No Dinning Out...Week 1

I read about the "No Dining Out" plan earlier this month and threw it out to Mr. M as a possible idea for the month of August. Shockingly, he agreed and we are now in the beginning phrases of avoiding the inside of a restaurant for 30 days unless someone else pays for it.

Our month runs from the 25th to the 25th since Mr. M is paid only once a month and right now we're in day five. It should be an interesting next 25 days.

Video Games...Really?!?

This morning when I checked my lovely bank account online, I discovered it was overdrawn but not by my doing…someone else’s…who lives in the UK and it was all for video games. Hundreds of dollars on video games!?!

Seriously?

So now my account is closed and I’m trying to pay bills. This is WHY I have to get out of debt so I can stop paying my bills on-line.

Debt Snowball Update

We're doing better this month {1224.50}...especially with the bank loan.


Student Loan: $10,786.30
Credit Card #1: $7,921.22
Auto Loan: $6,367.70
Credit Card #2: $4,797.15
Credit Card #3 $1,303.47
Non-profit Pledge: $900.00
Bank Loan: $537.19
Credit Card #4 Closed 7/27/10

Total: $32,613.03

And they laughed.

This week I had the most interesting experience when I closed one of our credit cards that had a zero balance. Now I realize for those who live by the FICO score that closing a credit card (no matter how old it is) will hurt your score. Thanks to Suze Orman, I'm up to speed on all of that FICO jargon for the most part.


But here's the thing - we didn't need it. If we're going to be debt free, I don't need temptation lurking around to bring us down.


Which is what I told customer service who preceded to laugh at me and then transfer me to someone in the accounting office who laughed as well. To be honest, I'm sure having a caller that says "Sorry...I don't need credit" is a vast difference from the typical calls they get. And honestly at the end of this get out of debt journey, I'm going to be the one that's laughing.

Stop what you're doing and watch this...

It's real and it will totally motivate you.

Living on Little…Part I

Right now, Mr. M and I live off of a $30 a week budget in groceries. At first, it was $100 a week…amazing how times change when you’re trying to get out of debt.

Don’t assume that we go out instead of eating out – it’s actually the opposite. Thankfully, with the help of the Internet, I have learned how to create freezer meals and “couponing”.

If it wasn’t for those two tools, we would not be able to get out of debt. Period.

Here are the three sites that I go to on a daily basis:

SouthernSavers

Hip2Save

The Frugal Girl

I will say at first, both freezer meals and coupons were over-freakin-whelming. So it took a few weeks to get a hang of it all but the return on investment of the time that you spend is worth it.
It’s like exercising - only fools expect to lose 20 pounds in a month. Sticking with your budget takes tenacity which I think everyone has.

Here's the introductions...

So by the name, you can guess that I am in *awkward cough* in debt - a lot of debt. This is why I decided to create this blog in hopes of tracking my journey out of debt and asking you the reader to help me to stay accountable.

Let’s air the dirty laundry shall we?

To be blunt, I have a good deal of what Dave Ramsey would call “Stupid Tax” (i.e. buying things that I thought were “needs” but in all actuality were not). Here is the damage:

Student Loan:$10,990.36
Credit Card #1: $7,834.32
Car Loan: $6,788.72
Credit Card #2: $4,797.15
Credit Card #3: $1,349.36
Bank Loan: $1,177.62
Non-profit Pledge: $900.00
Credit Card #4: 0 - need to cancel

Grand Total: $33,837.53

And this is how I feel when I see that bottom line: