Christmas was bad for our credit card balances. Pretty much every card has a higher balance now than it did a month ago. We also had to buy a second car, the payments on which begin in January. As you can see, we've actually added over $17,000 in debt in the past six months, $3478 of which was on credit cards. We received our check from the county, to reimburse us for costs associated with a backed up sewer in our basement, eleven months after it happened. I have not yet used that money to pay a credit card bill because I am waiting to make sure we actually have enough for two car payments. I should receive my bonus the second pay check of February, and we’ll get our tax return either in February or March, depending how long it takes for me to get all of the necessary paperwork from both of our employers, the mortgage company, the student loan companies, our credit unions, etc. I’m trying to remember who all we get W-2’s and 1099’s from so I don’t miss anybody. I’ll get a second, significantly smaller bonus at the end of March, I believe, and hopefully a raise at the beginning of April. I have gotten at least a small raise every year I’ve been with this company, so I don’t foresee this year being any different. I’m hoping for a slightly larger raise since I’m the lowest paid person on our team.
Anyway, so we picked up a new car payment, to the tune of $244 per month. I’m going to schedule the payments biweekly at $122 every two weeks so that it doesn’t hurt as much coming out. Our insurance also went up $30 a month because we had to get full coverage where we’d previously had liability only. But we cut our cable package, saving us $37 a month, so we sort of broke even there.
I am trying to figure out what order I want to pay off credit cards. I know I have to pay a chunk off of a Best Buy card to prevent the $600 in interest from being added to our account. I want to pay off our Target card first, because it has a 24% interest rate. I was planning to use my bonus to pay the Best Buy card, but I’ve been thinking that I’ll use the money from the county to pay the necessary portion of the Best Buy card and then put the rest of it towards our Target card, then the whole of my bonus can go towards paying off the remainder of the Target card.
I’m thinking about doing a virtual “garage sale” type thing on Craigslist, just listing lots of clothing, toys, furniture, etc that we need to get rid of. Maybe create a website specifically for listing all of my items and then linking it to the Craigslist post? I don’t know. I don’t have much experience with Craigslist, aside from selling our washer and dryer on there.
I’m feeling pretty dejected right now, and completely overwhelmed by the amount of stuff in our house. If I’d gotten motivated earlier, I could have done the virtual garage sale a few weeks ago, and then donated what was left by year end, so I could deduct it from my taxes. But, I wasn’t that motivated, so now if we donate, it won’t be until 2011. With Christmas being my favorite season, the weeks following always leave me in a pretty blah mood. Next year, we buy in moderation. I love seeing my kids faces when they open gifts, but my daughter really didn’t need three LaLaLoopsy dolls.
Here’s to a better 2011. Hopefully when I write this entry going into 2012, day 565, I will have a much more upbeat attitude.
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