You know, it seems like every month I see a lot of bloggers post their goals for the month. I always think to myself that I don't have any goals that I'm really trying to accomplish professionally so I usually avoid the popular monthly goals post. However, I realized just because they may not seem like goals-I do have a list of things that I need to get done and why can't those be my goals for the month? So here they are and I'm breaking them down into easy steps for myself. These are all personal goals not really financial yet but having them online will remind me to get them done!
1.Get my wisdom teeth pulled [ No pain from them but they aren't looking so hot :( ]
A. speak with dentist at my appointment for crown on Wed.
B. set up an appointment for the referral place
C. Go to the appointment
D. I'm sure I'll have to then schedule for the teeth to actually come out
E. Go to that appointment
F. Recover
2. Get my hair cut- I feel like I haven't even realized how long it had gotten until someone commented on a picture on FB and pointed it out...and now I can't believe how long it is either.
A. Call and set up an appointment (for this week)
B. Go to appointment and get hair cut. (Since I don't dye/highlight my hair that should be relatively easy and relatively cheap)
3. Get my prescription refilled and possibly transferred to a new pharmacy
A. Call and see if the office is still closed on Fridays (yay sequestration..not)
B. order the refill and see if I can get it transferred somewhere else so I don't keep running into the same problem every 3 months ;)
4. Go to social security office and get name changed/new social security card.I know that this one is especially important for my husband and I should stop procrastinating on it...oops.
1. Find out where office is.
2. Call and see if I can set up an appointment
3. Go in on a Friday after work
4. Gather everything I need
5. Go to appointment.
5. After social security is done and I get my new card...
1. Study for NC driving test.
2. Go to DMV- take driving test (written)
3. Hopefully ;) get new NC driver's license.
4. Surrender Illinois license :( :(
6.Get Notary Public status (Depends on when class is available.
1. Call and sign up for a class at the community college
2. Take Class
3. Take my oath at courthouse
4. Buy/Order the seal
Monday, August 26, 2013
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Second Student Loan Paid Off!!
At work so very quick post. I just paid off my second student loan this year! It had a starting balance of $1000 and is now at 0!! To date I have paid off two loans whose original amount equals to $2,800-that was the original amount of the loan which does not include any interest that I also paid on it. Next to go will be the loan with $1,623.04 on it. The starting balance on it was $1877 so I've only paid off about $253 on it so far since I started my loan payments. It is GOING DOWN!!! :) Wish me luck!
Friday, August 16, 2013
It's payday and a little bit of planned shopping/purchases for the weekend.
It's Friday? Wow. Time must have been flying this week because I couldn't believe it when I woke up this morning. Well since I was AWOBL (Away Without Blogging Leave)...(yeah I just made that up), I figured I'd do a quick recap of the week. Now I could lie and say that we ate at home all week but then I would just be dishonest. We ate out twice this week which I'm pretty disappointed with-we usually only eat out once or twice on the weekends. I think the problem was that since my husband had to pick me up from work every day this week he wasn't able to start cooking dinner before I got home. Now granted, I usually get home at the same time and cook dinner for him....but he usually doesn't get home until 6:30-7 when he usually works. So...yeah. Le Sigh.
Tuesday- Normal day at work. I think I worked on some accounting issues for one of the Veterans that my office is a fiduciary for. They were recently rated as Competent so I will no longer be in charge of their financial affairs. For dinner we ate at Buffalo Wild Wings. I did, however, think about money and just ordered water instead of a usual beer or coke. After dinner, we went grocery shopping for some things. Again, I focused on savings and 1. Didn't buy more than I knew I would use. 2. Was better on impulse buys. 3. It must have showed because we spent $83.67 opposed to the normal $130+. Baby steps.
Wednesday- Let's see. My boss took the day off but my coworker and I ( I work in a 3 person office) were still very busy and productive. Definitely not the whole when the cat is away the mice will play scenario for us. My husband and I made steak and pepper sandwiches for dinner. They were really good. Alright, so I have a really bad habitat of procrastinating and I have been trying to work on that. A couple of months I was introduced to Fly Lady which is a website that helps people with cleaning/ getting organized. She has a couple of points that I really like- 1. You can do anything in 15 minutes. 2. Cleaning blesses you and your home even if it is not done perfectly..3. You can't organize clutter. 4. Stop being a perfectionist. It's usually our thinking when cleaning that we need to make something look perfect or get it all done at once that causes us to give up or put it off before we even begin. Now granted, I'm not that messy and we don't really have a lot of clutter in our house. However, I procrastinate a lot which quickly causes the house to fall into chaos. In order to combat this I asked my husband to start making a list of 2-3 things a day that he wants me to get done around the house. My husband rarely, if ever, tells me to do something or asks me to get something done. I feel like this way not only will I stop procrastinating but I am more likely to get things done if I actually have a list or tasks set by another person so that I don't feel like I'm letting someone down. He is actually on board with this and in just two days I've already started noticing a difference. :) For Wednesday, he asked me to clean our master bathroom which only took 10 minutes (almost everything on the counter was mine anyway), vacuum downstairs (I got a new dyson so this is actually fun for me), and clean up my clothes in the bedroom/straighten up my closet). I really actually enjoyed doing this tasks because not only is it making my home look better but I'm getting things done that might have been annoying my husband and I just never knew it.
(Ok well time to get back to work so I will continue this when I get home) **Continued on Monday***
Thursday- Again, this was another eat out dinner day. We got Chipotle and I had a steak burrito and he had a steak burrito bowl. I thought about it and we ended up sharing a large drink instead of just getting two drinks like usual. That was at least a two dollar saving right there. It is so easy to forget how quickly items add up on a bill. Totally spent: 18. and some change. He asked if I wanted to stop by 2nd & Charles ( secondhand book store). It was tempting but since I have books at home from our last trip to read still I told him no. That was probably at least $30 in savings. I was proud of ourselves. :) When we got home I asked him if he had made me another list and he had. The first item was to do two loads of laundry. At first I was like two? How about one? However, I threw in a load of towels for one load and then did another load of dresses/gentle items for another load. Hey...towels count as a load of laundry right? The second and final thing on the list was to organize (read: be able to close) my closet in our second bedroom/office. I use that closet mainly to store all of my dresses and then there are some misc. boxes with my husband's paperwork/army records/etc. It honestly only took about 5-10 minutes to rehang some dresses that had fallen down and organize some other things. Easy peasy. Wow-I have never said that before. haha.
