenching.

I can watch Clive Owen sit in an empty room reading the yellow pages. GAWD who knew he could make being a masked man so sexy. Plus every time I saw the trailer, seeing Spike, Denzel, Clive & Jodie's names always made me cheese up.

I can't even tell you how much I love this move. V!

It's Brick. This is one of the first movies I guffawed, LOUDLY, @ in the theater. And went back to see it again. Just for Brick ;)

Totally underated movie. Atypical plot and ending, plus it made me totally <3 Carly Simon songs.

I still rememver the day I saw this flick. Who knew Sissy had it in her and what an amazing life story.

Just like nothing w/chocolate can be bad, nothing w/Kevin Bacon, Hollowman excluded (bleargh) can be bad. Awesome awesome flick. Tim Robbins haunted me for days and Sean Penn..whatta man.

Didn't think Em had it in him, but he impressed me both in the movie and to this day Lose Yourself is my fave song to get hyper too.

B/c I really am a conspiracy theorist and Mel was just so tragically pathetic.

Hands down Charlize owned this roll.

My fave movie of all time w/the BEST wedding dance scene evah!!! Made me sit up and take notice of Terrence Howard who pretty much stole the movie from both Taye Diggs and Morris Chestnut.

This really turned me on to intricate movies and it took me a long time to realize that was Paul Newman. I mean I knew it was him, but I didn't.

@ an average cost of 7.45 per DVD...I'll be in the house for a long time...lol. What makes it extra sweet is it isn't "costing" me anything. Well sorta, but the $104.29 is coming out of the new minimum car payment, $669 ($170 [old credit card payments] + $236 [my10% debt snowball] + $263 [my real car payment]). Which means this month I'll pay $565 instead.

Now in the long run, as I learned in that class last fall, when you delay payments, interest & time work against you, but every so often, you have to have a bit of fun. This fun is managed. I'm not still 5k in credit card debt buying more stuff.

Besides, the next reward isn't coming till I pay off both the car and W&F loan. Wait. Maybe I'll just use it after the car is paid off since I'm going after the interest charging debt first and to say car AND Direct Loans is too overwhelming right now.

That reward is:

Sex and the City - The Complete Series (Collector's Giftset).

Carrie Bradshaw here I come :D

This blogger paid off $19,794.23 in about 2 years. Her closing post on the blog radiates such a light spirit of being out of debt. Man, I crave for that day to come.

In the mean time, I am working on generating more money and in 2007 hope to agressively pay down my debt, while tackling one big fat scary final debt. I talked of my rewards post debt, and they still stand, but after reading her entry, it rekindled an old dream I have. One day, perhaps.

http://www.debtfreerenee.com/archives/2006/11/more_rewards.php

Here are the 5 DVDs I'll reward me with when all 4 credit cards are paid in full

My reward for paying of Williams and Fudge + Toyota, Sex and the City - The Complete Series (Collector's Giftset). For the final two debts I want a laptop.

The 7 day cruise is still the ultimate debt free treat. Sunny sandy beaches here I come :)