May Totals

May was the first full month that I worked on extreme couponing/strategic shopping. I was really happy with the financial results from this first month. I ended up spending a total of $296.91 on all groceries. I saved $467.92 in total. I'm well on my way to making my goal of saving $1000 this year to the point that I'm laughing at how silly a goal that was in the first place.

The more immediate goal is to only spend $50 a week on groceries. I believe that is completely appropriate and I'm hoping to hit that this month.

One of the benefits of shopping this way is I'm actually able to add more variety into what we have in the pantry as we try new things. I'm happy with how it is going and I plan to keep working on it.

I had a really great grocery trip last week that I haven't written up because I've been both busy and sick. I should be back to normal posting soon though.

Another neat benefit of shopping this way is that I was able to tell my parents who were flying in from England to not worry about bringing toiletries. I was able to hand them a bag of shampoo, razors, deodorant, body wash, toothpaste and floss at the airport so they saved room in their packing and didn't have to deal with the liquid issue. I got all of those items for free. It was very neat.

Thank Goodness for the End!

I'm so glad that this year is drawing to a close. It's just been a rough year and t being over brings me stupid amounts of hope and joy.

It's been tough. A lot of things have changed for me but I have to say, one thing is nice.... my life isn't ruled by money and debt any more. I paid off a lot of money this year, and though I have a long way to go, I am finally settling into my chosen career. I'm happy with what I'm doing and you can't put a price on that. Sometimes I still get unsettled and concerned, and I still don't know if I can financially make this all work, but I'm going to continue to work my butt off and try. And, like I said, happy is good.

So, lets take a quick look back to the goals that I set for myself for the year. Here they are:

Financial Goals

Pay off all non-student loan debt - DONE! No more credit cards or loans!

This is my credit card and my scooter loan and it currently stands at around $6500.

Get Net Worth below -$20,000 - DONE! It's around -$18,000 now

This would mean increasing by Networth by about $7000.

Get Emergency Fund to $2,000 - DONE, but it's at $1800 now because I just paid bills

This currently stands at just under $500.

Get Student Loan to below $20,000 - NOT DONE - It's at around $23,000 still.

This means paying off $3,811 of my loan.

2009 Goal:

Reach my Target Weight - NOT DONE. I lost 8lb though so I'm happy.
I gained about 20lb over the last year and a half and my target weight means that I need to lose 13 of them.

Be Published in a National Magazine - NOT DONE. I tried.

This was a tentative goal for last year and I am still hoping that it occurs.

Go to a different country other than England - NOT DONE - Rough year

I love to travel, and go to England often because my family lives there. This year I would really like to go to a different country as well as the UK. I'm shooting for France, but we have no firm plans.

Go on two auditions - DONE if you count voice overs. I actually also was filmed as an extra so I consider that fine.

I've done a little acting before, and I went on one audition in 2008, so I'm going to do it twice in 2009. It really helps me get outside of my comfort zone and I would love to get more stage experience.

Learn Basic French - NOT DONE. I suck.

I've wanted to do this forever but never actually set it as a goal.

Read 2 Books per Month - NOT DONE. I'll be beefing this one up. See below.

I have a bookcase full of unread books and I really want to knuckle down and read more. I'm a tad embarrassed about how little I read these days.

Get a Voice over agent - DONE. I have one. I never get work though :-)

This is a really big goal and one that I hope to accomplish fairly quickly. I've done voice over work before and I really love it. I would like to sign with an agency because it's a hard market to break in to.

Get this blog to over 200 subscribers - NOT DONE. 55 of you are awesome though and I love you.

At the moment I have 40 subscribers.

2010 Goals

Financial Goals

1. Get Emergency Fund to $3,000 and maintain it at that level.

2. Do not carry a balance on any credit card for the whole year.

3. Break even as a freelancer by covering all living and discretionary spending.

4. Pay enough extra on student loan to reduce payments to $400 a month.

Personal Goals

1. Read all of the unread books on my bookshelf by the end of the year. That is a total of 63 books. This is going to be a real challenge, but I'm determined to try. Some of them are fairly short :-)

2. Learn basic french. This is a repeat goal. I'll try to do better.

3. Finish a pair of socks every month. I love to knit and I want to be better about making socks, for myself and other people. There really is nothing quite like hand-knit socks.

