I-78 Commute's Financial Ramblings

Well now that we're one day past payday and the budget has been implemented here's how it went down. Below is a copy of the budget I had created for the pay period from 9/2-9/15 with notes on how it was executed.

09/02 - 09/15
Income: $4741

Electric: $242 (PAID)
The Maids: $140 (9/8)
Netflix: $12 (9/8)
Equifax: $7 (9/13)

Cash: $500 (DONE ATM)
This covers food, clothing, entertainment, medical copays and any other discretionary expenses we have during the two weeks. We do this stuff in cash only because it works really well for us.

Son's birthday: $150 (DONE TXFR)
His 16th birthday was on August 25th and we need to deposit $100 to his checking account (was a gift from us.) We also are going to purchase him a dock for the car for his Ipod for $50.

Amazon: $10 (PAID)
This is for a replacement Tassimo filter.

HVAC Filters: $69 (PAID)
This buys us two replacement HVAC filters. I vac'd out the one we had in there but it is so bad I'm going to have to replace it. It's been in there for almost a year now so it's time.

Now for the other part. At this point we had $3611 left to spend and there were some important things to put the money towards.

Wedding Ring: $2911 (PAID)
I was able to get the ring back and it looks great. The wife was EXTREMELY HAPPY to get her ring back fully repaired (it had met an unhappy garbage disposal courtesy of our cat) and with a new diamond installed. Insurance did pay a portion of it but I still had to go out of pocket for nearly $3000. It was actually ready a couple of months back but we wanted to wait until the debt was gone before paying for it.

This left me with $700 to put to savings. We have a check coming next week for over $7000 which will be put to savings as well as we continue to bolster up the cash in the bank. I can safely say this was a fun budget to work through with no debt payments attached to it.

Oh and I almost forgot! I called our cable provider and was able to get a $16 discount on our monthly bill. All I had to do was ask! It's always a good idea to call up your utility providers like cable, phone and internet (even if you bundle) to see if they can do anything to help you save some money.

September is shaping up to be a great month in our household income wise so we should be able to do a lot of good with our money. We get paid biweekly on Weds so we're looking at 3 paydays in September and a bonus in the middle of the month to boost our income even more. I usually do our budgets per pay period and any bills that are due within the pay period get paid. We have a few things we need to pickup online so those will be budgeted into this pay period's budget.

Here's how it looks right now:

09/02 - 09/15
Income: $4741

Electric: $242
The Maids: $140
Netflix: $12
Equifax: $7

Cash: $500
This covers food, clothing, entertainment, medical copays and any other discretionary expenses we have during the two weeks. We do this stuff in cash only because it works really well for us.

Son's birthday: $150
His 16th birthday was on August 25th and we need to deposit $100 to his checking account (was a gift from us.) We also are going to purchase him a dock for the car for his Ipod for $50.

Amazon: $10
This is for a replacement Tassimo filter.

HVAC Filters: $69
This buys us two replacement HVAC filters. I vac'd out the one we had in there but it is so bad I'm going to have to replace it. It's been in there for almost a year now so it's time.

So far we've spent a total of $1130 and that leaves us with $3611 to use as we see fit.

What's really crazy is the only thing we actually HAVE to pay on this list is the electric bill. The rest of the list (other than the cash...which we could cut down in half) is wants. Now that we're debt free we feel we can open up the discretionary spending a bit more but we're still retaining 75 percent of this biweekly income. That's not a bad thing.

We still have some long term goals to work on as well. My wife's wedding ring is still at the jewelers and I believe it'll take $2700 to pick it up now that it's been repaired. FYI to everyone make sure you have a proper rider for jewelry on your homeowner's insurance policy. We only had a small reimbursement and we now have the rider but you have to get it appraised and get it on your insurance properly. Check with your agent as to what you need to do to do it right.

We also need to pay off our son's Spain Trip which I mentioned in an earlier post. That'll be exciting to see that gone.

