Debt Hater

Planning out my next set of goals

    I've been having a little too much fun this month. My monthly report is going to be black (unless I go crazy in this last week), but it won't be a report about my restraint and self-denial.

    I've just been living it up and lazy with my money this month.

    But I have a lot of things I want to do AND I realize that without a specific plan for my finances, I can leave myself wide open to make a big mess. I don't want that, so I need to figure out what it is I want to do.

    We've talked many times  before on this blog that big, ambiguous goals are impossible to achieve. So, I could say "I want to save money," but what does that mean? How much money? How long? Save it for what?
    But before I get really specific, I need to know what's important to me and I what I'd like to accomplish by year end.

    What is important to me right now?

• I want to be completely out of debt. I have only the car loan left and will pay it off by September, but I'm wondering if there's a really good reason to just pay it off by July.
• I want to go on a big trip for my 2009 birthday. 
• My guy and I have some commitments to keep to each other and they're going to cost money.
• I want to work on building my cash reserves. Right now, I'd like to have $3,000 saved by the end of the year.
• I don't want to be blindsided by Christmas. I want to either save a certain amount of money and work with it to buy gifts, or buy gifts little by little through the rest of the year (keeping the total under a certain amount).
• I want to work up to saving 20% of my income... right now, I routinely save 4.7% of my gross income (but if you added in what I was paying on my credit card, that would be 21% right there).
• I want to have fun!

   

Now I have to prioritize these and turn the Top 3 into S.M.A.R.T. goals (remember, thats Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-oriented) and attach real time and money to them.

    After that, I need to figure out what my next, big, grand, important goal is.

   Until then, I'll continue my little vacation through the end of May.

    DH
 

My New Credit Card Debt Solution

    You may remember my previous plan to pay off all my credit card debt.

    Well, it didn't happen that way because my income tax refund was not as big as I crossed my fingers and hoped (again, as I said in my "dream deferred" post, it's GOOD that my refund wasn't so big. It means I'm learning and handling my money a little smarter -- but just a little!).

    Another part of that plan was using just about all of my mini emergency fund to add to the refund and cancel the debt completely. I wasn't hesitant to do that -- I wanted the debt relief. I wanted to be debt free.

    Well, now, I still want that, but I'm not sure emptying out my mini emergency fund all at once is brilliant.

    If I continue to pay down my credit card debt with the same monthly amount, I will be paid off by September. That's not good enough for me.

    Instead, here's what I plan to do:

    1. In April, add $1,000 from my mini emergency fund to my regular payment (leaving $800 in the fund).
    New debt total: $1,004.23

    2. In May, take an additional $400 from the fund and add it to my regular payment.
    New debt total: $0.00!!!!!! Zip! Zilch! Nada!

    3. In June, put what I had been adding to my credit card back into the mini-emergency fund.
    New mini emergency savings total: $1,000.

    That's it. In two months, I'll be credit card debt free.

    DH

Getting Back To My Roots (Root Vegetables, that is)

    I'm trying to get the food thing back together.

    If you've been reading my blog pretty regularly, then you know that I've never really had my food budget thing completely under control -- food is the one category I seem to go over every month.
    But, for a long time I had a routine going that did work very well, not just for my wallet but also for my hips.

    I planned menus for the week, went shopping on Saturday or Sunday and spent a big chunk of Sunday afternoon cooking and preparing meals for the week. Can't say it was loads of fun, but when done religiously, it saved me from spending a lot on lunch or snacks and I never had to figure out what was for dinner when I got home.
    Because I was trying to save money, I bought less meat and more vegetables, grains and beans. I bought fewer snacks. I rarely bought "juice" (which is really just water with corn syrup and juice flavoring) and hardly drank soda (until my guy moved in and suddenly we were drinking Coke Zero like it might suddenly be taken off the market).

    But since I moved, that planning went out the window. I eat a lot more take out. I eat out a lot more. I buy lunch three to five times a week. I drink less water and more juice and soda. I eat fewer vegetables and more meat. I eat more junk food.

    And that stuff is EXPENSIVE.

    Not to mention loaded with calories and hardly any nutrition.

    So, I'm trying to get back to basics this week.
    First, I didn't buy any meat at the grocery store. We had some in the freezer and that's what we're going to eat.
    Second, I planned this week's meals around food already in the pantry. We've got bulghur wheat, Jiffy cornbread, rice for days, cans of beans, spinach salad, bell peppers, onions -- you got the picture.
    Third, I got back to cooking dinner and lunch on the same night.
    Fourth, I cooked a vegetarian dish for lunch this week. I'm a meat eater for sure, but veggie and grain lunch dishes are cheaper and they do spare me cholesterol, fat and calories.

    I'm already over budget for groceries this month. But I'm hoping this effort will help me restore my former discipline.

    DH

The Tax Rebate

Ok, so the economy was (is?) tanking and good ole Prez Bush decided he'd held by sending us money to spend on Prada bags and SUVs.

I hadn't paid much attention to all of this news because I figured I wouldn't think about it -- if I got a "rebate," it would be windfall, unexpected money that I could fill in some financial gaps with. I didn't want to start thinking of it as money that was coming to me so I wouldn't lose my mind and start spending it in advance.

But then I saw this aritcle from Bankrate.com about Tax Rebate Winners and Losers: Who gets it and who doesn't.

Again, it wasn't money I was counting on, besides, I rarely trust anything Bush does when it comes to taxes and the economy. But, it would be silly not to know what was going on.

According to the article, someone like me will get $300 to $600. If my tax liability is more than $600, then I'll get $600 (likewise if it was less than that, then you'd get that amount).

You've got to file your taxes though (which I will do on Monday with my tax preparer -- yippee! Someone else will do it for me!).

So, what will I do with the moola?

I have no idea.

I could stick it in my emergency fund.

I could add it to my IRA.

I could make an extra big payment on my car (which would effectively pay it off).

I could go shopping!

I could buy a plane ticket to visit my friends in Portland (which I'm dying to do).

Me thinks I'll probably wind up doing something fun instead of something wise and responsible. That will be my patriotic gesture (aside from voting) for the year!

Anybody out there have plans for the "rebate?"

DH