Footprints on the Moon

Applied for a Personal Loan

I thought I would give you a little update on operation pay-down-debt, since it’s been a little while. I’ve been plugging away at it. I’m not making quite as much progress as I would’ve hoped, but I’m still moving forwards instead of backwards, so that’s always a good thing. June is turning out to be an expensive month for me, so I’m really feeling like I’m not getting anywhere this month. I’m still waiting for my stimulus check to arrive so I can replenish my emergency fund. Then I’ve had 2 baby showers, Father’s Day is next week, and there are 3 birthdays this month. Ouch! I’m just grateful that I’ll have the money and be able to pay cash for all the gifts and keep moving forward rather than needing to add to the credit card debt.

I have thought for awhile though that it would be easier to make progress if I could consolidate everything and make ONE payment for everything rather than making 4 or 5 different payments and trying to decide which one to pay off first. I thought about trying to get a balance transfer credit card, but the last time I tried that, they gave me a $500 credit limit and wouldn’t raise the limit until after the 0% offer had expired. Yeah, that was almost helpful!

So yesterday I applied for a personal loan, just enough to pay off all the credit cards and get them under one payment, and at a lower interest rate to boot. Honestly, I have no idea whether or not I’ll even be approved. I hope I will because I breathe a little easier just thinking about being able to make those changes. But if I don’t, it’s not the end of the world… I’ll just keep plodding along with what I’m doing. Forward motion is better than no motion at all!

$25 Free from Revolution Money Exchange

There’s something that I’ve seen on basically every single personal finance blog lately, so I decided it was something worth looking into. It’s called Revolution Money Exchange. It’s a new service that is kind of like PayPal. You can use it to send and receive money, but without the fees that PayPal charges. I don’t know about you, but I like the idea of being able to send and receive money from people without sacrificing a portion of the total to fees!

For a limited time, if you sign up, you get a no-strings attached $25. The offer ends on April 15th, so if you want some free money, you have to move quickly. I signed up for my account, and it already reflects $25 in my account, ready for me to withdraw as soon as my bank account is verified. Can’t beat that! If you’re thinking about signing up, I’d appreciate it if you went through my button below– I’ll get $10 to add to my emergency fund, and you’ll get a quick $25.

Let me know what you think! Don’t forget, you’ve only got until April 15th to claim some free cash!

Florida or Not

Right now I’m trying to make a decision. As you all know (because I won’t let you forget!), I’m trying to get on top of my finances and pay down some of this debt that I have. That’s what is helping this decision be so difficult for me to make. See, there’s this conference happening in Florida in September, and I REALLY want to go. In an almost desperate sort of way. I want to go and hang out with friends, meet new friends, and finally meet some new friends in person for the first time. Not to mention, it’d just be all around a great experience. I’ve spent a bunch of time crunching the numbers, and in August I should have the money to pay cash for the trip and not have to put myself further in debt (like I did for Vegas last November, oops) in order to go, especially if I manage to find some vacation deals, which I’m hoping I will. Rooming with friends would bring down the cost of the hotel stay considerably, and as soon as Allegiant schedules their September flights, I’ll be able to see if I can get any good deals there.

So what’s the problem? It’s this whole debt repayment thing! I’m a big fan of Dave Ramsey– reading the Total Money Makeover, and listening to his radio show has been a huge catalyst in getting me moving, and finally making progress in the financial arena. And I know what he would say about taking a vacation…. so even though I could go, and pay cash, there’s a big part of me that knows I “should” be putting all that cash towards my debt snowball and making more progress forward. The rest of me is saying hey wait a minute! I’ll have the cash to do it, and don’t I deserve it? Oh yeah… never mind the fact that I deserved myself right into credit card debt in the first place. I know it’s going to take me awhile to get out of debt completely, and I am just not “gazelle intense” enough to deny myself absolutely everything for the several years it’s probably going to take. I was reading an article on somebody’s blog the other day (but of course I can’t find it now) where they were talking about sacrificing a little bit of repayment intensity for the sake of making memories, and that’s the direction I’m leaning. Yes, I want to get out of debt, and yes I’d like it to happen as quickly as possible. But at the same time, I don’t want to deny myself every great opportunity that comes along to make it happen a month or two faster either.

I’m really leaning towards making this trip as long as I can pay cash for it, so I’ve started a special savings in my ING account called Florida to start putting small amounts of money in. Even so, I won’t know for sure for another month or two. It’s kind of strange how my mindset has changed… before I never would have questioned it. I’d be going whether I could afford it or not, and I’d make it happen. I never thought I could live within my means like this, and that I’d be so committed to make sure it stays that way.

Self Portrait Sunday 4/6/08

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope it’s as gorgeous where you are as it is in Indiana this afternoon! It’s still a bit on the chilly side, but the sun is out! As long as you have a jacket or sweatshirt on, it’s just beautiful out there. These are the days that make you take a deep breath and say ahhhh… Spring is finally starting to win out over Winter. Thank goodness!!