4. Work with Chris Kayser. I have a list of Atlanta Theatre "stars" that I want to work with, and he is at the top of the list.

5. Submit a resume to Cirque du Soleil. I've been trying to pluck up the courage to do this. Have to really really try.

6. Climb the scary ladder at the Tavern. It's very tall, very wooden, very rickety, and it goes from angled to vertical. I swear I won't let it beat me this year!

So there we have it. Another year finally drawing to a close. Good riddance and good luck!

All Gone!

So today I made the very last payment on the last little bit of my credit card debt. I am now officially out of consumer debt. The only money I owe is my student loan that is not interest bearing (I owe it to my parents).

This is huge for me. My finances are under control. I'm starting on a new budget on October first that will skyrocket my savings, which will allow me to finally not panic when bad things happen, and hopefully I'll be able to travel home next year. I can also start paying down my student loan significantly. I'm also upping my spending money a little too, because, well I think I've earned it!

I'm still working extra jobs and trying to make some extra money because I like being busy, and because I need to keep building my technical theatre resume. That means working nights and weekends and keeping my regular 9-5 job too. I'm not out of the woods yet, because I'm not out of debt yet, and $25,000 is a huge sum of money that I still have to pay off. But I have three and a half years to do it, I'm not paying interest, and I make enough money that I don't have to struggle with my bills. So here is what really made the difference for me:

I got a roommate. Monthly savings : $480

I cut my grocery bill as low as I could. Monthly Savings : $200

I stopped buying things that I couldn't afford. Monthly savings : $300

I snowballed my debt. This allowed me to pay off thousands of dollars in just over a year.
I purged assets I wasn't using, like my camera, books, clothes. I stopped eating out and drinking out.

I worked my ass off to get where I am and I have to say, I'm really proud. Right now, I'll be out of debt sometime around February 2013 and I plan on making it sooner than that if I can. I'm still going to be blogging about my money stuff and my financial goals. So with that, here are my current savings goals that I'm working on:

Emergency Fund to $3000 (Currently at $235)

Travel Fund to $3600 (Currently at $109)

Medical and Dental Fund to $1000 (Currently at $1)

Car Maintenance Fund to $1000 (Currently at $1)

2009 Roth IRA to $1500 (Currently at $195)

I'm certainly not done yet with my goals, but it feels good to have interest coming in, not going out for a change! Yay me!

And Then There Were Two

Last Friday I made the final payment on my scooter loan. This was a 36 month loan that I managed to pay off in just 16 months.

I am so ridiculously proud and happy that it's done. It was really important to me to get that cleared, and it wasn't just about the money. That was the last tie to my accident last year. Now it's all over and done with and I can finally move on with me life.

Now I'm left with the two biggest debts. I have a credit card with about $4,500 charged to it to pay off, and then my student loan of over $25,000. This student loan isn't a real student loan but money I borrowed from my parents over the last 7 years. I'm working hard on getting both paid off. Right now I'll be throwing everything I can at that credit card as it's my last interest bearing debt.

With the extra work I do, and with working at my new company, I'm hoping to pay somewhere around $1,000 a month on the two debts. I'll be putting big lump sums on the card, and making smaller payments from my part time job on the student loan.

This is the rocky part. This is where it's harder to get to having a debt paid off and get that high that comes from making a final payment. I know I can get out of the credit card this year and I fully intend to.

I've worked so hard on this and it sucks working 60 hour weeks and never spending any of the money I earn. I hate it sometimes, but the end will justify the means. One day, those pay checks that I work so hard for will really be mine.

So Beautifully Close

Today I got paid at both my part time job and my full time job. The best thing about this is that I was able to put some extra money on my scooter loan. And now it stands at a balance of $69.27.

No I didn't miss a zero. $69.27 is all that is left of that debt. I will be able to pay it off next Thursday. I am so happy and excited! After this, I get to start putting money towards my credit card and my student loan. I am focusing on the credit card primarily because it has interest on it. If I manage to make the payments I think I can make on it, I'd estimate it at being paid off by the middle of October.

That would be so very very wonderful if I could make that happen. To have all of my consumer debt gone this year would be a dream come true. Then I would be able to blow through this student loan in just over two years.

