My Journey From Debt

Well, I got paid last week and currently have a healthy sum in my Checking account. However, I have noticed that the check I wrote to Credit Card 2 has not yet gone through as well as a couple of others that I have written. Also, I have been doing a fair amount of driving lately and spent a significant amount on gasoline and have taken a bit of cash from the ATM. Rather than try and go back and figure out exact amounts, I am going to wait until everything has cleared the bank and I have a final figure to report.

In the meantime, I am going to pay my electric bill:

$100.00 - Electricity - Amount Due $50.26

Also, I am transferring $250 to my savings account to get the balance back above $300.00. I may end up transferring that money back into my checking account before too long, but I figure it’s worth at least trying to get that back to good. Hopefully I will be able to leave it there for awhile and actually have a bit of a cushion when it comes to my finances for awhile.

Well, after almost a month of not updating this site, I’m happy to report that there is some significant progress that has been made on my debt. I have made a couple of extra payments on different accounts and also spent some money that I failed to report on here as it happened. I don’t have exact penny by penny amounts to share, but that is something that I want to start doing again soon.

To start with income, between full and part-time income as well as a $0.05 interest payment, I have had $933.23 deposited into my checking account. Of this, $115.50 was spent on gasoline for my vehicle over the course of the last month, $50.00 was transferred into my PayPal account because I purchased a couple spare hard drives on eBay, and $88.60 was spent at NewEgg on some other computer parts.

I also took $140.00 cash from the ATM over the course of the month ($60 once and $40 each of two other times) of which I currently have $60 in my wallet. The rest of it went pretty much to fast food and vending machines. The only other thing I can think of to mention is the $25.00 automatic transfer from checking to savings that happened on payday.

Dining out also affected my checking account directly on a couple of occasions where I used my Debit card to pay for the meal: once for $23.71 and once for $16.75. My Debit card also funded a trip to Wal-Mart during which I spent $14.11. I also made a charitable donation of $25.00 to a really good cause via check.

This pretty much accounts for everything except the checks I’ve written to pay bills since my last update. So, without further ado, here is a listing of those:

$100.00 – Student Loan 1 – Extra Payment
$100.00 – Student Loan 2 – Extra Payment
$282.57 – Car Insurance – Full premium for 6 months
$200.00 – Credit Card 2 – Amount Due $165.00
$100.00 – Student Loan 1 – Amount Due $52.57
$100.00 – Student Loan 2 – Amount Due $65.89
$100.00 – Cell Phone – Amount Due $41.07
$100.00 – Internet – Amount Due $89.07
$125.00 – Landline/Cable TV – Amount Due $111.37

I do need to pay my rent yet for the month, but am waiting until tomorrow when I get paid before I do that. The check is written, but just hasn’t been dropped off yet. I also have my electric bill but it just came yesterday and I haven’t looked at it yet. This will likely also come out of my paycheck that I receive tomorrow.

My progress is getting to be a bit more significant. I have confirmation of a $0.00 balance on my Store Credit 2 account so that will be removed from my accounts and my total debt has gone from $65,084.97 to $64,099.04 over the last month. I know it’s not likely, but hopefully I can keep up this rate of progress!

Well, since my last update here, it was payday last Friday, I have received pay of $660.80, and purchased $45.00 worth of fuel for my vehicle. If I haven’t said it before, I want to take a moment to say that I am extremely happy that gas prices have dropped below $2.00 because it’s making a huge difference in my monthly budget.

However, now that I have nearly $750.00 in my checking account and more money on the way, I am going to make an extra payment on my Credit Card 2 account and also pay my electric bill.

$425.00 - Credit Card 2 - Extra Payment
$100.00 - Electricity - Amount Due $67.00

This leaves approximately $125.00 in my checking account, which is not enough to pay the nearly $300.00 that I need to pay because my car insurance is due later this month. What I am going to do with that money instead is just let it sit in my account and I will wait until I get some more money. Alternatively, I may need to put some more gas in later this week and my kitchen is getting pretty empty so a trip to the grocery store may be in order.

I am expecting some more income later this week or early next as well as payday at the end of next week so things should work out pretty good for me this month. However, I do want to remind myself that I owe my mom $300.00 yet that I want to get paid off as soon as possible as well.

For one reason or another, I logged into my bank account today. When I got logged in, I had a very pleasant surprise waiting for me. It seems that I got a bonus of $1,425.00 from one of my jobs. While it would have been very nice to spend this on some things that I’ve been wanting to purchase but unable to afford, I did the responsible thing and paid some more bills.

$100.00 - Cell Phone - Amount Due $70.43
$100.00 - Student Loan 1 - Amount Due $53.04
$100.00 - Student Loan 2 - Amount Due $68.05
$100.00 - Internet - Amount Due $87.67
$125.00 - Landline/Cable TV - Amount Due $108.92
$400.00 - Credit Card 1 - Set monthly payment

I also paid my rent so there’s $355.00 and put $32.00 worth of fuel into my vehicle. This makes me feel really good because I can now use my February paychecks to pay my February bills instead of the ones leftover from January. I am back to thinking that perhaps I actually am getting on top of things a little bit and getting my finances in order.

The grocery store was having some really good sales, unfortunately I’m currently not in a place financially to buy a bunch of groceries. I am getting low on food though so hopefully I can get things turned around soon so I can can buy more.

I did, however, stop and pick up a couple of things. I got a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread. With tax this came to $3.78. I paid cash so it will not have an effect on my account balances.