A bit paralyzed the last few weeks on the debt-reduction front.  My mind is full of all kinds of options and plans and I just can’t seem to get my feet under me.  I feel like I should be making some kind of big effort -  but I don’t know what it should be. Start making jewelry to sell?  Start sending out short stories again? Write an IPhone app? Start my own petsitting business? Jesus Christ, who knows. I just feel like I need to do SOMETHING, and if I am persistent it will eventually pay off.  I mean, I am a smart person, so the world should be my oyster, right?

Part of the problem is that I only have a limited amount of time in my already work- and baby-filled day, so it’s not like I have carte blanche to dilly-dally in a bunch of things. I just need to decide and get down to business.

Still here. Still thinking about debt reduction.

However, the past 2 weeks have brought some (probably justifiable) committments to home improvements and a new computer for Mr. Debt (sigh), so I am feeling a bit down. Haven’t added to debt, but the big income chunks (tax return, bonuses, etc.) I was looking forward to throwing at debt have been pretty much spoken for.

I am trying not to get down about things, but sometimes it feels like I am the only one worried about our longterm financial prognosis.

I also haven’t been able to sell That Damn Wagon, even on CL. Shoot.

Two weeks and no activity.  Shame, shame. Things have been crazy crazy at work and updating is the first thing that goes.  Circumstances have calmed down a bit now, so let’s get back in the groove, shall we?

Updates

That Damn Wagon.  Carmax offered us a less than satisfactory offer for the wagon. Can’t say I am suprised.  My task for this week is to get it listed on my local mother’s board.  Hopfully it will get a hit there and I can avoid the whole Craigslist nightmare.

Taxes.  We got our federal return.  I really wanted to blizzard the whole shebang, but after much discussion with the spouse we have decided to get an estimate on new kitchen flooring.  Just vinyl, nothing fancy.  This is something we meant to do when we moved in (the current flooring is an ugly combination of so-worn-its-completely-discolored-in-spots parquet and so-cheap-it-has-grooves-worn-in-it-from-walking pine.  I personally could have lived with it a while longer, but I think it is probably the right decision.   It is depressingly bad the way it is now, and our cats are not getting any younger, and they are doing a number on the hardwood.  Vinyl will help with that issue.  It’s also something that would absolutely HAVE to de done were we to ever put the house on the market, so it seems prudent to do it now while we have the resources. Hopefully the estimate will come in under the return amount and I can snowflake the rest, as well as the entire state return. 

  Other than that, not much to report.  Had an unexpectedly high doctor bill this month, so not much snowflaking going on this 2 weeks.  Still pondering other pathways of income.  Still no word on Mr. Blizzard’s summer job, but we should hear something soon.

Weekend tasks

This weekend we are taking the Damn Wagon to Carmax and getting an offer.  This is a bigger enterprise than you would think, because the battery is dead and the tires are low, so we have to jump it, limp it down the street to the gas station and fill the tires, take it to the carwash and vacuum it out, and then drive to the next city to Carmax, and wait around while they appraise it, all the while juggling a 9-month-old. But OMG it will be SO wonderful to finally get rid of it!  It has been cluttering up the driveway for over 18 months now. That is so hard to believe.

Also, take pictures of the couch and coffee table in the garage. Offer on Craigslist.

A Payday Snowflake!

Whew, what a week.  My husband has been hit with an absolutely monstrous case of strep throat, which has left me with little time for even thinking, much less doing anything else.  

I’m trying to decide the best way to track my progess.  I am posting a “snowfall” update, but that really only includes “extra” payments to my debt above and beyond my regularly-scheduled payments.  I’d like to track my overall balance as well, and for now I’ll just do that with a monthly State of the Union post on the first of each month.

Today is payday, and I just snowflaked an extra $100 to the targeted card.  I was going to buy daughter some summer clothes and some new toys this month, but thanks to my local mother’s forum I’ve got a lead on a great Goodwill in a neighboring town.  In addition, there is a biannual children’s consignment event happening in 2 weeks, so I am going to hit that as well. Hopefully shopping at these places will save me at least $100.  If not, then I’ll just have to make it up elsewhere.  We have been doing GREAT the last 2 weeks with meal planning and not eating out, and that is really helping.  However, I just can’t give up my bimonthly “payday dinner out”!  It’s Lent, so tonight we are hitting our favorite local seafood joint.  

