Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Progress...

Well, progress on the debt reduction hasn't been great. Our numbers for Sept 10th are in (don't ask me why I'm weird and pick the 10th and not the 1st or last day like normal people...I have no clue how this happened...) - and we're up from where we "started" a few months ago (hence, the negative numbers on my NCN Network page...).

MINUS 2.98% looks really bad. I don't like it. It needs to change.

I realize that we did what we did (charged again) and I need to move past it, but it's hard sometimes to look and figure out why we act the way we do. Now, for us, it came down to staying within budget (for once), but having two major unexpected things happen and using savings, but not taking into account that we may need to take it easy in other areas while we figure out what's going on. We stressed, we ate out more, we didn't stop buying - and that just killed us.

So, lesson learned, I guess...but what good is a lesson learned if you don't apply it? This is really the story of our lives - we do this over and over and over and over...you get the idea. (And I'm not really trying to sound like I'm beating myself up, I know it does - but it's frustrating). So..yeah, I can say "lesson learned", but it only counts if you stop using the poor judgment.

Granted, we had the money in the EF, which was cool. And although we did use the cc, we kept it to as minimum as we could, and we stopped the leak when I noticed what we were REALLY doing.

Okay. Now. The other confession. Because, the update on that chart is from mid-August, not a few days ago.

I have no clue how that ended up that way.

I do not know how I ended up with a HIGHER balance on the Aug 26th chart update than when I first started the chart with NCN in June.

Hmm. That didn't feel as bad as I thought it would. Go figure.

I like to tell myself that I just sent the wrong numbers in to start. And I was really tempted to just start a new chart over. But no...we need to learn. I need to see those numbers. And that's cool.

Whew. I feel better.


Anyway - right now, our goal is not the debt, but a $1000 Baby Emergency Fund. So the debt is on hold, but the plan is not to incur new debt, which is a darn good goal. :)


btw - thanks to NCN for all the work he does. It's amazing how much goes into his webpage, not to mention chart updates, etc. When I first started looking at personal finance blogs, he was right up there as a trendsetter (or whatever you want to call it) - and he's been an inspiration. You rock, man. :)


okay - enough depressing stuff (debt) ...I need to go get some stuff posted on ebay! I have listed 9 things. My goal is 25 auctions finished by the end of September. I can do that! BEF, here we come!

2 comments:

Vicki Burt said...

Have you guys considered freezing your credit cards? Literally putting them in a block of ice?

I know it sounds childish but if you make them difficult to use, you might not use them for impulse purchases.

For instance, it would take less time to make sandwiches for dinner than it would to thaw the cards and go out somewhere.

And yet they'd still be available when you have emergencies, such as the car expenses.

Jennifer said...

9 listings on ebay is great! I've been having this problem of needing to see if my first listing sells before I list another - crazy, I know! Hope you earn lots!