Financial Daily Walk

Credit debt.

2006-06-27T09:26:00.000-07:00

Since we got married two years ago, my husband and I have struggled with credit debt. We married young and were both laid off at the same time for 3 months early on. In turn, we applied for every credit card they would give us so we could have money to live. Now we have over $6,000 in high interest credit card debt.

Our credit rating took another blow after we couldn't make the payments (no income). Some cards (and car payments) went 30 days delinquent, and we've been playing catch-up ever since.

And so, our plan to eliminate all of our credit debt within14 months, while repairing our credit with early automatic payments, is to divide our card balances into six, make those payments for five months, and make a final payment with remaining balance on the sixth month. It's as easy as that. We finally have the cash flow to do it, and we're excited to get rid of it.

Almost half of the credit is on one card alone, which we will start making higher payments on after all the other cards have been paid off (April '07). Our plan is to start this August 1.

I haven't decided whether we should keep the lines of credit open after they are paid off. Only one of these cards in versatile (Visa); the rest belong to specific stores. The credit limits are low enough they wouldn't exactly help in an emergency situation, so I'm inclined to close all but the Visa. I need to do more research; I don't know whether it will help or hurt my credit rating.

Once August comes and I make that first "six month plan" payment, I will feel very relieved.

Cable.

2006-05-31T15:22:00.000-07:00

I gave Time Warner a call this afternoon to cancel my cable service. This is our first year having cable television, and to ease the costs (and increase the money in our savings account), we got rid of it for the summer. Mostly for fun, I asked how much I had been paying. Turns out we're saving $61.94 a month by removing it. Wow. And we only watch 24, Lost, the CSIs, American Idol, House, and figure skating. Not quite worth $62/month, in my opinion.

I got gutsy and asked if they had any internet specials for existing customers. I saved another $5/month and am now paying $29.99.

Summed up: one phone call saved me at least $263.76 (the soonest we'll restart the service is end of September), and that is a beautiful thing.

Avon

2006-05-09T09:08:00.000-07:00

I made my first business-related purchase last night. I can't believe it only took $10 and a little bit of my time to make $150 over the past two weeks. The extra money is really nice. My goal is to make half the money we need for our vow renewal next year, and it's actually going to happen. If I keep selling at the rate I have been, I'll actually have more than I need. I'm really glad I got started.

Starting next week, I'll be in leadership. If you're interested in becoming an Avon rep (no matter where you're located in the country), please let me know. Avon literally sells itself. All I had to do was mention I sell Avon and people were practically throwing their money at me. During your first 4 campaigns, you make 50% of what you sell. 50%... that's a lot of money. Your market is church, work, friends, family, store clerks, random people in the bank line or store... the customer base is basically limitless. So many people haven't seen an Avon brochure in such a long time, just making it known that you sell Avon attracts customers.

Other places to leave brochures: coffee houses, fast food restaurants, not-quite-fast-food-joints,-not-quite-restaurants like Panera, etc., restrooms, your gym.. there's tons of opportunity.Super-easy, lots of money for doing basically nothing... wouldn't you at least consider it? I don't know about you, but I think the $300 I'm making this month is pretty darn cool. :)

Net worth update.

2006-05-02T11:06:00.000-07:00

I just updated our April net worth. We saw an improvement of $591 since March, but we made poor use of our money. We only contributed $10 to savings and left our retirement accounts untouched. It could have been so much better, and from now on it will be.

We're over the limit by approximately $40 on most of our credit cards (even though we haven't used them in months), so I'm making a payment to bring each card below the limit on Friday. It's not much, but it's a start.

Our 6 month payoff plan starts next month, which is why I'm going through a saving spree now. I want to get rid of my bad spending habits so we aren't struggling too much for the next 6 months. I already know it's going to be hard, but having my net worth come to $0 will be worth any sacrifice I might make now.

I am particularly inspired to get out of debt after a pregnancy scare last week... Turned out to be nothing, but it was an eye-opener for me.

Online shopping.

