THIS... is a very good point.

The truth is I actually had a plan. I doodled numbers in my pocket notebook when I got really anxious or depressed about this mess, and lo and behold, I actually sketched out a workable plan.

BUT then this G-Unit problem happened and I'm going to have to carefully consider what I'm going to do for the rest of this year and examine some things pretty hard.

I have decided this much though:

1. I'm going to continue to keep this Fiscal journal relatively simple. There's a lot of them here where the posters do this wonderful job of giving us their detailed budgets, and lots and lots of detail. Now I may work up to that. However I feel that's not sustainable when my real problems are extremely basic needs for behavior modification, and I notice a lot of those journal start out real strong and then just fall by the wayside. They also don't attract as much feedback because they're so elaborate.

Obviously I do give some nuanced information and sometimes use this thing kind of like a blog at times. But I can't do that ALL the time, it's not my style.

2. I have only done so well because offline, I have learned how to budget. Oh how I have learned. I live very lean now, and I'm a better person for it, but I live too leanly. Seriously, I don't have a pair of work pants without a hole in them and well, patching is great and all but I kind of need those pants to be in better condition. I got in trouble, nearly, a few months ago because I don't have a cell phone. I kind of need one for my own safety though, that little episode was a wake up call.

3. I have learned something about myself in this process, and that is I am an extremist when it comes to this kind of thing, or rather I have been in the past. I am going to have to learn to be moderate. However, there is hope. I have learned also that I respond very, very well to automation and accountability. ING sub accounts are my best freaking friends, I have like 10 of them. It's the envelope system, electronically. Therefore I'm going to continue setting overarching goals and this FFJ WILL continue, it's been one of my most important tools.

4. The other side of #3: I want to implement an idiot's budget a la Tobias Boon's save 20% live on the rest no matter what kind of logic. And I want it to be automatic, and brainless, and willpowerless. The good news is, I'm actually kind of doing that already. All I have to do is save the snowball instead of pay debt with it. However my circumstances have changed, so my numbers are going to be different.

You know what though? I don't think the numbers matter so much. It's the behavior. This grandma problem, it won't last forever. I thought this credit card debt would last forever and it didn't. My crappy job? It won't last either. Heck my next job might pay even less. Am I gonna quit what I'm doing just because I earn less? Well I wouldn't quit it if I earned more, so there you go.

The catch is I'm going to need to generate some good numbers for the situation I have right now, and when the situation changes again, well, duh, it's going to have to change yet again. Right now I have a really good idea what my true bare bones monthlies are. Dang ya'll, I live cheap. Job right now is relatively stable, so I'm going to think about it real hard and decide what kind of emergency fund I need to lay down first.

After that, I'm going to have to see where my money needs to go, and crunch the numbers.

Great self-analysis.
I love when people agree with me.

I was also just throwing it out there because if you notice in Samantha's journal today, she's starting to slack because she's been so focused on the debt, and now she feels kind of at a loss. I guess it's like when people quit smoking cigarettes. They think that the cigarettes are their friends, and they're sad when they have to give them up. I guess that's how you guys feel after paying SO much debt that you feel like you don't have anything else to do once all the debt is gone. Does that make sense?

So, I like your future plan; I think you should get a new pair of work pants (pay w/ cash or debit card, of course), and keep on keepin' on.

Budgets are hard for me too, but I try to stay focused. If I'm outside of my fake budget, it's not the end of the world. I just try to do better the next pay period.

Now for a very, very special update post.

All right people this one's different, this post is a user interactive multimedia experience!

You will need:
1. Computer, so those of you browsing via candle light or a paper back book are out of luck
2. Tabbed browsing capability
3. Ears and speakers, personal or otherwise
4. Enough computer literacy to right click.

And you're going to want to slow down your reading speed voluntarily if you're a speed reader like me.

All right here we go. First, open this link right here in another tab. Let it play for about 5 seconds, then go over to the other tab, pause it, reset it, and come back here.

Okay now you're going to click this other linky right here, same drill, open it in another tab. Go to that tab, listen for about 5 seconds, pause, reset, and come back here.

Okay now between those two pick which music you like better. I couldn't decide, personally. You may wish to repeat this post with both soundtracks. Once you've decided, go back to your selection, quickly hit play, and come back here.

Okay now scroll down.


Scroll down some more.









Keep going almost there...







Hoping I spaced this right to work with your resolution...




And without further delay..





BOOM-shakalakalaka-BOOM-shakalakalaka-BOOM-shakalakalaka-BOOM!

YEAH

YEAH

YEAH

WHOOPY

WOOHOO



NO MORE CREDIT CARDS! GONE! GONE I SAY!

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA



Ohmahgawd
Ohmahgawd
Ohmahgawd

I did it. I can't believe I really did it.

It's been a weird day. I actually put the payment in Thursday AM, the payment doesn't "go through" until midnight Friday though, just a few hours before I posted this. I had to check and make sure it really said "0.00" before I could believe it.

