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I’ve updated my progress bars.  I have now paid 18.7% of my private loan off.  Almost 19%.  I can’t WAIT until I can get that line to the 100% mark.  I’d like to pay it off in 6 months, but that would be like $3600 a month paid and that doesn’t seem too feasible, so more reasonably my goal is 12 months or a payment of $1750 a month.  I’ve paid $730 so far this month and should be paying at least $1000 (probably closer to $1200) with our next paychecks.  So I’ll definitely meet or exceed that payment goal this month :) 

I’m also going to start a page on which I publish my weekly shopping lists, per a readers request.  Now, there are a lot of places to find shopping lists.  Mine will be specific to me.  I don’t really like to spend any money on groceries if I can help it, so I usually only list the deals that come out to be free or close to free.  I also have a large amount of extrabucks (CVS money) to start with, so I do post deals that require me to pay out ECB’s to get ECB’s back.  Check them out if you are curious or want a really refined list of the BEST deals at CVS and Wags (at least the closest to free)

I want to have a job that I love.  I want to do work that I find enriching and rewarding.  I want to minimize stress as much as possible, get along with the people that I work with, make enough money to live, and be happy when I have to go to work.  I know, of course, that this is the goal of a lot of people.  I also know that there are a few lucky people who have this type of situation, and then there are a lot of people who work just to live.  I have made a commitment to myself that I won’t get into a job that I hate, that makes me dread getting up in the morning.  Is that unreasonable, especially at my age?  And what can I do to make this happen? (more…)

I was included in three Carnivals this week.  Please check out The Carnival of Debt Reduction the Carnival of Personal Finance  and of course the Carnival of Twenty Something Finances at Living Almost Large, where my post was an editors pick :) 

My DH and I fought about money for a long time.  Now that we are keeping our money together, things are much better.  This won’t solve the problem for everyone, of course.  Sometimes savers are married to spenders, or one spouse has a completely different idea about budgeting than the other.  But, if you need to get your spouse or significant other to change their financial habits, because it is legitimately causing problems, here are 10 steps to talking to them and getting them to actually change their behavior.   (more…)

Without further ado, here it is:

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It’s Halloween.  It’s also the day that those who are paid biweekly on Fridays get their 3rd paycheck for October!  That means for those of us who budget based on 2 paychecks a month, we have a bonus extra paycheck today.  Ours is going towards debt, giving us $1892.18 to pay towards debt, or $946.09 each. 

I will be posting October spending and income later today, or on Monday depending on how time goes.

I paid another $275 the other day so I have paid off 12%.  I really want this loan GONE.  I am consolidating all of my other loans with Direct Loans (and hopefully the consolidation will be completed by the estimated date of November 24).  If everything goes through OK, then instead of the multitude of different loans I have now, I will have just 2.  One will be this citibank private loan & the other will be a big giant Direct Loan that has all my other student loans.  

I’ll be putting the big giant loan into deferment (if I quality) or forebearance (if I don’t) and then throwing every cent to Citibank.  As far as I can see, there is no reason I can’t have it paid off within the next year.  I’d like to have it paid off within the next 6 months, and if I can generate a lot of extra income with my business then maybe that is a possibility.  I’ve also started to generate a tiny bit of income over here at this blog, and I’m hoping that income source will continue to grow a bit more over the next couple of months.  Also, we’re hoping DF gets a raise at Christmas time when he is up for his review.  

To have it paid off within 6 months, I would have to pay about $4000 a month.  Based on our regular income alone I have about $1600-$2000 a month to pay towards it.  So we’d have to have an extra $2000 a month… OK I’m realizing that this isn’t all that feasible… Oh well, I can still hope.  

I’ve made a few changes to the blog.  I’ve updated a list of Blogs I Love, so check them out.  I’ve also added sidebars that show my progress towards paying off debt and funding my IRA.  I’d like to find better progress bars that I can show the exact amount I have paid and the total, but after like an hour of searching these were the best I could find.  If anyone knows Wordpress and knows how to find better progress charts that allow me to show amounts, please comment and let me know. 

Every so often, I read an article or see a story about the United State’s dismal failure in the financial education department.  High school and college and beyond seem to offer no guidance as far as how to budget or invest or the value of compound interest or the risks of credit card debt.  However, I simply don’t believe that any form of financial education will be enough to change peoples habits or make any kind of difference. (more…)

I signed on to check my credit card balance today, and the website listed my 10 most recent transactions.  In these transactions, there were little “ad” popups, that I was supposed to click on to use whatever it was they were advertising.  Has this happened to anyone else?  Its sort of strange and freaky that they can see my transactions and that they are using that to target ads directly to me when I sign on to look at my card balance.