pay off my credit card

from my BAC check. The work was a pleasure and the reward feels great. The first big payment in a long while. Very nice frosting on my otherwise taught income. If I can hang on to steady work then I might get close to paying this sucker off with our tax refund. Giving myself a pat on the back.

As other expenses came up, and our last deposit was less than expected, we’ve ended up with about $500 on each of our cards. Worse than I had hoped for, but not unmanageable. Will keep chipping away.

The hardest part is that I don’t feel aligned with my husband on the ultimate goal of long term $0 balance. We do pretty good on managing our finances together but overall have different approaches. I am the planner with a weakness to splurge, he is the juggler with more action but shallower peaks and valley’s. Maybe its a good balance, if we could harness the best of both. It seems like no two people have the same definition of value – what is worth debt, what is considered investment. It’s very psychological.

Tax refund has arrived! So glad I had to do taxes early. Put the full amount of $3,931 against a balance of $4,144. Leaves about $200. I can chip away at this with two monthly payments of $100 at the end of Feb and March. Should receive the deposit from our last place today and can pay off Christian’s as well.

Whew, do I feel relived. Short of snipping them up into a million pieces, we will celebrate by putting them away in a very hard to reach place.

Between our 4k refund and 1k deposit from our old place, we should be back to 0. That beautiful round number. Then art money can go to art. And tax credits – or whatever that government payoff thing is – will compliment my frequent flyer miles for a great travel adventure!

Wow, this one was starting to feel impossible, especially with the upcoming move. Credit card was up to $2500 and rising. Then Wednesday I got a huge bonus! $7600! All I could say was HOLY SHIT. I did not expect it at all. I didn’t even think non-profits could give bonuses. But apparently they can give 1/3 of profits to stakeholders. And we did really well last year. And I was ranked in the top 1/4 based on performance. Whoo Hooo!

This changes everything. Gonna pay off both our credit cards, and our car loan, and medical expenses. Will have enough for grad applications and the move. And I will sign up to put $100 a month into my 403b. And when Christian is working we can put money towards his art and save another $500 a month. I am so grateful to Greg and David for making this happen. I will always remember how important it is to treat your employees so well.

So I’m down to $1450, which sadly includes the ~$100 I just racked up in overdraft protection and associated finance charges. Must do some financial planning this weekend!

Just got a big raise this week! Retroactive to July 1st. That means my next paycheck will have a extra chunk of approximately $2000. I can pay off my card! Or at least get close. I did go shopping as a “reward” to myself. But I didn’t spend more than ~$150. And I may have to load it back up during our upcoming move, but at least I’ll be starting at close to 0. Need to do some financial planning.

This is a good place to admit that I have almost 2k accumulated on my visa for no good reason besides greedy consumption.