get out of debt

I’ve decided to take on a second job to help pay off some of the bills. I have an interview for a store in the mall and I am nervous! I don’t know what I am nervous about because I know I am overqualified for this job…I guess I hate interviews!

I cut myself a little short this paycheck and I only ended up with $9 in my checking account. I had to transfer my last $33 from savings so I could put $40 into my gas tank. It is very unlikely that $40 in gas will last me until Monday when I get paid again. But I put the $40 in gas anyway and used my credit card to buy breakfast. It was only $4 but I felt like an idiot for not being better with my money. Also, my husband doesn’t know it but I had to use my credit card the other night when I realized in the store that I forgot my debit card. It was only $19 but I feel really bad whenever I swipe it, even for the smallest amount. I think it is because it just reminds me of how easy it is to spend without thinking twice about it.

Fall is coming and I really need a new jacket and some cloths to wear to work. I have not bought any work cloths in quite some time and I am well over due. But it is going to have to wait becuase I need to pay off the balance on the credit card and pay the fine for the speeding ticket I got! $165 I have to pay for being in a hurry!:(

We almost had a meltdown this weekend…twice!

My husband made a deal with me to help me with another one of my goals which is to get in shape. His incentive is to buy me a laptop that I have been wanting by October 23rd if I go to the fitness classes offered at out gym regularly for at least 2 days a week until October 23rd. So on Saturday after we left the gym he decided to take me to Best Buy to look at the laptops in an effort to get me motivated. Unfortunately it just made me greedy!

When I got in the store I found a really good deal and as always I see a good deal as an excuse to buy somthing and I was trying to convince him to buy it for me right there and then. The store was offering no interest financing for 2 years and we could save $150 on the laptop I wanted so I was having a really hard time passing it up. He said no and I went home pouting for the rest of the night. A little later on I was feeling really guilty about it because how many husbands would even make this deal to begin with; so I decided I could wait and that I need to earn it.

By this morning I was over the urge to buy impulsively, that is until my husband got home from work. He has the same problem that I have so today HE was in the mood to by an XBOX 360. And of course when I see him breaking down and wanting to impulsively buy somthing like that then I’m right there with him…we are a bad pair when it comes to situations like that! We found ourselves back at Best Buy looking at XBOX 360, laptops…AND new TV’s!!!!!!! I was really close to applying for the no interest financing in order to buy a few items! OMG we almost had a serious meltdown that would have really jeopordized our financial situation!!!!!!

Luckily, we both put our foot down and agreed that we needed to get out of that store immediately before any purchases were made, and we did. It felt good and I am so glad that we decided against buying anything.

So, it’s been a while since I have visited this goal. Since last time we haven’t been excelling as quickly as we did when we first started this goal, but we are still chugging along. We are still like at least a year ahead on payments on “the loan”.

We have unfortunately racked up a little bit of new debt. We really had to buy a new bed because it got to the point where my husband’s back hurt so bad he had to sleep on the couch every night! It ended up costing $1400 but it was somthing we needed.

My husband and I also each have a credit card. At first after we paid off our debt we had zero balances on them both and we were not using them. But once we got a little comfortable we started using them here and there. The good news is that we lowered the credit limit on both of them so the worst that could happen is he could max his out to $500 and mine maxes out at $300. Those can both be easily paid off with one paycheck if needed.

This last month we were a little nervous because my husband was laid off and we had no savings. Luckily he had a month notice so we were able to put away as much as we could before his last paycheck. He also found a job a few days after his last day of work and started working right away. It has still set us back a little bit because he had to wait to get his first paycheck at the new job.

The good news is that this job he got will have more steady pay and there is the opportunity for a lot of overtime if he wants it.

I bought a new car a few weeks ago. In my opinion this was a smart decision. I bought a brand new 2007 vehicle in November 2007 and the interest rate on the loan was pretty high (I think almost 6%) and I put a lot of miles on it. I was able to trade in for a brand new model and since I have good credit I was able to get 0% financing. I’m starting over on the loan which sucks, but I will never pay any interest on it, and I’m in a brand new vehicle with no miles on it. It gets pretty good gas mileage too.