Coming up, that promised post about making financial decisions with a partner.

 Total snowfall: $165

Weekend Task Update

I completed my biggest weekend task, which was washing the Damn Wagon.  It looks so good!  I completely forgot that it was a white car, hee. 

Today’s task: call Carmax and see if I need an appointment to get it appraised.  It is likely I could get a bit more for it if I sold it to a third party, but I just don’t have the time or energy.  We recently sold an armoire and TV on Craigslist, and Oh MY GOD what a time-suck that was.  Emailing people information (you’d think they were buying a damn house and not a $30 TV), scheduling visits for people to come look at the stuff, dealing with people who buy a ten-foot-tall armoire (the dimensions of which were clearly stated in the ad) and then arrive to pick it up in a VW Rabbit Hatchback.  Never again.  The car is only worth about a grand, and it is totally worth it to me not to have to deal with selling it myself.

New Tasks

Tasks for the Next Few Days and the Weekend

-Take pictures of coffee table and couch in garage (for later CL posting).

-Get the damn wagon washed and detailed already.  It is supposed to be BEAUTIFUL weather, so this should be easy.

-If I get REALLY motivated and spouse concurs, take wagon to Carmax and get offer.

Fooling myself?

Sometimes I feel silly thinking about all these little tasks  I am making for myself.  Is making $15 here or there going to help?  I also feel frustrated because I have some marketable professional skills.  If my job didn’t prohibit it, I could probably get some contract SAS programming  work.   Which would definitely pay more than say, doing some custom sewing for my sister.

But then I remember that well duh, in many respects $15 here or there over several years is how I got here in the first place.  In addition, in many ways this blog is about reminding me every day what my goals are.  If I spend a morning thinking about how to find an extra twenty bucks to send to debt, then maybe I will remember that come lunchtime when I get the urge to drop a tenner on sushi.

This process is also about simplification of my life.  I want to spend time enjoying  my daughter, not stressing about debt.  In addition, since her birth I have come to appreciate so much more a simple, uncluttered existence.  Because, oh my god you guys, babies take up so. Much. Time.  You don’t have time  or energy to deal with mess or clutter or disorganization.  It could be cleaning out my closet for clothing consignment, or cleaning old furniture out of my garage, but it will all help in the long run.

And, yes, I know the internet is filled with people who have had these same revelations, but this is my blog, so there.

State of the Union

As I mentioned last post, our debt as of  9/08/2006 was $37,618.  I never added it all up (STUPID), but when I graduated in 2002 it was likely over $42,000 or so.  As of our last statements it is:

$25,395

This is a little disheartening because we had it down to $22-something before Christmas.  But Christmas depleteted the emergency fund and we have had almost $3000 in furnace repairs, car repairs (including $1100 to fix A SINGLE POWER WINDOW), and vet bills since Jan, which would have exceded our $1000 emergency fund in any event.  I think this indicates that I need to increase our emergency fund to at least $2000.

It is also disheartening because I know know that much of this could have been GONE if I had been more aggressive in 2007 and 2008.  We now pay $1382 a month for daycare for my daughter.  If I had paid that as extra towards cards in the previous 2 years?  That number would be much better.  Anyway, hindsight is 20/20 and that is why I am here, right?  To figure out ways to get this down even under our current budget crunch.

Later this week: the challenges of making financial decisions  with a partner.

And I Ask Myself, How Did I Get Here?

This is a repost of material from an earlier blog.  It provides just a bit of background on my financial history.

Welcome!  I’m not sure how to get started, so I guess I’ll just jump in. We are in debt. Specifically, we have credit card debt. A lot of it.  We have other types of debt (a mortgage, relatively small student loans, and a car loan) as well, but for now I am concentrating on the credit card debt, as it takes the most displine to tackle.  I probably shouldn’t bore you with the details of how we got here, but I will. Plus, it kind of helps me to get all this down, and kind of get through the mindset and habits that got me here.

