A Story Of Debt » The Debt As It Stands

The Debt As it Stands (8/17/10)

Ashley — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:00:21 +0000

I haven’t made as much progress as I wanted to, but August has been and continues to be an expensive month. I went home, I had car expenses, I need to purchase another plane ticket to Washington, school is starting, and I had a time sheet issue that meant money I normally would have had by now won’t be coming in until Friday.

And, I finally splurged on the one big ticket item I knew from the beginning I would not be waiting to get out of debt before purchasing: iPhone 4. I was holding off as long as I could, but I came home from vacation to a very big pay day, so I paid all of my bills and then I went to the Apple site and ordered it. Can’t wait to have it in my hands.

Even though I’m always kind of frustrated with my progress, now that I’m below the $10,000 mark, every lower number just feels so exciting. My debt gets more manageable all the time.

(Also, as you can see in the picture above, they updated the mint.com iPhone app. to make it uglier. I miss that pretty back ground.)

The Debt As It Stands (7/15/10)

Ashley — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:00:08 +0000

It’s pretty awesome to be down to one card even if I don’t feel like I’ve made much progress since. It’s always been quite depressing to think that even when I make it to the last card, I’ll still have $10,000 to go, but now I’m taking it down. It feels pretty awesome actually. I know I always say I don’t feel like I’m making any progress, becuase that is how I feel most of the time, but when I put up these posts and then look back even just to the previous month, I do see that I’m making progress.

This last month has been quite expensive in terms of fun things to spend money on, like a $13 ticket to Eclipse and $180 at VidCon ($80 ticket I purchased in January; $100 spent on food and parking), and now I’m planning a trip home, which will cost me some money in lost wages at my part-time job. But, it’s all worth it. I think I could easily be spending more money on all of these things by slipping into that mode where I think, “well, I’m already spending money here, so why not just buy whatever I want?”

This has been just like every other goal I’ve pursued where I set the standard at perfection and I am disappointed that I can’t achieve it, but just doing pretty well most of the time makes for progress.

If the picture looks a little different to you, it’s because I canceled the Bank of America Visa and removed it from the list.

The Debt As It Stands (6/16/10)

Ashley — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 19:00:34 +0000

Oh, so close! It was my goal to have the WF Visa paid off by this point in the month, but it’s not going to happen until my next pay day. It was already going to be a stretch, but then I threw myself off by forgetting to turn in my last timesheet at the part time job. I’m working most of my hours out of the office this Summer, so I keep forgetting to get my time sheets in and signed. The good news is that I’ve earned the money–I just don’t have it in hand! Look out for my ZOMG! THE WF VISA IS PAID OFF AND I AM NOW HALFWAY DONE PAYING IT ALL OFF in a couple weeks.

I keep opening the Mint.com app on my iPhone just to stare at that $600 balance. It’s making me very happy.

I found out this week that I will be getting small raises at both of my jobs. We’re talking minimal. Like, probably only an extra $20 or so a month between the two, but I’m pretty excited, because I wasn’t expecting anything at all, considering I work for two non-profits and we’re in a recession. I don’t know the official numbers yet, but I should receive the raise at my full-time job starting at the beginning of our fiscal year (July) and the other at the start of the school year (September).

The Debt As It Stands (5/19/10)

Ashley — Wed, 19 May 2010 19:00:43 +0000

I was feeling like I hadn’t made any progress, because May has been a slow month with smaller pay checks and I did do some spending, but apparently I have a short memory, because I’m still down almost $1500 from last month.

I am striving to have the WF Visa paid off by this time next month. I think I can do it, but it will be a push.

The Debt As It Stands (4/14/10)

Ashley — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 19:00:03 +0000

I can’t say how awesome it feels to see the WF Visa (or the WTF! Visa, as Paige put it) in the 3,000 range. Somehow that just seems so much smaller than 4,000. I’m now more than half way done paying it off (the original balance was $7,500). It’s going to be mid-June before I’m completely done with it, but I’m getting there!

