My Debt Reduction Blog » Being In Debt Sucks http://www.mydrblog.com/blog Our road down debt reduction to elimination, and living without a budget Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:27:03 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 I’m on a staycation this week http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2008/11/25/im-on-a-staycation-this-week/ http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2008/11/25/im-on-a-staycation-this-week/#comments Tue, 25 Nov 2008 13:39:27 +0000 Chad http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/?p=105 It’s been a rough year, financially and maritally speaking. I am glad to see 2008 coming to a close. I’ve taken this week off to give me some time to detach from my everyday responsibilities and focus on where I am and where I want to be. And most importantly, what do I need to do to get there.

My main concern is my marriage. I haven’t been happy for a long time. I would rather do anything than go through a divorce, but when do you have call it quits?? That’s what I’m hoping to determine this week.

At some point this week, I need to review the finances too. They’ve been sorely neglected this year. I know I we’ve incurred more debt, which certainly the wrong direction.

And one more project for the week, is to finally put together stuff to sell. I’ve been sitting on some stuff that I need to get rid of to bring in some cash.

That is all for now.

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]]> http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2008/11/25/im-on-a-staycation-this-week/feed/ 0 The time is here http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2008/01/18/the-time-is-here/ http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2008/01/18/the-time-is-here/#comments Fri, 18 Jan 2008 20:34:53 +0000 Chad http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2008/01/18/the-time-is-here/ My wife has been going to school to become a teacher, and now her time to start student teaching has arrived. What does this mean for us? Well, it’s actually quite substantial. It means she had to quit her full time job, which also provided all our family insurance needs, so she can take over an actual class full time for six months for no salary. Her last day was last Friday and she starts student teaching this Monday. While she wasn’t making a ton of money at her job, we still needed every penny to get through every month.

I really don’t know what is going to happen over the next six months. She has picked up a part time job, but it’s not nearly enough to help us cover our current monthly expenses. We’re hoping to get our taxes filed right away so our return can cover a couple of months. And this weekend I’ll be scouring the house looking for items to sell. Other than that, we can only wait to see what happens.

When student teaching is over, she will then get her teacher certification and can start applying for teaching jobs. And with any luck she will land one before the start of the next school year. If that happens, she would then be making about 15k/yr more than she was at the job she just quit. Plus our girls will be starting kindergarten this fall, which means no more pre-school costs(saving us over $17,000/yr). So the second half the year could end up being a real boost for us.

Only time will tell.

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]]> http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2008/01/18/the-time-is-here/feed/ 0 The most shocking number, and what keeps me motivated http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/10/01/the-most-shocking-number-and-what-keeps-me-motivated/ http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/10/01/the-most-shocking-number-and-what-keeps-me-motivated/#comments Mon, 01 Oct 2007 13:26:33 +0000 Chad http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/10/01/the-most-shocking-number-and-what-keeps-me-motivated/ There’s a lot of reasons that cause folks to wake up and realize their in debt over their head. For us, my slap in the face was the fact we had so many different credit card bills that I couldn’t keep track of them anymore and started missing payments. I was getting hit with late fee payments and my interest rates kept going up. That was when we sought the help of a Debt Management Program.

Coming up in December, we will have been on the program for 2 years, and have paid over $20,000 of our debts off. But with the routine we’re in now, sometimes there is an urge to stray, buy something I don’t need, or spend foolishly without thinking. I started this blog as a project to keep me focused on the light at the end of the tunnel, but my main motivation is a number I see every time I enter a statement in my spreadsheet.

I built a spreadsheet that I update every time I get a statement, even though I don’t personally pay any of my statements(DMP does). On this spreadsheet, there is a line for every credit card that lists Balance Due, Minimum Due, Actual Payment, and Finance Charge. Across the bottom are the totals for each column.

And the total finance charge is what absolutely pisses me off and in this case, anger is very motivating. As of this writing, my total monthly in finance charges is just over $330. Isn’t that sick!?! Every single month I throw away over $300 while nothing goes towards my 3 kids college fund, or our retirement or anything that will ever benefit us.

So, right now that my biggest motivation to keep on track. What is your biggest motivation?

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]]> http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/10/01/the-most-shocking-number-and-what-keeps-me-motivated/feed/ 0 Checking account is almost empty, but I need to go grocery shopping http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/09/19/checking-account-is-almost-empty-but-i-need-to-go-grocery-shopping/ http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/09/19/checking-account-is-almost-empty-but-i-need-to-go-grocery-shopping/#comments Wed, 19 Sep 2007 11:44:09 +0000 Chad http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/09/19/checking-account-is-almost-empty-but-i-need-to-go-grocery-shopping/ Just a mini post. Our checking account is tapped, I don’t get paid until Friday, and we really need to do a grocery shop. The plumber bill really put a kink in the works this week. I’ve transfered $185(The total of the plumber bill) from ING, but it hasn’t posted yet. This is the tightest we’ve been in a long-long time. But in the past in a situation like this, I wouldn’t think twice about just using a credit card to go shopping. Now, I know I have to wait until Saturday to go grocery shopping, because that is when I will have cash.

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