It has been weird all day. I've not been sleeping well all week because I'm like a little kid the week before Christmas. Too excited. And now that it's here, I'll be honest. Part of me wants to laugh hysterically and roll around on the floor, which I did, and part of me wants to weep and throw up, which fortunately I did not.

The gravity of the concept that I don't owe anybody any more money... I mean, it's just incredible. That hasn't been true since I was seventeen years old!

Okay okay enough silliness... there will likely be one more tiny little interest payment, and then, it's all over!

Except not really. I've had a hell of a rough ride outside personal finance issues these past 3-4 years, suffering a pretty bad meltdown, was depressed real bad for about 8 months. It was terrible, unexpected deaths, losing a job that paid a lot more than I make now, betrayal by people I really trusted and admired. But I sure didn't handle it well, and if I'd made better personal finance decisions before all that happened it would have gone a lot differently. This wouldn't have happened. This is about a lot more than the money, for me anyway, this is about being a new and different person.

As much "work" as it was hunting down links and source images and making lolcatz for this special post, I've been doing a lot more work a la Excel deciding just exactly what it is I'm going to do now in light of all recent developments.

The answer... will be my next update! I'm taking some time off from this silliness, but not my budget, and until then but I'll leave you with a hint where this is going:

Congratulations!! I've never been so happy to see a yellow pie chart. heehee.
My vote is for Spongebob.
I'm glad you were able to make it through your depression and tough family stuff and pay off all this debt. You are a new person. A stronger, wiser, financially savvy person, and it can only get better from here.
Enjoy your break, and we'll see you when you get back.

Hip Hip Hooray!!!

Wow, AWESOME!
Congratulations!
Love your cat macros too.

Hooray!

I love your cat macros!

Snowballer, when I saw your journal had an update, I hoped it would be this! GREAT job on taking control of your life and your finances.

And I can't wait to read your new plan. Please keep posting!

(And I liked the LOLcats, especially emergency fund cat...I've asked our orange tom cat if he wants us to pile cash around him and take embarrassing pics. So far, the answer is...not so much).

Sandi

Best post ever

I'm so happy for you!

This is what I've been hoping to see.

Good job, snowballer!

My guess is you know exactly how much you need in an Emergency Fund, too. For me, that number is around $5,000. I'm working towards it. After paying off all these loans, that should be easy for you!

Congratulations!!! Enjoy that feeling of accomplishment! Revel in it! Take yourself out to dinner and pay cash! Buy your kitties some catnip (with cash)!

We look forward to hearing the next installment...

Congratulations Snowballer! I just registered for the forums, and read through your journal. It was inspiring to read your credit card debt free post. I am one month away from the same, and am looking forward to that feeling.[/i]

All right, this update, well it's a little different. It's mostly a bunch of rambling.

I'm not going to go into all the underpinning details, I'm just sort of going to relay the plan since this FFJ is all about behavior, having a plan and executing it.

Okay first let's tackle the G Unit (What I call The Grandma) situation. Things are going to pan out eventually we've really been working on this, and I've got some idea of the numbers involved for now. I have to share something. When I told my mom I could help with this financially, she froze. She couldn't believe it. Yeah. Being out of debt is awesome.

But anyway to the crunchy stuff. We've got to settle some of her current bills and such so that's going to be a cost of $189.46 now and $185.00 2 weeks from now. That'll get her on an even keel for a while, during which time I have to save $1900 by December 31, 2009. That goal is a bit arbitrary but it's based on what I feel I can realistically do, when I've been told I may need the money, and all that good stuff. I've actually crunched it out as $1903.46 but that's just being nerdy.

Second, I need to establish a barely passable Emergency Fund or Contingency Fund or whatever you like to call it. I've decided to base this goal on the same time frame for convenience.

Now as for what I already have, first I happen to have a $1000 EE series US savings bond for some reason. Honestly I don't know why I bought it but there it is. Well I know why I bought it, I wanted some emergency last ditch money I wouldn't spend and it worked, because that was in 2003 when I bought this thing.

The way EE series bonds work is you actually pay half the face value and then over so many years it climbs up to the face value, basically it's like most bonds in the private sector with no coupon payments: sold at a deep discount less than face. I have decided at the present time I'm just going to sit on this bond, it's done its job so far. It's suitable for an emergency fund because you can cash it in at any bank whenever so that's good enough for me.

For my purposes however I'm simply going to value the bond at $500. I know it's worth more than that but I'm not worried about it.

Now I also already have about $900 or so in cash at ING. The thing is I've been using this as my "Emergency Fund" but really this money is supposed to pay for anticipated expenses within the year, insurance premiums and the like. So it's not really "emergency" money at all. So I'm going to consider this merely to be cash I needed to be saving to meet expenses anyway and will ignore it for my purposes now.