I spent the entire 1990s in college.  The first six years of that was entirely debt-free. I went to engineering school at a state university on a full scholarship, including room and board.  The first 2 years of undergrad I worked and lived at home during the summer, which provided me with ample spending money for my meek geek-girl lifestyle, which consisted of hanging with my boyfriend, watching TV, and eating out a few times a week.  The last two years of undergrad I lived in an apartment, which was more expensive than the dorm, but I easily supplemented my stipend income by working a variety of part-time jobs: waitress, mail clerk, and even cow-milker (Hey, my college had an ag school and one of my friends was also student worker on the research farm. Horrible hours, but it didn’t require me to deal with idiots who complained about the way their 99-cent hashbrowns were cooked, see above re: waitress.)  The first 2 years of grad school were also uneventful, I attended the same university as I did for undergrad, continued with the part-time work, and finished my master’s degree debt-free.

Then I decided to get a Ph.D. Within a few months, I had moved to much larger and more expensive city, I started dating a new man (the current Mr. Debtor), and since all my college and M.S. friends had graduated and moved on as well,, suddenly my network of close friends were spread all over the Southeast. So I started school, and it was difficult, and some of the people were really crappy, and I was homesick and miserable, and Mr. Debtor was in a shite job that he hated, so HE was miserable, and I went through the day-by-day slog towards my Ph.D. depressed and angsty.  So I escaped, in my little free time, into hobbies I could ill afford.  Like decorating my apartment. Shopping (for clothes, mostly, dressing much better than my position or income could justify).  Visiting friends on the weekends (which usually involved lots of drinking, dancing, and eating out, all of which I couldn’t afford.) Buying movies and LOTS of books. Obsessing over music, and buying CDs like it was going out of style.

Because of my shopping, things that I should have been able to afford went on my credit card.  New glasses. Vet bills. Medical bills. Car repairs.

Looking back, I think I was somewhat addicted to shopping.  Buying something new and shiny made me unreasonably happy -  it provided a bright spot in my otherwise stress-fraught existence.  If I was particularly fraught, I would go to this HUGE suburban mall and just walk around, sometimes for hours. It was calming, the possibility of acquisition.  I remember one time I spent about $800 in a single month on “stuff”.  So was I worried about my spending?  Not really. I could pay my bills on time no problem, and I when I graduated, I was going to get a great job where I could pay everything of quickly, right?

Well, kind of. I did get a good job, finally. But it came after a postdoc, a move, and a horrible six months in which my husband and I had to live apart while maintaining 2 households. (He started school in another state, while my defense was pushed back several months due to my advisor being unavailable for various, though good, reasons.)  In that six months, we lived largely on credit.  We accumulated $15,000 of debt in that time.  That seems high, but it included relocation expenses, deposits for utilities, and some tuition payments, as well as living expenses.  My husband wasn’t working and I was in school on a small stipend.

Again, were we stressed? Not really! School was Temporary Thing. We were Responsible Adults. We never paid our bills late. Things were going to be better Sometime Soon.  We never realized what bad habits we had.

Well, Sometime Soon is now. We have changed our habits.  We are older and wiser.  And yet still, we are not making as much progress as we would like. Why? Well, life changes. You get real jobs, but then you buy a house. Expenses come up.  Because you are making good money, you do spend on bigger things. You can afford to pay a huge chunk of change to the credit card companies each month, stick some in savings, and still do a home improvement project or two.

But I feel this is not enough. 

OK, the numbers. I don’t even know how much CC debt I had when I graduated. I never added it all up. I was stupid. I paid way more than the minimum on each card for the 2 years of my post-doc, though.  When I got my “real” professional job, I upped the amount.  That was for about a year.  Then, a couple years ago,  I started to get really serious about things. The tally at that point:

9/08/2006:  $37,618

 For the next post, I am going to calculate where we stand today, which will be the true debt “starting point” for this blog.

This post was written almost 2 years ago, before I got pregnant. Our situation is even more dire now, because we need to be smarter.  Our living expenses have skyrocketed, and now more than ever we need  to look to the furture.