Category Archives: Debt Tracker
July 1 Debt Checkup
It’s the beginning of the month and time for me to run naked on the internet…financially anyway. I’m not sure how many debt reduction or personal finance bloggers actually open their books wide open for all of the world to see, but I find it cathartic. Someone asked me if I’m not afraid of what people will think of me putting everything out there, but it really isn’t that important to me.
June 1 Debt Check In
It’s the first of the month and you know what that means! Time for me to over share more about me than you ever wanted to know. If you’re following along as I reduce my debt (the whole point of this blog) then you know that this is where I come clean about where I am in my debt reduction efforts.
Instead of listing out my debt I’ll include the pretty little charts and graphs that we’ve gotten used to.
May 1 Debt Check In
With the exception of my allergies, April was a good month to me. I finally went back to working a normal work schedule instead of some grueling overtime hours. The money was nice, but sleep and sanity is even better. My Earth Day giveaway was a rousing success. I had well over 60 entries which was awesome! Congrats again to all of the winners and of course a big thank you to the sponsors again.
The government finally discharged the amount that I owed then, but getting them to send me a letter saying that the obligation was fulfilled that I can send to the credit bureaus is probably going to require the blood of my first born and at least a chicken sacrifice or two. If anyone knows how to get paperwork out of New York State’s Department of Taxation and Finance, please let me know, because I have no clue. They’ll cash my check but they won’t send me a damn letter.
April 1 Debt Check In
It’s April 1 and it’s time to check in on how my finances are trucking along. This month has been very positive in some aspects but it has also helped me focus very steadily on what I am doing correctly and what I need to do to improve on my ability to repay my debts very quickly. Dave Ramsey (not really a fan) calls is “gazelle intense”. Jay-Z says, “I’m focused man.” Whatever you want to call it, I’m “all in”. Cliche’s everywhere.
March 1 Check In
It feels like only a few weeks ago that the year began, but here we are already in March! Time is just zipping by but I have a lot going on so maybe I’m just moving at the speed of light. For you voyeurs it’s time to review my finances and see how I am doing with my debt. Before we look at the numbers I have to remind you that I added $20K to my credit cards this month and about $11K of that is completely new debt so my debt total has increased this month.
February 1 Check In
It’s a new month and time to review how I did with my debt reduction and alternative income building. As most of you know, I plan on firing away at one debt at a time until I have just my student loans and HELOC left to pay.
Based on the goal that I made for 2011 of saving at least $3000 in an emergency fund, I need to make and save at least $250 in extra money every month. I made the goal of making that extra money but as you know, stuff happens and that money has been redirected. Read on to find out how.
January 1 Check In
This post will serve as both a review of how I did with my reducing my debts in 2010 and the beginning of my debt for 2011. Way back on January 1, 2010 I began the year with over $90K in debt. I ended the year with a little under $83K in debt, however that does not reflect the amounts that were added and paid off during that time. I wasn’t as aggressive at paying down my debt as I should have, but I did am happy to have ended the year going in the right direction.
December 1 Check In
It’s the first of the month, so it’s time again to see how I’ve done with the debt reduction. After last month’s fiasco with the state emptying my bank accounts, I have kept exactly zero in my accounts and have returned to the ice ages of carrying cash and paying individual bills directly with the debtors or through my good friend, the money order. Hey, it’s not sexy, but it works and I don’t have to worry about having my money pulled from under me. I’ve been cashing my physical paychecks (Lord, it’s been ages since I’ve seen one of these things) at the bank that my employer issues the checks from, and I have a credit card with that bank, so it costs me nothing to cash the checks. On to the numbers!
November 1 Check In
It’s the first of the month, so it’s time again to see how I’ve done with the debt reduction. After last month’s fiasco with the state emptying my bank accounts, I have kept exactly zero in my accounts and have returned to the ice ages of carrying cash and paying individual bills directly with the debtors or through my good friend, the money order. Hey, it’s not sexy, but it works and I don’t have to worry about having my money pulled from under me. I’ve been cashing my physical paychecks (Lord, it’s been ages since I’ve seen one of these things) at the bank that my employer issues the checks from, and I have a credit card with that bank, so it costs me nothing to cash the checks. On to the numbers!
October 1, 2010
Student Loan #1 $596.57 @2.47%
Credit Card #1 $723.77 @13.99%
Credit Card #2 $0 @14.24%
Credit Card #3 $4,009.94 @0%
HELOC $41,936.12 @3.125%
Student Loan #2 $$37,592.68 @3.3-7.5%
The bed $599.00 @0%
Personal Loan $0
Car Note $0
Total: $85,458.08
November 1, 2010
Student Loan #1 $447.64 @2.47%
Credit Card #1 $532.38 @13.99%
Credit Card #2 $0 @14.24%
Credit Card #3 $4,034.63 @0%
HELOC $41,443.89 @3.125%
Student Loan #2 $37,510.89 @3.3-7.5%
The bed $444 @0%
Personal Loan $0
Car Note $0
Total: $84,413.43
I managed to knock $1,000 off my debt which is awesome! Not listed here is the amount that I paid for an entirely new pair of glasses plus contact lenses which totaled $460. It was necessary since I broke my glasses 2 months ago then ended up with an optic ulcer from overusing a pair of contact lenses. I count having to see as an necessary evil. Student loan #1, The Bed and Credit Card #1 are all in a race to see which one can hit zero first. I have to pay off the bed by the end of March in order to avoid finance charges which would be charged for the past year. I can just concentrate on one of them and pay it off within the next month, but I don’t know what I’ll do until pay day.
Let’s see how I did with making some money on the internet. I’m not going to list eBay here since BF is counting that as his income, but I will say that Christmas is coming so I hope that sales picks up to last year’s levels.
Time to review how much money I’ve made on the internet.
Internet Income in October
Google Adsense $20.76
Sponsored Tweets $1.59 ($2.23 total for the year)
Commission Junction $0.35
Cash Crate $0
eHow  $0.69
Total:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $23.39
This was by far the best performing month for internet income. In fact, with the exception of a really good month on Cash Crate, this is more than I have made for the entire year combined. Why? The move to WordPress this moth allowed me to include advertisements on each article. This resulted in readers seeing ads that were relevant to each individual post. It also helped that I had a dramatic increase in traffic. This month the blog received close to 8,000 page views that I hope to match in November. Each view is another opportunity for a reader to click on something that might increase my online income. I have had some requests for advertisements, but I will not approve advertisements for companies that offer pay day loans and the like.
You can see how I’m doing with my debt in real time by clicking the Debt Tracker tab all the way up top in green. Here’s to passing the $85K debt mark and zooming towards $80K. Yay me.
This post was included in the Carnival of Debt Reduction for November 8.