Apparently, they had a possible information leak at Bank of America, so that card up there with the zero balance–the one I paid off!–was recently replaced with a shiny new one. You know how I like shiny things, but the new one is sitting in my desk drawer along with the old one. I’m just excited that I get the satisfaction of cutting up two cards. I plan to close that account in a few months, probably after I pay off the WF Visa.

Just seeing the change since last month is crazy.

The Debt As It Stands (3/15/10)

Ashley — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:00:41 +0000

This is what the debt looks like after making the big payment that got me a reduced APR on the Wells Fargo Visa. Because I made a big push to do that, I won’t be able to contribute quite as much this month. Still, I am going to reach a major milestone and I’m so excited! I keep saying this same thing, but I feel like I’m really making progress. I guess I need to keep repeating that to myself, because so many times before I was planning on doing something about my debt and would even get started in a sense, but I never ended up doing anything more than spin my wheels and stay in place. Interest makes even staying in place a struggle when you’re so far in debt.

I’m back from my trip to Phoenix. I knew there was no way I’d get away with spending nothing. In total, I spent about $90 on travel and food. $50 of that was covering breakfast for my family one morning. It was the least I could do, since my sister paid for the hotel, my Dad bought my plane ticket and paid for most of our food and drinks, and my brother treated at the ball game. One thing I’m really looking forward to once I’m out of debt is being more generous with my money, treating people and picking up tabs and tipping well. I want to continue to be generally conservative with my money, but that will be a meaningful exception. So, you know, suck up to me now and it might pay off one day!

The Debt As It Stands (2/13/10)

Ashley — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 21:28:38 +0000

After a bit of a rough financial start to the year, I finally feel like the dust has settled. The new laptop is completely paid off, all school fees are paid for, all books for school are purchased, and both jobs are in full swing. It was frustrating to feel like I was making no progress, but a) I know exactly where my money is going and that is different than before, b) I am making progress, it just hasn’t been as dramatic as I had planned, and c) I didn’t use my frustration over things going wrong as a reason to make it worse or quit.

Payday was Wednesday and combined with payday for Job #2 last Friday, it was so nice to sit down to pay bills and realize I had enough to pay for everything, even though there were extra bills, and still have extra money to put toward my debt.

To see my progress since the beginning of January, click here.

The Debt As It Stands (1/1/10)

Ashley — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:00:15 +0000

Here’s an update on how I’m doing. This is a screen shot of the iPhone application for Mint.com. I definitely recommend it if you have an iPhone. If you don’t have an iPhone, Mint will send you text notifications if you still want access to that information on the go.

The best thing about this picture is the $0 next to the Bank of America card. I made the transfer last weekend and then waited for three days to see proof of it. I don’t plan to ever spend on that card again, so I could remove it from the lineup, but seeing that $0 is so motivating.

That’s basically a picture of my debt snow ball. Next up is the Wells Fargo Visa. This one is going to take several months, though my tax refund will speed it up a bit.

The Debt As It Stands (11/20/09)

Ashley — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:05:52 +0000

I thought a lot about how open to be with these numbers. It’s a lot easier to admit you’re in debt without saying just how in debt you are. But, if I’m already being honest, then I might as well be completley honest. Here is the truth of my debt as it stands right now:

Credit Cards (In the order I will pay them off.)

Bank of America Visa $2,425
Wells Fargo Visa $7,266
Capital One Visa $10,093

Student Loans

I have students loans as well. I absolutely can’t talk about my debt situation without mentioning them, but right now I’m concentrated on getting my consumer debt paid off. The loans pay my tuition and the money I make pays for my living expenses (and debt payments). After I finish coursework, I will not longer be borrowing. I hope by that point to be able to pay all expenses (including school fees) out of pocket. That means that hopefully I will be able to work on paying off the worst of the student loans (the private ones) before I graduate and am responsible for monthly payments.