So now comes the time to set a new and realistic goal about when I can get out of debt. We are looking at January of 2012. This may seem a way away, and it feels like forever. But it's a year and three months sooner than I thought.

Let's see if I can meet my own challenge!

And the Beat Goes On...

I admit, I am sad that my updates on here have been infrequent and I know that I'm not the most thrilling read right now. But I do appreciate everyone sticking with me and here's a state of the union update.

Last night we finally moved the last of the things from our old loft. Though it was a great place to live, it ended up costing us an absolute fortune. We got a fair bit credit card happy with decorating it, and we really were living beyond my means.

My new apartment is lovely and I am so happy about it. It's not perfect, but it's much more my style. Now, of course, it is absolutely filled with stuff. I have a lot of unpacking and sorting things out to do.

It's hard. There are things that I want to buy for the new place. I want a smaller microwave. I want a couple more orchids (I collect them), I want to get some plants for the yard, I want a curtain rod and curtains. I also want a new couch, since Andrew will eventually be taking the day bed that I am currently using.

I can't have these things right now. I don't have the money and I have to force myself to wait until I do. Sure, I could throw that stuff on a credit card, but how would that help? I'd just feel guilty.

In looking over my finances, I realized that making those huge student loan payments wouldn't be feasible or logical right now, so I am back on my Snowball. I was able to make another payment on my scooter loan to get that paid down. Now, even if I just went back to the minimums, it will be paid off by December. I think I can actually have it paid in full by June.
I'm sending extra money towards my student loan at this point, and I'll be working on some other strategies to try and make some additional income.

I also got the notice today that the lawsuit against me has officially been settled and that the dismissal papers are on their way to me. I can't explain how happy that makes me. I am so utterly relieved by that. I can't wait to actually get those papers in the mail. I will be baking up a storm in a little bit for my lawyer.

I'm working on very slowly rebuilding my emergency fund. It was completely decimated because of the lawsuit and not having it makes me really really edgy. But, I will persevere and hopefully I can have it back up to a sizable amount by the fall.

In the sidebar of the blog, I've got a list of debts and goals now that I am updating frequently. These are to keep me more accountable towards my goals and because I'm not hiding anything. I know I'm in debt, you know I'm in debt, thats why I have this blog. It's full disclosure time.

With the loft out of the way, I have more time to work on other projects now. I will try and make this one of them.

Tides are Turning

I've had a really bad 8 months. Lets not kid around here. It's been pretty horrible. 

There have been times when I've wanted to pack in this blog, to give up on any goals and dreams that I'm trying to pursue, and just hide with the covers pulled over my head. 

But I feel like I'm getting close to a shift. I'm about to go back to having two jobs again. I'll still be working in professional theatre, but I'll be doing that part time while I work a new full time job at a strong and steady web company. 

I'll be doing online technical support. The pay is good, and the company seems really nice. It means that I'll be able to get a strong grip on my finances. I may even be able to pay my non-student loan debt off as early as September. This is a huge deal to me. It also means I can pay off my student loan on time. 

It means I'll be back to sixty hour weeks until April when I will drop back to 50 hours. 

The other reason I feel like the tides are turning is that something good and random may have fallen into my lap. I've been looking at doing voiceover work for a while and haven't gotten round to getting my demo recorded. Today one of my friends, an actor around town told me that he had referred his agent to me about a small acting gig that she was looking for someone to do. 

This is a little out of the ordinary for me, I don't act primarily, but I have in the past. So I called her, she asked me to come in and do an audition tape, and she's sending it to the client today. I should find out tomorrow whether or not I get it, but she does seem pretty confident, which was nice. I had a lot of fun doing it. 

If this pans out, it's a foot in the door to more work. I'm going to be sending this agent my headshot and resume, and my demo if I ever get it recorded. We'll see if anything good comes of it!

So it feels like things might finally be working out. Now all I have to do is remain calm while I wait for that phone call!

2009 Goals

I'm a really goal oriented person. I did pretty well on my 2008 goals, only missing one of them. This year I have set several goals, and I have broken them up into financial and personal. So, here is the plan for 2009.

Financial Goals

Pay off all non-student loan debt

This is my credit card and my scooter loan and it currently stands at around $6500.

Get Net Worth below -$20,000

This would mean increasing by Networth by about $7000.

