Footprints on the Moon

I updated the progress in my sidebars over the weekend, but never came back to explain how things changed this month.

My CitiCard remained paid off. Obviously I don’t need to point that out, but since it’s the only debt completely paid off, I enjoy claiming it.

Car Loan went from 70.67% to 73.66%
WaMu card went from 9.91% to 11.34%
Capital One card went from 15.80% to 16.95%
Discover card 5.19% to 5.34%
Perkins loan went from 9.13% to 10.12%
Nelnet loan went from 3.15% to 3.81%
And the grand total of debt went from 11.08% paid off to 12.04% paid off.

With the exception of the car loan, all of those changes are accounted for simply from minimum payments. The car loan doesn’t have a minimum payment (long story about a standing financial arrangement), so that change is accounted for with a bit of snowflaking. Also this month, I mailed off the check for my December 1st car insurance payment.

The totals for this month will probably not change a whole lot from where they are right now. It will be another month of minimum payments across the board. All of my “extra” cash this month is being funneled into Christmas presents. I’ve actually started shopping, and the first present arrived on my doorstep today! As far as the rest of the shopping goes, I’m probably going to put it on credit. Before you panic, the money IS in the budget, and I have no plans to spend more than I have available for Christmas shopping. I know technically the smartest thing to do would be to wait until I have the cash on hand, but since some of it won’t get here until a mere 6 days before Christmas, I’m really not comfortable waiting that long. I’d rather purchase the things now and pay back the credit card 6 days before Christmas. If I’m going to buy someone rc helicopters (I’m not but you never know who is reading, and I don’t want anyone to know what they ARE getting), I might do that online, and I don’t want to worry about things being sold out, or not arriving in time. In past years, the gatherings have started a week or two before Christmas, so I just don’t want to take the chance.

So my Capital One card will slide backwards for the next month and half or so, but will be right back on track in January. Maybe not the best decision ever, will cost me a few dollars in interest, but it’s the one I feel most comfortable with.

Consider this a public service announcement from yours truly. If you have an online savings account, but you still use your regular checking account, it is very important to leave at least a little money in your brick and mortar savings account. You know, the one that is attached to your checking account, and may provide some sort of overdraft protection? I bet you can see where this is going. Because someday you may forget to write something down, and eventually you will get hit with $93 in overdraft fees because your checking account was short 19 cents needed to process a check. Yeah…

This happened on Monday. I logged into my bank account and noticed that my account balances and available balances didn’t look right. I realized right away what happened, but because I didn’t have any extra money in the same bank, there was nothing I could do to stop the ball that had started rolling. I did call my dad and ask him to transfer some money into my account, which he did, but not before they pushed through pending payments and charged me two more overdraft fees. (I’m still mad about that, by the way. I’ve NEVER seen a debit card payment run as credit post the very next day. It’s ALWAYS 2-3 days before it posts. No, I didn’t make those payments counting on the 2-3 days– I didn’t realize I had a math problem until the check was 19 cents short. But I was counting on the usual 2-3 days to avoid the rest of the overdraft fees. I’m not convinced that the bank didn’t see my account was overdrafted and pushed things through early, but I digress.)

In the end, I went to the bank and talked to them about the 3 overdraft fees. I understood exactly how it happened, but I wasn’t going to pay $93 in overdraft fees for one 19 cent mistake. He eventually agreed to refund two of the fees, but because I had no money in my savings account, I still had to eat $31 in overdraft fees over 19 cents. That hurts. So when I got paid today, the first thing I did was transfer a little bit of money into my savings that is attached to my checking account. Consider it one very expensive (and stressful!) lesson learned.

For my Friday Finances post (only at least 3 weeks after I posted the first one, and my intention to post every Friday, oops) I wanted to point out the newest addition to my sidebar. That would be Debt Progress Bars. I’ve been looking for a way to put something like that on my blog for a long time. I finally found a plugin that was created by a knitter to track their works in progress, but it was easily adaptable to my purpose. As I make payments, once a month for most of the debts listed, I’ll go in and adjust the percentage of progress I have made towards my goal. I still have some tweaking to do on the plug-in, like colors and dead links, but I’m happy for now. I have a nice visual representation for all of you that doesn’t require me to repeatedly take pictures of the paper and highlighter version that’s taped to the back of my front door. Don’t worry, I’m still updating that one. It’s highly motivating to me to be able to color pink lines on that chart when my payments clear the bank.

In other financial news, I’m considering selling a few items in my house. I have a Sizzix die cutting machine, with a sizzlits adaptor, a full Sizzlits alphabet set, several Sizzix dies (hearts, circles, squares, confetti, etc) most of which has never been used, some of it gently used. I tried to get online and price everything, but there were a few things I couldn’t find. Altogether, I believe everything I have would cost $300+ brand new. So I’m thinking about listing the whole set somewhere for $200. If you know someone who might be interested, send them my way. I’ll try to get a picture of everything I have put up at some point. I have to get my camera software reloaded on my computer before I can do that though.

