My Journey From Debt

Ok, I promised you all that I would post in more detail about my trip to the grocery store on Saturday and here it is. I know it seems like I spent a lot of money, but at the same time I probably won’t do any serious grocery shopping for another 2 months or more. I might stop to get a loaf of bread or gallon of milk, but that will be about it.

As you can see, according to the calculations on the receipt, $22.40 which comes out to about 11% off of what the price would have been had I not purchased things that were on sale and used that $0.50 coupon that was available at the store. However, that is not everything that I purchased.

As I was loading all of my groceries from the shopping cart into my vehicle, I realized that I had forgotten to buy bread, for whatever reason I just walked right past that isle and didn’t even think of it. So, I went back in to get a couple of loaves of bread.

This completed my shopping trip and I now have food in the house so that I will not be as inclined to eat fast food as often. Perhaps I should buy fewer groceries at a time and go more often, but I think for now I will continue as I have been doing and just go when I need food and can afford to buy a bunch of groceries.

Ok, so I haven’t been near at good at updating this site as I used to be, but I also haven’t been having a ton of cash flow. That said, I did spend a some cash that I didn’t really account for, but I know that it was pretty much fast-food except that I spent a little bit in the vending machine at work one day and used cash to buy a couple of loaves of bread.

At any rate, I currently have $41.00 in cash in my wallet and a checking account balance of (by my calculations) $316.75. This is after spending some last night and getting some cash.

It was payday this week from both my full-time and part-time job. I received $447.12 from my full-time job and $139.81 from my part-time job. It felt really nice to get that money and not have a stack of bills waiting to be paid, at the same time it was somewhat concerning because I kept thinking that I must have misplaced some bills or something. I checked all my previous statements and check register and it looks like I really am getting on top of things! At this point, I have the bill from my remaining store credit account and also some student loan payments that I need to make.

Last night, I went grocery shopping (that will be discussed separately as I plan to scan in the receipt and share that with you all) and spent $177.93, but according to the receipt I saved like 11% so that’s pretty cool. Also, I put $32.50 worth of gas in my vehicle and took $40.00 cash out of the ATM.

The other thing coming out of my paycheck already is my $25.00 automatic transfer to savings every two-weeks, I’m excited to report that I currently have $404.03 in there so if I need to I can take $100 out to pay a bill without falling below the $300 that will trigger a $3.00 monthly service charge!

Well, I might as well start with the biggest news first, I am no longer in default on the account listed as “Credit Card 1″ on the My Accounts page. I talked to them on the phone several times and have gotten on a payment plan that will help repair my credit as well as help me get that account balance quite a bit lower. The only downside is that my payments on that account are now $400 a month.

Also, coming in as pretty big news is that I have started another part-time job so that I now have a little bit more money coming in to help get these things taken care of.

In other account balance news, I somehow managed to overpay the Store Credit 1 account to the point where not only did I get it paid off before having to pay any interest (remember that one was no interest no payments until November 1) but I now have a $50 credit there….I’m not sure if that will be refunded to me or if it will just stay there until I use the account again, but either way it’s one less line of debt!

Also, I have managed to get my savings account up to $379.03 so I have a little bit of a safety net again!

Time To Pay Some Bills

Well, only three bills to pay today. It’s a good thing too, right now my checking account is at $605.25. At least I have $26.00 cash to get me through till payday!

$400.00 - Credit Card 1 - This is my set monthly payment…for now
$100.00 - Revolving Credit Account - Amount Due $91.00
$100.00 - Electricity - Amount Due $75.44

I know I’ve been neglecting this site lately, but I have not lost focus as to the goal that it represents. I am pretty sure that I have made some significant progress since last time I updated, but I don’t know for sure. Rather than run around and try to recalculate everything, I will just kinda pick up where I left off and update my accounts as the statements arrive in my mailbox.

One bright note that I will mention today is that I had a couple of bills arrive this past week and by using my rounding up method, I don’t have to pay them this month. My internet bill shows a credit of $13.73 and my landline/cable bill shows a credit of $8.94 and both say “Do Not Pay” in the “Payment Due By” space.

Oh, and as for an excuse in regards to my absence, I had an opportunity to travel a small amount right when this site fell dormant, and since then have taken on some additional part-time work that keeps me busy but is helping me get a bit closer to financial freedom. Now that I’ve returned here, though, I’ll get into the habit of posting all of my financial matters as well as reading and commenting on the sites of the people in my “Sites I Like” section of my sidebar!

I stopped at WalMart this evening and spent another $12.72

I suppose it wasn’t too bad as I purchased a few things I actually need….the main reason for writing the post is simply because I want to log everything.

I will be shelling out a bunch more money tomorrow because I need to pay rent yet and also because I am going to be paying car insurance and adding renter’s insurance to my yearly bills because I probably should have gotten it a long time ago and am just finally trying to stop procrastinating and get my life in order…..

Stay tuned!