Get Emergency Fund to $2,000

This currently stands at just under $500.

Get Student Loan to below $20,000

This means paying off $3,811 of my loan.


Personal Goals

Reach my Target Weight

I gained about 20lb over the last year and a half and my target weight means that I need to lose 13 of them.

Be Published in a National Magazine

This was a tentative goal for last year and I am still hoping that it occurs.

Go to a different country other than England

I love to travel, and go to England often because my family lives there. This year I would really like to go to a different country as well as the UK. I'm shooting for France, but we have no firm plans.

Go on two auditions

I've done a little acting before, and I went on one audition in 2008, so I'm going to do it twice in 2009. It really helps me get outside of my comfort zone and I would love to get more stage experience.

Learn Basic French

I've wanted to do this forever but never actually set it as a goal.

Read 2 Books per Month

I have a bookcase full of unread books and I really want to knuckle down and read more. I'm a tad embarrassed about how little I read these days.

Get a Voice over agent

This is a really big goal and one that I hope to accomplish fairly quickly. I've done voice over work before and I really love it. I would like to sign with an agency because it's a hard market to break in to.

Get this blog to over 200 subscribers

At the moment I have 40 subscribers.

So that's the plan. We'll see how I do and I'll post progress as I make it. I know I'm being super ambitious with a few of these goals, but I think it's important to aim high.

What are your goals for 2009?

2008 Goal Round Up and Debt Snowball Progress

Well, this year is drawing to a close. It's been a year with a lot of ups and downs. Some bad things happened, some good things happened, and we rounded it out with a gorgeous new baby for my oldest friend (which really puts things in perspective, let me tell you!).

I hit most of my goals for 2008. I made some good financial progress this year and feel like my debt is in a less scary and manageable place.

So, my 2008 goals were:

Get My Networth to -$28000 - DONE I'll be updating my Networth this week but I can tell you that it is below -$28,000

Get my Prosper Loan down to less than $2000 - DONE It is at $1985!

Pay off my Banana Republic Card - DONE

Pay off my American Express -DONE

Get Emergency Fund to $1000 - NOT DONE Currently it stands at $455.

I am happy that I accomplished so many of these goals. I really tried for that last one, but I just couldn't make it happen. I'm okay with not hitting that goal, because I know that I just have to work a little harder on it for next year.

Debt Snowball Progress

I have made tremendous progress on My Debt Snowball over the past few months. I paid off my American Express card right before Christmas, which was Step #4 in my Snowball. 

Here is where we are:

1. Banana Republic Card - PAID 

2. Medical Bills - PAID 

3. Car - PAID 

4. American Express - PAID

5. Prosper - Balance $1985.93 - Minimum $119.01

6. Bank of America - Balance $4701.29 - Minimum $102

7. Student Loan - Balance $23821 - No Minimum

Once my car was paid off, I was finally in a position where I was actually making more money than my bills, so I eased off and quit my extra jobs. I'm still working on making a little more money on the side, and will need to amp that up in the New Year since in February a line of passive income that has been helping me pay down my debt will come to an end. 

This Blog

I started this blog with the hopes of tracking both my personal progress, writing about finances, and keeping up with my writing skills. I'm hoping in the New Year that I will be able to get back to regular posting and start growing my readers and subscribers again. I should have a Networth update and my final list of goals for 2009 up in the next couple of days. In the meantime, I wish everyone an enjoyable New Years!

No Spend Days Update and Setting New Goals

A few days ago I wrote about No Spend Days as a way to try and keep on top of spending and saving. Well, yesterday I posted about how I've gone off my budget. As a result, I've started the no Spend Day plan. 

So far I'm on day 2 of No Spending. I'm setting my first goal at the end of the month. I don't want to spend any more money other than on budgeted items for the rest of the month. This includes no discretionary spending at all while I catch up from going over budget. 

It's also getting close to the end of 2008. Just another month and a week to go until the new year. This means that I need to start preparing my 2009 financial goals and to see what I managed to accomplish in 2008. 

I'm going to set my first goal now. By the end of 2009 I want my Net Worth to be at -$20,000 or less. This would mean I need to clear at least $8000 worth of debt. I honestly think that this is an achievable goal, though it might end up being close. 

