Interest has been halved!

One good thing about this past year’s progress–I have halved the amount that I am charged in interest every month. At the beginning of 2008, I was being charged more than $300. For January 2009, I’m at $155. Yay!

A new year, a new start

There’s nothing like a new year to wipe the slate clean and start anew with a fresh attitude and can-do spirit. If you check my status, it’s easy to see that I fell off the wagon as 2008 came to a close. I stopped tracking my credit card balances and lost sight of my goals, and the results speak for themselves–up $723 since I last tracked my balances in September. But it’s a new year, and I’m committing myself to really focusing on making some progress with my debt. I officially am resolving to:

1. Track my balances every month.
2. Put away all of my credit cards except for one bank card for emergencies.
3. Get more involved with Debtors Anonymous. (Fell off the wagon with this too because of the holidays and the weather!)

I really would like to pay off $10,000 this year. It will be tough, but I am expecting a raise (I recently got a promotion) and my car will be paid off in June. I know I can do this if I really put my mind to it!

Nasty credit card tricks

My monthly interest accumulation increased this month from $225.56 to $249.34. Why you ask? Because the interest rate on my Keybank card increased from 7.99% to 12.99%. That made my interest charge jump from $55 to $96. Ridiculous! Supposedly I received a notice with one of my statements that this would be happening, but I never read it. So lesson learned: read the crap that comes with your credit card statement. I was able to get the Keybank representative I reached by phone to reduce my rate to 10.99%. Now that my Sears balance has been reduced, I think I will spend some time focusing on Keybank so I can get that monthly interest charge reduced. Ugh.

6-month mark!

I just realized as I was updating my status today that as of the end of June, I’ve reached the 6-month mark with this blog experiment. So, drumroll please, my debt has been reduced by a total of $4,317.40 since July. Not terribly bad; I wish I were a little further along, but at least I’m heading in the right direction! That total represents a monthly average debt reduction of $719.57. My roommate is moving out at the end of July, so that will force me to really watch my budget going forward. That means no more clothing spending sprees (yes, I’ve had several relapses. But as I recently learned, relapse is part of recovery. Hee hee!). I’m getting down to business! In fact, I just decided that my goal for the end of the year is to be down $10,000. If I really put my mind to it, I can do it!

A look back at April

Still making good progress–one more card (Macy’s) paid off! That means I’m down to the big five. I’m still paying hefty interest-$238.71 in April, but that’s down from $255.26 in March. The big payment to Sears made a little bit of difference! Overall, I paid my debt down by $735.73 in April. Baby steps! My goal for May is to get my total under $20K. The prospect of shopping for spring clothes is so alluring though–I am trying to resist. And I just got back from my rescheduled Florida vacation (the one we tried to go on in February). I was a little stretched for cash and I was afraid that I would overdraw my checking account, so I ended up using my Keybank card to pay for two meals. Not horrible, but I don’t want to slip any further.

No April Foolin’!

I’m down $2,569.52 since I started this blog at the beginning of January! Of course, it helps a lot that I paid $1000 toward my Sears bankcard with the money I got from my tax refund. My short-term goal is to have my balance below $20K at the beginning of June. That should be very doable. Looking over my stats, I accumulated $255.26 in interest this past month–that totally sucks. That’s only about $9 less than February, but that big payment to Sears should help (hopefully) a lot.

Living thrifty

I feel like I’m loaded lately. I do make a decent salary and now that I’ve cut back on some of my expenses, I’m realizing how much money I do bring in. Imagine how much I’ll have once I am free of my credit card debts!

I recently read in Newsweek about the proliferation of blogs on living thrifty. One blog mentioned in the article is http://bethriftylikeus.blogspot.com. I checked it out–these people are serious. The wife (the blog features a couple) saves all kinds of money by using coupons she finds on the Internet and taking advantage of sales–often she ends up getting things for a ridiculously low price or even for free. Her weekly grocery budget is $30 (for her, her husband and their baby). Wow!! She’s not above trash-picking either. I think I have much to learn. 

Anyway, I feel that I made some good progress this month. I just got my tax refund ($2100) and used it to pay an extra $1000 on my Sears card (the interest rate is so high on that card–so this payment should help). I also just put my last payment to my sister in the mail. Yeah! I met some of my other goals for this month: my Banana card balance is now below $2000 ($1953.99) and I transferred one of my recurring payments from my Sears card to my debit card. I’ll pay my Macy’s card off this week too. I can’t wait to add up my new balances and see where I stand.

Making progress

I just added up my new balances and I’m down $900 since I began this project at the beginning of the year. Not bad, although I wish I could make bigger dents in my cards. I still haven’t moved the recurring charge from my Sears Mastercard to my debit card, so the payment I made last month was offset by the $75 in new purchases and the $106 in new interest (ulp!). This past month I generated over $260 in new interest–that just kills me. It is so true that when you carry a credit card balance you end up paying for the items you purchased perhaps multiple times over. Many times I have used my Banana or Macy’s card to get a discount. Well, you don’t really get a discount if you don’t pay off the balance right away. This clever ploy is just a way for these companies to extract more money from poor suckers’ wallets. Lesson engraved on my brain!

Goals for March:

• I still owe my sister over $500. Get most of that paid off.
• Pay off Macy’s.
• Get Banana balance under $2000.
• Call Sears and request interest rate to be lowered.
• Move recurring payments to debit card! 

Minus $61!

I just got the hardcopy of my Sears bill and they removed the late fee that had shown up on my online account. (I didn’t even have to ask–wow!) So my progress from last month is minus $61, not $35. A little better! I’ve updated my current status to reflect this.

Minus $35??!

I’m feeling a little disappointed now… after all of my hard work last month, I’ve only reduced my debt by $35.09!! The main reason: I charged some things right before the end of the year and those little sprees are showing up on my statements now. Also, I have two recurring charges on my Sears bank card ($40 and $35 per month) that I need to move to my checking account. On top of that, I had a $39 late fee tagged onto my Sears card (don’t worry, I’m going to call and get it removed). I just added up all the interest I accumulated last month: $313.75. I paid out a total of $984.99, so about one-third of my payments out was set off by $314 in new interest charges. Ridiculous. This is the perfect illustration of how insidious credit cards are.

On the bright side, I paid off my Kohl’s charge and haven’t used my cards at all since the beginning of the year (save for the two recurring charges). So far this month, I’ve paid off my J Crew and Ann Taylor cards. I would like to get my Macy’s paid off this month too. Then I can start tackling the big dogs: Banana and my bank cards.