Debt Sucks - but paying it off sucks worse

Spending Record - June 28

noreply@blogger.com (speechteach) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:25:00 +0000

Well, yesterday was another kind of big spending day. I went downtown and walked the dog to start the day - stopped in Starbucks and got a Latte and bought a pound of coffee for the firefighters. There are HUGE fire problems in this area and it looks like the firefighters will be up here (from all over our state and adjoining states) for a while, so I decided to make a small contribution and get them some good coffee. Starbucks gives it to them every week. So, that turned from a $3.50 trip to a $13.45 trip.

I then went to the Farmer's Market, where I actually did really good. I bought a bouquet for my empty vase for $4 and two flowers to plant in a planter out front for $2/each or $4. So, only $8! But, on the way home I was drawn into a garage sale (still looking for a summer coverlet) and I could not resist getting a beautiful little tree sapling that I can leave in the pot until next Spring and then plant/replant. I LOVE these little trees. They turn a dark maroon color in the fall and are just gorgeous. And they're very expensive in the stores and she was selling them for $10 with the pot. I also got three little canning jars for scrapbooking supplies for $1.50. So, between Farmer's Market and garage sale, I spent $19.50.

In the afternoon, we went out to try to get some $1 flip flops from Old Navy in the afternoon. They were all sold out, but we went to Bath and Body Works because I was out of air fresheners and they were having a 75% off sale. It was awesome. I got six of the air freshener two packs and a lip gloss and 2 oz lotion for only $22.49! What a deal! Then, I had the dog with me, so I had to stop by Petco on the way home and get the dog some chew treats and the free 5 lb. bag of Natural Choice dog food with a coupon. I ended up spending $13.23 (that 5 lb. of dog food was priced at $12.49!) for all of it. We then stopped for frozen yogurt and I paid for mine and my roommates for some unknown reason - so, that was $4.53. Total for this trip was $40.25.

When we got home, we didn't feel like cooking, so I checked Restaurant.com and got a $25 gift certificate for a local restaurant for $10 and we ate there. We came home with a ton of food - dessert pizza and two loaves of bread and leftovers from dinner. It was a great deal!

So, overall, I spent $83.15 yesterday. Not a good day. But, I haven't spent a dime today, and I think I'll make it without spending anything. So, overall, not a horrifyingly bad weekend.

On a different note, I figured up our monthly budget and we are NOT making enough money! We need to figure out how to bring in about $800-1000 more a month than we currently are. I can cut down on some of our costs, but we are not really living crazy, extravagant lives or anything. My hope is to find something that I can do at home or to start bringing in some income from my blogging, but I might have to find a PT job or something. Its frustrating to know that we are paying a huge mortgage on a condo that we aren't living in, but we can't really get out from under it until the housing market makes an upturn. So, we'll have to figure out some other way of dealing with it.

This post captured me perfectly

noreply@blogger.com (speechteach) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 18:57:00 +0000

Except, I'm not out of debt...yet. But, her tribulations with money, her disinterest in dealing with finances, and her lack of motivation to deal with it definitely describes me. But, it seems that she has been successful in paying off her debt and is now getting on track for a more "powerful" (according to Suze Orman) future. So, there may be hope for me yet! Thanks Debt Hater!

Spending Record - June 27

noreply@blogger.com (speechteach) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 02:11:00 +0000

Today was a more expensive day than yesterday. My car was a disaster for the last month, so I finally took it to the car wash and had it washed. Its a very expensive car wash, but they do the inside and outside and they do an excellent job and I don't have it done very often. It was really bad this time though. The car wash was $23, and I got a latte while waiting, which was another $3 and bought an air freshener for the car (mango, mmmmmm) for $2, and a candy bar for $1. I tipped the girl who made the latte because she was nice and made change for my $20, so that was another $1, and I tipped the people who cleaned the car $9, which is a lot, but my car was really gross with dog hair, some vomit on the rug (long story), and all kinds of nasty stuff from the last month of traveling in it. So, I felt bad for them and tipped them high - it took a lot of them to get it clean. So, I spent a total of $40 at the car wash.

