pay off my credit card

I feel like a bit of a cheat clicking this off, because A paid this off not me. We’ve both been putting a lot on this lately since his card isn’t working, but thanks to his recent bonus he paid this in full last weekend.

New goal will be to keep this under control!

Last week wasn’t good CC wise due to birthday pressies and a few bills.

I put $40 on it just then, but I think (not sure) balance is up at $940. Grrrrr! Need to be super vigilant this fortnight!!

$77 paid off today, bringing balance to $830.

Going slowly, but it’s moving in the right direction. At least I have a plan now. Every fortnight at least $40 will go on this. More if I have anything left over at the end of the fortnight!!

Thanks to the kindness of A putting some money on my card to cover the travel equipment and some other stuff, this item has made some progress.

I did buy a $200 gym membership last week and some wine from a vineyard on the weekend though. I also bought clothes and sheet covers before leaving Sydney as well.

All up balance is now at $910. I can do this!! Especially if I stick at this goal!!

I just bought $340 worth of textbooks and my balance is now at ~ $1.5K. Not good.

Around $300 of that was pre-Egypt puchases like a new sleeping bag and a few other bits and pieces, luckily I didn’t resort to using the CC over there.

• a doona cover, pillow cases and sheet set for use in the OC (I looked at Target today, and quilt covers there are $100 – what the!!!)
• some “hospital” clothes for use in OC. Its about 5 degrees hotter than Sydney there, and I already have too few “professional” Summer clothes as it is. Argh!!

This goal definately has to be a focus over the coming months. Luckily this year I won’t have the time to have much of a life, so it should help the CC at least :)

Bloody dentists!!!!

So A called Foxtel today and our (read his) account is now being paid on his CC. Yay. I officially have no more excuses about this item.

Um except my 1.5hr dentist appointment coming up this week. I’m scared about how much that will cost!!!

Number 1:
Called foxtel yesterday and found out it should be easy to change the billing acct to As CC. Just need to call up with his details – yay!!

Number 2:
Logged on to my ING account which I had kind of forgotten about for the last 6 months. I now have $650 in my shopping account. Wow!! Transferred $500 of that out and it’s going to go straight on the CC. Talk about restoring balance to the universe!!

My balance isn’t MASSIVE at the moment – at just under $1K it’s certainly been higher in the past, but that’s when I was working full-time and earning a lot more than the fortnightly Austudy I get right now.

Given my limited means to get this under control, I need to act early, before it goes nuts.

I know if I asked A about this he would fully bail me out, but I don’t want to. I have 2 more years of being a student, so I need to get this under control. Especially since in a few weeks I am going away for a fortnight, and then next year and the year after I’ll be on a rural rotation for a few months at a time.

So back to this goal. How can I tangibly do this?

• monthly foxtel bill
• monthly health insurance and mobile phone (for me)
• ad hoc groceries
• visits to physio, dentists, massage etc
• any other puchases I make i.e. SHOPPING

Foxtel
Foxtel is really A’s thing. The reason its on my CC is that when we signed up for it he didn’t have his own. This amounts to $100/month and while it’s not massive, its not something I can afford anymore.

This item has also become a bit of an excuse for me – “oh my CC is high because of foxtel because you haven’t transferred money over for a while”. Sure foxtel may be a component of that, but it doesn’t explain everything.

RTM item: call foxtel and ask if this can be moved to A’s CC. That way I will have no reason for any more excuses.

Health insurance & mobile phone
This is a given, and I should be able to to handle this within my budget.

I do need to sort my mobile out though – I am paying insurance for a handset I no longer use because I lent it to my brother nearly a year ago. OK that’s going to be a new “thing” in its own right.

Groceries
The amount spent on this varies from week to week, and also depends on whether I pay cash/EFTPOS when I’m at the supermarket as well. The main lesson here is that if I ensure we are organised and order the bulk of our stuff online, then really its just fruit & veg & the occasional other item I’ll be buying instore.

When I am lazy and disorganised, that’s when this item really starts to add up.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens with this category once I’m out west next year and fending for myself, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Visits to physio, dentists etc
I know I need to go to the dentist soon. Physio I don’t need until I start getting headaches again – hopefully no time soon.

If I can get on top of everything else, maybe I can afford the odd $30 massage here and there to keep my neck and shoulders in good shape. Right now that just seems a bit too indulgent.

Shopping
I have to say I think in the last 2 years I have been really good with this. Right up until after my exams when I went a splurged a bit. I’d been doing some work then and a few dividends had come in, so it wasn’t too crazy. If I want to keep that sort of lifestyle up, I do need to start working again though. I did get a phone call last week asking me if I wanted to, trouble is I don’t know if I do!!

Wow what an entry that turned out to be!!! Guess there were more issues going on here than I anticipated!!!