...and that brings us to Friday.
Friday- I worked until 2:30 and then met a friend and her friend at the mall. My intent was to buy some Fall pieces for work but I guess I'll have to wait until September because there is not a lot of stuff out there yet. My second mission was actually a little out of the box for me. I have been reading some fashion blogs and one of the blogs that I fell in love with is a lady that wear professional outfits to work and she would pair nice designer/upscale items with shirts or pieces from Forever 21. Now don't get me wrong, Forever 21 is great I'm sure if you are a young teenager and into the current and latest trend. However, as as 25 year old and working in a business casual law office I tend to stay away from the store. Not only because I need more professional attire but also I find the clothes/material to be cheaply made for the majority of their things. I will say though I will sometimes find one or two quality pieces. I feel though that it has definitely gone slightly downhill because when the stores first opened the quality was so much better. ANYWAY, I decided to give it a try. After a long and exhausting search I did manage to find 3 shirts (one green/one blue peplum type tops/one plain white button down), one blue dress, two belts (obsessed with a black belt with gold metal bow) , and two necklaces there. The total came out to $93 and some change. At first I considered returning some items but when paired with a belt it gave the outfit a whole new look so I think I'll keep them. Jeesh when did clothes get so expensive? I've been spoiled by shopping at TJ Maxx for most of my things. I also went to NY& Company and found a nice teal short sleeve button down and a skirt. The items were both on sale and they also asked me if I had a military id, I did, so I received an additional 15%. Now because my husband is military and I am also issued an I.D. card there are many stores in town that will give out discounts. However, since I never feel comfortable asking about discounts I only will use it if they specifically ask for the i.d. I do know there is a lot of people out there who will ask stores if they do military discounts and I almost feel like they are trying to take advantage of the store or they feel entitled to a discount. Now if YOU are the one in the military I certainly understand but if its your husband that serves...I don't agree with that. Maybe that's just me. For dinner we had my favorite frozen pizza- Home Run Inn! Makes me think of Chicago every time. :)
Tuesday- Normal day at work. I think I worked on some accounting issues for one of the Veterans that my office is a fiduciary for. They were recently rated as Competent so I will no longer be in charge of their financial affairs. For dinner we ate at Buffalo Wild Wings. I did, however, think about money and just ordered water instead of a usual beer or coke. After dinner, we went grocery shopping for some things. Again, I focused on savings and 1. Didn't buy more than I knew I would use. 2. Was better on impulse buys. 3. It must have showed because we spent $83.67 opposed to the normal $130+. Baby steps.
Wednesday- Let's see. My boss took the day off but my coworker and I ( I work in a 3 person office) were still very busy and productive. Definitely not the whole when the cat is away the mice will play scenario for us. My husband and I made steak and pepper sandwiches for dinner. They were really good. Alright, so I have a really bad habitat of procrastinating and I have been trying to work on that. A couple of months I was introduced to Fly Lady which is a website that helps people with cleaning/ getting organized. She has a couple of points that I really like- 1. You can do anything in 15 minutes. 2. Cleaning blesses you and your home even if it is not done perfectly..3. You can't organize clutter. 4. Stop being a perfectionist. It's usually our thinking when cleaning that we need to make something look perfect or get it all done at once that causes us to give up or put it off before we even begin. Now granted, I'm not that messy and we don't really have a lot of clutter in our house. However, I procrastinate a lot which quickly causes the house to fall into chaos. In order to combat this I asked my husband to start making a list of 2-3 things a day that he wants me to get done around the house. My husband rarely, if ever, tells me to do something or asks me to get something done. I feel like this way not only will I stop procrastinating but I am more likely to get things done if I actually have a list or tasks set by another person so that I don't feel like I'm letting someone down. He is actually on board with this and in just two days I've already started noticing a difference. :) For Wednesday, he asked me to clean our master bathroom which only took 10 minutes (almost everything on the counter was mine anyway), vacuum downstairs (I got a new dyson so this is actually fun for me), and clean up my clothes in the bedroom/straighten up my closet). I really actually enjoyed doing this tasks because not only is it making my home look better but I'm getting things done that might have been annoying my husband and I just never knew it.
(Ok well time to get back to work so I will continue this when I get home) **Continued on Monday***
Thursday- Again, this was another eat out dinner day. We got Chipotle and I had a steak burrito and he had a steak burrito bowl. I thought about it and we ended up sharing a large drink instead of just getting two drinks like usual. That was at least a two dollar saving right there. It is so easy to forget how quickly items add up on a bill. Totally spent: 18. and some change. He asked if I wanted to stop by 2nd & Charles ( secondhand book store). It was tempting but since I have books at home from our last trip to read still I told him no. That was probably at least $30 in savings. I was proud of ourselves. :) When we got home I asked him if he had made me another list and he had. The first item was to do two loads of laundry. At first I was like two? How about one? However, I threw in a load of towels for one load and then did another load of dresses/gentle items for another load. Hey...towels count as a load of laundry right? The second and final thing on the list was to organize (read: be able to close) my closet in our second bedroom/office. I use that closet mainly to store all of my dresses and then there are some misc. boxes with my husband's paperwork/army records/etc. It honestly only took about 5-10 minutes to rehang some dresses that had fallen down and organize some other things. Easy peasy. Wow-I have never said that before. haha.
...and that brings us to Friday.
