Monday, June 30, 2008

Day 30

This is day 30 of debt reduction and I have paid a total of $10,212.43

I paid my PST that was two years past due which brought me over the $10,000 I was hoping to concur in month one of the debt reduction plan. I paid the bill at the bank and while walking to my car I actually cried with relief that $10,000 of my debt is gone. It really feels amazing.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Day 29 on debt reducation plan


...and I've paid $8,846.00!!!

Unfortunately, my main camera stopped working while I was working at a wedding yesterday. I hope it is fixable as new cameras for what I need are terribly expensive. I have two others that work but one is very slow so if the camera thats down is not fixable I'll have to look into buying another.

Goals this week
1. pay a $1466.43 PST bill
2. find car insurance
3. move my stuff out of storage by the July 8th
4. any extra cash I have on Friday will go to my son private school bill

I'm still keeping track of what I spend a week and will just try to update it every Wednesday so I have the log to see where all my cash is going. Keeping track of how much I spend does help as I second guess purchases.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

8 day spending analyzed

Tim Hortons - $51.63 (ugh, addictions!)
Eating Out - $74.86
Groceries - $22.83
Entertainment - $82.8
Clothing - $39.54

Gas - $154.10
Other Business - $161.03

Personal Spending: $271.68
Business Spending: $315.13

I'm on day 26 of debt reduction and with the money set up in my account to pay off debt I have to figure out where I am at right now.

I have money in the bank which will take care of my PST debt and cash on me to pay off the storage debt. On Saturday I'll have about $2000 cash to pay business expenses and the rest I plan to put to my sons private school bill and more on storage.

I still might make it to $10,000 in debt payments this month *fingers crossed*

Planning to pay off debt is seeming like a part-time job, lol. It really is involve a lot of planning.

June 25 spending

It's been a week of keeping track of my spending so now I am to analyze my habits...which I will do later today after I pay off some more debt

$40.05 - gas
$5.64 - Tim Hortons
$39.54 - shoes for my son (his have a hole)
$3.66 - chocolate milk shake
-------
$88.89

I don't think I bought groceries this week as I've been at my boyfriends all week.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Todays Spending

5.64 - Tim Hortons

Whoo hoo!

yesterdays spending

Yesterday I drove over 500km...it was a lot of diving and maybe about 6hrs worth, or close. I'm pretty sure I spend a whole $50 on gas, but because it was work I was paid just over $200 for the travel.

All my spending yesterday was work related:

$51.00 - gas
$8.05 - Tim Hortons (breakfast on the way to work)
$5.63 - Time Hortons (snack on the way home)
-------
$64.68


...not bad. The gas I'll write off. However, by the end of my 7 days of keeping track of how much I spend I think it will be nice to know how much I do spend at Tim Hortons. I have a horrible Ice Cap addiction which cost me at least $94 a month

I have to catch up on car payments this week (about $1400) so I'm not sure how much I'll have to out on the big debt. Hopefully I can pay at lest $500 to debt on catch up on the car payments...ok -- that sounds like a good this weeks goal.

Goal this week: catch up on car payments and get $500 to debt

Saturday, June 21, 2008

more numbers

I drew the above image at the beginning of the month when I was answering creditor calls and viewing bills I wasn't sure how to pay. I made a list of the companies and people I owed money to with the x (me) in the middle because that's how I was feeling...like all these companies were coming at me in full force. I have some nasty letters. Of the 13 listed 7 of then wanted money right away. So far this month I have been able to scratch thee of the companies/people off my list.

On another page I have the list below -- everything I've paid this month as far as creditors go, a small advertising cost and one personal loan.

...and here I have my list of crazy high bills this month because I was behind. However, I'm all caught up now :) Well, the Visa will be a long battle.
I guess now I will make a priority list of what to pay off first with my killer interest!
Check this out...this one bill suggest I pay $73.00 a month while my interest cost me $63.45. Can you imagine how long this would take to pay off when only $9.55 of the payment goes to the amount while the rest is on the interest. Yikes! This bill will have to be near the top of the list to be paid first. The interest is something like 28%
Here is my Visa interest
...and the $104.88 I paid last month in just interest alone, ugh!
This just shows how horrible I am at keeping track of things. I was paying $100.00 a week on this bill and forgot that I had set my bank account up to do so.

I need to get organized so that's what I am working on tonight. Like, who doesn't notice $400 missing from their account?!! It's not like I have a ton of money to not notice. I'm sooooo horrible with money and keeping track of things.

My little notes help a bit but tonight I bought a binder to keep all my bills in along with drawings as you've seen here -- hopefully this will help!

ok, now total spending today:

Personal
$5.11 - Tim Hortons
$6.00 - Wallmart water and coke
-------
$11.11

Business
$33.03 - gas and drinks
$13.43 - office supplies
$100.00 - assistant fees for the day

business is a write off so with personal spending today I have done well :)

This morning before work I estimated how much I can put on debt in June and August. This is my attempt to plan ahead and I have all the paper work in my new binder which I am calling my 'Binding out of debt Binder'

Now off to make that lit I was talking about...