We're also going to be funding Roth 401k's (15-20 percent of net income with a 25 percent match to a traditional 401k by the company), saving for cash flowing college (we start paying the piper in Fall 2010) and accelerating our mortgage payoff (increasing the amount to principal) so it's not like that money doesn't have anywhere to go. We have a long haul ahead of us but we're excited at the prospects of being able to knock all of this stuff out.

I just wanted to share the first cool thing we were able to do after clearing all of our non-mortgage debt. We were able to pay cash (well..debit card from our checking account) for our son (turns 16 tomorrow) to trek out of the USA to Europe in April with his classmates through a school trip. They'll be over there for 11 days total and the balance is due in full by December 19th. Well we've paid nearly $2000 out of the $3000 it cost already ($1750 of that $2000 in the last 4 days) and we'll be able to pay the remaining balance in full on September 2nd without batting an eye. A full three months + before the balance is due!

The best part is having the cash to do it instead of going into debt to do it. I can remember a time when that $1750 was going to minimum payments on credit cards. No more! Now it goes to things we WANT to do instead of obligations we HAVE to do. Yippie!

So for anyone mired in debt and wondering if it's worth the effort and sacrifice to bulldoze your way out...I can say absolutely! You can pay for a trip without paying more than the trip costs in credit card interest and fees.

I just wanted to send out a "thank you" for everyone here who gave us advice and ideas from the time I started this blog 2.5 years ago. We spent the last 4+ years wading around in over $75,000 of credit card debt and could never figure a way out (at its peak in April of 2008 it was at $110,000) and it took a lot of focus to finally just cut down the lifestyle and get it all paid off. I want to answer a few of the replies in the announcement here so here goes.

To everyone who sent congrats THANK YOU!! We really do appreciate it.

To crazyliblady: What we ended up doing to figure out how much we had to throw at our debt was to go line by line through each and every item we were spending money on and really decide if there was something we could do to cut it down. We ended up trimming out a lot of things we thought we couldn't live without and we basically used a zero based budget approach to make sure all the money was allocated before payday so there were no surprises. We did keep some money to the side for emergencies but not a lot because we didn't want to continue to get eaten up by interest. I would just list everything out and prioritize everything you spend money on each month and you can find all kinds of places to save. When it comes to credit cards make sure you don't use them (it's easier to pay them off when they're not nibbling back at you) and another thing we did to earn extra income was to sell little stuff around the house on ebay and craigslist. We made selling stuff we didn't need our 2nd job and were able to really help supplement our income that way (especially in the beginning.) Just try to focus as much of the extra $ as possible at the card and shut the card down so you don't incur any more payment than you have to.

fern: There wasn't really any trick to what we did. It was really just focusing as much extra income as possible at the lowest balance at the time. We had tried paying it off by interest rate before but really just kept spinning our wheels so we flipped to try lowest balance and that seemed to do the trick. We had three cards with $27,000+ balances but knocking them down one at a time really energized us to continue throwing as much disposable income at them as possible (we ended up putting about 50 percent of our income to the debt while we were working to pay it off. The really cool thing about that was we realized we could support the household on one income since my wife and I make around the same amount of money.) We did a lot of coupon shopping and sale shopping and cut out a lot of the stuff we did on cards before like vacations (we did go on one vacation but we had $10,000 in non-refundable reservations so we went and just used cash while we were away.) The cards went locked up in the drawer and then we closed a bunch of them down (we had way too many credit cards) because we were getting all kinds of fees (annual fees, monthly fees, etc) and it just didn't make sense to keep them open.

campfrugal: The synopsis is we paid off $117k in credit card debt over the last 15.5 months ($110k in APril 2008 + $7k in interest.) We did it by cutting down our lifestyle and just lining up the cards and paying them off one at a time. We availed ourselves of as much extra income as we could by cutting down lifestyle and budgeting our income to the last penny.

Don't worry I don't plan on leaving anytime soon now that the debt is gone. I'll continue to update the blog and try to add some words as to what we did and how we did it to get here. Again thank you everyone for the kudos and congrats as we are so happy to be done with debt!