We have not lost sight of this goal and we WILL accomplish it.

We are still doing good with our debt. We used my one credit card a little bit but I’m not worried because the worst that could happen is that we max it out. The limit on it is only $300 and I could easily pay that off at any point. And that is the only credit card we have between the two of us.

Our friends just announced their engagement a few months ago and we knew that they would be planning a destination wedding. My husband is going to be in the wedding so we committed to going no matter where they decided to go. We told them that we could afford up to $2000 per person but I don’t think we really thought that through. They told us over the weekend that they picked their destination in Mexico which can be fairly cheap, but they decided to go top of the line at a spa resort which is going to be at least $1900 per person. They are getting married in June 2009. When we actually sat down to think about it, we realized that is about the same time that we had planned to have our loan paid off and we would have a down payment saved up to buy a house and have a baby. We really didn’t factor in this trip. Now we are figuring that if we want to pay for this trip with cash, and have spending money for the trip (we don’t go with less than $1000) that we are going to have to put away about $450-$500 a month extra between now and then! Ughh!

It’s going to be tight but we can do it. We have already cut down on the monthly expenses for things we don’t need (like HBO and Netflix)but we can’t think of anything else that we can really cut out so we are just going to have to really watch what we are spending and put away every dime.

We are sort of feeling like we are putting our lives on hold with this wedding, but I think it’s going to be a fabulous vacation and a beautiful wedding so I think it will be worth it. Besides, we will still pay off the loan by the same time next year, the only thing is that we will probably have to lease our apartment for a few extra months while we put away more money. And the baby can wait until we get back; I don’t want to be pregnant in Mexico because it’s bad enough that the food makes me sick, I don’t need to be pregnant on top of that.

We just have to stay on track!

I posted a similar entry today about my goal to get in shape. I was not good over the weekend! We went out to dinner with some friends to a nice resturant. There was no occassion, we just wanted to get our friends together for dinner. The atmosphere was great and we were having a really good time…and the alcohol was flowing! Between dinner and drinks just between the two of us we spent $150 and that’s not all. Since we had such a good time after dinner we decided to hit up the bars and we racked up a bill of $110 at the bar and that didn’t include cab fares. The worst part is that for some reason that bar tab went on my CREDIT CARD! We should have just left when we were out of money but we didn’t, we had to break out the credit card! Then, to top it off I left my car on the wrong side of the street overnight and I got a $35 parking ticket! :( We felt horrible for spending that money so senselessly. Yesterday when I got paid I immediately paid the parking ticket and paid the balance on the credit card we used (there was a 0 balance on it before we started that night). That made me feel a little better. But now this coming weekend we are celebrating mine and my friend’s birthday so that will be another night out, and then the following weekend is my other friend’s birthday. I wish I would have spent the money more wisely so that we could have more money for upcoming things.

It’s been about 2 months since I stopped using my credits cards. I think today was one of the first times that I went shopping at the mall since then and I am so proud of myself becuase I only spent the cash that I had in my pocket and I didn’t spend beyond my means.

This year my husband and I found ourselves in over $14,000 in credit card debt! Yeah that’s a lot! And what do we have to show for it? NOTHING! I look around at all the expensive nice things I have and none of them were purchased on credit…so how did we get into this much debt? Because we are lazy and instead of spending cash on things we want, we would just put it on the credit card to worry about it later, and then we still have cash in our pocket. How stupid were we? Well all of this has changed. In January we sat down and figured out how much we are paying towards our debt, and how much we could be paying and we realized that it was time to get it under control. We have good credit so we were able to get a personal loan to consolidate everything into one bill. We took out the loan for 3 years, but so far we have already paid down 1/3 of the loan and we have nocked off a whole year of payments. I am so proud of ourselves already! I decided to put this on my list of goals so that I don’t lose sight of the end result that we hope to achieve which is get out of credit card debt for good!