02.03.08
Still here
I haven’t been posting here very often but I’m making slow but sure progress. I have $120 in savings — not much, but it’s something. I would have had almost $300 but I had to go to the ER a few weeks back because I cut myself opening a can of cat food. Yeesh! Hadn’t been to the ER in 25 years, and had to go to get one little stitch in my finger because of that. Oh well, if that’s the worst that happens for another 25 years I’ll be doing pretty well.
So, our health plan at work requires that we pay $150 for ER visits. We then turn in the receipt and fill out a form and get all but $35 back. So, it’s not a bad deal in the end but you need to have that money up front, so I’m very glad I had a little in savings, even if it was a small amount. When I get the $115 back (should be soon), I’ll put it back into savings.
I actually had a pretty bad month in January — still dealing with tendonitis in one wrist and something weird going on in my foot (I call it Dammit Foot until we really figure it out), my sciatica acted up and I missed 3.5 days of work, I broke a tooth, then the cat food incident. By the time I had the cat food incident, all I could do was laugh — that is, after I was done cursing for having another injury.
As for my finances, I’m starting to pay $500 a month on my student loan. It’s a lot of money, and it will make the pay-off on the smaller stuff take longer, but I really want to get rid of that thing. I’m sick of having it hang over my head. I still have my Netflix account but have decreased it down to two movies at a time. I know, I know — rent stuff at the library, etc. The thing is, I rent mostly documentaries and Netflix has just about everything you’d want and the library is limited. So, I compromised and reduced the number of movies I get at a time and will pay less each month for the service.
Oh, and I’m back on track with my lattes. Over the summer I’d stop every day on the way in for an iced latte (Barnes and Noble is next door to work) because it helped with the heat. However, I’ve been keeping up the habit and it’s not good for my health nor my wallet. When I drink that every morning, I don’t feel hungry and I don’t eat well and become exhausted and pig out at night — just bad all around. So, now I’m going on Mondays and Fridays and will bring that down to once a week as a treat, or less often that that. It’s not just the lattes, though. The people in the cafe are wonderful and I feel like my morning isn’t complete if I don’t see them, but I’m getting over that. 
Instead of drinking the lattes, I’m drinking my black tea every morning. I admit I’m a bit of a tea snob and can’t drink Lipton or “normal” black teas. I tend to buy loose teas and tea sachets in tins. Again, I see it as a compromise — I pay just a little more for a tin of 20 sachets than I did for one latte, and I already have some loose tea and the tools to use the loose tea. I also have herbal and green teas. I figure it’s better to spend a little more money on something I like that to spend less money on tea I don’t like — then I won’t drink it and will go back to the lattes.
The whole thing is a process. I think some people will think that I’m not “gazelle” enough, but I want to live my life and enjoy it while I’m paying down my debt. Otherwise, it will be like my experience with dieting — deprive myself of all sorts of things then binge and be worse off than before. I really don’t want to do that and would rather do things in moderation.
12.03.07
Goals for 2008
While I’m on a roll, I figure I’ll go ahead and post my 2008 goals:
1. Get $1k in savings by the end of April
2. Pay off all my small accounts (subscriptions, old debts under $200, clubs)
3. Only renew America’s Civil War Magazine. If I see other magazines I wish to receive, I’ll pay immediately with my Blow money for that month, NOT check the “bill me” option
4. I will NOT subscribe to any more book/CD/movie/whatever clubs! Man! Those things are really my downfall.
5. I will pay off:
old gym account, Fashion Bug, Providian, two remaining Premier cards, possibly Orchard Bank, leaving only Capital One and my student loan.
Sidenote: I owe about $23k on my student loan. To me, that is a huge amount hanging over my head. I’m amazed when I watch TV and see commercials for cars that start at $20k. I don’t think I’ll ever have a new car, because I’m not sure I feel comfortable spending the same amount I spent for 4 years of quality higher education on a car. Once my debts are paid off, I do intend on getting nicer/newer cars than I usually buy because I’ll be able to save a decent amount to buy one with cash. I would love to buy a used Mini Cooper (which may go for $20k, anyway lol), assuming I’d be able to find one that wasn’t overused. I wouldn’t buy a used Mustang for that reason — who knows what abuse the engine has received. Oh well, that’s not something I need to worry about for a while. I’ll keep buying my low-cost but good quality used cars, like my 1991 Toyota Corolla.