Debt Tracker (08/14/09)
$0.00

Well we did it! We received a bonus deposit of $5000 on Friday and cleared the last $3815.04 from our debt. We are now debt free minus our mortgage! It's been a long battle between us and our debt load (which ended up being $117.5k) but we have finally climbed to the top of the mountain.

It's really nice to know that all of our income will be ours to keep. We're going to be able to pay cash on Weds for our son to go to Spain with his class a full three months before the payment is actually due. We paid cash and bought a patio table for our back patio (we had lost three due to wind) and this one has a heavy custom stone top so it'll be plenty heavy for the hilltop winds. We'll also be able to cash flow our daughter's college education starting next fall AND our son's in a couple of years. We are so excited!

All I can say is to anyone who is frustrated with debt just get on a budget and keep the faith! You can do this. If we can do it anyone can. Trust me on that.

WOO HOO!!!

This is the end of the debt reduction tracker! Not sorry to see it go at all.

I can't believe we're less than one month away from having paid off ALL of our non-mortgage debts! $117k and change will FINALLY be gone after all this time (about 16 months of really cutting back and staying focused!)

We made a payment today of $2800+ on the last card and our total balance left to pay is now under $4k so we can really see that light shining at the end of the tunnel! It'll be bittersweet but I really can't wait to be rid of a debt reduction tracker category.

Here's the update:

Debt Tracker (08/05/09)
Card 1: $3815.04 (8.99)

Woo hoo! September 2nd looks like the date!

Well we are just about through the end of July and we were able to cash flow the trip to the Outer Banks with family for around $1500 all tolled. The house and the car rental were taken care of by relatives so we just had to pay for activities and food during the week (when you have 10 people around it makes it that much more expensive.)

We're down to under $7000 now until ALL of our non-mortgage debt will be paid off and then we'll just have the mortgage to go! The timing is there for us to be totally out by mid-September so we're really looking forward to that.

We've cleared over $110,000 in credit card debt in just about 15 months (it'll be 15 months on July 30th.) We can't wait to see the rest of this go!

Here's the update:

Debt Tracker (07/23/09)
Card 1: $6552.56 (8.99)

Well you knew that Card 1 wasn't going quietly into the night so they did hit us with a $138.45 finance charge but we batted them back by selling some old computer stuff to a friend and now we're under $9k to go! Since July is going to be a slow month for us I'm doing what I can to generate a few extra bucks here and there and it starts with this $243 payment!

Debt Tracker (06/30/09)
Card 1: $8968.92 (8.99)

Soooooooooo close! July is going to be painful though. Normally I would make a $3000 payment (or so) on Card 1 with our first round of paychecks but I have to hold onto the majority of the money thanks to a preplanned vacation for the family to the Outer Banks. My mother rented the house and to cut down on costs we're driving the family down for the week. I'm going to keep as much of the $ as I can for the vacation and then once we get back throw everything left over that I can muster at the debt but I'm sure it'll be a lot less than $3000. SIGH...this is a battle I gave in on so I think I am doing the right thing. Everyone has been great about this whole process so I don't feel as badly about it and it doesn't change our debt free date of September (we will be getting a bonus check in Sept that will pretty much wipe out the remaining balance) but I still would have rather put it on this last card considering how close we really are.

Sometimes though you have to let off the reins a bit to keep the peace. I'd of course rather do no new debt than pay the card off and rack back up $2000 worth of expenses. That would really put a damper on the vacation.

Thanks for letting me vent!

Well other than the mortgage of course. We made a payment of just under $1500 today to knock our last card down to just over $9000. So since 4/30/08 we've paid off $108,217 of credit card debt!!! So close to getting completely rid of all of our debt! It's a great feeling.

Here's the tally:

Debt Tracker (06/22/09)
Card 1: $9073.83 (8.99)

I'm out of town all week for work after being out of town since last Weds for play (Father's Day, wife's birthday and more) but we received a $1600 bonus I was able to apply to this last card.

So a pleasant update to the reduction planner:

Debt Tracker (06/22/09)
Card 1: $10570.26 (8.99)

Almost under $10k!