You might be wondering about the chart by my head in this picture. I thought I’d let you see my motivation on this debt pay-off journey. This is actually one of the first things I did. This is a chart of all my debt (there’s another one at the bottom that got cut out of the picture), plus the baby emergency fund I’m trying to start with. When I sat down to do this in the beginning of February, I got online and found the current balances of all my debts. That’s on the very left. Then, each bar is divided into 10 blocks. So each block is 10% of that total debt. The right hand side is 0. So when the bars are solidly filled in, that debt is paid off.

It’s surprisingly motivating. I like seeing the whole picture right there. It was definitely necessary for getting started. It’s on the back of my front door, and you can see it from anywhere in the living room. I LIKE getting paid, and paying my bills now because it’s very satisfying to go over there with my highlighter and start coloring. It’s also good incentive to keep spending only within my income because I’m not sure I could handle going over there with white-out instead of my pink highlighter!

I need to get back to cleaning in my bedroom and change out some litter boxes, so I can take things out to the dumpster, and recycling bin while it’s so nice to do it. I’m finally making good progress on my bedroom, I’m so excited! If I had some quarters, I’d wash my bedding too… but that’s okay. The sheets will survive another week unwashed Make sure you check out Midlife Musings to see what everyone else is up to today!

Canceled My Netflix Account

I’m very sad today guys. Today is the day I finally gave up and canceled my Netflix account. A couple of months ago, I started canceling accounts that I really didn’t need. I stopped buying movies when they came out. Then I started to let my magazine re-subscription notices pass me by. But Netflix… that’s been my last holdout.

I’ve really slowed down in my turn around time on the DVDs though. It’s gotten to the point where I’m not really getting my money’s worth out of the subscription. I’m more likely to watch something that’s backlogged on the Tivo than to put in a DVD. I was looking at how much of my credit card payments goes towards principle and how much goes towards interest. That Netflix payment hits one of my credit cards, and after finance charges, I was only making $7 and some change progress towards the principle of my balance every month! That was the final straw in making the decision I should awhile ago. I logged on, took a breath and canceled the account. Now I just have to send the DVDs I have back to them, and hopefully I’ll start making a little more substantial progress towards that credit card payment.

Update on the Emergency Fund

I’m getting off of here in just a minute, but I realized that with being out all weekend, I never updated on my emergency fund progress. I was able to put $270 straight into that fund on Friday, and I was very excited about that. There will be a little more money, maybe $50 or so, that I’ll be able to add to that by the end of the week probably. I’ve been on this budget for 2 months now, and I’m finally feeling like I’m getting some traction.

The first two months were more about getting ON a written plan, figuring out what works, and changing the bad habits. When you’re used to living paycheck to paycheck, or not even that really– paycheck to credit until the next paycheck, it’s hard to switch to using only cash. And to spending less than you earn. I didn’t realize just how hard it would be to just NOT get something until payday if the money was already gone. I was SO used to just putting it on the credit card until payday.

I still have a long way to go, but I’ve finally made some sizable progress so I had to share my excitement with you!

My Dumbest Purchase Ever

Ever since I started my debt reduction journey, I’ve started to read more and more personal finance blogs. And you know, personal finance bloggers link to each other. A lot. Crazy, isn’t it? When you are doing something difficult, it’s a bit easier when you hook up with a bunch of other people trying to make the same changes in their lives? (Sounds a bit like weightloss bloggers too, actually.)

Anyways, that’s how I came across the blog Debt Kid. I don’t even remember whose blog I clicked through from, but I found an entry where he proclaims dumbest purchase ever was a Nintendo DS lite. Typical of your middle of the night Walmart runs, and he hasn’t even played it in months. So he asked the blogosphere to share their dumbest purchases ever for a chance to win his!

It didn’t take me more than 30 seconds to decide which was my dumbest purchase. It’s my laptop. You might be thinking, but JENNIFER! That’s your computer… your lifeline to the internet. And you’d be right. I use this laptop every single day. I connect with people around the globe, I’ve met some of the most amazing friends I’ve ever had in my life, and I’ve even managed to make a little money on the side. So why on earth do I call it my dumbest purchase ever?