So what about you? Are you having No Spend Days? Do you have an accomplished goal for 2008? Do you have an idea of a goal for 2009? 

Random Posts

Frugal Food - Lunch for Less

Planning for Accidents

Five Things You Can Do Without

Give Your Savings Account a Raise

Photo by mag3737

When working on building substantial savings, many people agree that you should put away a percentage of your earned income.
Personally, I am currently putting 5% of my paycheck away to help meet my savings goals. I am working at building my Emergency Fund first, and then I have a list of other things that I am saving for.
I am about to get a raise at my regular job and with that, I will also be giving my savings account a raise. Not only will I be depositing more because it will be 5% of a bigger number, but I'll also be raising it to 6% and intend to do so every time I get a raise up to a maximum of 10% for now.

Why is this Important?

When you receive a raise, you are getting above the money that you currently have budgeted. It's easy to increase the amount of money that you are saving because even with that added percentage, it is likely that you'll still have a higher disposable income. It won't impact your every day life to put more money away, but it will build your savings much more quickly.

A 1% raise in my what I deposit into my account along with having a higher amount anyway due to my income being increased knocks 47 weeks off how long it will take to hit my Emergency Fund goal, assuming I put no money other than that into my savings.

What Will I Do When I Hit My Goal?

Essentially, when I hit one saving goal I will move on to the next in a Snowball fashion, and there will be more coming on that at a later date. Having reachable goals is an important psychological motivator, which is why I track what percentage of my goal all of my Savings accounts are currently at. I adjust this every time money goes in and it makes me feel as though I'm getting somewhere, even if all I have added is a tenth of a per cent.

Even though I don't save as much money as I would like and I do still have a lot of debt, working on my emergency fund helps me to increase my financial comfort level greatly. I feel like I am securing my future and when bad things happen I am much more prepared.

Debt Snowball Progress

When I had my accident it sent me into a giant pit of financial despair. I have medical bills, I had to buy a car, I have to pay car insurance, and many other little things keep surfacing that I have to pay for. 

I decided the only way to get a grip on all of this was to just bite the bullet and get a second job. I am now working seven days a week in order to stay on top of everything. My second job is sales, so I get a base rate plus commission. So far I haven't been doing too badly, and combined with another six month long income stream, I can stay on top of my debt with a little extra to start paying down some bills.

Yesterday I received my first check and was able to pay off the first of seven debts. This was also the first end of year goal that I managed to meet. 

My debt snowball now looks like this:

Banana Republic Card - PAID ($20 Minimum transferred to AmEx)

American Express - Minimum $38

Prosper - Minimum $101.01

Bank of America - Minimum $105

Car - Minimum $200

Medical - Minimum $86.40

Student Loan - No Minimum

There are a couple of non-traditional aspects to my snowball. My car and medical payments carry no interest so although they have lower balances, I am working on the interest bearing debts first. My student loan was a loan from my parents and we have a separate agreement regarding it's payment. My normal job only allows me room to pay $130 in minimum debt payments currently, so the goal is to get all of my debt paid off or my minimums below $130 before I can stop working two jobs. 

Paying off my Banana Republic card is a great first boost. I am very happy that I was able to do that and I think that with some hard work I might be able to pay my AmEx off within another two months. 

My 2008 Financial Goals are:

Get My Networth to -$28000 - Currently at -$30,981

Get my Prosper Loan down to less than $2000 - Currently at $2575

Pay off my Banana Republic Card - DONE

Pay off my American Express - Currently at $1075

Get Emergency Fund to $1000 - Currently at $243

It looks like I am definitely on track to meet all of these goals with the only one I consider questionable being my Emergency Fund Goal. There is definitely a little light at the end of the tunnel though. 

Related Articles

Making Plans to Snowball My Debt

Setting Goals

How Aware Are You of Your Money?

It's very easy when you are having a hard time affording life to duck under the covers and only come up for air when you have to. It seems easier to live day to day rather than getting all caught up in what money is owed where and what happens when you get your next check and so on.

I used to be this way for the longest time. I was never really looking to get my debt paid off, I was merely looking to maintain it at its current state.

Now I know the balance on every debt that I have. I have a little balance sheet that contains all of my balances, minimum payments and goals. I can quote the numbers if asked. It's very organized and a little concerning.