Then I went to Walgreens. I got some snacks, a couple of dog treats that were on sale, some sweater socks to save as a gift for my mom (her feet get really cold), toothpaste (on sale), some toothbrushes, and some rubbing alcohol. I saved $8.50 using coupons, so only spent $19.08. Not bad for all I got.

So, today, my expenditures were $59.08.

Women and Money - Chapter One

noreply@blogger.com (speechteach) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 01:23:00 +0000

As promised, I am writing my first blog on Suze Orman's book, Women and Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny. Chapter One is very short, but very encouraging. I am going to highlight a few things from each chapter that I find most intriguing or inspiring. From this short chapter I found three things intriguing/inspiring:

(1) The challenge: on page 3 Suze states that the challenge she is making to us readers is "to be truly powerful in your life requires making money moves that work for you." I like the challenge to be truly powerful by making good money decisions. She follows that up with "give to yourself as much as you give of yourself. By taking care of yourself financially, you will truly be able to take care of those you love." I think its a strange concept sometimes to take care of ourselves in any way, but its definitely strange to think about taking care of yourself financially. I think I consider taking care of myself financially by getting some money to spend on myself. So, this is going to require a change in thinking.
(2) The concept of empowerment: I have always thought of empowerment in a feminist sense of the term, that you can only empower yourself when you empower others. Those who step all over others never really get sustainable power. Later on page 3, Suze agrees with me and guides me to ask a couple of key questions of myself. First she says, "Becoming powerful in a lasting, beneficial way is never done at the expense of others; it is done for the good of all." I agree with that. Then she says, "If we stand strong and know who we are and what we can create, we will easily be able to hold up those we love and those who need a helping hand." That made me think about the following questions: (1) who am I? and (2) what can I create? Those are tougher questions than they should be to answer for someone my age. I often feel like I don't know who I am. I used to think I knew who I was, but then things change and I don't feel as sure of it anymore. So, this is something that I have to think about. As far as what I can create. There are a lot of things I can create. I can write. I can create knowledge by teaching others what I know. I can create a comfortable, loving house for me and my husband and my family. I can create a safe place for others to develop their voice through my classroom.

So, for now, I need to continue to think about who I am.

(3) In five months, if I follow Suze's course, called the Save Yourself Plan I will be set up for a lifetime of financial security. Wow. Five months is not much time. Not much time at all. It seems a little daunting to get that in five months. But, then Suze alleviates my fears. She seems to read my mind and says she'll give me "a strategy that anticipates the fatigue and fear and lack of determination and is designed to keep you engaged, educate you, and - can you believe it? - inspire you to want to do more." I do suffer from all those things when trying to figure out a new money program - I do get tired of it. I do fear that I'll never get things back to a positive. I do give up and spend even when I know I shouldn't. And, I do often lose focus and inspiration. So, if Suze can capture all of that in the first four pages of her book, I guess she knows me and knows what she's talking about.

So, I'm excited about Chapter Two tonight. Chapter Two is longer and is titled "Imagine What's Possible". I do wish to imagine what's possible...and tomorrow I'll tell you what I imagined! Until then - be empowered and live powerfully!

Spending Record - June 26

noreply@blogger.com (speechteach) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 05:06:00 +0000

I did pretty good today. I went to Salvation Army looking for a coverlet for my bed (need some lightweight bedding for the summer) and got distracted into buying three framed prints - two for the dining room (old fashioned botanical drawings of apples and squash - very nice and the frames were in good shape - only $3 each) and then a shell drawing for the bathroom (I'm going for a beach theme in there) for $2. I avoided buying another larger print of a botanical drawing of an onion that was Pier One priced on the back at $25 and was available for $5...so that was good. Anyways, I'm trying to do the house in a Beach Cottage style piece by piece on a cheap level so this was part of that. Right now, my house is very rag-tag, hodge-podge, and I would like it to be somewhat stylish even though I don't have the money to really decorate. So thrift stores are where I do my decorating shopping.

