6 posts from April 2007

Well, i was at a Rehearsal dinner last night and before we went there - we had to do the whole church thing... Well, my BF is the best man so i patiently waited in the back for the Rehearsal to be over.

While waiting there were a few people with me. The guys (cause their men) decided to roll a quarter down the isle... Yes, i know but they are men - no offense fella's :)

As i sat there and watched the quarter roll my first gut reaction was to go for it. My brain was saying - that is .25 ct more to put towards debt....

right then i realized - i am obsessed! I started laughing to myself and said - well at least i am always thinking of ways to make extra cash to pay down my debt - no matter how silly it sounds...

Of course i refrained myself from jumping across the isle and diving for it. I just let is peacfully roll and had a good laugh to myself! ;)

Back in Jan, when I began my obsession with fixing my finances, my first thing was to check the credit report.

I was shocked when i noticed a student loan on there for 18k...

I called my bank who holds my loans to check if i had anymore. They said no....

So i filed my dispute online with experian - which you can do right from their website.  https://www.experian.com/consumer/cac/InvalidateSession.do?code=DISPUTE

and they took it off...

Pretty scary when you think about it... I also found some dups on bad credit on there and also had those removed

I know now to check my report at least once a year

The weekend was pretty tough. Its hard getting use to other people paying for me and me constantly saying - i can't do that, i really don't have money. Its a very humbling experience to tell ya the truth.

I feel horrible about it but it is a great lesson. It reminds me of what i am working towards and everyday that i don't use a credit card for my every day needs is another day closer to freedom.

So weekend one down and i spent 33.00 in a whole on everything.. not bad - i use to spend well over 150.00 - so every little helps.

I was just having an interesting conversation with a friend of mine. At the age I am at now i should not be here - but i am and to be honest so is she. We both work hard and both are in the same boat.

But oddly enough, we are planning a trip for this upcoming september. Now, usually i would say, Hey i have a credit card that has that amount on it. And even though i do now to pay for the trip, i am choosing the better option. I am choosing to save for it. Granted that means for the next five months, i have to do nothing... I have to scrimp and save as much as i can.

So the question I brought up to myself was this... Even though i am in my debt and i am determine to get out of it, when is enough enough? If i am determine to get out of this, i need to hunker down, but at what cost? The cost of my sanity?

I can't give up everything I say to myself - but i can give up somethings for other things that i want. Where before i would just rack up the credit.... So i feel this is a new step and a good step in the right direction...

Awhile back, i asked one of my good friends who is a mortgage broker how i could raise my credit score. Besides some of the same stuff i hear such as paying off debt and getting balances low, he gave me a new idea

He told me to go to

www.optoutprescreen.com

And to click on the tab that allows me to opt out of credit card solicitation for the next 5 years.

As for me it was a win win, i get very little junk  mail from those companies and I get my score up by a few points. And a few points are a few points - everything helps!

I get my free copy of Quicken in about a week from a relative - so excited to start that!

So here i am , 29 years old and in $51,900 dollars in debt - this breaks down to

24,884 in student loans

5,556 un car loans

21,542 in cc debt...

UGHHH - i just want to scream and i feel like there is no end in site....

But I have started a budget that will start on May 10th and i am super excited - it means living well below my means and trying to save at least 100.00 a month....

I know there will be bumps in the road and times where i think things are just going crappy and i am not making any progress but my new budget life starts on 5/10!!

My goal is to have all my debt except student loans paid off in 3.5 years.... with the help of raises - working some overtime and bonuses i should be able to do this!!!!!

I look forward to reading other blogs on this and tracking my progress for all to see.