The Good and the Bad
I tend to be an all-or-nothing type of person, which is why when I fall off a wagon I tend to fall hard and for longer than a few days. When I fall, it’s like “Well, I goofed that up, might as well go whole hog!” I realize that is not a healthy way to deal with things and am slowly getting better, otherwise I wouldn’t be back at this blog.
So, instead of looking at that fall as a failure, I’m looking at it as a bump and I’m back on. A failure would be for me to simply give up completely, and I worked too hard for much of last year to do that. I looked back through my year to see exactly what I did and could do better.
Good – Went from 30 accounts to 19
Could be better – Would have been down to 14 if I hadn’t signed up for more subscription clubs, a huge weakness of mine
Good – Did great from January through July (7 months)
Could be better – Spent crazily and didn’t pay attention to my money habits from August through mid-November (3.5 months)
Good – Paid off 19 account (mostly small but they are paid)
Total paid on these accounts: $896.00 on small non-credit accounts + $2650 on car and two credit cards = $3546. total toward paid-off debts
Total paid on all debts, including those above: $4776.25 = 11.6% of salary. I’m not sure if that’s a good percentage or not, but it’s a heckuva lot more than I’d paid on getting rid of debts in a long time.
I’ve also been doing some forward planning. I realize that wages and circumstances change, but it really helps me to see what I’m working toward in order to keep on track as much as I can. If I pay $500 a month on my student loan, I’ll have it paid off by the end of 2011 and still pay off five, possibly six, of my credit accounts by the end of 2008, paying the remaining account off in early 2009. The money going toward paying off these debts can then go toward building up my 3-6 months emergency savings while paying off the student loan.
So theoretically, in 2012 when I’m 40, I’ll be debt-free and can start putting at least 15% if not 20% of my income toward retirement savings. I don’t own a home and I really don’t plan on owning one, so that’s not an issue. I also don’t have kids so there’s no college or other kid issue. I need to keep this in mind when I get down and feel like it’s taking for-ev-er to pay off my debt.
12.02.07
Update
OK, so yesterday I went through all my records and bills and straightened things up a bit. I made up budgets for the next few months and should be caught up very quickly. I was informed by payroll last week that my wages will be garnished for my student loan. I knew this was coming, and if this is what they want to do, fine. I was paying them less than they wanted so that I could pay down some of my smaller debts and get them out of the way so that I could pay about $1k a month to the student loan people in about a year. I’ve been paying them $150 a month but they want more. My contact in payroll says it’s usually about 15% of net income. Honestly? I can pay that. It means I won’t be able to pay my smaller debts as quickly as I’d like, but I can do it. If they take it out of my paycheck it’s easier for me anyway. Frankly, I’ll be glad to get the thing done with one way or another.
I also need to call Premier Bank because, although I paid their settlement offer on two of my four cards with them, they are still trying to get money for them. Uh, I don’t think so. I saved the receipt on my computer and have the confirmation code. I think sometimes companies to this because they figure if we have less-than-perfect credit that we aren’t good about keeping records. Well, I’m not perfect but my record-keeping of payments is pretty darn close. I probably sound paranoid about it, but I’m convinced that they are betting that’s what happened. The funny thing is that, while I am still paying off two cards that are in collections (and they seem to think I have four in collections) I’m still receiving pre-approved offers from them. Again — I don’t think so. It may take me several tries to learn one lesson, but I eventually do learn it.
11.30.07
Been a while, fell off the wagon
Whew! I fell off the wagon pretty hard over the summer and have had a very hard time getting back on. I’m afraid I went on a bit of a spending spree, and once I started it was very hard for me to stop. In the meantime, some of my bills have been sliding and I haven’t been paying extra. I’m disappointed in myself, but am determined to climb back on top of this mess.
The good part is that, although it feels like it, I’m really NOT starting back at the beginning. I accomplished a lot for those six months I was on my program, paid off many accounts and paid a lot on other accounts. So yes, I did sabotage myself and have to do some digging before I can get even again, but now that I know how to do it and that I have less to pay off it does help.
I don’t have a huge amount to buy for Christmas, as we pick names and buy for one person, thank goodness. I’ve already paid for that and am just waiting for it to arrive in the mail. I’m buying my little nephew a movie and a book in addition to that. Then I have Tim. I have one item for him already (small) and another small item on the way. He’s buying me a nice winter coat that I need, as mine is short and I froze last year getting to work in the city. We are also planning to visit my parents for Christmas, but it’s only a 5-hour drive and we’ll be staying with them so we won’t have to put out a lot of money. Of course, we’ll help pay for food and such while we’re there.