What does an extra $20 do for me on a $12,190 balance? It makes the balance go to $12,170.

There are a lot of people out there that would say that putting $20 on this last card is a waste of time. Well anytime a credit card balance's interest is calculated on the average daily balance ANYTHING you put towards your credit card debt is no waste of time at all!

So to update:

Debt Tracker (06/12/09)
Card 1: $12170.26 (8.99)

Take that credit card debt!

Well as some of you probably know Microsoft has decided to discontinue the Microsoft Money software package. In an effort to cut costs up in Redmond they are doing away with certain software suites that they feel aren't as useful as they once were (like Encarta and Money) and software they haven't fully developed (like OneCare Antivirus.)

To me as a user of Money since March of 2000 this is a really dark day. In the past nine years I have purchased six different versions of the software and actually still have most of the versions on CD in my possession. The latest of which (Microsoft Money Plus Premium) I really enjoyed using and customizing to work best with what I need to get out of a comprehensive personal finance software suite. I really wish Redmond would reconsider the decision and plan on writing a letter stating my feelings but I know it will not do a lot of good.

I have dabbled in alternatives (Quicken being the obvious one, Mint, YNAB, etc.) and none of them really met my needs like Money did. Money was simple where it needed to be and was more complex where I wanted it to be (like with reporting) and that mix really made it fun to manipulate all of my numbers to play out different "what if" scenarios and things like that. Money's inventory module made me think and actually go room by room to track what we owned and made it easy to attach pictures to those lists. I use it daily (multiple times a day in fact) and have never had system problems or corruption of my data (something I've heard Quicken users really fight with right now.)

So now that I've rambled on about Money I wonder if there are others like me out there who are dismayed about this announcement and really will miss the product that we all "grew up with" over the years. It really is a sad day.

FYI you will have two years from the day you activated the Money Plus software packages to still get online updates to your accounts but after Jan 31, 2011 everyone's online access will be shut down. You can still manually update the software yourself beyond that date but you will not be able to use any of the online features. If you have a Money Plus software package and want to know when your copy will cease to work online click on Help and About Microsoft Money and you'll see the date there.

Well I had hoped we would be under $20,000 in total debt left to pay off (minus the mortgage of course) and lo and behold we're there! As of today we have paid off over $105,000 worth of credit card debt in about 13.5 months. We are getting really close to being completely debt free and it's exciting to know how hard we worked is finally paying off.

So here is the updated total:

Debt Tracker (06/10/09)
Card 1: $12190.26 (8.99)

That's it! Only $12k to go...I feel really good about it all and I can't wait to be rid of the debt tracker once and for all!

Well another payday goes by and another chunk comes off the last card in thd debt reduction game! We were able to fork over around $3300 onto Card 1 so here comes the new update:

Debt Tracker (05/14/09)
Card 1: $22222.70 (8.99)

We should be under $20k by this time next month. Woo hoo!

Well today is my favorite day (payday!) so even though evil CC1 decided to throw a $226 interest charge my way I fought back with a payment of $955 to knock it down a notch. Still a ways to go with this one but I hope to be done with it soon enough!

Debt Tracker (04/29/09)
Card 1: $25475.94 (8.99)

This brings the payoff total after one complete year of really being serious about paying this down to $91,683.35.

Yippie!

It's official...we're finally over the $90,000 paid level in our scramble to get rid of all of our non-mortgage debt asap.

Today is payday and we were able to throw an additional $3100+ at the last credit card. So here's the update:

Debt Tracker (04/15/09)
Card 1: $26204.24 (8.99)

Since April 30th, 2008 we've paid off $90,728.50 in credit card debt! It's the only debt we have/had other than our mortgage so the sooner we get to zero the better!

Just wanted to celebrate a little bit with everyone. Woo hoo!