Friday- I worked until 2:30 and then met a friend and her friend at the mall. My intent was to buy some Fall pieces for work but I guess I'll have to wait until September because there is not a lot of stuff out there yet. My second mission was actually a little out of the box for me. I have been reading some fashion blogs and one of the blogs that I fell in love with is a lady that wear professional outfits to work and she would pair nice designer/upscale items with shirts or pieces from Forever 21. Now don't get me wrong, Forever 21 is great I'm sure if you are a young teenager and into the current and latest trend. However, as as 25 year old and working in a business casual law office I tend to stay away from the store. Not only because I need more professional attire but also I find the clothes/material to be cheaply made for the majority of their things. I will say though I will sometimes find one or two quality pieces. I feel though that it has definitely gone slightly downhill because when the stores first opened the quality was so much better. ANYWAY, I decided to give it a try. After a long and exhausting search I did manage to find 3 shirts (one green/one blue peplum type tops/one plain white button down), one blue dress, two belts (obsessed with a black belt with gold metal bow) , and two necklaces there. The total came out to $93 and some change. At first I considered returning some items but when paired with a belt it gave the outfit a whole new look so I think I'll keep them. Jeesh when did clothes get so expensive? I've been spoiled by shopping at TJ Maxx for most of my things. I also went to NY& Company and found a nice teal short sleeve button down and a skirt. The items were both on sale and they also asked me if I had a military id, I did, so I received an additional 15%. Now because my husband is military and I am also issued an I.D. card there are many stores in town that will give out discounts. However, since I never feel comfortable asking about discounts I only will use it if they specifically ask for the i.d. I do know there is a lot of people out there who will ask stores if they do military discounts and I almost feel like they are trying to take advantage of the store or they feel entitled to a discount. Now if YOU are the one in the military I certainly understand but if its your husband that serves...I don't agree with that. Maybe that's just me. For dinner we had my favorite frozen pizza- Home Run Inn! Makes me think of Chicago every time. :)
Monday, August 12, 2013
autobody repair and meatball sandwiches
We took my car into the shop this morning for autobody work. I got into a minor accident last month which really was just getting someone's paint on my car and vice versa. Not even a dent. However, my husband wanted to get it repaired and since it is his car I don't blame him. The vinyl on the car doors was also peeling and it turns out it is only 100 to repair so we are going to get that done as well. (We have a five hundred dollar deduct able with our insurance for the actual accident repair).On that front I have to say "Thank God." The car is a 2007 jetta and actually in really good shape still physically but the peeling vinyl looked pretty awful. At least it was mainly only on the driver side of the door. We are pretty sure it was caused by the sun since the car hasn't ever really been stored in the garage and has dealt with some harsh summers and winters.
What is the point of this you may ask? Well since my car is in the shop and my husband is off of work this week he has the fun job of being my chauffeur to and from work. Mainly because I don't think he wants to be stuck in a house all week long without a car. Can you blame the guy? Any way, we were driving home and were planning on having meatball sandwiches for dinner which we still had to make. I was so hungry and he asked if we should just pick something up instead...I battled with myself and said no. Then he mentioned the burger place by our house and again...I managed to say no. But it certainly was tempting. :) I'm proud that we went home and made the planned meal. Not only would we have wasted money we would have been eating really unhealthy and since my husband is training for something at work....it would just hurt him in the end. Today was easy to say no even though I was so hungry-let's just hope that next time I will be able to be strong and say no again.
We really want to start saving a set amount of money monthly and I feel skipping one or two meals out would really help to jump start that goal.
As for my debt-I'm pretty much already done with paying my loans for the month...and I'm already itching to make another payment. Slow and steady wins the race though. I have my husband's birthday coming up in October and Christmas will be just around the corner. Time to save a little bit.
I know that I am just coming back now to blogging and I know I'm really bad about telling personal stuff about me but I'm pretty much an open book and would be happy to answer any questions about myself, my debt, or my life if you have any questions. So go ahead...ask away and I will be happy to answer!
What is the point of this you may ask? Well since my car is in the shop and my husband is off of work this week he has the fun job of being my chauffeur to and from work. Mainly because I don't think he wants to be stuck in a house all week long without a car. Can you blame the guy? Any way, we were driving home and were planning on having meatball sandwiches for dinner which we still had to make. I was so hungry and he asked if we should just pick something up instead...I battled with myself and said no. Then he mentioned the burger place by our house and again...I managed to say no. But it certainly was tempting. :) I'm proud that we went home and made the planned meal. Not only would we have wasted money we would have been eating really unhealthy and since my husband is training for something at work....it would just hurt him in the end. Today was easy to say no even though I was so hungry-let's just hope that next time I will be able to be strong and say no again.
We really want to start saving a set amount of money monthly and I feel skipping one or two meals out would really help to jump start that goal.
As for my debt-I'm pretty much already done with paying my loans for the month...and I'm already itching to make another payment. Slow and steady wins the race though. I have my husband's birthday coming up in October and Christmas will be just around the corner. Time to save a little bit.
I know that I am just coming back now to blogging and I know I'm really bad about telling personal stuff about me but I'm pretty much an open book and would be happy to answer any questions about myself, my debt, or my life if you have any questions. So go ahead...ask away and I will be happy to answer!
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Weekend Wrap Up and Budget Findings
Is it already Sunday night? Where did the weekend go? On Fridays I usually only work until 2:30 which means I usually end up going shopping or running errands. Before you get too jealous of me I work 8:30-5 Monday through Thursday and Friday 8:30-2:30 without an actual lunch break so I DO work 40 hours a week. This Friday I was planning on grabbing lunch with a friend that I haven't seen in a while but given how busy/crazy this past week was at work I had a feeling that I would not be getting out of work early and I was right. On the downside I didn't get out of work until 4:30 and didn't get to see a friend. On the plus side I probably saved 25 dollars on dinner and didn't spend any money on shopping. I guess I'll take that as a plus in my book. On Wednesday it was my co-workers birthday so I went on Monday to get a gift for her. While I was shopping I found a really comfortable pair of black/nude bandolino slingback pumps and was so tempted to get them for work. The price was pretty good as well- I think 30 or 40 but I told myself I didn't NEED them. My black heels for work are still in great condition and I've had them for almost a year now. I think my husband and I are both really trying to be more frugal.
Today I was working on a budget and as I was going through what we had already spent this month on bills/rent/misc., he noticed a mistake. On our direct t.v. bill we got charged almost double what we usually pay. I'm glad that we have been paying more attention because since almost all of our bills/purchases go onto a charge card and get paid off in its entirety at the end of the month we probably wouldn't have noticed. Steps in the right direction right?
