My Debt Reduction Blog » Featured http://www.mydrblog.com/blog Our road down debt reduction to elimination, and living without a budget Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:47:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 en Making a little extra income http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2008/06/05/making-a-little-extra-income/ http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2008/06/05/making-a-little-extra-income/#comments Thu, 05 Jun 2008 12:49:46 +0000 Chad http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/?p=102 Thanks to some enhancements I made with Google Ads, plus starting to put Google search in a few strategic locations, I’m actually impressed with the results. Now I’m not talking tons of cash all of a sudden rolling in. But in the past it usually took me about a year to accumulate the minimum $100 payout amount. Now I’ve hit and exceeded it a bit about 6 months. I even had one day where I made $10+ on adsense searches. I would love to see that everyday! :)

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]]> http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2008/06/05/making-a-little-extra-income/feed/ Why is it so hard to create a budget? http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/10/09/why-is-it-so-hard-to-create-a-budget/ http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/10/09/why-is-it-so-hard-to-create-a-budget/#comments Tue, 09 Oct 2007 11:45:46 +0000 Chad http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/10/09/why-is-it-so-hard-to-create-a-budget/ I know we need one, heck, everyone should have one. But why don’t I? Is it because I’m a procrastinator? Is it because I have no idea how to create one? Is it because I still don’t have grips on all our expenses? Or is it that I’m just full of excuses and lazy?

I started this blog to help me keep focused on our goal, but I am still missing the key ingredient to this debt elimination recipe. That must change!

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]]> http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/10/09/why-is-it-so-hard-to-create-a-budget/feed/ 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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