Day of no spending

So far my day of no spending has gone well. A few weeks ago, I took my vacation fund jar to the coinstar machine and let it count out my miscellaneous change. I opted for a Starbucks gift card because I didn’t want to pay the fee, and I thought that it would be something that I would use. So today I drove the 6 miles round trip to the local Starbucks to imbibe in a Venti regular coffee with cream and sugar. Cost to me, nothing. Cost of satisfaction, priceless.

I love the summer. Summer to me means lots of days with no spending. Since I live in the frozen tundra during the winter, I don’t do alot of outdoor free activities. I mean, I don’t do hardly anything except bundle up in the winter and watch television. When I signed up for the All-in-One package from Time Warner, I was eligible for a free year of Starz. Normally I don’t find any movies on Starz to watch, but since I’ve already watched my movie from Netflix, I opted to find something on Starz today. Cost to me, nothing. Cost of satisfaction, priceless.

Debt Snowball

Alot of people in the PF world have been talking alot about “snowballing” debt lately. I’m going to try to do my best to explain the process.

First, list all your debts, including amounts owed, credit limits, and interest rates. Don’t forget anything, make sure that you put it down a for a few days, just to make sure.

When you’re done listing them out, decide which you’d prefer to do, pay off small debts first or the highest interest rates first. The reason I say it this way is because, sometimes small victories to wonders for motivation. You can do a combination of both, but basically the way it works is, you pay as much as you can on one debt, while paying the minimum on all the others. When you pay off the first debt, you take the amount you were paying on it and apply it to the next debt in line. Lather, rinse and repeat.

I, personally, have never really used a snowball, but I have used the small victories theory in the past.

There are a number of spreadsheets available out there to help you organize your snowballing.

1. Mr. Peanut’s Debt Snowball Calculator is a great one.
2. Excel Spreadsheets found at mdmproofing.com

All you have to do is Google, “debt snowball spreadsheet”, and you’ll turn up free resources, as well as pay resources. You don’t have to pay for them, just like most things, you can do it for free.

Maybe some day I’ll explain why I’m so into personal finance.

Paid it off

I finally wrote that last check to Capital One today. So now, 2 of the 3 credit cards are paid off completely. I wonder how to add that little graph on my sidebar like other blogs have…. Maybe someone can help me with that.

Today was payday, so another $50 into the E-fund. I gave my employer the direct deposit form to switch from my B&M bank (Key bank) to ING Electric Orange today. I earned $0.42 last month in interest, I think this will work out a bit better for me. I will still have my local bank (Key) and the CU I joined. But at least my money will help EARN me money.

I saved some money today

I bought some jeans at The Gap yesterday, they were $58. I tried them on today, and they didn’t fit. So instead of exchanging them, I returned them, saving $58.

My auctions did really well also. The Coach purse I had listed, sold for $50, the silverware sold for $130 (it’s crazy, especially when I didn’t pay NEARLY that much for it), and the satellite radio sold for $16. Not bad for the miscellaneous crap I had laying around here.

On the other hand, I bought that Coach briefcase I wanted. The good news is, I didn’t pay $350 for it, I paid $86. So, I still saved some money. Once I get the money order for the silverware, I will use it to pay off my Orchard card completely. It will feel so good to get rid of that debt.

Now that I’m addicted to ebay, I’m going to try to find some other miscellaneous crap to auction off. I’m sure I don’t really NEED the 50 stuffed Eeyore toys I have, but they are my collectibles. I like them a lot. I really don’t want to get rid of them. Maybe I’ll find something else to auction…..

The Best News ALL Day!

I got probably the best news I have heard in a while, today. My step-mom calls me up and says “Your father and I would like to help you with your dentist appointment next week.” You see, I have to have a crown replaced and after insurance, it’s going to cost me about $350. SO, I say, “What do you mean?” and my S-M says “Your father would like to pay for the dental appointment, call the dentist, let them know what he wants to do, and give me the number for him to call. He wants to use his Visa to get the miles.” (They just went on their honeymoon to Hawaii and didn’t pay a thing for airfare.) That’s like FREE MONEY!!!! I can pay off my credit cards this month. WOOHOO!!!!

One of my friends has been thinking about paying off some debt. We have been talking about this for a while, and I think I’ve helped him decide to start an Emergency fund. Matter of fact, he showed me some Jet-ski’s on ebay that he really wanted. He just told me that he talked himself out of it. Want to hear the reason? He didn’t want to insure them. Not a good choice. I’m glad he didn’t buy them, but that’s not the right reason. I wanted to hear that he didn’t want to buy them because he’s trying to get out of debt. To each his own, I suppose.

That’s all for now. I’ll write more later, I think.