Hopefully the rest of this month will be pretty frugal but we have a planned 700 expense for car repair. We'll see.
Alright well that's about it for the night. I might have a cup of coffee and start getting ready for work tomorrow. Meanwhile, my husband's unit is on block leave so he doesn't have work all week long. Lucky guy. ;)
Today I was working on a budget and as I was going through what we had already spent this month on bills/rent/misc., he noticed a mistake. On our direct t.v. bill we got charged almost double what we usually pay. I'm glad that we have been paying more attention because since almost all of our bills/purchases go onto a charge card and get paid off in its entirety at the end of the month we probably wouldn't have noticed. Steps in the right direction right?
Hopefully the rest of this month will be pretty frugal but we have a planned 700 expense for car repair. We'll see.
Alright well that's about it for the night. I might have a cup of coffee and start getting ready for work tomorrow. Meanwhile, my husband's unit is on block leave so he doesn't have work all week long. Lucky guy. ;)
Thursday, August 8, 2013
A promotion and almost a payoff!
No, the promotion is not for me but for my husband. He found out today that he has passed the Captain's board which means he will make Captain in May of next year. I am so proud of him! The payoff refers to the bold black number on the right side of the screen. Not only am I now under 20,000 on my federal loans (private loans not included in that number) I am also 200 some dollars away from paying off my second student loan this year! I'm super excited and know that my payments will be able to get larger and larger as I pay off my smaller loans. Finally feel like I'm making progress!
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
My husband and I (ok more like I) finally sat down and made a very PG rated budget. (Confession...I have never made one before in my life.) We haven't really gotten down to the nitty gritty R rated version but I put in our fixed expenses and made an estimate of what we would ideally like to spend for groceries/restaurants/entertainment and books. We read a lot. But we buy our books from a second hand bookstore. I know a lot of people would argue that the library is free but we keep our books and reread them over and over again. We also have kindles :) and we only get books MAYBE once a month and for about $30.00 for four or five books. We honestly do not buy a lot of "things" the most we spend on is food/entertainment. Alright, so the thing is if you look at our joint bank account right now we would have enough in there to cover 4 months of paychecks (not expenses-the actual paycheck he would make.) We certainly on paper look like we are doing well and for the most part we are. A couple months ago we applied and got approved for American Express cards. We use our cards like debit cards and at the end of the month the entire balance is autodebited from our account. The reason being is that you are not able to hold a balance on American Express past the closing date or the day by day charges are horrible! This has been working out for us very well because 1) we receive points for each purchase that we make which can go towards a myriad of things. We can even link it to our amazon.com account and get free purchases. 2) We cannot treat the card like a credit card and overspend because we know come hell or high water that money is coming out of our account at the end of the month. 3) My husband enjoys the security of using credit versus debit in case our cards got stolen, we would a) not lose all of our money and b) would not be held liable for any charges that took place when our card got stolen.
Our" debts:
Our" debts:
- We have a Helzberg card from our wedding bands that are currently 0% APR for 12 months and we have a balance of around $1,500 right now. We currently pay $200 a month on it and it will be paid off WELL before the promotional rate dissappears. We had the money to buy them in cash at the time but since we wouldn't have to pay any interest it wasn't really any type of loss.
Monday, July 22, 2013
Original balance 1,000 down to $648.93
My new lowest student loan is down to $648.93. I am still plugging along trying to pay off my loans. If I pay $300 a month I'll be able to pay off my second loan this year in a little over 2 months. I am so determined to pay down my loans as fast as possible. I should probably work on paying down my credit card as well but I feel like actual progress is getting made with my loans versus the large credit card that won't go down until I make my large $500 payments. By continuing to pay minimum on the rest of my loans and paying down the smallest loans first I am building momentum each and every single day. Let's hope we can continue this way.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Quick Update
On June 5th I paid off my first student loan ever! I also had my wedding ceremony with my husband and feel like my life can finally start. Next on my target list is my smallest $895 loan from Cornerstone Loan. That bad boy is going down and quickly!
Friday, April 5, 2013
Serenity Prayer and my relationship with debt..what does it mean for you?
God grant me the
serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
To me, this means that I need to find peace in knowing that my debt did not accumulate in one month and it will not disappear in one month either. Honestly, I have no hard feelings or ill will towards ANY of my student loan debt. My parents sacrificed and put me and my siblings through 13 years each of private school on their very small salaries. I am completely fine with the fact that I had to take out loans to pay for college. Each time I make a loan payment I think about the classes I took, the friends I made, and the experiences college allowed me to enjoy. I think that I am lucky to have a job (even if I don't make a lot) and lucky to have met my husband in college as well. The ill-will that I have towards my debt is my credit card. Let me rephrase that, I hold no ill will towards the debt or the numbers themselves. I blame myself. It's kind of like the argument of the gun debate over "evil" guns. Honestly, my husband is a gun owner and in the military and my father is a recently new gun owner and retired military. I've shot guns and I feel comfortable around them. A gun is an inanimate object that cannot do anything on its own-it takes a human factor to cause them to go off. We can at least agree on that, right? What's the point of this? Well I relate guns to credit cards. Haha. Hear me out. Credit cards don't magically get swiped-a human-(me) is the one that has to swipe the card or input the numbers on the computer to purchase an online item. The card itself is not bad or guilty of the actions that take place. I am. However, I need to find peace in knowing that I can't change how the numbers accumulated but I CAN change how they will go down.
courage to change the things I can;
I know that getting out of debt will not be easy and it will take time. I need to be able to believe in myself and know that eventually if I keep working hard on paying down my debt and making snowball payments that it will go down.
and wisdom to know the difference.