Anyway, I have ways of spending only $1000 a month some months. I have gotten really good at this sort of stuff over the past year. So I think a decent starting point for the Emergency Fund is to have $3000 tucked away. Considering I actually do have money saved up for all my predictable expenses before they happen now that's actually not an unrealistic start for the E Fund, but I'll probably want to ramp it up a little bit more. For now I need a goal more than anything and that's a good goal to get it going. Now I have another "problem" in how do I hold it. After much debate I've decided the E Fund will actually look like this:

Savings Bond $500
Brick and Mortar Bank Account $700
ING $1800

Justification: the savings bond I already have. I can cash it in whenever but I feel no need to so there it is. I don't want to give myself immediate access to the whole pile yet but I do want some cash right where I can get it with a handwritten check or a local ATM just in case. With some in the local bank I can write a check on it, and if it's real bad I can go deposit the bond there and then write the check, and if it's really really bad I figure I can wait for the ING transfer. The thing I like about this is that $2300 is psychologically removed from my immediate control but if I really need to I can still get at it quickly enough.

The $700 in my local bank will be a "cushion" in an existing account, so I'll just pretend my balance is always $700 lower. Might I change this later? Sure but for now, like I said, I need a goal and the perfect is the enemy of the good.

Now, this very week, I'm doing something special. I'm letting myself spend $384.04 on anything I want. Anything.

Item 1, I will buy some pants. Yay.

Item 2, I had another reminder this past week that life without a cell phone is terrible. I've gone without it for a long time to make bigger debt payments and the truth is I really do not want another $50 a month payment right now. Yeah it'd be cool to toute a Crackberry or something but realistically that's not a good idea right now even though I could afford it if I really wanted to (I did crunch the numbers). It's that lifestyle inflation problem.

So here's what I'm going to do. I'm used to not having a cell phone at all. I think it's best to go ahead and figure out a solution for the next 10-12 months that will solve my real problem of having no way of being reached, or reaching other people, in certain situations. The utility of a marginally good plan is phenomenal when you've gone without for so long, yes?

I did some research, and found this to be really helpful.

http://www.prepaidreviews.com/wehelpyou ... udget.html

T Mobile makes a cool prepaid phone that has plenty of silly things for me to play with and I can get 1000 minutes for $100 and they'll last a whole year, total cost around $200. No monthly bill, I'll never be out any more than that. You know what, problem solved as far as I'm concerned. I'll try to make this last until next, let's say July, and if it sucks well that's the beauty of the prepaid option you just stop what you're doing. In the meantime that's only 20 bucks a month I'm out all paid cash up front, so I think this is a good way to go for me right now. Maybe next year I'll revisit the idea of getting a real plan.

That does leave a little bit of money but I'll spend that later on something I want. Not need, want. So there!

So anyway next update I'll actually start filling up the E Fund. I'll also likely be able to put a little bit into the G Fund (I was going to call it the G Unit Fund but then I realized hey, E Fund and G Fund!). After that I hope to start making regular contributions to both through year's end.

January, I'll change what I'm doing. I don't know how yet but I know it will change somehow. But it's okay I'm actually very happy about this because I thought it would take all of this year to reach this point. Being out of debt gives you an intense 96 hour rush, and that dies off, but then every once in a while you get a little tingle of joy from knowing you can do something you couldn't before, not to mention the not worrying all the time is awesome.

I figure I still have a financial mountain to climb, I'm just not climbing while carrying an oven, an anvil and for some reason a meat cooler any more. So let's end with my new reporting format:

E Fund
Bond $500.00
BAM $0.00
ING $0.00

G Fund
ING $0.00

Goals by 12/31/2009
E Fund
BAM $700
ING $1800
G Fund
ING $1900

*BAM is for Brick and Mortar

Way to go, snowballer. Feels great to be in charge, doesn't it?

I switched my cell phone to T-Mobile To Go years ago and have been very happy with it. The 1000 minutes per year are plenty for me because I only use it for emergencies and travel. But even if I used twice that, $200 per year would be way cheaper than the $600 per year I was paying Verizon before!

Do you have a larger "target number" for your e-fund?

Yes. Right now my job situation is as stable as it can reasonably be expected to be. Now watch me say that and I'm out on my butt in a month. But even then I'd really like it to be $5,000.

Let's put it this way, I want $3k by year's end hopefully. If things are the same come January, I'll amortize the $2k over the next calendar year and start putting money into retirement again. If I'm less certain, I'll save it up ASAP and re evaluate.

If something changes in the meantime, naturally I'll had to adjust everything and go from there. I'm tight rope walking without the "debt net" now to catch me if I suddenly incur a big bill... little scary but hey, better off than before that's for sure! I'm not really worried about investing right now, I just need a little cash to make a "buffer" between me and life.

What's kind of sad is that if I am successful, I'll have a bigger savings account than some people I know who make 3x what I do. Yikes!

I'm a bit late, but congrats for paying off the debts, and congrats for your good webcomic tastes