5 posts tagged “credit cards”

I thought I'd give a little update on my finances.  I decided to follow total money makeover plan after reading Dave Ramsey's book (that I checked out of the library, of course).  If you can get past the Christian slant of his show, it's quite entertaining and informative.  So, when my tax refund comes (which better be soon since I filed 2 weeks ago online) the money will go directly into my emergency fund instead of to a credit card.  That kind of kills me, but I do see the value in it, especially since I have gone off of credit cards.

So here's the low down:

Chase Amazon account:  $7, 149 (getting ready to transfer balance to 0% interest card)
Chase Visa:  $2,074

Washington Mutual:  $2, 239 (down from $3,000, with another $300 payment pending)

Gap Visa:  PAID OFF $1750

American Education Services:  about $100,000

Xpress Loan Servicing (servicing my Sallie Mae loans):  $43,000

Savings:  $120 in ING CD

Checking account:  $800 (but I do get paid today yay!)

Today a speaker from some law school is coming to our office to discuss the new Loan Forgivenes act passed last year.  I'll defintely be bringing my calculator to see how I'll be affected.  I'm desperately hoping it will lower my $1070 a month loan payments. 

I signed up for some weekend work shifts (aka Night Court) to bring in an extra $200.  It's suprising what a big difference that makes in my paycheck.  I was hoping to get a shift for some weekend prison client interviewing, but I didn't get to the sign up sheet in time.  I'm still looking for some additional part time work,  but having a hard time finding it.  I've been trying to spread the word that I'll do basic tax returns.
Today I plan to take some more clothes over to Buffalo Exchange so I'll have some pocket change for the weekend.

I did my budget for this month, and it looks like I'll have about $600 after bills are paid to go towards credit card payment.   The longer I do this, the more horrified I become at how carefless I've been with tracking my money.

I've worked my budget so that I have aalmost $800 a month to pay towards my credit cards.  Now, that's some serious frugal living.  How awesoime will it be when I have $800 extra dollars a month to just put into savings?!?!?!?!!!!  Anyway, I'm now paying off my Washington Mutual (evil people) card.  Hopefully that will be completely gone in another 2 months.

So far, the cat has been put on lower quality food.  It bothered me at first, but them I reminded myself that our family cat lived almost 19 years on Friskies and she was just fine.  The dog, however, is still eating the $1.79 cans of Merrick.  But I am switching to making my own dog biscuits/treats, which are ridiculously easy.  Chicken livers/giblets are only .79 at the supermarket.  So I just cook them up or add some flour and bake them and he gobbles them up.  I'm still going to splurge every now and then for a Flossie, though.

I can't begin to tell you how much $ I've saved by bringing my lunch and not buying Starbucks.  It's a strange feeling to go through an entire day and not spend any money.  It's quite easy to do.  I'm sure millions of people have been living financially responsible for years and this is no suprise to them.  But to me, it's all still new.

I'm still selling on eBay (check out my stuff I'm girlandadog).  Right now I'm pretty much just trying to sell off all of my books.  Over the weekend my father gave me some old books to sell to see if I could get anything for them.  My parents have been inspired by my leaf turnover and are beginning to "downsize" themselves.  My father must have 1,000 books (and he's actually read them all).  All hardback.  I'm pricing some of the antique/rare books, but so far I don't think I'm going to get much for them unless I start the auctions at .01, which is always kind of risky for something that is actually worth something.

Still selling my clothes at a nearby consignment shop as well, although that really doesn't make any money.  I've basically been using whatever cash I get as my weekly cash (which I'm actually not spending, but it's cash on hand in case I need it).

The only major expense I've had is a medical expense - I finally had my appointment at the headache clinic, which had an out of pocket uninsurable cost of $400.  I'm okay with it, because the headaches have gotten really serious.  The neurosurgeon feels that I may have an avm.  Best case scenario is that one of the major nerves leading to the brain is inflamed/pinched.  I have an MRA scheduled this week.  In the meatime, he gave me a nerve block (needle inserted into my brain stem area, FUN), which didn't really help that much.  Hopefully it won't be the worst case scenario, which would mean I'd have to go out on disability for awhile and only get 60% of my pay.

I'm worried, but I'm more relieved that I finally found a doctor who took me seriously and didn't just brush me off saying that my "migraines have changed." 

Today was a blue day.  I'm not sure why, maybe it was the early morning drizzle or the endless number of emails that ended up in my mailbox. 

I think it was because when I checked my Chase credit card account, I saw that the $100 extra payment I had made was essentially "canceled" out by the $100 finance charge just levied.  And they raised my rate.  I can't believe it - is that how they reward customers who not only pay on time but make additional payments?  Well, starting tommorrow Chase will have one less customer when I transfer my balance to another account for that 3.99 fixed rate and no transfer fee.