Wisdom to know the difference. I may want to change things as quickly as possible and this means putting all of my available money towards debt. However, I don't do this for two reasons. One-this is no way to live. If you deny yourself little treats like McDonald's coffee every once in a while or grabbing lunch out even if it just once or twice a month-you will begin to resent the debt and in turn resent yourself for the decisions that you are not happy that you made. The wisdom comes in knowing that you shouldn't allow yourself to burn out or become depressed. Would I feel better knowing that I could have put ten-fifteen extra dollars towards my debt that month? Maybe. But when you are already putting pretty much every paycheck towards your debt-it's ok to give yourself some leeway-once in a while.
.....To be continued.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.
to accept the things I cannot change;
To me, this means that I need to find peace in knowing that my debt did not accumulate in one month and it will not disappear in one month either. Honestly, I have no hard feelings or ill will towards ANY of my student loan debt. My parents sacrificed and put me and my siblings through 13 years each of private school on their very small salaries. I am completely fine with the fact that I had to take out loans to pay for college. Each time I make a loan payment I think about the classes I took, the friends I made, and the experiences college allowed me to enjoy. I think that I am lucky to have a job (even if I don't make a lot) and lucky to have met my husband in college as well. The ill-will that I have towards my debt is my credit card. Let me rephrase that, I hold no ill will towards the debt or the numbers themselves. I blame myself. It's kind of like the argument of the gun debate over "evil" guns. Honestly, my husband is a gun owner and in the military and my father is a recently new gun owner and retired military. I've shot guns and I feel comfortable around them. A gun is an inanimate object that cannot do anything on its own-it takes a human factor to cause them to go off. We can at least agree on that, right? What's the point of this? Well I relate guns to credit cards. Haha. Hear me out. Credit cards don't magically get swiped-a human-(me) is the one that has to swipe the card or input the numbers on the computer to purchase an online item. The card itself is not bad or guilty of the actions that take place. I am. However, I need to find peace in knowing that I can't change how the numbers accumulated but I CAN change how they will go down.
courage to change the things I can;
I know that getting out of debt will not be easy and it will take time. I need to be able to believe in myself and know that eventually if I keep working hard on paying down my debt and making snowball payments that it will go down.
and wisdom to know the difference.
Wisdom to know the difference. I may want to change things as quickly as possible and this means putting all of my available money towards debt. However, I don't do this for two reasons. One-this is no way to live. If you deny yourself little treats like McDonald's coffee every once in a while or grabbing lunch out even if it just once or twice a month-you will begin to resent the debt and in turn resent yourself for the decisions that you are not happy that you made. The wisdom comes in knowing that you shouldn't allow yourself to burn out or become depressed. Would I feel better knowing that I could have put ten-fifteen extra dollars towards my debt that month? Maybe. But when you are already putting pretty much every paycheck towards your debt-it's ok to give yourself some leeway-once in a while.
.....To be continued.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.
Monday, March 25, 2013
Bridal Party Presents and money flying in and out....
I ordered my presents for my bridal party from Etsy this morning. I hope they will like them. It got my sister's approval and she is my maid of honor so it should work out well. I placed this purchase, my necklace to go with my dress, and flip flops for the dance floor at the reception on my credit card. Eek! The total for this was $399.86. I made a $200 payment towards the card so the remaining balance of my new purchases is: $199.86. I'm transferring $400 from our wedding fund to pay for everything. So I will reimburse myself the $200 to my personal account and then pay the remaining $200 of new purchases on the credit card. Very happy that I got the presents ordered though-it is a huge weight off of my mind. :) That's the only spending that I have done since my last post.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Quick Update on the Numbers
Last night around midnight I saw an email from CornerStone. All of my account information has been transferred. The CornerStone numbers that I added to the side bar do not reflect the $256.52 payment that I made this morning. I will update my totals at the end of the month and see where I stand. I'm at work right now and I don't really have much that needs to get done so I thought I'd take a quick stop here and give you all the debt numbers. I'm going grocery shopping with S tonight. Wish us luck that we don't spend too much!
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
ECSI is still going down...
Several months ago I decided that I would use the snowball method and pay down my lowest debt first. This is a small $1,800 Perkins loan. I started making payments in March of last year. I now owe only $612 on it. That is so incredibly exciting for me that I cannot even begin to tell you. I am hoping to have it paid off by June or July. In the meantime I'm only going to pay minimums on my other loans and gulp perhaps even my credit card for a couple of months. Once this wedding is over I'll be able to focus entirely on debt repayment. Thank God! Eh...who am I kidding? I'm not going to just pay the minimum on my credit card...that would be a little foolish on my part. Ok-I will pay a little more than the minimum. The hardest part with this ECSI loan is to resist the urge to pay it all off at once. I know better than that. I know that if I do that I'll drain all of my savings and then I'll be right back where I started. Slow and steady always wins the race at the end of the day. It's hard to believe that Easter is right around the corner. When did this happen!? I'm flying home next weekend for Easter/Final Wedding Planning Details (Meet with Priest, Do my Tasting, Hair Trial, Second Dress fitting). I feel like if I don't write all of these things down on a list I'll go crazy! Argh! There seems like there is still sooo much left to do!
***Check out my sidebar for the down and dirty of what I owe on debt. I've recently taken on the mindset of the blogger $12 a day that any money that I make is already owed to debt. I will never be free to use my money the way I want to until my debt is entirely paid off. Hopefully now that I have this mindset it will help me to save money in any way that I can and to really look at what I am buying. ***
***Check out my sidebar for the down and dirty of what I owe on debt. I've recently taken on the mindset of the blogger $12 a day that any money that I make is already owed to debt. I will never be free to use my money the way I want to until my debt is entirely paid off. Hopefully now that I have this mindset it will help me to save money in any way that I can and to really look at what I am buying. ***
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Waste Not Want Not-ok maybe not so much the want part...
Many
people that know me do not know that I have a weird attention span. I do not
think my husband even really knows, although he does frequently see my eyes
begin to glaze over when he talks about the military. :p I tend to have some
ADD and OCD tendencies-throw in some (ok-A LOT) of anxiety issues, and you have
a fun party mix of issues. When I am at work and receive a new assignment, I usually
want to start working on the new one right away instead of finishing my current
one. Fortunately, I always make lists (OCD) and go off my lists to get things
completed. A friend that has adult ADD told me that during a conversation the
person with ADD will often want to cut people off inadvertently to tell them
what is immediately on their mind. I do that and I have the horrible habit of
not paying full attention because I am thinking up a response or certain words
or phrases trigger my mind and I go off into complete tangents in my head.