In addition, I got some gas tonight. I only got gas in order to get free tacos from Jack in the Box. They were giving away two free tacos if you brought a gas receipt in. So, I got $7 worth of gas - what I had in my wallet. Unfortunately, the $7 got be less than two gallons. Amazing. Depressing. But, then we went to Jack in the Box and got the free tacos, so I felt a teeny-weeny bit better. Although, when I talked to my husband tonight he informed me that I probably spent more on gas to get there than the tacos cost. Party-pooper!

So, my expenditures for today:

Housewares: $8
Gas: $7
TOTAL : $15 - all cash

Not bad.

Suze Orman on Oprah

noreply@blogger.com (speechteach) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:08:00 +0000

Debt does suck, but we can be thankful we aren't the woman on Oprah today. Her husband killed himself and left her in debt for 100s of 1000s of dollars. When I saw the preview for the show, I remembered that I ordered Suze's book, Women and Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny a few months ago. You can now download the book for free, but only until June 27 - so act fast and go here.

I guess I'm lucky in that my husband is not at all controlling about the finances. If anything, its frustrating because I have to handle everything in that area. He has a debit card attached to our checking account and that's it. He doesn't even carry a checkbook (or often know where one is). But, the frustrating thing is that I feel like I'm bad at it. And I don't want to share information with him because he tends to freak out about things...and that makes me freak out about things.

But, my hope is that this blog and my new promise to myself will help me to get better control and be more willing to share the burden with my hubby.

So, I've been inspired. I'm going to start reading Women and Money tonight. A chapter a night until I finish the book and I will post at least one blog entry each day based on the reading from the previous night. I hope some of your may join me in reading the book and making some changes.

Sweating to Save...

noreply@blogger.com (speechteach) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:22:00 +0000

I was just over at Crunchy Chicken and saw her Keep Yer Cool Challenge and thought about my recent $137 gas and electric bill. Now I know that the point of Crunchy Chicken's challenge is environmental, but money is green too, so we can achieve both goals! So, I'm taking the challenge. I can't commit to going without my air conditioning. It is miserably hot here in the summer. But, I can commit to moving the thermostat up from 75 to 78 during the day and going with fans and open windows at night. We'll see how much that saves us. I think we're right in the middle of a month right now, so the next bill may not show it, but hopefully the following month's costs will go down. And I can feel good about reducing my carbon footprint as well.

I plan to stay connected to Crunchy Chicken and take any action that she advises to bring down my AC use (and my bill as well)!

Do What Sucks - or "Let's Get Out of Debt"

noreply@blogger.com (speechteach) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:04:00 +0000

I am in serious debt. I am not alone. According to the commercial I just saw on television, 60% of Americans are in serious debt. It is not looking good for the economy. It is not looking good for housing prices. So, my era of debt spending is OVER. It isn't going to be easy. My husband and I have been living beyond our means for the last four or five years. We have uneven income during the year, so we debt spend during the school year and justify by saying "we'll pay it off over the summer when our income increases," but we never do. We may make a dent, but it just progressively increases year after year. After all, there are those little things called interest and finance charges...

So, I've decided I'm really going to get serious about this getting out of debt thing. I need some accountability and I've read a lot of personal finance blogs where it has really helped them to have this public record of their debt and repayment. Its going to be hard to face the reality of our finances. After all, we really don't live incredibly lavish lives, but we spend beyond our means each month. But, it will be so much better if we can just face reality, know where we stand and go from there.

So, I'm going to start a "debt chart" on a page of this blog and chart the progress. Right now, its just a matter of figuring out where all of our debt stands. It isn't going to be pretty. It isn't going to be fun. But, it is going to be good for us. And hopefully, I can be a little like Mary Poppins and find a spoonful of sugar every once in a while to help the medicine go down.

I'm also going to start a "spending chart" so I can track where all of our money goes. This is the roughest. I'm really bad at it and I have one of those senior moments every time I try to figure out where the money went that was taken out of the ATM. So, tracking it will help. Anyone who would like to join me - make a pledge to "Do What Sucks" and get out debt!

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