1. Storage (because they want me out by July 8)

2. PST (just have to sort it out)

3. Future Shop (crazy high interest)

4. Peoples (in collections)

5. Visa (high interest)

6. Master Card (high interest and in collections)

7. Goodwin (my sons private school/no interest)

8. Radio ads (advertising business expense)

9. Mom (personal loan)

10. Paul (personal loan and he is in no rush)

Only 10 things but adding up to be over $40,000
Hopefully next month I can bring the 10 down to a list of 8

Friday, June 20, 2008

Oh boy!

Spending today:

$5.01 - Tim Hortons
$16.00 - pizza
$11.58 - snacks
$5.25 movies
-------
$37.84 (better than my two previous days)

Usually on Fridays my son goes to the grandparents or his fathers because I work on weekends as a wedding photographer. However, he is home tonight so we got some pizza and movies. Because I am a vegetarian we usually get two pizzas but tonight we just got one with half peperoni and my half with just mushrooms...so we saved there, a bit. I figure it cost less to buy a pizza and split it than to buy what we need to make our own pizza that we never eat the left overs to as it's soggy the next day.

I'll take my son to my mothers tomorrow as I have to shoot a wedding tomorrow and another one on Sunday. So, we spent a few extra dollars on entertainment for tonight. Also, I have a few things I'm doing to prepare for tomorrows wedding. It will take me a few hours to get through the backing up of files.

June 19th Spending

Ugh, I spend a lot

$5.80 - Tim Hortons
$10.00 - Mini putting for the kids. (their first day off school)
$67.57 - Water guns for the kids (I bought three)
$2.25 - Ice cream for my son
--------
$85.62

Business Expenses
$5.27 - batteries
$4.46 - envelopes
$4.83 - mail
--------
$14.57

TOTAL SPENDING FOR THE DAY: $100.18

I'm so hoping I don't spend an average of $100/day as it's looking so far.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

focus on the solution - not the problem

If what Donald Trump says works: "Don't focus on the problem. Focus on the solution" then maybe I should not focus on this huge debt I have of who knows what. I keep finding more debt and with interest it's over $50,000...but not much over. Ugh, I don't even know how much debt I have

Instead I'll try changing the focus to how I am paying off this debt and just sort of 'forget' about the amount.

I have enough cash to get me through the week till my next pay and I can't wait for Saturday/Sunday when I can deposit over $1400 worth of checks into my business account to pay off more debt.

I just might be able to pay $10,000 this month. I'm thinking about that being my next goal, hummmm....

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Goal of the week reached in a day!

So, it's after midnight, I'm tired and should be in bed. I've just spent the last hour going over bill payments, banking stuff, deleting old bills off my on line banking and setting up new payments.

I have my future shop account set up that I pay $100 every Thursday and $91 on the 18th of the month. I actually forgot I was doing that so I've been paying $491.00 a month on this bill. I thought I was paying $91. This is how awful I am with money! I've not set up my Visa now that I pay $100 every Monday and then I'll put whatever else I can on it. I figure Monday is a good day as I get paid on weekends. AND, I just put $800 on the Visa today so I've now reached the goal of the week and more that I set this morning :) I don't plan on making money tomorrow (um, today...need sleep) so it will be just keeping track of spending.

I also took care of the phone bill and hydro but they are not included in the debt plan

total debt paid: $6960 in 19 days

the math of it all

18 months is not so far away. I was calculating that at the beginning of this month I started with a $47,000 debt.

If I want to pay it off in 18 months that will be about $2,611.

Wow, that sounds scary! But it gets scarier. There is interest on this debt and right now I am paying about $400 a month in interest. YIKES!!!

I asked for saving advice on Facebook today and one of the tips is to keep track of every penny you spend so I did that today:

$7.51 at Tim Hotons
$30.02 on gas
$55.20 with Brad and I out for dinner
$3.00 on drinks at Beckers

$95.73 in total

The idea then after the week is to analyze my spending habits.

and I paid a $800 debt to my sons private school (still owing $3,200)

My gaol as mentioned this morning is to pay off $1000 of debt this week and I'm almost there.

I have two weddings this week which will bring in about $1,4000. I hope to put that on my Visa.

I have $2,280.54 in the bank right now with a $806.57 hydro bill/disconnection notice and a $800.29 bell mobilty bill. I'll pay the bills and put the rest on debt tonight.

Total debt paid: $6160 in 18 days

By age 30...

...has always been the plan -- to be debt free. Now that I am on crunch time with just less than 18months to go I often feel stressed and worried I might not make my goal. I've added a countdown here to keep myself reminded (as if I need a reminder) I'll have a list of things I plan to do to stop spending so much money that I can instead put onto debt.

Goal this week: Put $1000 onto debt by Sunday

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

$47,000 plus the interest in 18 months

I went to a credit counselor today and was told I should claim bankrupt as my living cost more then my income and that doesn't even include the $42,000 debt I have right now to pay off. I went in there thinking I would be set up on a debt management plan but they pointed out that there wasn't any money (after my cost of living) to pay off any of my debt.

I've paid about $5000 already in debt this month. There is no way I am prepared to claim bankrupt. I believe I can get through this. No money? How did I pay the $5000 then?!! Ugh, I'll just have to take care of this myself.

Just this month I was at $47,000. I am now at $42,000. Maybe by the end of the month I'll be at $40,000. Ummmm, let's see if I can do that :)

I have a book I carry with my that includes a list of my debt. (I pay $400 a month in interest.) I'll keep track of my progress as well online with this chart.