I am hyper-aware of my money. I know what I have, what I need, and I have a plan.

I firmly believe that this is the key to getting myself out of debt. Here are some tips for making yourself more aware of your money and figuring out how to get where you need to be.

1. Make a Balance List
I have a list in simple text format. At the top are all of my debts and their balances in the order that I would like to pay them off. Then I have the total of all of these. After that, I have the list of minimum payments again in order. Below that I have the total of my minimum payments and my goal of what I would like to reduce them to. Next is how much all of my expenses come to and how much extra money I need to make each month in order to pay for them. At the bottom is a list of my assets.
I update this list almost daily, which allows me to track my progress.

2. Track Your Net Worth
Every month I input everything into my NetWorthIQ Profile. This allows me to really see my progress month to month. I've not been doing it for very long, but I have found it useful. I count my vehicle as an asset, but I don't include any other personal property on the list. The really good thing about doing this is it also tracks your percentage change in each category so you can see what area has been affected the most.

3. Allocate Extra Money Immediately
Whenever I make extra money, be it from freelance writing or from my second job, I immediately put the money where it needs to go. This means I often make more than one credit card payment in a month. Since interest is usually calculated daily, making early payments benefits me since I can save a few cents here and there. Also if you are making these payments, you can again see the progress you are making. Make sure you update your balance sheet when something has been paid. I usually put an asterisk by my minimum payments on my sheet and delete them when that payment is made. I also almost always pay my bills early.

4. Make a Plan
I have a Debt Snowball plan. It needs to be updated, but I'm working hard towards a goal. I'm very close to having the first of 7 debts paid off and believe me, there will be much rejoicing. I've been through all of this once before and then I let it go when I moved and everything became more expensive. Having a plan is going to be the only way to get completely out of debt before I am thirty.

5. Keep Track of Your Spending
Keep an eye on where your "fun" money goes. It's a good idea to try and restrict over-indulgent spending. My husband and I noticed that we like to buy a lot of books. So now every month, on the first of the month we have "book day". We each purchase one book from Amazon.com (and we order together to get free shipping). If we want another book later in the month we add it to our wishlists, and we wait. I have an entire shelf of unread books, so I tend to steer towards cookbooks now. I am even picking up the odd magazine subscription instead. If you buy coffee three times a week, try cutting down to two. Go to your favorite Indian Restaurant every week? Make it bi-weekly and go at lunch time when it's cheaper. Allow yourself the good stuff, but try and cut it down and keep it manageable.

Awareness of a problem tends to be the first step towards recovery. How aware are you?

Related Posts

June Networth Update
Setting Goals
Five Things You Can Do Without

Savings Goals

Today I sat down and actually worked out what my Savings Goals are. I'm a goal oriented person, and goals do well to make me feel as though I am making progress.
Currently, 5% of my paycheck goes straight into saving for my Emergency Fund. Now that I have a second job too, I want to take 5% of those new checks and split them across several different savings account. I'm using ING for this because they have great interest rates and sub accounts are so easy to set up. So whenever my check comes in from my other job 1% will go into each account and the other 95% will go to paying down debt.

I am now working (slowly) towards the following savings goals:

Emergency Fund - $3000
This is approximately three months worth of minimum living expenses.

Thailand Fund - $4000
This is for a really good non frugal trip to the country I have always wanted to go to.

Auto Fund - $2400
This is the Blue Book value for my car, essentially this is me self-insuring my vehicle.

Medical Fund - $685
My deductible, plus my emergency room copay, plus a doctors copay, plus a specialist copay. I want to be very prepared.

Down Payment Fund - $12000
We'd like to buy a house pretty soon. This goal is the most unrealistic of the bunch but I really want to be working towards it.

I'll post an update on how I am doing with my monthly Net Worth update.

Have you set concrete savings goals yet?

When Are You Wealthy Enough?

I read this article from Todd at Harvesting Dollars about the stages of wealth accumulation and it made me wonder what my magic number is. How much would my net worth need to be for me to stop working hard to accumulate more?

I think that I would like to have enough passive income to provide me with about $30,000 a year. So I would probably need investments or interest bearing savings of about $900,000 - $1.2 Million. I would also need to own my own house and have no debt. I'm guessing that this will take me about 20 years to accumulate that much more wealth if I play my cards right. So I have a goal of having the option of living off my passive income by the time I am 45. 