2006-05-02T10:29:00.000-07:00

It's hard to stop buying things during this Target sale. I haven't purchased anything for myself, but I find myself looking at registries of friends getting married in August. I know I have plenty of time between now and then to get and ship their gifts, but this sale keeps pulling me in.

The whole point is to stop buying crap. You wouldn't believe how hard it is.

Target sale.

2006-05-01T12:48:00.000-07:00

For all you Target addicts: An online 10% off virtually anything sale (deducted automatically at checkout, or use code TCBGSTFS). At the same time, they're offering free shipping on quite a few items. Good time to spend money, wouldn't you agree? www.target.com

As much as I'm tempted to get something for myself (Saving Spree started today), I'm buying and shipping gifts for upcoming weddings/baby showers. I end up paying less than the price of the item before tax/shipping, which is especially great since I'd have to ship the presents anyway.

Saving spree.

2006-04-28T15:08:00.000-07:00

I'm borrowing this great idea from Savvy Saver for the month of May. We're determined to pay off our credit debt by the end of December, but my impulse buys get in the way. I ate out at least one meal each day this month.

My goal is to not spend money on anything I don't need. The grocery store is always difficult for me, as I get tempted by "dinners in a box" and other convenient meal solutions, but the price is too great this month. Therefore, I've defined grocery store necessities as the following:
-Milk
-Eggs
-Bread
-Meat
-Cheese
-Fruits
-Veggies
-Personal care items

Wish me luck!

Avon.

2006-04-25T12:29:00.000-07:00

On the 19th I became an Avon representative. I don't want to do too much with it; my only desire is to sell to co-workers. I know they already love and buy these products, and they haven't had access to them since one of our colleagues was laid off in December. I'm happy to fill the void and take their money. ;)

I started receiving orders today and am already up to $70 in profit! I expect this to be one of my smaller campaigns as I started with only one week left. For the first 3 campaigns (two-week periods, including this one), I earn 50% of what I sell. After that, it's broken down into certain percentages based off of dollar amounts. The highest is 35%, so I want to sell as much as possible before this 50% deal runs out.

My goal is to set aside all the money earned (aside from business expenses) for our anniversary and college. It's been very easy so far and in a way serves as a double income as I'm making this additional income while I'm getting paid to be at work.

At this rate, I'm thinking of contacting Mary Kay as well. (I jest. A little)

Good news.

2006-04-19T14:54:00.000-07:00

After updating my net worth, I visited to Kelly Blue Book online to determine how much our cars are really worth, where I made an excellent discovery. I was assuming our vehicles were worth a combined $9,000, when in reality they're worth $18,000+. Obviously, these changes improved our net worth greatly and makes things seems so much more possible.

I calculated our current credit card balances to see how much we'd need to pay each month to pay everything off in six months. Our minimum monthly payments total up to $270, and on the six month plan they'll be almost $1,000. For a young couple with only $10 in savings, this seems like quite the task. However, our eagerness to reduce credit debt is really pushing us to follow through. My husband started a new job paying $400 more each month, and we're getting the rest of the cash by cutting back on our expenses. It's going to be a challenge, but it's only six months and the feeling of freedom will be well worth any sacrifices we make between now and then.

Even though some of the balances are fairly low ($200), we want to make payments over time so we can improve our credit score by paying more than we owe on time. Once these balances are paid off we can celebrate, then get started paying off the cars.

Saving.

2006-04-10T12:36:00.000-07:00

An article I read on MSN Money prompted the start of this blog (Turn $1 a day into $67,815). I initially thought 30 years is an extremely long time for my money to sit in an account I don't even touch, but as I thought about it, I found more and more ways to cut back on my spending without making any huge sacrifices. For instance, I cut out my bi-weekly trip to Starbucks and saved $8 a month. By reducing our visits to restaurants, I save $100 a month, give or take a few dollars.

In addition to cutting back on unnecessary spending (which I'm using to pay off credit debt), I set up my direct deposit to put $30 a month into my savings account, and my husband is also going to deposit $30 a month into our savings account. Our plan is to turn $2 a day turn into $135,630, while reducing our credit debt.