Bad-I know. Long story short, I have a tendency to get obsessed with a subject
and then once I have had my fill of it-I go onto the next thing. However, I
will eventually return to a subject once I have a renewed interest in it. For
instance-reading debt blogs. I may lose interest in reading them once in a
while (Sorry everyone!) but that doesn't mean that I am not still obsessed with
debt reduction. Believe me...90% of my monthly pay goes to debt repayment. I am
lucky to be in the position where my husband can pay for our monthly bills and
daily needs. This allows me to focus solely on paying down my credit card and
personal loans. If I wasn't serious
about getting out of debt I would just pay the minimums on all of my loans and
my credit card. Eek! I shudder at the thought.
Anyway,
I have a tendency to stick to things for a while and then give up. However,
recently my husband has started to get a little more involved in wanting to
save money so I have been more determined. If someone were to look at our bank
account right now, they would scoff a little since we do have a LOT in savings.
However, 95% of that has already been earmarked for our wedding that is on June
1. For anyone new here-my husband and I did a courthouse wedding before he
deployed. We are doing our church wedding and reception now that he is home. We
have been very lucky and due to careful saving during his deployment, we will
be able to fund our entire wedding on cash-which I am very grateful for. I am
lucky in that my husband has always been frugal. God can I get back onto topic
here? What was my title again? Waste Not Want Not? Oh yeah. Ok-back on
track. Anyway, we noticed that we have been wasting a lot of food the past 5-6
months. A LOT. Some of it was out of our control-my mom passed away in November
and we were out of town for over 3 weeks and we had just gone grocery shopping.
The rest is just our failure to finish what we have before we buy more. Well no
more. I have made it my goal (starting last week) to eat what we have and not
waste any more food. A couple weeks ago, we threw out a garbage bag worth of
food and we had not done a major grocery shopping trip in over 2 months. How
awful is that?
We have really been making the effort to
finish off leftovers-anything we have before buying more food. I have also
started taking my lunch to work every day (No-I wasn’t eating out every day-I
just wasn’t eating lunch.) For the past week, I have been taking bagels and
cream cheese for lunch or I bring dinner leftovers with me. I would really like
to not only see our food budget go down but to also finish this week up and not
have anything to throw away because we didn’t eat it in time. One of our plans
after the wedding is to buy a stand up freezer and put it in our garage. This
will allow us to 1. Buy more in bulk and get some more use out of our free Sam’s
Club Membership (hubby’s father has a small business and we use a business
membership or something like that) 2. Save money. I literally imagine $$$$
being thrown into the trash when we get rid of expired food. I think we buy too
much food at once thinking that it will last us a month and then we don’t get
around to eating it. When my husband was deployed, I actually did a kind of fun
thing for myself. I kept the receipt from the grocery store in my kitchen.
Every time I finished off a food product I highlighted it. It allowed me to see
exactly what I used and I could see that the money had not been wasted. Maybe I
should try that again? In any case-I’m going to start checking the fridge on a
weekly basis and see what needs to be used up and sadly what hasn’t been used
up before it went bad. I will also make
a list of the food we had to throw out and my goal will be to get that down to
almost nothing! Here’s hoping this will work!
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Trying to stay the course...
I spent all evening yesterday reading fashion blogs. Man oh man did I want to go shopping after work today. Not mall shopping but TJMaxx or Ross- I love me some good deals! But the cold hard reality is that I am 51,000 in debt when I combine my student loans and credit card debt (4,685). As much as new clothes are fun and exciting….I don’t need them right now. I have plenty of clothes that are appropriate and I can wear to work. I read a blog recently and somewhere in their archives the person said they owned one pair of jeans, 3-4 nice shirts, and the rest were t-shirts and workout clothes, minus 2-3 dresses. Wow. That certainly gave me some perspective. I have enough sweaters/cardigans alone to last me over a month without having to rewear any of them. The only thing that I really should be focused on purchasing is some new work pants. It sounds like such a boring purchase so I feel like I have been putting it off. Also, I’m short so I will most likely have to tailor any pants that I purchase. Which, while it isn't a big deal, in the long run it seems like a huge hassle to me-purchase pants, find tailor-get hemmed-go back to tailor-now that I think of it- I should just purchase more skirts instead! Or…make do with what I have until some more of my debt goes down. Sigh. Why is it so hard to feel content even when you have more than what you need. Well anyways, instead of putting money towards new clothes I put it towards my debt instead. After my payment of 275 my smallest loan originally 1800 and I started paying it in March of last year-will now be down to 755! I am so excited because I actually am able to see an end in sight with this loan. This will be the very first student loan to be paid off. Hopefully it will inspire me to pay down the rest. I just have to remind myself no shopping for a while! There will be an end in sight some day.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
On November 29, 2012....
My beautiful mother lost her short-lived fight with brain cancer. She was laid to rest on December 4, 2012. I just wish that I had had more time with her. My advice-don't sweat the small stuff and live every day to its fullest. Life is too short to be anything but happy.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
When you find out your mom has brain cancer-your world stops-or at least that is how it felt for me.
I'm sorry that I have been away for so long, but as you can see from my title for this post-you may understand why. On July 9th I found out that my mom had a tumor on her brain. I booked a flight to Chicago and on July 10th, the very next day, she had brain surgery. At 7pm on July 10th I learned that they were not able to get all of the tumor and that it was a Grade 3 tumor on a scale of 1-4 of how severe the tumor in the brain can be. Right now she is undergoing Chemo and Radiation and is doing a little better. The tumor is causing issues with motion for the right side of her body and it also is causing Aphasia which makes it difficult to understand at times what my mom is telling us. The doctor's outlook isn't very good and they had told me to move up my wedding date but I'm not going to. Sometimes we fight harder when we have something to look forward to or hold onto. I'm scared. Once my mom is done with radiation...I don't know what will happen. I pray daily that things will turn around and my beautiful, kind, caring mother will be ok. As for wedding planning-you can probably imagine that it has been the last thing on my mind.
