Okay, well I think I have a new bigger, better strategy for my war I waged on my debt. I am so excited about it. But it requires that my monkey does his thing, and does it well, and does it soon! Actually "soon" isn't the appropriate term. "Yesterday" would be a better term. Or momma is gonna find a J-O-B she can do in her spare time. Wait...what spare time?

It isn't that we are drowning in our bills. I am sure we could go on making those teeny tiny extra payments each month and keep all the creditors extremely happy tagging them right back on in interest each month. I am sure we could keep on living comfortably, shopping and buying really cool stuff, and putting all of our really big problems on the back burner forever and ever. I mean an extra few hundred a month should make a big dent, right? Ummmm no. It doesn't. I might as well roll up about $600.00 just in "extra" payments a month and light it up. It isn't helping to send "a little extra" here and "a little extra" there. It just keeps everyone, including myself, pacified for another month.

Well, that just isn't going to cut it anymore.

Anyway, if my plan works the way it is supposed to I will have saved $9,337.02 starting now and ending on the last day of June. That will pay off one off my credit cards with a fairly good start (almost 1k) left for the next biggest victim on the list. Then if we play this game right, I will have saved an additional $4,764.91 by the end of November. Which will wipe out that second problem with yet another good start on the next item on the hit list. Then I can spend the first part of next year picking off the rest one by one, which should be a piece of cake after we tackle this initial task. Once things start snowballing in the right direction, we will be smooth sailing. The biggest step is to quit using the freaking cards! I finally got them all into my possession last night and realized that his looked as if they were brand spanking new. Hmmmm. What does this say when I compare them to mine? Each of mine looks like they have seen their millionth swipe. The numbers and letters are all faded and they look like they have been horribly abused. I know I have issues; I am the first to admit that!

How does one get into my situation? It is fairly easily actually. Nine years of marriage, a majority of them being lived in definite poverty, three births, six self-financed long distance moves, fourteen new jobs, seven vehicles, one semi-long-term unexplained illness with no health insurance, two semi-major surgeries (not pertaining to births), hundreds of not-budgeted-for trips to the pediatricians, car repair places, emergency rooms, grocery stores, dentists, eye doctors.... well you get the picture. Things just add up.

Sometimes the money is in the checking account...sometimes it isn't. The world doesn't stop when you don't have money. Babies get sick, cars break down, major things happen and then just sometimes the budget didn't leave enough left to buy food and diapers for two weeks. Sometimes people just spend thinking they will pay it back next check (and never do). Sometimes people just want what they don't have. Sometimes people don't want to disappoint their families on Christmas morning or at birthday parties. Sometimes people buy houses in the middle of nowhere that they have to take huge losses on when they move back to civilization. Sometimes people take costly risks to try make their lives better, or so that they can make more money.

And sometimes, no matter how much is there on payday, it is just never enough. This is how things snowball in the wrong direction. If I had my life to live over again, the first thing I would vow not to do.... have a credit card.

If I didn't have credit card bills, I would have an extra $1,458.00 per month. That is just deducting my credit cards from the monthly budget. That may not seem like a lot of money to most people. But that is a lot to me. Tell me you wouldn't love to have $1,458.00 per month in pocket change. I have a whole litter of children to be thinking about saving for. I want that money. I need that money. It makes me sick that I am burning that money at the moment.

So where do I start? The cards have to go. They can't linger around in purses just begging to be used the minute that extra payment clears and adds a little available cash to my limit. Then the payment schedule has to be reorganized. Every extra penny has to be put toward that one payment (which is the highest interest debt first for me). The other payments have to just be simmering on the back burner with the bare minimum payments put toward them, in order to put every effort into slashing that highest interest debt quickly and effectively. That means every penny has to be accounted for. That means the big "B" word has to actually be followed.

I actually don't hate a budget the way I used to. It is a very easy way to determine where your money has to go and when. I have had a very good one for years. We just don't stick to it very well anymore. It had something to do with that feeling that if you are making a lot of money you should be able to blow a certain portion of it on nothing each check. Bad...bad...bad.

Things are going to come up. Situations are going to test us. I need a big black can of paint so I can paint "$1495.00 per month baby! You can do it! Just say no!" really big on my living room wall. Think anyone would notice? I really hate money. It is the root of all evil.

Posted by gwendolyn on March 30, 2001 at 02:52 PM