I just felt like I was in a blue funk all day.  The only positive thing about that is that I had no urge to spend any money, which is what I'd usually do when I was feeling down.  Instead, I perused some personal finance forums and made my own coffee instead of Starbucks.

Then, when I came home, I was greeted by my Gap Visa credit card bill.  Which is almost paid off (only $300 to go!).  And what is inside?  A gift card for $20.  The catch to those giftcards is that you have to use your credit card to make the purchase.  Evil.  I'm glad I handed that card over to my parents. 

But the night took a sudden upturn when I checked my home email and found this!  How awesome is that?  Last week I won the Amazon gift certificate and today I win a book!  It really made my night and lifted up my mood.

Did I mention this in my last post?  I can't remember, so I'm going to post about it anyway because it makes me so happy. 

I was a gold freak back in the '80s.  Yeah, think Mr. T.  Me and my gold rope chains and gold hoops.  Well, all good things come to pass - now I HATE gold and the price of gold is high.  I haven't worn gold since 1980 and I never will ever again.  Blech.

So, last week I gathered a few old 14 K gold rope chains and 4 rings that ex-boyfriends gave me.  Tacky, tacky, tacky jewelry.  I saw that a nearby jewelry store was buying gold, so I figured I'd sell it.  I thought at most I'd get $30-40.

I walked out with $430.  Cash.

I immediately crossed the street to the bank, deposited it, and transfered that $430 over the my Gap Visa credit card, which had a balance of $1700.  Wahoo!

The good fortune didn't end there!  I then called my cable company to downgrade my cable.  Basic cable in Philly starts at about $60.  I also have internet and On Demand.  My bill was $130 a month.  I was going to downgrade to the most basic of basic packages.  Fortunately for me, however, the employee on the phone couldn't figure out how to enter the right codes into the computer to downgrade my package.  After a few minutes, he gave up in frustration and gave me a new 6 month promotional package -- for only $69 a month I'd have the EXACT same package that I was paying $130 for!  Wahoo!

I then hiked over to Urban Outfitters to return a sweater I'd gotten as a Christmas gift.  I only wore it once and the seaming had come undone.  Normally, I probably would have stashed it in the back of my dresser and forgotten to return it until it was too late.  I took it over, made my exchange, and got some $ back because the sweater was now on sale!  Wahoo!

Then I darted on over to ING and got a free coffee.

I went home over the weekend to collect the rest of my gold.  Based on what I sold last time, I think I have well over $1000 in jewelry.  Well, let me rephrase that.  Chase Visa will have about $1000 in jewelry.

I've also been putting up some things on ebay  - yarn, computer stuff, crafting supplies.  I'm making quite a return on the yarn.  Stuff that has been sitting in the attic for the last 2 years.  I never realized the amount of EXCESS I engaged in....It's kind of disgusting.  There's just so much STUFF.  Stuff I don't need. Stuff I bought to feel better but never really felt any better after I had it for a while.  Kind of like how gum loses the flavor too quickly.  I'll post more on this later - my tendendcy to engage in retail therapy.

It's a new way of living for me.  Bringing my lunch to work, not eating out, not buying 2 starbucks everyday.  I thought it would be really hard, but it's kind of liberating.  For the first time this month I won't be panicking when my student loan payments are deducted from my checking account - there will be at least $300 left over so they won't bounce.  That feels a helluva lot better than any new pair of Steve Madden shoes feel.

By the way, these  things really do work.  (Just saw an informercial on them, thought I'd pass on some good $$$ saving advice). 

Last week I happened to stumble upon this fantastic financial application, Mint.  I entered all of my data, and BAM - my debt:income ratio was right there. 

BAM.  Indeed.

I knew I was in debt from my student loans ($150,000).  I had a vague (emphasis on the "vague") idea of how much I owed on credit cards.  I guessed it was about $7,000.  I knew that I was an impulsive (and sometimes even compulsive) shopper.  More on that later.

I am 33 years old.  I have nothing left saved for retirement (more on that later, not entirely  my fault).  I am earning about $3000 a month as a public interest attorney.  My student loan payments are not $1050 a month.  I am on a 30 year repayment plan.

I do not own a car, I do now own a house.

I originally started this blog because of a bad break-up from a toxic relationship.  My motto was "the only way out is through."  My New Year's Resolution is to get out of debt.  I have cut up all of my credit cards except for 2 (which I have handed over to my parents to keep) and my debit/credit card, which is now in the freezer.  I have contacted my credit card companies for better interest rates.  My student loans were already consolidated and refinanced.  I have applied for a part-time job.

Today I downgraded my cable and opened up an ING checking account because of the great interest rate (I already have a savings there, of course there's no money in it).  BTW, if anyone is interested in opening up an ING account PLEASE email me - if I refer you I get $25.

So enough blogging about my poor choice in men (well, not entirely).  The blogging about my new debt-free life has begun.