In other news my husband is home and I am so happy and relieved that he is safe. I am sleeping a little better at night and I no longer have the feeling like my stomach is constantly in knots or that I am on edge all the time waiting for phone calls or updates. My duties as FRG Leader for his unit have also greatly diminished now that almost everyone is home-Thank God. I felt for the longest time like I had 2 jobs and not only did I not get paid for the other but I paid out about 500 of my own money. sigh.
I'm sure that you can imagine that money/debt has been the last thing on my mind. My credit credit debt has increased but now I'm more motivated than ever to get it paid down. I'm still sticking with my original plan of paying off my ECSI loan first-I'm using the lowest balance method to gain the instant gratification that I need to keep me inspired to pay down my debt. If I make 350 payments for 4 months I'll have it paid off by January-which is my goal. The original loan amount was for 1800 and I have been given 50 months to pay it off-umm...yeah...no thank you. Let's see if I can make my goal.
Hopefully you will start hearing more from me. I'm going home to Chicago for two weeks soon-I can't wait to see my mom. Hope all is well.
Lauren
In other news my husband is home and I am so happy and relieved that he is safe. I am sleeping a little better at night and I no longer have the feeling like my stomach is constantly in knots or that I am on edge all the time waiting for phone calls or updates. My duties as FRG Leader for his unit have also greatly diminished now that almost everyone is home-Thank God. I felt for the longest time like I had 2 jobs and not only did I not get paid for the other but I paid out about 500 of my own money. sigh.
I'm sure that you can imagine that money/debt has been the last thing on my mind. My credit credit debt has increased but now I'm more motivated than ever to get it paid down. I'm still sticking with my original plan of paying off my ECSI loan first-I'm using the lowest balance method to gain the instant gratification that I need to keep me inspired to pay down my debt. If I make 350 payments for 4 months I'll have it paid off by January-which is my goal. The original loan amount was for 1800 and I have been given 50 months to pay it off-umm...yeah...no thank you. Let's see if I can make my goal.
Hopefully you will start hearing more from me. I'm going home to Chicago for two weeks soon-I can't wait to see my mom. Hope all is well.
Lauren
Monday, July 2, 2012
The Shopping Cart was full and I was ready to checkout
The shopping cart was full and I was ready to check out online. I had been hearing about E.L.F (Eyes Lips Face) makeup and about their inexpensive and versatile products. A full set of makeup brushes for $30.00? Eye primer and cream liners for $3.00 each! Wait you spend $30 and then you get 10 free mineral eyeshadows!?!?! That's awesome because I already spent $60 so I can get my ten free mineral eyeshadows for absolutely nothing. This deal ends July 2!?
I started justifying everything. All of those youtube videos that I have been watching really wants me to start learning more about makeup. Afterall, I'm 24 and it is about time to realize that you are supposed to use more than one shade on your eyes when you do your makeup. And why the heck haven't I been blending and shading and contouring and God knows what else?? I created a login name and I was ready to keep going forward. Then...then I remembered. How am I going to pay for this? Well with my credit card, of course! I wouldn't be foolish enough to use a debit card online-you never know what can happen with that-identity theft and fraud and all that. Ok...well that problem is solved. Let me just go grab my credit card from my wallet and then....oh. That's right. I took it out of my wallet and put it away somewhere so that I wouldn't have access to it. Well it's ok-I can just take it out of its hiding spot and I'll use it and then I'll pay it off right away and...
In the end I clicked out of the website-proceeded to go back to it three times that day, and clicked out of it again. Is $65 that much to spend? I mean come on-it's something that I want. Do I need mineral eye shadow when I hate loose powdered eyeshadows and don't use the ones I have? No. Do I need a $30 brush set when I already own 3 of those brushes? No. Do I need lipglosses when I already have four or five that are practically brand new? No. In the end I said no. In the end I decided to take that $65 and put it towards my credit card as an extra payment. I was strong this time-hopefully I will be again when the next temptation comes around the corner. :)
I started justifying everything. All of those youtube videos that I have been watching really wants me to start learning more about makeup. Afterall, I'm 24 and it is about time to realize that you are supposed to use more than one shade on your eyes when you do your makeup. And why the heck haven't I been blending and shading and contouring and God knows what else?? I created a login name and I was ready to keep going forward. Then...then I remembered. How am I going to pay for this? Well with my credit card, of course! I wouldn't be foolish enough to use a debit card online-you never know what can happen with that-identity theft and fraud and all that. Ok...well that problem is solved. Let me just go grab my credit card from my wallet and then....oh. That's right. I took it out of my wallet and put it away somewhere so that I wouldn't have access to it. Well it's ok-I can just take it out of its hiding spot and I'll use it and then I'll pay it off right away and...
In the end I clicked out of the website-proceeded to go back to it three times that day, and clicked out of it again. Is $65 that much to spend? I mean come on-it's something that I want. Do I need mineral eye shadow when I hate loose powdered eyeshadows and don't use the ones I have? No. Do I need a $30 brush set when I already own 3 of those brushes? No. Do I need lipglosses when I already have four or five that are practically brand new? No. In the end I said no. In the end I decided to take that $65 and put it towards my credit card as an extra payment. I was strong this time-hopefully I will be again when the next temptation comes around the corner. :)
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
The target is set on my ECSI Loan
Spending for the day
Rite Aid-Energy Drinks (4) -$8.95
Before you say anything I know that energy drinks are bad for me and I should have planned it better to have bought them at the Commissary at a lower rate...but I was desperate this morning. Anyway I really am trying to do better when it comes to this whole frugal/save money thing. For dinner today I made some turkey and cheese sandwiches. I have the bad habit of not using all of my lunch meat or bread before it goes bad or I just toss it. See everyone, I really am trying. :) I also decided that I am the type of person that needs to see results. As much as I know that it is smarter to pay off debts with the highest interest first I need the mental satisfaction of seeing a loan wiped out completely to motivate me. My plan is to go after my Perkins ECSI loan. The original loan amount was $1,800.00 with a 5% interest rate. It went into repayment only a couple months ago. The current balance of the loan is $1468.63. If I can snowball payments towards this loan I can get it paid off in 3-4 months. That would free up the money to focus more on my credit card. Yes, my credit card has the highest interest but I think that I need something to jump start me and push me in the right direction. I'll let you all know how it goes. I just need to focus and do this for me. I know that the debt didn't get here over night- thank you 4 years of college lol- but I can get it to go away faster than the "suggested amount of time" The nice thing about loans though-is that besides the couple extra dollars in interest you can't charge anything to them and so the balance will only continue to go down. I have money in my account to make a payment right now towards this loan but I am going to be smart and wait until pay day. I still like having the financial security in my checking/savings account.
