My Debt Blog

My excitement is bittersweet regarding paying off over $3000 worth of credit card debt so far. I know I should be excited but there’s so much going on next month between car insurance and Christmas, cash flow is going to be rough. We could run to the EF to get us through the month but then it will have to be put back come 2008. I hate having balances on my credit cards and it’s so tempting to use it to pay one off. Then I come back to reality and go back to my 0% balance transfer plan. Here is where I stand for this month:

I will be transferring my Associates and Zales balances to my new card which will allow me 0% APR on balance transfers and no fees. This seems to take time, so I hope they go through next month and I won’t have to worry about paying those two accounts and just the one new one. This will bring me down to three accounts with balances. My focus is to pay over $100 a month to the 0% card so that it will be paid off by this time next year. I need to get my wife on track with her stuff too because I feel her spending using credit cards is offsetting every effort I make to get out of this mess. At least we’re not both heading in the wrong direction.

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Thanksgiving is that time of year we’re supposed to be give thanks for the things we take for granted. This is not the case with major retailers given that they make 25-50% of their annual profits in the 40 days between holidays. Not that I wanted to go, my wife and I got caught up in the Black Friday mess.

I noticed a lot of stuff, even on sale, wasn’t that great of a deal considering I have seen the same prices weeks before. So what makes it about Black Friday that gives people permission to spend money? My wife actually didn’t spend that much money and meanwhile I got my mom the doorbuster Mickey Mouse snow globe at JCPenny. So we’re still in the black for now.

December is going to be another story. Just as the issue came up in June, our semi-annual car insurance bill is coming due. An added bonus though my wife’s insurance will be discounted more so we will save over $100 bucks this time around. It will still take some money though to cover our insurance bill so we’re covered the New Year. I’m not sure how we’re going to do both Christmas and car insurance in the same month. My wife starts to look at that emergency fund as though it is regular savings for this time of year. It almost sounds like she thinks we should go into the New Year with no EF.

At the same time along with Christmas is my wife’s birthday. She already told me she wants a Coach purse for Christmas and the matching wallet for her birthday. I’m at a loss here when it comes to figuring out how to cash flow a $300-400 gift. Getting out of debt isn’t a priority to her this year and I don’t know if it will be next year. Sometimes I just want to stop trying anymore because I’m not getting anywhere. Is all the effort on my part really worth it?

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I had some sort of government consumer group agent come to my door this weekend wanting to see my gas bill. According to my gas bill I qualified for a rate lock on the amount I pay for each them of natural gas I use. So I won’t pay more than that if the price ever goes up. It got interesting when he got to the point of what he was really after. They also have this optional program where I could pay $4 a month to buy carbon credits to offset my carbon emissions. To me it does not make sense to pay more money to continue living the way I am and claiming the green title. I said “no” but it made me think about the other stuff.

Look at organic groceries in the stores. Why is it that the organic stuff always seems to cost more and is sold under a claim that it is better for you? If it is organic then it costs less to grow cheaper produce, why isn’t the savings passed along to the consumer? I think it is pretty bold to claim the green title by buying all organic food, you’re paying more of your resources and they make a greater profit in the end using the organic buzzword.

Along side the organic food, I see more and more ads for E-85 gas because it contains more ethanol. Ethanol comes from corn and can produce higher octane gas for most cars. The problem with this is it costs more to produce ethanol than regular unleaded gas refined from oil. Granted the price of oil is getting very high right now, and it cost more to drive anywhere period.

Global warming is not our fault or due to our carbon output. Carbon is a necessary element to life, and the greatest source of carbon emission comes from nature itself and it also creates more life. Climate change is cyclical and we have warming and cooling periods every 1,500 years. With that said this does not give someone the right to pollute the air or water just because they can.

So what am I doing by not buying into this scam? I recycle paper, metal, and plastic and don’t feel the slightest need to be paid for my efforts. I have found CFL light bulbs make a big difference in my electric bill, not because I’m doing anything for the planet. Grow your own produce in a garden if you’re able to. A company throwing the green theme and carbon buzzwords around is a pure marketing gimmick. Turn lights off in rooms you’re not in, don’t let the water run, and know that you are considering the planet and your wallet at the same time. Paying for carbon credits to offset your lifestyle is a total Ponzi scheme. Change your lifestyle and don’t expect your credit to be worth anything more than your big ego.

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Don’t be misled by the title, I am current on all my credit card accounts. I also encourage paying beyond the minimum payment on credit cards, of course focusing more effort on the one you want to rid your life of faster. Last night I was crunching the numbers on some of my cards and noticed differences in the balances based on the day I made a payment to the account. This gave me an idea on how to save a little extra each month.

If you carry a balance on a credit card, you’re going to pay interest at the APR of that card. When you make a payment before or on the due date, the balance on the card is less than it was before you made the payment. I usually just make payments at regular points in the month because that’s the system that I structured. This usually means I make a payment to an account a little before the actual due date. I realized I have been focusing on the wrong date.

Every time a bill is generated with all of the previous month’s details, it has a billing date, minimum payment amount, and a due date. Instead of focusing on making sure I make a payment before that due date, I should be making a payment on the billing date to lower that balance as soon as the bill is generated. This would save about 30 days of interest every month. Although it is not much of a difference it would add up in the long run.

So I’m calling all my credit card companies and trying to get some dates shifted around for me so that the billing date is at the date I make payments to the accounts. This will also take some careful planning because I’ll probably have to make two payments within one month in order to pull this off and stay in front of them.

I’m still working on the 0% balance transfer card and thinking about transferring balances from two cards over to that, so I can pay both off at once at 0% interest in 12 months. I’m going to probably transfer $1800 even so that 12 payments of $150 will eliminate that debt once and for all. Transferring credit card debt does not pay it off, it just moves to a place that makes it easier to pay it faster. Hopefully I will have an update on how this is going at the end of the month.

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Back in July I had came across a show called Secret Lives of Women: Shopaholic and found it very interesting. There was not a future episode of this coming up any time soon. This weekend I happen to come across this show and on Tuesday, November 6th at noon (Central time) on WE this particular episode will be on again. So if you’re curious about the three women and their spending habits, be sure to catch or record this show.

I want my wife to watch this too without being too obvious about it. The whole point of this particular episode is that these women spend money they don’t have. Some resort to going deeply into credit card debt to continue the habit. Its sad how quickly some people consider bankruptcy to get out of the mess they created. My wife once thought bankruptcy was a credit reset button until I explained that her student loan debt not even considered and must be paid at some point. That put an end to that idea quickly.

When my wife is done with school here in December, the whole college thing will be behind us. I have no desire to go back to school right now mainly because I want to clear the debt first. Her student loans are on deferment right now and I am concerned as to what the payments will be come July next year. We may try to sell the house again in the spring depending on how the market is trending. That is all stuff to worry about next year though. Christmas is coming soon.

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