Sunday, April 05, 2009

Financial Update

It's been a while since I've done a financial update, so here goes. Last month was great for No Spend Days (NSD). I had 23 days where I didn't spend money on frivolous purchases. This month has not started off as well. It's April 5 and I've only had 1 NSD. My goal is 23 so I really need to hunker down.

February was noteworthy because as I wrote in an early blog, not only was it my one year anniversary without using my credit card, it was also my one year anniversay on the Women In Red Racers message board. Since it was a significant date in my financial life I wanted to signify it by reaching a financial goal. So with some aggressive payments, I reached my goal of paying off 25% of my credit card debt in one year! I also got my "winky face" for my WIRR update which indicates I've paid off $5000 of my debt. My next milestone should happen with my May update when I get my "party hat" (a smilie face wearing a party hat) which shows I've paid off $10,000 in debt.

My next big goal will be to pay off my first credit card. At a monthly payment of $500, that won't happen until October 2010. That is unacceptable. After I've saved enough for my vacation in June, I'm going to start trying to pay more on that card. It will drive me nuts to be paying on that damn thing for another 18 months. Especially since after that, I will still have my other card and then after that I still have my fucking student loan. ARGH! It's so frustrating that I let it get so bad. I know I could pay everything off sooner if I stopped going on scuba vacations, but I think I would really go nuts not having something to look forward to.

Current credit card debt: $17,888

Goals for April

- 23/30 NSD - Eek, I'm not off to a good start.
- Post stuff on ebay - this was a goal for March but it didn't happen.
- Cash only, leave debit card at home - I'm not off to a good start on this one either.
- Garden - I started a few seeds last night. I need to make sure to follow through on this one.

Hmm, I have more to share, like the 6 inches worth of paperwork that I shredded last night. But I'm tired and must go to bed. It will have to wait for another day.

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