simplyli

This has been on my mind a lot lately yet I still haven’t gotten back into it yet. This week, I will make the effort and set time aside to exercise. I want to be stronger.

Still not quite where I want to be, but it’s a work in progress. It’s a learning process.

When I update my net worth later this month, at least two of my debts will have increased. Others will have decreased and one of my assets will have increased, but there is still work to be done.

I haven’t been tracking my spending lately and I need to get back into this. The template I was using was great, really helpful, but it is on Excel and I unfortunately don’t have Excel at home. So I can only use it at work and I don’t always like to have my personal information on a public computer. I will look into a way to perhaps get a trial or the actual software installed.

I have been thinking about my bank account and my monthly fee. It is one of those things which would go somewhat unnoticed (it shouldn’t have, I know) but which is becoming more obvious and is bothering me. I am looking for ways to cut unnecessary expenses, and I would like to see if I can afford to switch to a no-fee account. I would have to monitor things a lot more closely and wouldn’t have the leisure of going under due to the high overdraft fee if that were to happen. But maybe that’s not a bad thing.

I recently finally canceled an insurance I had on my Sears card. It is a good plan, but unnecessary now that I have disability insurance. I let it go on far too long, being charged a little over $10/month, and it was so quick to cancel it.

I think monitoring my spending and making wiser choices, continuing to focus on reducing my debts, and finding a way to deal with those unplanned expenses will help me in the long run.

I was just reading a publication about debt and it reminded me of something I had thought about before: using cash for my spending. It’s not as easy for certain things it seems, but I really should try to do this for the most part. I might have tried my little attempts at this in the past but I should give this a more serious go. I will do this with my next pay. I also just realized the publication offered a link to compare banking fees, which is exactly what I was looking for so I will have a look at that.

I was re-reading some of my older entries and on Dec. 26 of last year, I wrote: By the end of 2009, I hope to be in a better place financially. I won’t be where I would ultimately like to be, but I will no longer be where I am today.

I felt somewhat settled on a budget for the six-month period ahead but find myself questioning it due to my credit cards. I have never worried about paying the minimum or less as I have always paid more but with this adjusted budget, the amount towards credit card debt seems too low and I worry about not covering the minimum and extending this debt for too long and incurring unnecessary interest. One of my cards, I have not been using and have been steadily paying down, but it is the other two and really, the three combined, that I am concerned about. I would hate to pay less on my loan for a couple of months but I am wondering if that’s what I should do. So far I have been putting more than my agreed monthly payment.

I verified what my minimum balances would be based on my last statements.

On one card, the minimum payment will likely be under $12.00
On the other, it will be at least $20.
I have not checked the third yet.

I will not decrease my credit card debt by just paying the minimum. I am looking over my budget now to see what would be best.

I have not been keeping track of my spending since my last pay and I am left with under $2 in my account. I want to make sure to start fresh again with my first pay in November, which will be the beginning of the six-month period, and do my best to stay on top and manage things well.