The other thing I’ve been considering selling is my Wii. I’m a little more torn on that one though. If I had a playstation 3, I’d sell it in a heartbeat. BUT at the same time, I haven’t used the Wii at all in a couple of months, and it seems silly to hang onto it just because I wanted it so badly if it’s not going to get used. I have the Wii console with 2 controllers and nunchucks, WiiPlay, GameParty, the WiiFit with balance board and Dance Dance Revolution: The Hottest Party with dance pad. Altogether, MSRP on what I have is $480, but that’s IF you can find the Wii and the WiiFit in stock somewhere. I’m not completely sold on selling the Wii just yet, but again, if you have any takers, send them my way. I’m looking for someone to buy the whole lot, I don’t want to try and sell it off piece by piece.

So that’s where I’m at right now… no money moving towards debt for another 2-3 weeks probably. This next paycheck covers the bills and such, the one after that will have the debt payments. That’ll probably be the next time you see most of the charts update.

In the realm of the ever rising grocery prices, I’ve found that one thing that works really well for me is stocking up on the non-grocery items. When you have to buy all of your skincare products, shampoo, feminine hygiene products, toilet paper and paper towels all in the same week that you need to restock the basics in your fridge and pantry, it adds up to one hefty total at the checkout. Even for someone living by themselves! So instead, I like to stock up.. hopefully the big sale on the toilet paper I like falls on the same week I have some wiggle room in my grocery budget. If not, I buy one or two packages on every trip until I have a good stock going. Then I don’t feel the pinch quite as badly on every single grocery shopping trip. I know I’m not the only one who does this… my friend Tina has a 6 month old baby girl, and when we went to lunch a couple weeks ago she said she probably has enough disposable diapers to last her until the kid is out of diapers entirely.

This paycheck is a tighter grocery budget week, so I won’t be able to stock up this time around, but I know it’s coming out of the next paycheck. I’ve got plenty of paper towels (been using hand towels more lately), but I’m running low on just about everything else. Do you stock up on the essentials, or do you just buy as things are needed?

Alternately titled: Why I Will No Longer Be Doing Business with WaMu MyPoints Visa.

I tend to find myself thinking about finances at the end of the week. Maybe because I get paid on Fridays (every other week), maybe because we’re headed into the weekend which is always where a lot of my money tends to disappear. Either way, I decided it would be a great time to write something regarding the state of my finances/financial topics. I’d love to announce a new Finance on Fridays feature at Footprints on the Moon (how’s that for alliteration?), but I know how quickly those things can fall by the wayside. So instead, I’ll just tell you that I’m going to attempt to write about the financial side of my life more, and update on my progress more frequently. If that happens to be on Fridays, so be it.

In all the personal finance reading I’ve been doing over the last six months, one theme has jumped out at me over and over again: The credit card companies ARE out to get you. I’ve always read those sort of statements and said, “Yeah, yeah, yeah…” Until about a month ago.

I was logging into all my accounts online like I’ve basically become obsessive-compulsive about doing. But when I logged into my WaMu MyPoints Visa account, I was in for a big surprise. My formerly $81 minimum payment had suddenly jumped to $113. When you’re trying to pay off debt, a change of $30/month is a big deal. Eventually, I figured out that my interest rate had been raised from 16.99% to 25.99%. What I couldn’t figure out was WHY. I certainly hadn’t missed a payment or incurred any fees. I’ve never made a late payment on this account, or ANY account for that matter.

I tried to call the fine folks at the credit card company for some answers. I barely got the words, “I’d like to know why my interest rate has been raised,” before he jumped in with his little ready made spiel about how he was sorry to hear that but interest rate changes are usually due to (insert generic list of reasons here). I could not get him to tell me anything about why my rate had actually been changed, and the only thing he would do for me is put in a request that they send me a letter detailing what happened. Since he refused to do anything else (just before asking me if there was anything else he could help me with today), I ended up waiting for them to generate my letter and 7-10 days for it to arrive in the mail.

When the letter arrived, it said that they’d changed the terms of my account based on my overall credit risk. The “events or circumstances” they identified that indicated an increased credit risk were:
- Lack of recent retail account information.
- Account balance history.
Oh, and they consider the change(s) necessary in light of the increased risk. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t that basically say that they raised my interest rate because I stopped using my car for new purchases and my balance is going down rather than up?

I’m really frustrated because it was hard enough to make progress on my credit cards without 25% interest rates. This credit card went from being last on my list to pay off and got unceremoniously shoved to number one. I’m a little disappointed that they absolutely refused to work with me because I was planning on keeping this one after I’m done paying off my debt– I really liked the rewards on this card. Instead, I’ll be cancelling this card not too long after it is completely paid off. It’s unfortunate, but I’ll no longer be doing business with the people at WaMu.

My car has issues. I would love to put on my professor voice and say, “I’m sure it’s just the ac compressor, no problem.” But I don’t even know what an ac compressor is, and even if cars actually have those, I AM fairly confident that it would not be the problem.

