My Journey From Debt

I spent $5.89 for my supper tonight and ate at McDonald’s.

I try not to eat out because I know that it is expensive and also very unhealthy, but I still do once in a while. On a brighter note, aside from some sunflower seeds, that was my one meal today which means my food cost for today was $5.89.

I spent a little more money yesterday than I usually do in one day on randomness that probably wasn’t necessary. Although, the grand total was less than $20.00.

First off, I went to church and while there put $1.00 into the collection plate.

I stopped at WalMart and bought a little waterproof plastic box to bring to the lake and also some string.
Box: $6.88
String: $1.22
Tax: $0.49
Total: $8.59

Then, on my way home from the lake, I stopped and decided to let McDonald’s make my supper: $5.89

I took $40 out of the ATM today…

I put $20 into my wallet (I was tired of only having $2.00 on me) and then spent the other $20 on a T-Shirt. Now, this wasn’t just any T-Shirt and as you will come to learn, I generally don’t just randomly go out and purchase new clothes. See, my cousin races dirt track cars and lives approximately 1250 miles away from here.

He is in town for a race tonight and I went to visit him in the pits and say hello. I am going to the race, but might not get to see him afterwards so went this afternoon to see the car and talk to him since I haven’t seen him for a couple of years. He had some shirts there that he had made and I bought one from him that features him and his car and such.

Before I get to the point in this blog where I start sharing my bills and paying of those bills, I want to explain a little bit about how I work my finances. First of all, I overpay nearly all my bills including cell phone, electricity, and cable. I find this just makes it easier to balance my checkbook and keep track of things. Also, it occasionally helps due to the fact that I might not have to pay or pay as much on a given month.

The other thing that I do that helps with this is that when I pay my bills, rather than writing the check for a random odd amount, I write them in increments of (usually) $50 or $100. I know that perhaps the additional money (sometimes up to $40) that goes to a company that won’t pay me any interest and only goes towards my next month’s bill could be better put to use in paying down debt, but my thought is that it all comes out in the end and that the small amount of interest on $40 for a month is probably not going to make much of a difference in the long-run.

I say for only a month because that is going to be $40 less that my bill will be next month and could be the difference between a $60 bill (which I might send $75 or $100) and a $20 bill which I would pay with a $25 or $50 payment, thus freeing up extra money to be sent to my debts while keeping everything in the nice round numbers.

Why did I feel the need to share this seemingly mundane information about the way I pay my bills? Because I have a few bills on my desk that need to get paid relatively soon and I wanted to answer in advance some questions that may surface when I post on doing so.

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