Of course, just because I could stop working doesn't mean I would. Who would want to give up writing?

So, I ask you, what is your magic number? How much wealth do you want to accumulate before you are willing to stop working?

Making Plans to Snowball My Debt

A long time ago I had a really firm debt plan. I knew how much I owed everywhere and I knew what all of my minimums were. I had a plan to get out of debt and I was consistently working out it. Then, for some odd reason that I can't explain, I got off track. 

Now that I'm going to have to start insuring a car again, I need to get back on track. I need to have a much firmer plan. Being on bedrest really does enable you to have the time to formulate a plan. 

I am going to try and Snowball my debt. This worked once before so I'm going to try it again. 

I have the following minimum payments:

Banana Republic - $20

American Express - $15

Bank of America - $98

Prosper - $101.01

This is a total of $234.01. In order to afford all of my minimums and car insurance, I need to reduce this to no more than $125 pretty much immediately, or I need to be making more money.

 

I'm going to pay my minimums and throw everything else onto the Banana Republic card. The BoA card minimum will decrease by about $5 to $9 whenever I make a payment, which I will also apply to the Banana card. Then I will take care of the Amex, then the BoA, then Prosper. 

The balance on my BoA card is higher than my Prosper loan, but my Prosper loan is fixed and has lower interest, so I think I should worry about that last.

I'm going to try and get a second job on the weekends and any money I make from that will go to debt reduction and the car insurance. I'm hoping that I'll only have to hold a weekend job for 6 - 9 months to get this taken care of. 

I've been letting all of this slip and I now realize the answer is hard work and getting this all taken care of as quickly as possible.

So what do you think? Is this a good plan or am I kidding myself?

Weekly Financial Round Up 06/22

This was another week where I spent too much money on food and designer drinks. I want to spend no more than $20 next week. I have enough money to pay my next rent check, but it's tight and I can't take any money out of my account. I have charged a little of this to my credit cards and that also has to stop. Thankfully though, my extra money goal for June has been hit a week early. I will increase this for next month, bearing in mind again that I only pull about 20% of the Etsy money into my bank account. The rest is reinvested.


Spent - $34.10

Gas - $3.81
Entertainment - $9
Food - $10.42
Designer Drinks- $10.87


Extra Money Made - $86.07

Selling DVD's - $21.07
Etsy - $65

Extra Money Needed for June - Goal reached. 

Goal for July will be $250

Previous Weekly Financial Round Up

June 15th 2008

Weekly Financial Round Up

This was a bit of a naughty week for me. I did a little spending that I shouldn't have done. Mostly, it was on eating out, some of which was not controllable. Then a concert came up that we really wanted to go to. I could have done much better though. I did manage to get to June 10th without spending a penny. 

Spent - $81.36

Books - $11.58

Entertainment - $22.50

Food - $37.28

Extra Money Made - $79.50 

$73.50 - Etsy

This may look like it all evened out, but generally I only pull 20% or less of what I make out of Etsy. The rest goes in to shipping subscriptions and purchasing ingredients. So yes, rough week. 

 

Extra Money Needed to Make in June Remaining : $43

Setting Goals

When you are on a shoe string budget, you find yourself constantly thinking about the future and trying to figure out how you can make your life work. 

I like goals. They give me something to aim for and pride when I reach them. Since we are half way through the year, I think it's time for me to set myself some goals for the rest of the year. 

I will get my net worth down to -$28,000.

That means I must knock a lot of money off of my debt and increase my savings. It's quite an ambitious goal, but I need to reach high. 

I can do this by meeting the following goals:

I will carry a $0 balance on my American Express card by the end of the year. I will also consider closing the account. 

I will have $1000 in my savings accounts. This should be split between my Freelance account and my Emergency account. 

I will have my Prosper Loan down to $2,000. 

I will carry a $0 balance on my Banana Republic Card. 

I will earn a minimum of $200 extra per month outside of my regular pay checks. This is an adjustable goal. If I hit $200 two months in a row, the goal will increase. 

These goals are important and attainable. I just have to work hard, spend little, and keep on top of things. 

Extra Money Made Yesterday:

$4.50 - Etsy

Total Minimum Left for June - $122.50 Extra