Actually, I think I know what the problem is, I’m just not sure what to do about it. I’m pretty sure there is a loose wire in my dashboard. Occasionally (and sometimes more than occasionally), I’ll lose everything on my dashboard. All the lights will go off, I have no speedometer, odometer or gas gauge. Interestingly, my parking brake light comes ON when the others shut off. It makes no sense. When the dash goes out, everything else still works– radio, heat/AC, headlights, etc. I just have no gauges, and no back lighting. It’s troubling to me for several reasons: I have no way of knowing when or why it’s going to go off or come back on. When it’s off, I don’t know where my gas tank is at. If it were to stay off for long enough, I could potentially have a problem as I couldn’t see my gas gauge OR monitor my mileage. And it’s just not safe for me to not have a speedometer. I can’t afford a speeding ticket, and I sure do have a lead foot!

Finally, it’s troubling because even if I knew what to do about it, I can’t afford to have it fixed right now. My oil is past due to be changed now because I just don’t have $20 to get it done. So I’ll deal with a finicky dashboard for awhile I suppose. I have a 2001 Honda Civic EX, if anyone has some insight into my issue!

I’m still kind of torn about the whole birthday money situation, so what I decided to do was a little of both. I got a total of $95 for my birthday. I already appropriated $20 of it to pay for lunch at work this week, which leaves $75. Of that, I’m going to take $25 and go buy the Nightmare Before Christmas which FINALLY came out on DVD today… the other $50 will make a credit card payment. That way, I’ll feel like I got to buy something for myself and make a little more progress. I think that will make me feel better about the whole situation!

I did call and close a credit card yesterday though. Woohoo! I have another one I could call and close, but I’m worried about really dinging my credit by making my credit used/credit available ratio even smaller than it already is.

Also on a completely unrelated note, apparently, acne is a hot button topic for the spammers! Usually it’s nothing but performance drugs and anatomy enhancements, but ever since I talked about my puberty chin, I’ve seen a ton of treatments for acne in the mix.

I have a question for you guys… when you get birthday money (or gifted money of any kind, like Christmas, for that matter) is it fun money, or do you add it to your debt relief efforts? I’ve generally subscribed to the notion that you should spend birthday money on something you really want rather than something you really need. This year I was already thinking about using the birthday money to buy sexy swimwear (*snort* okay, okay, just a much needed new swimsuit)… or the other option was to finally buy the books that have been languishing in my shopping cart on Amazon.com. I had almost decided to go for the latter option, but then I spent the weekend taking a good look at my finances and now I find myself leaning towards depositing that money in the bank and sending it straight on to one of my credit cards. So I’m interested in your opinions… does using birthday money to make a credit card payment go against the spirit in which the gift was given (ostensibly to choose a gift for myself) or is it a sound financial decision?

I’ve spent a bit of time this weekend reviewing my financial situation, so I thought I’d stop in and update all of you as well. I’ve been a little upset about the way things are going lately, so I thought a check was necessary. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not upset that I can’t afford things like cruises or expensive vacations, but I don’t like that it’s difficult to afford a day off because my budget is so tight. I’ve been really feeling like I haven’t gotten anywhere, so it was definitely time to step back and look at the big picture.

When I started this journey in February, I had a total debt of $33,470.07. That includes my credit cards, car loan, and student loans. As of today, it stands at $30,589.55, which is a difference of $2,889.52. I am making progress, but it’s not as far as I’d hoped I would be in 6 months. Part of that is my own fault, as one of my credit cards went the wrong direction this month. But part of it is just a function of having such a tight budget when my obligation to, oh, clothe myself hasn’t changed.

The panic that I’ve been dealing with related to my finances comes from looking forward to the next 6 months. I need to pay for glasses in September, Christmas is coming quicker than I want to think about, and my car insurance is due on December 1st (somewhere in the neighborhood of $600, and I have only $70 set aside so far). On top of all of that, I want to continue making forward progress on my credit cards rather than just treading water. Looking at everything, I just don’t see where it’s going to come from, and that’s got me a little freaked out.

A few months ago, I was looking at getting a second, part-time job, and even had a one day stint as a paper delivery girl, but I never made it any farther than that. Now I’m thinking that as much as I don’t want to go from one job to another, maybe it’s time to seriously think about finding something to bring in some extra money. I don’t need to pay everything off in a couple of months, but I would really love to have a little extra breathing room, especially as we approach Christmas.

This Friday is payday, which also happens to be one of my “extra” paychecks of the year. I had planned to stock up on some groceries, and hoped to put most of the rest of it into savings for when my car insurance comes due just before Christmas, and onto the credit card I’m focusing on at the moment. And then I realized that the cats are due to go to the vet this month. I won’t be buying them alot of expensive pet supplements or anything like that, but their annual shots alone aren’t cheap, especially when they come two at a time. My license needs to be renewed before my birthday. Oh, and I’m way overdue to have my eyes checked and get a new pair of glasses.

Hmm… something tells me that those things might suck up a little more of my extra paycheck than I’d have liked. I won’t complain too much though because at least I will be able to afford them. Even if I can’t watch that Capital One balance go down as much as I had wanted, I won’t be skidding backwards this month. I hope. I’m picking up a little extra overtime this weekend due to the company picnic that should help out with that a little bit. So it’s not what I had planned, but it should work out.