My Journey From Debt

Well, after previously being pretty much on top of everything, I am back in the dumps again. Here I sit wondering how I am going to pay all of my bills this month. I’ll discuss how “short” I am on funds for bills this month in my next post, for this one I’m just going to look at how I got myself into the situation that I am currently in.

Previously, I reported that I had $260.95 in my checking account. However, I did still have to purchase Christmas presents. Between the gifts I purchased and a couple of extra items for myself, Christmas shopping cost $400.40 and I was not expecting to spend this much. In order to help cover these costs, I withdrew $250.00 from my savings account.

Also, with the money I withdrew from savings, I have spent $79.50 on fuel for my vehicle and $8.89 on fast food. Another thing that I did was make a stop at the grocery store and picked up a 12 pack of Sierra Mist, a couple boxes of macaroni and cheese, and a gallon of milk for a total of $9.81 off of my account balance. Oh, I nearly forgot to mention that I also had to purchase some dog food for my canine roommate which set me back $29.34 so it’s a good thing he don’t eat much and I only need to do that once every couple of months or so.

In the midst of all this, I did get paid right around Christmas and got $382.00 from my full time job and $109.34 from my part time job. These numbers together helped me make it through the holidays. After subtracting my $25.00 automatic transfer to savings, these numbers combine to leave me with $388.62 in checking and $229.05 in my savings account. It looks like I’m going to be paying a $3.00 fee this month for having my savings account below $300.00 again.

I sure do like getting paid, and yesterday was payday! I received $485.44 from my full time job, $294.45 from my part time job, and $163.93 for some other part-time work. This puts me in what I feel is a pretty good position for the rest of the month. I’m pretty sure (hoping anyway) that between this pay period and the one that ends right before Christmas, I should be able to get everything paid and not fall behind or have to wait for a January paycheck to pay December bills.

Subtract from this payday my $25.00 automatic transfer to savings, which puts my savings account at $454.05, and I am left with $940.95 in my checking account. However, the two checks I wrote last time I paid bills for my cable/landline and internet bills still haven’t gone through so there goes $225.00 and my rent check of $355.00 hasn’t gone through, this brings my actual amount that I have left to $360.95 so perhaps my previous excitement was a bit premature, especially considering that I still need to purchase some Christmas gifts.

I am paying one additional bill with this current paycheck and that is my electric bill that came in the mail recently. While I could just enter it in sentence form, I will follow the format that I have used previously when paying bills:

$100.00 – Electricity – Amount Due $59.26

This leaves my current cash available in my checking account at $260.95. I also feel it is worth mentioning that I spent $11.21 on lunch-for-two yesterday bringing my total cash-in-wallet to $29.00 and I may need to get more cash from the ATM before the month is over.

Well, as I mentioned in my previous post, the money isn’t quite stretching as far as I need it to right now. I currently have $72.13 in checking and the $50.00 check I wrote to pay my cell phone bill has not gone through yet. This means I actually have $22.13 right now.

Also, I have yet to pay my Landline/Cable TV and Internet bills as well as rent. Luckily, I get paid from my part-time job tomorrow and my full-time job on Friday. From this money, I will hopefully have enough to pay those bills that I have left.

I did recently receive my next electric bill, but I’m not sure if I am going to be able to pay it with this week’s checks or if I will have to wait until I get some more money again. Fortunately, it isn’t due until the 23rd so I have a little bit of time to figure that one out.

At this time, an observant reader will notice that there is a bit of a discrepancy between my current report of account balances and my previous report. Previously, I was a bit short but not by this much. So, where did the rest of my money go?

Well, this isn’t an exact itemized list, but a sort of summary of what I have spent money on lately and the numbers are approximate rather than precise.

$140.00 on vehicle maintenance/repair (new battery and a few other items)
$25.00 at a local hardware store where I got a new extension cord and plier as well as a couple of other items
$75.00 on gas for my vehicle
$40.00 on fast food/eating out
$100.00 on items that I purchased on behalf of my dad and he will be paying me back for

I did make my $400.00 payment on Credit Card 1 so that I wasn’t late on that, took $60.00 out of an ATM. I think this pretty much gets this site up-to-date with how my finances currently are and I just have the three bills left to pay from last month that I should be able to take care of by the end of the week.

Last Friday was payday so it’s time now to pay some bills as well as update my debt meter. I have a few things that I can’t pay this time around, but looking forward I will have some more money coming in within the next few days that I will use to pay my rent, cable, and internet bills. This will leave me with about $180.00 in my checking account so that I will be able to put some gas in my vehicle and cover any other expenses that may come up in the mean time.

I will, however, probably need to borrow at least some of the money from my savings to make the $400.00 payment on “Credit Card 1” because I have to do that by the 8th and I don’t foresee having that much available until probably the 12th.

Moving on to the numbers, on payday I received $452.01 from my full time job and $124.16 from the part time one. From this, immediately subtract my $25.00 automatic transfer to savings and that leaves $551.17 for paying bills along with the $182.09 I already had.

$100.00 – Store Credit 2 – Amount Due $10.00
$100.00 – Credit Card 2 – Amount Due $88.00
$ 50.00 – Cell Phone – Amount Due $28.83
$100.00 – Student Loan 1 – Amount Due $56.15
$100.00 – Student Loan 2 – Amount Due $70.29
$100.00 – Revolving Credit Account – Amount Due $89.00

There are two other bills that I have the checks written and in the envelopes. I just am not dropping them off until after I get a little more money. I will list them here because it is a fitting place, however, I will try and remember to make a post after I drop them off.

$125.00 – Landline/Cable TV – Amount Due $107.49
$100.00 – Internet – Amount Due $86.97

An update to my progress counter shows that I have made some considerable progress and this is very encouraging. This large jump (from $66,137.45 down to $64,771.01) is likely due to my previously not keeping this site updated and because the way that I keep it current is looking at the remaining balance on each statement that I receive and using that amount as the amount I still owe. This also means that my current payments are not accounted for in these figures.