Now We're Hittin' The Big Time!!

We have cleared the $10,000 hurdle!!!! That means we are more than two-thirds of the way to our goal and the one-year deadline is still four months away! Wooooohoooooo!!!!  A frugal holiday season and plenty of overtime are upon us, so I intend to keep the momentum going!

It's about time I take another one down!!

It has been a while since I was last able to make one of these posts!! I sent off the final payment for Store Card 2 this morning! Goodbye, 29% interest rate!!

Direct Deposit Advance - $0/$550
Store Card 1 - $0/$323
Credit Card 1 - $0/$400
Line of Credit - $0/$510
Credit Card 2 - $0/$685
Store Card 2 - $0/$2,798 - PAID!!
Credit Card 4 - $4,098/$5,150
Credit Card 3 - $4,064/$4,577
Auto Loan - $3,195/$4,140
Student Loan 1 - $1,876/$1951
Student Loan 2 - $2,650/$3,148
Student Loan 3 - $5,407/$5,614
Student Loan 4 - $5,748/$6,048

Total paid to date (including interest): $9,283.15

Next on the chopping block is another credit card. After I paid off all of my smaller balances (those under $1,000), I decided to stray from the Dave Ramsey plan a bit. My momentum and my financial discipline are pretty well established at this point, so I'm comfortable tweaking my plan.to pay off the higher interest rates first. September should bump me over the $10k mark! Woohoo!!

In apartment-deck-gardening news, we picked over two pints of cherry tomatoes yesterday. They're growing faster than the girls can eat them now, so there are finally enough for me and some to share! The green peppers are getting big and I can't wait to chomp into those. A squirrel has taken a liking to our peas (and nothing else), so we haven't gotten any of those yet. There's still time before the end of the season. I hope s/he's enjoying having some fresh produce. Especially since I usually only feed the wildlife moldy bread. Mmmmmm.... Spores...

Half-Way Goal Met!!

We've met our half-way goal of $7,500 paid off at the six-month mark!  To be more specific, In the last six months, I have paid off...

$7,753.61

I've pretty well settled into my budget now and it's not much of a struggle to stick to it.  An interesting thing has begun to happen since I have started to really think about my purchases; I have a newfound desire to purge the junk from my apartment.  There is just so much stuff everywhere.  I have had a few friends hold garage sales over the last month and I have donated some items and sold a few things.  It has been nice to make a little bit of money, but even better to just have literally truckloads of things removed from my living space.  I'm hoping for a few more garage sale opportunities throughout the summer.

I sold most of the CDs and DVDs that I didn't want anymore to SecondSpin a few years ago.  I like that they tell me exactly what they'll give me for each disc so I can decide if it's worth shipping to them or not.

I've taken tons of kids' stuff to Once Upon a Child once the girls have outgrown them.  They can be a little picky about brands and how worn things can be because they want to be a retail store, not a thrift store.  Check out what they're currently accepting on their website.

My local Once Upon a Child is next to Half-Price Books, so I drop off a load of books to sell and browse while I'm waiting to hear about the kids' stuff.  Half-Price will recycle books if you are looking to get rid of them and they choose not to buy them, but more often, I'll take whatever doesn't sell along with the items that Once Upon a Child doesn't want and swing by Goodwill on my way home.  I love that the store near my place does drive-thru donations.  I just pop the trunk and it all disappears.  I don't even have to get out of the car!

These little snowflakes add up fast and have kept the debt snowball rolling along at a pretty good pace.  I'm on track to pay off another credit card in August!  Woohoo!

KID PIC: Here's a picture of me riding a motorcycle inside a whale.  Kids think their parents can do anything. :)