My Debt Reduction Blog

Historically for us, October gives us our lowest need for utility usage. The temperatures are cool enough so we don’t need to run the A/C and warm enough so we don’t need to kick on the furnace. Well this October has certainly been an exception. Today alone we are expected to hit 89 degree’s and we’ve been in the mid to high eighties for the last week and a half. That is way above normal for Southeast Wisconsin. According to the forcast, we can expect Monday to also be in the eighties, then we are expected to get some relief with temps returning to normal. Tuesday should be in the high sixties and the rest of the week only getting to the high fifties. Those will be much welcomed!

Almost makes the site look professional!

At heart I’m a geek, and by trade I’m a systems administrator, so I monitor a lot of security based websites and news feeds. Today I noticed a posting of a security vulnerability in the Feedburner Feedsmith plugin for wordpress. The authors have released an updated version. It’s very easy and recommended to update to the latest version.

How to update:

1 Download version 2.3 of the plugin.
2 Sign in to your WordPress admin control panel.
3 Under Plugins, locate the current FeedSmith plugin, and click “Deactivate.”
4 Copy the plugin file, FeedBurner_FeedSmith_Plugin.php into your default WordPress plugin directory, wp-content/plugins/
5 Reactivate the plugin by logging in to your WordPress administration area, clicking Plugins, then clicking Activate at the end of the “FeedBurner FeedSmith” row

Via: Feedburner Blog

Well, over the last month there really hasn’t been anything major to report with our finances. I did transfer a couple of balances to 0% percent offers. This weekend I plan to go over our September spending to see how we did compared to the last few months.

We do need to start planning for a major disruption to our income starting at the end of the year. My wife will be leaving her current job to start student teaching. She will be able to get a part time job, but income will be nowhere near what she makes now. Then we have to hope and pray she is able to get a teaching job before the start of the school year. That whole ordeal is starting to stress me out. Yet another reason, ‘Being In Debt Sucks’!

We use Progressive to insure both our vehicles and I pay it every six months. My car has only liability but our mini-van has full coverage. What was nice was that our 6 month total was $12 cheaper than our last bill.

It’s nice a have a great mechanic. He handles every issue and maintenance for both our vehicles. Today I brought the mini-van in for an oil change, when I went to pick it up, he said no charge. How cool was that!?!

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?

It’s been a rough couple of works for me, hence the lack of posting. The issues are not financial related so they won’t be shared here. I’m hoping to get over this hump soon, so I can get back in to my groove.

If your interested in ‘micro-blogging’ and have used sites like twitter or Jaiku, you might want to try out Pownce as well. It’s similar, but does have a few additional features. To get an account with pownce while it’s in beta does require an invite, and as luck would have it, I have 11 invites to hand out. If you’re interested, please contact me.

So far I kind of like it. Looks nice, and has the simpleness aspect that I really like.