Today we got our tax return back and after paying our first estimates for 2009 to the IRS, PA and NJ we were able to knock Card 1 below $30,000! We're really excited knowing we've still got a couple of paychecks yet to come in April and we're really looking forward to making more of a dent in the 20's. We've paid off over $87,000 worth of credit card debt (including an additional $7k in accrued interest) since late April 2008! Woo hoo!

So close to the finish line!

Debt Tracker (04/10/09)
Card 1: $29367.62 (8.99)

Today is payday and we really didn't have a lot of bills to pay (yay!) Next month is really going to be fun with three checks on the 1st, 15th and 29th but for now I was able to take a big bite out of lonely Card 1. It's great that it is the ONLY card left to pay off because with the fewer number of bills coming in the easier it is to really track them (and once Card 1 is done then the only debt we will have to our names will be a mortgage. Yippie!)

I cash flowed my vehicle registration, took cash out for day-2-day expenses (we only use cash for food, entertainment, household stuff, etc.), put some money in the kids bank accounts (18 yo has checking and 15 yo has savings that will soon flip to checking) for work they did (they get $2 for every year of age per day), bought a programmable thermostat (checked consumer reports first to make sure it was a best buy and it was easy to program...looks like it) and some CFL bulbs from thebulb.com (they have pretty good prices and a portion of every bulb bought goes to help the environment...not to mention the bulbs themselves!)

Had $4600+ left over for Card 1. Yippie!

So since 4/30/08 we've paid off $76,271.80 in credit card debt and we have what's left below to go. It just feels like we're really starting to see the finish line.

Debt Tracker (03/18/09)
Card 1: $34090.02 (8.99)

Well I am happy to announce that Card 2 is officially paid off as of today. The card at its peak had a balance of nearly $32,000 on it but now it has a zero balance! The debt reduction tracker has ONE card left on it now and I was able to make a $2000+ dollar payment on it today as well (hooray for payday) as well as knock out the rest of the bills due.

So for the record 8 credit cards with a total balance of $72,700 has been paid off in 10 months (since 5/1/08) and we can now throw all our extra dough at this last card until it meets its final end (hopefully in under six months!)

We're thrilled! Woo hoo!

Debt Tracker (03/04/09)
Card 1: $38705.12 (8.99)

I don't even have to add them up anymore...yippie!

Well as predicted the check for $4500 was deposited and posted and I immediately took $4410 of that (had to put $90 to good use elsewhere) and hammererd it on Card 2! So now it's official...as of March 4th, 2009 (next payday!) we will be down to one account with one big, hefty balance (but it's only one...yay!)

Debt Tracker (02/24/09)
Card 1: $40475.55 (8.99)
Card 2: $1087.90 (7.99)
Total: $41563.45

It's going to be so sweet to see only Card 1 up there!

Well payday was yesterday and this is the pay period that includes the mortgage (ugh!) so I was only able to nibble off a small chunk of Card 2. The nice thing is I found out my wife's getting a $4500 bonus hopefully sometime before March 1st. I'm not sure when yet but it will hopefully be sooner rather than later.

Anyways here is where we stand. I can almost taste the end of Card 2 and then it will be one giant monster to go!

Debt Tracker (02/19/09)
Card 1: $40475.55 (8.99)
Card 2: $5498.00 (7.99)
Total: $45973.55

Thanks to some small ebay sales I've been able to nibble Card 2 under $7000. The bills have been fast and furious but I've been lining them up and knocking them down! Here's the quick update:

Debt Tracker (02/09/09)
Card 1: $40475.55 (8.99)
Card 2: $6899.50 (7.99)
Total: $47375.05

I figure anytime you can nibble at a credit card balance it's a good time to nibble because the interest is a product of your average daily balance (at least that's what I've been led to believe) so it's better to pay it when you have it than wait and pay at one time. Of course some of these guys have limits on how many payments you can make online so it can be a catch 22. No problems for me at this point though.

Well another two weeks gone by and more payroll thrown on top of the debt mountain! I ended up having to pay some sizable expenses like our propane gas bill ($1400 for about 6 months) but I was still able to wriggle out nearly $3000 to the debt load. I love the fact that Card 2 which 9 months ago was nearly $32000 is now around 7k. We really are making some headway and soon there will be just one to pay off! I'm so excited to see the progress but I really get antsy when a day goes by and I can't put more money on this thing. I guess I still need to learn patience is a virtue.

