Back when I moved to Las Vegas 18 months ago, I bought a car the first day I moved here. After a week, I completely hated it.
I paid way too much for it, and I did what so many people do when they get new jobs:
I purchased an item based on what I perceived my income would be, rather than money I had on hand.
Honestly, this is a really common occurrence. Lots of people get into debt this way. They get a big increase in salary and they don't pull their punches with their spending.
So, this car has been a real pain since I bought it. It's got many little things that keep going wrong, the air conditioning no longer works, and I've honestly gotten tired of it.
Sorry to whine. I made a bad choice and it's haunted me for a year.
So, anyway. I'd saved up the $350 to fix my air conditioning, when a friend of mine told me she was leaving town and wasn't planning on taking her car with her. On a hunch, I asked her what she was looking to get for it. She came back with $600 for a car in really good working order. Since that's just $250 more than my air conditioning, I'm buying her car and selling mine. This means I get to go back to driving a late 90's Toyota, which is honestly my preference over the 2002 Ford Escort!
I should also be able to recoup some money by selling the Ford, which makes me super super happy! So, probably in a month when all of this is done and barring crap happening, because crap certainly happens, I should be able to put another chunk on a credit card. Things certainly are moving in the right direction. We've taken $900 off our debt in the last four weeks. Here are the new totals:
Starting Debt: 07/02/11 - $21543
Updated 6/15/12
Prosper - $0
AmEx - $4257
BoA - $11869
ING - $1004
Total - $17130 (20.5%)
Onwards!
