Those numbers reflect min payments.

The end of this month I will be shuttling and extra $125 to CC1 on top of the min

This sticking to my cash budget is either gonna kill me... or make me kill someone else.

I have been without my Mt. Dew for 3 days now and Im ready to bite someones head off. I could easily go buy a 24 pack and put it on my debit card (I have the money in the bank), but Im trying to stick to my cash budget for groceries and misc items. I have $8 to last me till Monday and a cube of dew would wipe that out.

Keep in mind.... I normally go thru a 24 pack in about 3-4 days. I dont know that I am gonna make it till Monday. Matter of fact... for everyone around me.... I better just break weak and go buy some. GRRRRRRRR

Why did you not budget that in with the cash that you have? Sidenote....a drinking a 24 pack of mountain dew....not good for your body, especially when your goal is to live past retirement age. When will you enjoy the fruits of your labor?

I have a solution. Buy one Mountain Dew and enjoy it. Why do you have to buy 24?

because up until the last 2 weeks... my budget consisted of using the debit card... not cash. Much easier to go over that way.

because they are an addiction to me. At least I dont smoke or drink alot of booze.

CC1 has been paid for Jan.

Min payment - 48.00
Interest - 23.14
Payment sent - 175.00

Amount extra sent towards principal 150.14

So for the new year I have at least started off on the right foot. My goal is to send 150 extra every month until this card is paid off, and I have done that with the Jan payment.

Now lets see if I can keep it up until its gone.

Awwwww how sweet. I just got this in an email.



Maybe they should have thought about my business when I called and asked them to lower my interest rate. They didn't... so I paid off the card with a fixed interest loan and cancelled the card. That's what happens when your stuck on stoopid. I gave them the option of making some interest or loosing my business. Guess they thought I was bluffing when I said I could pay it off. LOL

And now they want to charge an annual fee...... Yeah... they can get bent.


***DELETE EMAIL***

Good for you!

Keep in mind this was done with the CC Loan that is listed in this thread somewhere.

Im still paying for the debt... but it's a one way road to paid off. I've already chipped away 4184.91 of that 20k loan.


**In other news**

Amex decided I needed some nice shiney new plastic for the new year. Guess when I paid them off I didn't cancel the account... just shredded the card. So now I have a new one to replace the old one that expired. I still have not activated it. I dont even know or really care what the credit limit is on it either.

I've been giving some thoughts to something and I dont know if I can pull it off. Actually Im pretty sure I cant.... but I keep thinking about trying.

Using the numbers for December:

CC1 has 1235.83
CC2 has 2630.20
Total of 3866.03

With my current pay off plan CC1 will be paid off in Aug '11 and CC2 will be paid off in July '12

I keep thinking about trying to get them both paid off by Dec '11 That is a full 6 months early for CC2. I honestly dont think I will be able to pull it off becuase that means shoving 322.17 for the next 12 months towards principal and I dont know how I am going to find the extra. Right now I am able to put around 150 extra towards principal.

I hate pulling OT at my primary job because it takes away from the care that my animals need in my secondary job.

For those wondering why its so hard to come up with the extra.. .Im paying 796.00 a month towards just min payments on my 30654.21 CC debt. Now if you really want to be put into shock... for the month of december.. my interest on that debt was 303.40. That's almost my house note in interest.


Now back to the December Numbers. I almost came close to my budget for December. I actually got real close ... well... real close for me.

According to my budget spreadsheet I should have been left with 227.56
I did transfer 100 of that to savings and 25 to help meet my 150 goal towards debt reduction.

That leaves 102.56 unaccounted for. I had to buy a 67.73 part to fix my car. I spent 3 hours doing it myself and saved over 150 in labor costs at the dealer.

That leaves 34.83 out of what I should have had left over. I really dont know what I spent that on... but you can bet walmart was the culprit. Considering I only blew 34.83 I feel like I have been improving just a bit. I hope Jan numbers are even better. At least that is what I am striving for.

So what. YOU are in control now!



That means you still have good credit

Roadmap for 2011

I have been tossing around some numbers and I came up with 3 goals for 2011.

Goal 1 - Pay an additional $150 each and every month towards the principal of my debt. This one will be realitively easy to do. All I have to do is stick with it and not use the money for something else. I am already putting $100 back to go towards debt reduction every month. My bank has a 15 bill pay limit before they start charging you. I am already paying 14 bills a month so I have to make one large payment with the extra for debt reduction.

Goal 2 - Pay off CC1 & CC2 by the end of 12/11. This one will be a bit harder to accomplish. Not only do I have to put the $150 towards principal each and every month, I have to put the $$$'s from 9 holiday pay's toward my debt AND come up with an additional $828 by working 40hrs of overtime. This breaks down to sending $219 above and beyond the mins each and every month.

Goal 3 - Pay my debt down to $20,000. This one will be the hardest to accomplish and will hinge on being able to get overtime at work **shudders**. To accomplish this goal I have to reduce my debt load by 10,378.32 over the course of the next 12 months. The ONLY way to do this is reach goal #2 and then find a way to come up with an additional 1128.00. This breaks down to using all 9 holiday pay's for debt reduction and working 96hrs of overtime. This breaks down to sending $313 above and beyond the mins each and every month.

I am actually striving for goal number 3, but I would be more than happy with goal number 2. By achieving goal number 2, I am 6 months ahead of my schedule for debt freedom!

What's this 15 bill pay limit thing you're talking about? It doesn't sound right. Can you pay your bills online, and that won't count? Are you talking about writing 15 checks? I've never heard of such a thing. Who charges you to pay your bills?

Sorry, I'm just dumbfounded by that offer/statement. Does your prison have a credit union you could join instead of keeping this ridiculous bank account that you have?

Anyway, I would focus on goal #1 for now. Once you get those cards paid off/reduced, then you can think about adding more to the other bills/cards. One step at a time. Happy New Year!

My bank has a limit of 15 online bill pay's per month. If you go over they will charge you $6. I found this out the hard way when a $6 charge showed up on my account and I went to question it. Other than that one thing I have free checking and my checking account is bringing around 4.5% interest.