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.

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:

*squealz*

I got another gift!

This is my Capital One Visa card as of today:

The gifts just keep on coming in...

This is my Target as of today:

A beautiful thing to log into my account and see this...

This is my Orchard Bank Mastercard as of today:

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! :)

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.