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Archive for June, 2009

Under $9k to go!

June 30th, 2009 at 12:47 pm

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. Smile

Thanks for letting me vent!

$9073.83 from being totally out of debt

June 24th, 2009 at 09:15 pm

Well other than the mortgage of course. Wink 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)

More damage to the final number

June 22nd, 2009 at 08:15 pm

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! Smile

An extra $20 on the remaining balance

June 12th, 2009 at 01:07 pm

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

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!

A sad day for Microsoft Money users like me

June 11th, 2009 at 12:52 pm

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.

Frown

One month later...so close to being out of debt!

June 10th, 2009 at 03:38 pm

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! Smile