Current Account Balance
Rite Aid-Energy Drinks (4) -$8.95
Before you say anything I know that energy drinks are bad for me and I should have planned it better to have bought them at the Commissary at a lower rate...but I was desperate this morning. Anyway I really am trying to do better when it comes to this whole frugal/save money thing. For dinner today I made some turkey and cheese sandwiches. I have the bad habit of not using all of my lunch meat or bread before it goes bad or I just toss it. See everyone, I really am trying. :) I also decided that I am the type of person that needs to see results. As much as I know that it is smarter to pay off debts with the highest interest first I need the mental satisfaction of seeing a loan wiped out completely to motivate me. My plan is to go after my Perkins ECSI loan. The original loan amount was $1,800.00 with a 5% interest rate. It went into repayment only a couple months ago. The current balance of the loan is $1468.63. If I can snowball payments towards this loan I can get it paid off in 3-4 months. That would free up the money to focus more on my credit card. Yes, my credit card has the highest interest but I think that I need something to jump start me and push me in the right direction. I'll let you all know how it goes. I just need to focus and do this for me. I know that the debt didn't get here over night- thank you 4 years of college lol- but I can get it to go away faster than the "suggested amount of time" The nice thing about loans though-is that besides the couple extra dollars in interest you can't charge anything to them and so the balance will only continue to go down. I have money in my account to make a payment right now towards this loan but I am going to be smart and wait until pay day. I still like having the financial security in my checking/savings account.
Current Account Balance
| Debt | Principal | Payoff | Fixed | Current | Interest | Months | Last Payment | Last Check | Defer/ Post | |||||
| Campus | Fund | Amount | Balance | Paid | Amount | Payment | Due | Rate | Delinquent | Date | Amount | Number | Date | Type |
| 40 | PER24A | $1,800.00 | $1,468.43 | $331.57 | $1,468.43 | $40.00 | $0.00 | 5.000 % | 0 | 6/18/2012 | $100.00 | Echeck | ||
| Totals: | $1,800.00 | $1,468.43 | $331.57 | $1,468.43 | $40.00 | $0.00 | ||||||||
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
It's a start...
I went grocery shopping on Sunday but I didn't go overboard. Nine times out of ten I don't go shopping for a long time, out of pure laziness, and then I overfill my cart with food. I'm the only one eating the food obviously so I don't eat everything before it goes bad. I'm making it my goal to eat what I have before buying more food. Well...obviously within reason. I'm not going to wait to go to the store until I have absolutely nothing in the fridge or cabinets. lol.
Taking my credit card out of my wallet has been the best move that I have made to date. I really have to think about the things I buy and if I really need it. I made a $438.75 payment to my Discover Card today. This will bring the card down to 3,500. In the past I would make large payments to my card and by the end of the next month I would be right back where I started. If I can't use my card I can't add any additional charges to it. You would think that I would have figured that out sooner. I graduated college with honors and I have an Honors Paralegal Certificate...you would think that I'd realize that you can't use something if you don't have it with you. I guess it was a mental barrier or something. Anyways, I am excited that I made a big payment-I just need to keep getting it lower and lower.
My husband only has 538 left on his card. I am really tempted to pay the rest of it off this month in order to have one less bill to pay. We could definitely do it. I'll have to ask him and see what he thinks. I got a comment saying that I should tell my husband about how high my credit card debt is and I agree with her. Thanks for the comment by the way! :) However, I won't say anything until he gets back. The thing about deployments is-when something bad happens-you don't tell the person. When you are worried about something-you don't tell the person. Soldiers need to focus solely on their mission and keep their head in the game during deployment. You don't want to say anything that will distract them and put them in danger. It's just how it is. Ask any military spouse and they will tell you the same thing. Hopefully by the time he gets home in a couple more months from now I will have made some extra progress on my card. Ok well I need to get the laundry into the dryer and get ready to work out tonight. Hope everyone else is having a good Tuesday. How are you doing with your goals and getting your debt paid off?
Taking my credit card out of my wallet has been the best move that I have made to date. I really have to think about the things I buy and if I really need it. I made a $438.75 payment to my Discover Card today. This will bring the card down to 3,500. In the past I would make large payments to my card and by the end of the next month I would be right back where I started. If I can't use my card I can't add any additional charges to it. You would think that I would have figured that out sooner. I graduated college with honors and I have an Honors Paralegal Certificate...you would think that I'd realize that you can't use something if you don't have it with you. I guess it was a mental barrier or something. Anyways, I am excited that I made a big payment-I just need to keep getting it lower and lower.
My husband only has 538 left on his card. I am really tempted to pay the rest of it off this month in order to have one less bill to pay. We could definitely do it. I'll have to ask him and see what he thinks. I got a comment saying that I should tell my husband about how high my credit card debt is and I agree with her. Thanks for the comment by the way! :) However, I won't say anything until he gets back. The thing about deployments is-when something bad happens-you don't tell the person. When you are worried about something-you don't tell the person. Soldiers need to focus solely on their mission and keep their head in the game during deployment. You don't want to say anything that will distract them and put them in danger. It's just how it is. Ask any military spouse and they will tell you the same thing. Hopefully by the time he gets home in a couple more months from now I will have made some extra progress on my card. Ok well I need to get the laundry into the dryer and get ready to work out tonight. Hope everyone else is having a good Tuesday. How are you doing with your goals and getting your debt paid off?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)