Anyhow here we go:

Debt Tracker (02/05/09)
Card 1: $40475.55 (8.99)
Card 2: $7170.00 (7.99)
Total: $47645.55

For a frame of reference we started at $110,000 worth of credit card debt on May 1st, 2008. Nine months later and we've knocked out nearly $63,000 worth of the ugly thing! One small step for my family...one giant leap for getting out of debt!

Well I actually feel some sense of accomplishment today because for the first time in a LONG TIME Card 2 is under $10,000. I expect that once the statement closes next month that it will probably push it back over with the interest charge but for now I'm doing a happy dance (good thing no one can see that...it would be ugly!) So close to getting under $50k in total consumer debt and I can't tell you how excited I am to see the 40's (supposedly in temperature soon too!) Paid the mortgage (we have a $405k at a fixed 5.875 with about 400.7k left) this payday and I had about $500 in ebay money to help pay on Card 2. I've got carpet cleaners coming Friday for about $500 worth of work and I have to pay my ugly gas bill with the next check on 2/4 ($1450.00) but at least I only have to pay it twice a year and we will be cash flowing the whole thing (YAY!)

Debt Tracker (01/21/09)
Card 1: $40840.04 (8.99)
Card 2: $9959.69 (7.99)
Total: $50799.73

Just a reminder where we started:
5/1/08
$110,000 on NINE CC's. It's been a battle for the last 8.5 months but it's been worth it!

Well in the last 10 days we've managed to do some serious horror movie type slashing on some of our debt. Thanks to some bonus money and cutting back on plans to go from PA to AZ in March for my birthday we've made quite a little dent in Card 2 on the debt reduction planner.

As for why O Canada...I have been watching this show called "Til Debt Do Us Part" which is shown on the Canadian network Slice and it basically has these couples who are desperately buried in debt (a lot of consumer debt...but then a lot of total debt as well) and this woman comes and basically gives them a massive wakeup call and a plan they can move forward with to reign in their spending and excess. It's actually not that bad (and not dry at all...the challenges are not just based around $ but based on communication and working together in your relationship to get to the best result.) If they do all the challenges Gail sets forth for them they get $5000 to put towards their debt load. First step is always taking the credit cards AND debit cards away (and doing some Dave Ramsey Plasectomy-esque things to rid these people of their cc's) and then bringing back the debit cards back every week so they can refill the budget jars (glass jars with a category for each thing they would spend on discretionary wise...like food, clothing, transportation, etc.) If it's ever on here in the US I'd highly recommend it to people (though some of what she teaches is Canadian based most of the principles would work here for us.)

Just thought I'd share...now maybe if the Eagles could get their act together and win this game...! Here's the debt update:

Debt Tracker (01/18/09)
Card 1: $40840.04 (8.99)
Card 2: $10571.23 (7.99)
Total: $51411.27

Well that was some kind of crazy holiday madness we went through the last 30 days. I ended up having to go from PA to Chicago on Christmas Day and then down to Orlando through New Year's before coming back up. We got to Universal Studios in Orlando as well before going to relatives of mine on the east coast of Florida (north of West Palm Beach.) For the first time ever we budgeted and cash flowed all our gifts and we actually did really well. With all of this hectic moving and shaking and holiday meals and planning and gifts and decorations and everything we stuck to our guns and incurred NO NEW DEBT! It feels really good to know we have no payments on anything we bought for the holidays. We didn't get as much of a dent in our debt tracker as I would've liked but we are getting a bonus of over $6000 on Monday and a good chunk of that will go to Card 2. I think now that we're out of the most expensive holiday time of the year it's going to be all out war on the last two cards so we can be debt free for Xmas 2009!

Here is an updated tracker. When I last left it we were around $61k and change owed. We were able to nibble at them a bit and since 5/1/08 have knocked out over $51,000 off of the total owed. We feel really good about the prospects of getting out of this for good by the end of 2009. Here goes!

