Get debt free

One of my credit cards was stolen from our house by the girlfriend of our roommate’s friend. I’ve reported it, filed a police report and agreed to prosecute… but it pisses me off.

I’m accounting for those charges (about $2000 worth) in our current debt evaluation considering I can’t know whether or not I’ll be held liable.

I just paid off my Bank of America card today. Woo hoo! That sucker racked up mad interest.

Breakdown:
BoA loan—$7052.66
stolen CC—$2148.77 (about $800 is really mine)
Discover—$2871
TOTAL = $12072.43 w/ stolen charges OR $10,723.66 w/o

My goal this year was get us below $10k by New Year’s. As long as those charges are reversed, we should make it.

Though it doesn’t look like our debt is disappearing that fast, we are making financial progress. We still have about $4k in savings… even after I took out $2600 to pay off two cards. I also began graduate school this semester. I did charge $800 to the Citibank card (the one that was stolen) with the intent of paying it off immediately. Instead, I’m having to wait until the investigation is finished to deal with that card.

Guess I learned my lesson—next time I’ll just take cash or write a check and move money into my account. There is no such thing as responsible spending when it comes to me and credit cards!

Here’s our debt break-down as of now:

BoA loan- 7488.35
BoA cc—5288.24

Total $12,776.59

That means that we’ve paid off $10,000 in the last 10 months. Wow.

We’ve also got about $4,500 in savings. I will start graduate school in the fall and I’ve got a plan for paying that as I go.

I also contacted Discover. They will do a $3,800 balance transfer to a 0.0% APR card for a year. There’s a 3% initial fee, but that far outweighs the money I’d pay in interest to Bank of America. Ugh.

I made this progress by, well, honestly, hiding money from my lovely boyfriend. That sounds horrible. Really, he’s AWARE, but we both realize that he isn’t a disciplined spender.

I have $1,000 of my paycheck auto-deposited into a savings account. I used to have my car payment and one loan payment come out of that account. Once those were paid off, I left the $1,000 going there. When I need to take out money for month to month expenditures, I can, but I never EVER let myself take out more than $750. Usually I can get away with $500 or less. I save the rest. And I don’t hit that account until after the first round of bills. Our second round hits mid-month.

I’ve also set up a spreadsheet that I update monthly. It’s nice to SEE the balances decrease. It really does make it feel like every bit makes a difference.

And when bills get lower, I do everything I can to pay it off in one payment. A few months ago I managed to pay off my Fry’s balance of about $1,000 by cashing in change, selling CDs and taking a bit out of my savings. But it was worth it.

I’m down to two card payments a month and I’m paying nearly $800/month toward them. I can’t wait until I’m totally debt free. I’m betting I will be by this time next year! :-)

I succeed once, but fell back in debts. So now I’ll get outta debt AND will shut down my line of credit.

I plan to do a lot of it this summer, but it won’t be enough, so I’ll budget my school year to save up some money.

I think its been nearly 4 years now since I began my quest to rid myself of my debt. I am happy to say that I am nearly there…only 2 more payments and I will be DEBT FREE!!! Just in time for my 30th birthday. YAY!

As a treat for achieving this goal and my big 30 I’m taking myself on a cruise :D

$15,742.08

That’s how much debt I have left. It feels like A LOT for one person, but I’ve paid off my car and I don’t have school loans, so that’s probably about average for a 25 (nearly 26 yr old).

I have done well by not using my credit cards. I don’t think I’ve charged a single thing in the last six months. Even when I’ve been REALLY broke.

Also, my credit score dropped last year because I had such high debt to income ratios. It’s improving again, which is a relief since my boyfriend and I plan to buy a house soon.

Oh! Did I mention that we’ve saved $10K? Honestly, it’s going to go toward his taxes for last year (independent contractor), but we still exhibited the discipline to save it! That’s an improvement.

207 a month for 3 years 14000 = 7000… Only 1 current account and that’s JCPenney. When I get a job try to put an extra 207 down a month and do it in 1 to 2 years vs. 3 :)

I haven’t charged anything in a LONG time. I’m paying more than my minimums every month, but I’m not seeing tremendous progress.

During my conference period today I decided to call my credit card companies and try to negotiate a better interest rate. I tried this about six months ago and made no headway.

Today I did!

Citibank lowered my rate from 14.99% to a promotional rate of 3.99% good for nine months! I have about $2,300 on that card. With my boyfriend’s help I should be able to have the card paid off by that time.

Bank of America wanted to know my occupation, length of time working in that occupation and my gross income, which I thought was weird, but they lowered my rate of 20.99% to 15.99%. I was outraged to learn that my rate had been that high. If you use BoA, you know that they don’t print your rate on the statments, those shifty bastages, so imagine my surprise when I spoke to the service rep and he told me how high mine was.

He also gave me some advice: when banks look at reducing your rate, they look at your balance, how much you’re paying per month (the higher the better) and how quickly you’re making progress toward paying the balance to determine your interest rate. He suggested that I make a large payment (e.g. $1,000) then call back to request a balance transfer. I plan to do that after Christmas.

I still have about $20,000 worth of debt. That’s ridiculous, but I’m trying to make progress.

The current breakdown:
BoA CC $6,636.67
BoA loan $8,167.07
Citibank $2,276.45
2nd loan 0 PAID OFF
car 0 PAID OFF
Fry’s 1972.38

debt 19052.57

I’m still actively working on the debt. I haven’t eaten out but one this week, for lunch, at a salad bar.

I’ve made inexpensive, but healthy grocery choices. I spent about $40 on food this week, and I’ve made it last. I probably won’t have to shop until mid-week next week.

I’ve been trying to use less gas by walking and car-pooling.

Today, I went through some of my CDs. They are constantly lying around the house. I don’t listen to many of them. I think, if I’m honest with myself, I really bought most of them for looks. I seem to listen to the same 50 or so of my 400+ collection. I rarely veer from my favorites.

So today, I took about 10 or 15 and sold them. I also sold three books. I almost backed out but I told myself, “You NEVER listen to these. This is just more clean.” Plus, CDs are on the way out. Now is about the last time I’ll be able to get money for them. So I made $36. Not a TON, mind you. But it’s a tank of gas I won’t be tempted to charge.

I also put some items on Craigslist. They may not sell, but I’ll post until they do. I’ll drop the price each time.

Yay for trying to make this happen, for real!

I’m pretty annoyed right now.

My boyfriend is away for work, indefinitely. He’s homesick, I get it. I miss him, too. But every night he’s going out and drinking with the guys from work. I just had to transfer money into our joint checking so he could pay his hotel bill (the company re-imburses).

I taught summer school so I could have extra money to put toward our debt. Instead, I put it in his pocket.

And I just paid for his ticket to come home next weekend. He’ll get reimbursed for that, too, but it’s frustrating.

I paid off two outstanding medical bills today. They were tiny by comparison with other debts I have, but getting those notices off the fridge makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something today. Yay!

Remaining debts (in USD):

Bank loan—$8,591.28
Bank CC—$6,866.76
CC—$2,886.19
Fry’s—$2,298.28
2nd bank loan—$980.24
Medical bills—$400

TOTAL: $ 22,022.75

That’s for fairly well-paid adults, no kids. You feel a little better about your debt now, don’t you? Haha.

I’m currently considering a part-time job, but I’m a bit concerned about ending up in a situation where I actually work with one of my students. That would be really awkward for me.

On the upside? No car payment :-)