Because until the day that I purchased this laptop from Dell, I never carried a balance on my credit cards. I had two cards, and I always paid the balance off in full every month. Sure, there may have been a month or two in college where I carried over a small balance (like Christmas presents bought in November and paid for when I worked over Christmas break), but for the most part those cards stayed very close to zero. And then I decided that my desktop computer needed replaced, I needed a laptop and I needed it NOW. I couldn’t afford it, and rather than saving up my money for it I decided to buy it on credit. I didn’t even have one credit card with a high enough limit to finance the purchase so I split it between two cards. It was more than I could pay off the next month, so for the first time I carried a balance on two cards and not a small balance at that. It was the catalyst for the debt that I have now… it made it easy to justify buying things I couldn’t afford, and letting the balance rot on my credit cards. The day I sat down to start this debt reduction I realized I had gone from two cards with no balances to four cards and credit card debt of approximately $11,000. Add that to my $20,000 of student loans and you can understand why I felt like I was drowning. When you look at it that way, you can’t help but wonder if laptop rental might have been a little more cost-effective in the long run! LOL

I don’t regret buying my laptop. I do regret buying it on credit before I could afford it, and then not diligently paying it back. Instead, it became easier to justify larger purchases elsewhere. $200 didn’t seem bad when I’d just spent $2,000 on a computer! So yes, I’ve gotten good use out of my computer, and still do, but when I look at the avalanche of debt it seems to have created, I definitely believe it was my dumbest purchase ever!

Darn that Dave Ramsey!

I’ve mentioned a few times that I’m trying to get my finances in order. I’m on the “Dave Ramsey plan” which means there’s exactly zero wiggle room in my budget. (If you’re not familiar with Dave Ramsey, you can check him out at DaveRamsey.com.) It seems like as soon as I made the decision that I’d had enough of this debt, and paycheck to paycheck thing, things aligned to test my commitment.

One of my big weaknesses is movies… buying DVDs. Within the last month that I’ve been on my budget there have been many DVDs released that I really wanted to buy, including TWO Disney movies. Aristocats and 101 Dalmations. Those are the ones that are killing me not to be able to buy. I’m trying to convince myself that they’ll still be there when I get my finances are in order. So far, I’m holding strong. Of course, having taken a realistic look at my finances for the first time in ages makes it really easy to say no cause I can REALLY see that the money just is NOT there. I used to buy everything on credit and make payments later, and it was just too easy to justify purchases I couldn’t afford. Cutting off my access to my credit has taken the decision out of my hands. Doesn’t make it any easier to swallow not being able to buy anything “fun” though!

Sniffle, Cough, Sneeze

Gasp, shock! I didn’t participate in Self Portrait Sunday yesterday! Shockingly enough, I was actually presentable looking for a couple of hours for my interview, church and the like. I didn’t think to get a picture in that couple hour window, however, and by the time I thought about it, I was too snot-encrusted and miserable to even consider sharing a picture of myself in such a state!

I did end up going to one of the urgent care facilities yesterday… I can’t afford to miss time at work, but I don’t want to get everyone sick either. So it was off to find out whether or not I was contagious and to get some good drugs. After an hour of waiting, and the doctor spending a grand total of 30 seconds with me, she declared that I have “just a cold”, I’m not drinking enough water because my pee isn’t clear (uh, I have to be practically water-toxic to have clear pee, just saying), oh and to stop taking decongestants. Ha! I’m miserable, and you want me to stop taking medications that make living tolerable? You better have some better options for me than that! In the end, I’m not sure that I buy that it’s only a cold. I’ve had lots of colds, and I’ve NEVER had my ears hurt like this for a COLD.

The “interview” went alright. Was less of an interview and more of a “sign this paper and I’ll call you in a couple days” sort of thing. I’ll be headed into the warehouse at 3am tomorrow morning though, so we’ll see what I think. You get a couple weeks to be a temporary contract person before you decide that yes, you can hack 7day a week deliveries and never call off sick. I don’t expect it to be easy, but we’ll see how it goes. If I don’t have a life, that’s fine. I don’t need a life right now, I need to pay my bills. My real concern is whether being up that much earlier would make it difficult for me to get through my regular work day. I’m typically the type of person that needs a full 8 hours of sleep, so this should be interesting!

Paper Route

I’ve been thinking about picking up a second job for a couple of weeks. After I sat down to work on my budget, I realized that knuckling down and getting serious about paying down debt wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought. There’s really not a whole lot of wiggle room there. One of the things I’ve been considering is getting a paper route. The local paper is delivered 7 days a week, the delivery drivers don’t have to deal with collections and it fits nicely into my current schedule. Right now I get to work at 6:45am, and papers have to be delivered by 6am.

Anyways, I’ve left messages with various district managers that had open routes, and I finally got to talk to a real live human being this morning!! We chatted, I found out her warehouse is only about 2 blocks away from my apartment, and I set up an interview for 8am on Saturday morning. Woohoo! Yeah, not really. My spidey sense was tingling… oh yeah… apparently I need to get myself a Technomarine watch, or at least a calendar! I can’t have an interview at 8 am on Saturday. I have to be at my first job for mandatory training at 7am. That is clearly not going to work. So I had to call back and ask if we could reschedule, and you guessed it, I got to leave another voicemail. *headdesk* The worst part? I DO have a calendar… it was sitting less than a foot to my left when I was scheduling my interview and it says right on it in big letters “CPR 7am”. Brilliant, I tell you.

Fingers and toes crossed for me, please. I really need to get some extra money coming in soon.