raven68

Started at $70,000 personal debt in Feb 2008
Now: $51, 400 heading into December 2009.

Goals: have my remaining credit card debt paid off by the end of 2010.
Keep on plugging away at $1000 a month on my loan which is currently at $37K. I will be thrilled when I get below $30K this summer. Another milestone.

Strategies: carpooling 1-2x a week is saving me $25-50 in gas per month; bought a small apartment size deep freezer to stock up on specials and leftovers; not eating out much; said no to a trip this coming summer that I would love to go on, but cannot afford. Will do it when I have paid off the credit cards and my 2nd job income can go towards the trip fund.

Every week I am further out of debt. 2 of 5 years down. 3 to go.

I don’t want to give up sugar entirely. I want to reduce the amount of refined sugar I eat as much as I can. I know the cookies and sweet cereals I eat happen when I am tired, haven’t eaten enough, am stressed, am in social situtations, etc. I don’t feel great when buzzed on sugar but I can’t seem to stop myself. So I will be looking for substitutes. Fruit, non-white sugar natural sweeteners (honey, etc). But not to go crazy on them. The goal is reduce sugar intake overall. I did Joey Schulmann’s natural diet makeoever once. No sugar, wheat, meat for 5 days. Lots of veggies, only a bit of fish, brown rice and non-gluten grains and lots of water for 5 days. No eating after 7 p.m. After 5 days I felt amazing, with no other supplemements or crazy detox things to take. Just based on food. But that was hard to sustain. So wonder if cold turkey for 5 days again, then see what happens.

Debt payments go into suspension in the summer because as a teacher I don’t get paid. So I have just made minimum payments for the summer on the credit cards but the whopping loan payments have continued. Down from $50K to $40K on the consolidation loan. I have secured extra work for the fall that will all go to credit card debt. I was hoping to be done with all cards by Spring 2010. I looks like now it will be December. Still, the balance is coming down.

My frugal achievement of the day. I had this old bike sitting on my balcony for 2 years I never used. Decided to either donate it or get it repaired if it didn’t exceed $50. Took it to a local bike shop and for $30 they will be able to get it in road ready shape. So for $30 I have a “new” bike, sorta. One thing I have found using Craiglist or any other way to raise funds selling your stuff is you never get the value back once you buy something. Things depreciate in value so quickly so better to hang on to some things and use them and make do if you can. But not to hang on to useless stuff. Hence one of my things is ‘Decluttering.”