Debt Tracker (01/08/09)
Card 1: $40840.04 (8.99)
Card 2: $17494.31 (8.99)
Total: $58334.35

We were able to set aside cash for all of our holiday shopping (including our anniversary, daughter's 18th birthday and Christmas) and pay off a small chunk on both cards with balances. It's nice to know that we're going to get through holiday shopping without racking up any new debt. I don't think we've paid off as much on the cards as I had hoped to this point but I can say we're teetering on the edge of getting under $60k (which in 7 months and starting at $110k is fine with me!)

Happy holidays...and here is the update:

Debt Tracker (12/11/08)
Card 1: $41231.69 (8.99)
Card 2: $20100.23 (8.99)
Total: $61331.92

Being $100.23 from under $20k on Card 2 and $1331.92 from under $60k altogether is driving me CRAZY! I've been trying to find things to sell in my head just as I type this so it does certainly help my motivation! Soon...and once we push through the holidays into January we should really be able to get back on track!

Well it's the day before the turkey day and we got paid today (yay!) so I went and paid a slew of bills including the mortgage (which dropped a few bucks thanks to an escrow adjustment) and electric. We're in great shape now with the money set aside for the holidays, my son's volleyball program and our landscaper (we had a soil analysis done by Penn State and we need a lime application to our lawn) PLUS I was able to pay most of what Card 1 took yesterday in interest on Card 2. It would've been a lot more than it was but I had to buy a plane ticket to Arizona for this weekend to see my brother (long story, he's getting divorced...family meeting of sorts down there) so I paid what I budgeted for minus the ticket. My mother did say she'd pay me back for the ticket but I'm even debating if I want her to have to do that (it's not like I couldn't afford it and I sure as heck would never have gone into debt for it. I paid with my debit card of course!) If she does that will go right to where it was going to...CARD 2.

Here's the update:

Debt Tracker (11/26/08)
Card 1: $41931.69 (8.99)
Card 2: $20815.56 (8.99)
Total: $62747.25

It's back below $63k at least! $2747.26 would be nice to be able to throw at it. We don't have another bill due until 12/22 (whoo hoo!) so I'm really confident we can be below $60k before New Year's Day. We'll see though!

Happy Thanksgiving (a day early) to the Saving Advice clan and your families!

Another statement closes and another finance charge slaps me upside the head. Ugh what a waste of money! I swear once we are done with these cards...we are done with these cards!

Card 1 collects $311.75 this month. Doh!

Debt Tracker (11/25/08)
Card 1: $41931.69 (8.99)
Card 2: $21076.69 (8.99)
Total: $63008.38

Back over $63k...Happy Thanksgiving Card 1 (grrrrrrr!) Can you tell I'm venting? Ha...gotta love it.

Well it's time for another update! We were able to slash another $2500 off of our debt last week so I am just a basketcase in wanting to get Card 2 under $20,000 and get the total kit and kaboodle under $60,000 (it looks a lot more ugly with those zeroes than if I just used the letter k so I'm using zeroes for motivation. Ha ha!) I can't wait for Weds either (PAYDAY!) so I can make another dent in the numbers.

Oh and those people you hear about getting their limits reduced...I'm one of those people! I had one company reduce my limit on one card from $14,000 to $500! It had no balance and really gets no use so it's not bothering me that they cut it other than for my credit score (which I could care less about at this point. I just want to quit owing cc companies money...I'm fed up with it!) The sooner I get this paid off and I can start cash flowing my daughter's college education (it's on the horizon!) the better.

I'm just happy that our household hasn't felt the economic squeeze nearly as much as a lot of other people (especially in PA!) Though I still think the media drives a lot of the panic and fear and that if people got back to basics they would be a lot better off. OK off the soapbox...here's the skinny:

Debt Tracker (11/24/08)
Card 1: $41619.94 (8.99)
Card 2: $21076.69 (8.99)
Total: $62696.63