So, my next task is to go through that pile and figure out a realistic budget that will get me back on track, then redo the budget paydown. I’ll post more about this after I finish these steps. I think just posting here again helps, as it solidifies that I’m working on this again.
07.31.07
Avoided shopping spree
Last weekend I bought a nice dress to wear to a work luncheon on Friday. Long story short, all the funders of the programs we’re honoring at the luncheon will be there so I thought I should wear something nicer than my usual skirt and somewhat casual blouse, but everything else is more for fall and winter and it’s hot and humid (read: disgusting) here this week. So, I went to Catherine’s to see what they had, figuring I’d only buy something it if it really looked good, sale or not. I tried on quite a few items that were OK, but not great. Then I tried on a cute dress that looks great and spent $50 on it. Plus, it’s washable!
Sometimes when I buy one item like this it starts a shopping snowball. In the past it has, anyway. On the way to the train station from work I stopped by Dress Barn to see what they had. I actually tried on quite a few items, mostly looked OK and not worth the money, as I’m trying to only buy things that really look good on me, not just “OK.” There was a dress and a beautiful skirt that I put on hold for today, but after thinking about it and looking at my budget, I’m going to call them and ask to put them back out. I really don’t need another skirt unless it’s a plain black knee-length skirt (this isn’t) and the dress is a simple sheath dress that I can get any time. I do plan on buying that dress or something similar to it at some point, as it is a class dress that can be mixed and matched all year, but I don’t have to buy it now.
Whew!
07.28.07
I’m still here :)
Haven’t been here in a while, but I am making progress. I’m going to get my goals together for August and my totals for debt paid off this weekend.
In the meantime, I wanted to say I paid the settlement offer on the second Premier Bankcard last week! So, that’s two credit cards I won’t have to worry about anymore. Sure, it will show up on my credit report that I paid the settlement, but I don’t care. It won’t look any worse than my report already looks and this way they’re done and I don’t have to pay anything else on them.
07.06.07
Backsliding a bit
There are a few things going on that are taking some money from my plan. I figure that since I’m blogging about what I’m doing well I should also admit to some weaknesses. Otherwise, I’m not being completely honest with myself.
1. I fell for a few more of those book clubs. Stinkin’ stink! Luckily, they have low requirements so after buying two books that I want and would buy anyway, I can cancel. I really have a weakness for books, in case you hadn’t noticed. I’m good about responding so I don’t get the ones they automatically send, so that’s a plus. It’s very easy for me to go on the Internet when I receive a mailing and decline the choices for the month — much easier and cheaper than filling out the little reply card, getting a stamp on it and mailing it back, hoping it gets there on time. This really is something I need to watch. I’ve been spending more on books than on stitching lately, which is strange.
2. I’m going to the Rush concert tonight! They are my favorite band and the last two times they’ve come to town I haven’t been able to afford it. I haven’t been to a concert in probably 10 years. I didn’t think my friend and I were going to be able to go (long story), but she knows someone who knows a Ticketmaster broker and got us some really good seats. We’re actually in seats, not on the lawn. Of course, I had sticker shock when she told me the price – $125! However, I’ll pay her when I get paid next Friday (she’s OK with that) and I’ll have a great time. It’s more than I like to pay for a concert, but it’s my favorite and I probably won’t go again for another 10 years. How the heck do people afford paying for a bunch of these concerts every year?
3. I may be going to Seattle in August. My sister and I were trying to get together in September. One idea was for her to fly out here and we’d go to Gettysburg for and extended weekend, also visiting Antietam. I’m planning on doing this anyway, but by myself I’m going to stay in an inexpensive place for one night, possibly two. If we both went we’d stay longer. Anyway, a friend of hers is also trying to get together with her sister, who lives in Baltimore. So, they thought it would be fun do do a sisters thing for a few days in Seattle. Now, Seattle in August — how lovely will that be compared to the icky Philly weather that time of the year? Plus, I’ve never been there. My sis has offered to use some of her airline miles for my flight, which is a big help, but I’ll still need to bring a few hundred dollars for spending money and to help with the rooms. It’s not definite, and with all the goofy schedules it’s very possible it won’t happen.
