It's been a long time... shouldn't'a left you...

...without a dope beat to step to *word*

It's from a song. Timbaland is on it. That makes it awesome.

Anyway.

Budget update for this month is not super-impressive... the overall debt total went down about $200, and the overall savings/retirement went up about $100. But at least both of those things moved in the right direction during a month when I had to pay nearly five hundred dollars for car insurance.

The awesome part is that the car insurance is paid in full, out of the bank and not on a credit card and I still managed to make positive progress on the debt. Maybe it's only a little bit of progress, but it's still progress and I'm happy about it!

You'll get another update next month, and hopefully I'll get a big fat back-to-school bonus and be able to have a bigger, more exciting update next time. Speaking of back to school, make sure and be nice to some teachers you know this month! :)

Update figure - finally!

So I finally remembered to fill in my budget and here's the big number....and here's the big update!

*drumroll*

$18,969.24

!!!! Or, if you include how much I've paid down my school loans, the total amount of debt paid since November 2007 is....

$20,266.08!

Another thing to be proud of...

I meant to p0ast this earlier but I forgot.

In June, for the first time in my life, I made a donation the campaign of a political candidate. I'm not going to tell you who, or what office they're running for, but it's someone I really believe in and would like to see succeed. So I made a pretty sizable (for me) donation, and it was matched by a former donor. That was part of the reason I chose to donate when I did - I was inspired by the commitment that a former donor was showing to continue being part of the campaign if he/she was willing to match donations (which could be up to $2300, potentially, although mine of course was much smaller than that). But I figured if other people are willing to make continuing commitments to this cause, then that confirms my feeling that there is something special going on here. I really want to see this person elected, and because I feel passionately about what I think should happen, I decided to "put my money where my mouth is," as the saying goes, even though I am otherwise being so tight-fisted with the rest of that money.

So my update figure could have been a little higher, but I'm glad that I was secure enough to be able to do this and I'm proud of my active participation in the democratic process. Yay!

Oh and I swear I really will update my budget doc later and give you a real update figure ;) I think it will be a good one. I just keep forgetting!

P.S. Make sure you get informed and VOTE this year! :)

Back ... with a bang!

So I *meant* to update my blog on June 16, as I usually do, with my Debt Reduction Resolution Update (TM), but that was right in the middle of the last week of school and I was losing my mind. After that, I spent a couple of weeks being exceptionally lazy and as mindless as possible :)

But it's mid-month again, and I just got paaaaaaaid, so I decided to go online and make a few payments. Now I don't have my fancy budget database file with me (I'm not p0asting from home), so I can't give you the tremendous update figure you are so anxiously waiting for. That will have to be p0asted later. There are a couple of big things I *can* point out now, however!

1) I paid off my second-to-last credit card completely. Now there is only ONE left with a balance on it!

b) My only remaining credit card is locked in at a rate of 2.99%.

III) The amount on that card is less than I make in one month. That doesn't necessarily mean that I'll be able to pay it all off in one month (I will be paying my 6-month car insurance *IN CASH* next month after all), but still. That is a very reasonable target balance to have in my sights.

4) After that card is paid off, I will only owe money to my mom. And a) it's at 0% interest (currently! ha ha!) and 2) I really don't mind paying money to my mom. She's a nice lady.

So can you believe it? Only one credit card left to go...

P.S.

I decided to do a little math (yay for math!), and I figured out that if I paid $1606 a month, I could get rid of all of my consumer debt (including that part I owe my mom) by November. If I work hard, I just might be able to do it, and then I'd be able to say I elminated all my consumer debt in one year!

Wish me luck :)

Wow!

Well I made my mid-month extra payment, and the urge to hold on to some money and blow it on stuff was really strong. I don't know why - it's not like there are holidays coming up or plans or anything. Maybe just an urge to spoil myself. But I shook it off, and made a big big payment instead. And it worked out really awesomely! Because when I filled in all the updated information for this month (balances, savings, retirement, etc.), my total net worth (less school loans) was actually POSITIVE!

I know it seems like it should have been positive all along, and of course it should have, but it wasn't. And now it is :)

Total debt paid update: $12,429.24

Pay your bills, pay your bills...

So the little automated reminder went off today, time to pay my bills. I get out my handy, dandy bill-payin' chart and do one of my favorite things which is check all the card accounts I recently paid off to make sure they are still at zero[1]. Well anyway after I did that, I only had two bills to pay! Isn't that exciting?! That's not to say I only have two bills, i.e., total - there are a couple things like my school loans that come out after the next paycheck - but only two credit card bills to pay. Hooray! I paid the minimum on the one that's locked at 2.99% for life (the lowest one), and dumped all my bill-payin' money onto the other one. Not a big huge payment, but every little bit helps, and I left enough in my account to cover my school loan payment (just in case it goes through before payday) so when I get the bigger check on the 15th I'll get to make another (and hopefully bigger) dent in Next Goal Credit Card(TM). I must say it feels pretty cool to be down to just two little numbers between me and the absence of consumer debt![3]

[1] This might sound kind of anal retentive. And it is. But it's also just paranoia that I had some minuscule balance left during part of the last billing cycle and they'll have charged me like three cents interest for it and I won't notice and end up with late fees, bad credit, and the assault of several credit card company employees on my hands[2].

[2] This is just a joke, officer.

[3] Or do school loans count as consumer debt? Oh well, I'm not counting them!