4. I NEED NEW GLASSES! I’m getting these in August. If I do nothing else, this has to be done. My glasses are 10 years old. I’m sure I need a new prescription and my frames are getting all chipped. Now, in the past I’ve gone to places like LensCrafters and have done OK. This time, I think I’m going to spend a little more and go to my friend’s eye doctor who is spectacular. It will cost more, but I’m going for two reasons: 1. I’m getting older and want to be sure my eyes are taken care of so I can continue with my needlework hobby without problems; 2. This guy bought a snowglobe in Dallas for me to give to another friend’s son when he heard that I was collecting them after his shelving broke and his whole collection was destroyed. I don’t know — I really appreciated the fact that he did this for me and my friend’s son, both of whom he’d never met, and I feel that I want to give him my business.
So, that’s what I’m going to be spending money on over the next month or two. The good side? If I actually do all of the above (Seattle is a big question mark at the moment), I will have the cash to do it! I won’t have to put anything on a credit card. The only “payment” will be my usual “thank you” for my sister. She makes good money and likes to bring me out to see her and ends up putting the flight on her miles and such. I usually end up making her something nice for her apartment, as she appreciates the needlework but doesn’t do it herself.
Also, I will still be able to pay off that other settlement offer I received. I’m paying that when I get paid next week and can swing it, even with the $100 I’m paying my friend for the Rush ticket. My savings will take a hit, though — I’m not taking any money that I already have in savings, but I’ll be putting less in.
06.30.07
One more debt scratched off!
Yay! I paid the settlement of $258.01 on one of my accounts. Now that one can be scratched off. Yes, it will show up on my credit report, but I don’t care. My goal right now is paying off all my debt and my credit report isn’t as important to me. After I pay another off next month I can continue with my savings, which should be up to $1k by the end of August.
1. Get $1000 into emergency savings. (Currently I have $50)
2. Pay off AmeriCredit – $335.14 – done 6-16-07
3. Pay off old gym account – $444.89
4. Pay off Spirit of America – $478.53
5. Pay off Premier #1 – $570.89 (Settled for $258.01, paid 6/30/07)
6. Pay off Providian – $667
7. Pay off Premier #2 – $658.23
8. Pay off Premier #3 – $691.31
9. Pay off Premier #3 – $762.09
10. Pay off Orchard Bank – $1524.45
11. Pay off Capital One – $2047.42
12. Get student loan under $20k
13. Get student loan under $15k
14. Get student loan under $10k
15. Get student loan under $5k
16. Pay off student loan!
17. Save $2500 in emergency savings
18. Save $5000 in emergency savings
19. Save $7500 in emergency savings
20. Save $10,000 in emergency savings
I do have a confession to make, though. I went to get a latte on Friday (usually only buy on Mondays, but got one two days this past week.) Well, as soon as I walked in I saw Pete Hamill’s new book. I adore his writing but could have put it off, except that there was an autographed copy. Yep, another downfall. It didn’t cost any more and with my discounts I paid less for the book and latte than the book would have cost for a non-B&N member, but I still ended up paying $23 and change. I also went out for a few drinks with some work friends last night and spent $20. Oh well, that’s why I have blow money. I’m often by myself due to Tim’s crazy work schedule and my friends’ busy kid schedules, so I do enjoy time out with others once in a while.
06.27.07
Changing One June goal
Well, I received settlement offers for two of my Premier credit cards yesterday. Neither of these is a huge debt, which is why I can foresee actually paying the settlement: One settlement is $258.01 (I owe $573.35), the other settlement is $332.03 (I owe $737.84) Of course, if pay these by the due date of July 19, I won’t have the $1k emergency fund done until August. However, I’ll be out of debt a month sooner than I originally thought and pay 45% of what I actually owe. I know this doesn’t look good on a credit report, but that’s OK with me and they will be paid off and I can scratch them off my list — no more $10 payments a month, no more bills in the mail.
More than likely, I’ll receive settlement offers soon for the other two Premier cards. Of course, depending on when the due date is I may not be able to pay them. However, I if I pay the first two and call to talk to them, perhaps they’ll extend the offer (if it’s made).
I really struggled with this decision, as I know it’s important to have $1k in savings ASAP, but I feel that this is important enough to pay those settlements first. The really good part about this is that I’ve received such offers in the past but could never take advantage because I was so behind on all my bills and robbing one to pay the other. There was no way I could spare a few hundred bucks for something like this. Now, it’s a matter of switching some things around a little, but it’s totally reasonable without a lot of gnashing of teeth.
