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It’s always nice to receive any money in the mail, even if it happens to only be $4.19. I guess that is the amount that I overpaid on my car loan. I’m not quite sure how that happened since our car payment was on automatic payments since day one – but I won’t complain. Receiving the money was a nice treat.
We also received the original loan papers and it had “PAID IN FULL” beautifully stamped in red across the top. Perhaps I never really paid attention before, or perhaps I was in denial, but it says right there that the total finance charge for the loan was $3,541.90. That added another 25% to the cost of our car. 25%!! What were we thinking back then??
Lesson learned – attempt to purchase next car with cash, if possible.
I am very fortunate with this blog. I had hoped it would keep me in line and keep me focused with paying off my debt. And it has done so more than I ever thought.
One thing that helps keep me going are the great emails I have received from others sharing their stories. I see people making a difference in their financial life, and I’m not sure how else to say it…it’s just awesome.
Here’s two emails I received from one reader (and just so everyone knows, I do not share emails on here unless you give me permission to do so).
“I wanted to share with you the good news that I got two of my higher interest rates reduced by calling the company. One card I have had since 1992 and after talking to a customer service rep. he suggested in switching my card to a reward type card. I did have to write to Discover which took a little more time.”
That right there is great news! It never hurts to try to contact your credit cards to see if they will lower the rates. And in this case – it worked! 
A few days later I received this email…
“Again, I have good news to share. In June, in an attempt to have our auto insurance reviewed to reduce the rates, I called my agent. Neither my husband or I have had any tickets and I haven’t had an auto claim in 9 years. Well, my agent said that she would check into it; review my credit etc and if anything could be done she would let me know. I didn’t hear from her before my policy renewed in July. I received a call on my home recorder to call my agent on Tuesday. When I returned the call on Wednesday I was told that my policy is being rewritten which will save me $200 every six months; $400 annual. I had actually given up and thought I’d try again next year. This news made my day.”
I haven’t called my insurance company in quite a while. After hearing this, I’m tempted to give them a call and just ask. It doesn’t hurt to try, and this reader is now saving $400/year by just giving it a shot! That’s A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!! Way to go!!!!
Thank you everyone for your emails and for sharing things with me
Hi Everyone! Here’s the Carnival that hits close to home for me, and I’m proud to be hosting it this week. I’d like to give everyone a big thank you for your submissions. Without further ado, here’s 16 juicy debt articles for your reading pleasure (my comments in italic).
Jeff Plumb presents Good Debt and Bad Debt posted at The Buck Stops Here. To me, all debt is bad, but I do feel that some debt isn’t as “bad” as others, as Jeff suggests.
Super Saver presents Debt Ratio Implications posted at My Wealth Builder. Super Saver has calculated their Debt Ratio. Have you?
Erich presents The Courage to Live Debt Free – the Principles of Economic Security posted at LifeTraining – Online. The way society is today, it’s not always easy to live debt-free. Erich shares some principles on how to make it happen.
Golbguru presents How I Killed My Debt and What I Learned From it posted at Money, Matter and More Musings. Golbguru is now debt-free and shares an interesting graph telling a debt-history story.
Jim presents PFCollege: How To Make Saving A Habit posted at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. Jim gives three things to do if you are working on saving money that apply if you are saving for a small emergency fund or for a car.
Bluntmoney presents My first attempt at getting out of debt posted at Blunt Money. Sometimes your first attempt to get out of debt may not be your last. The trick is to learn from your attempts and figure out what you can do better next time.
Bryan C. Fleming presents How to Get Through a Cash Pinch posted at Bryan C. Fleming .com. I’m guilty of something Bryan touches upon – using your credit card for groceries. I didn’t have a means to get through a cash pinch.
David presents The Courage to Live Debt Free (Debt Free Step 7 of 7) posted at Money Under 30. Probably the biggest tool one has to get out of debt is the power of your mind.
LAMoneyGuy presents Paid Off My Car Loan! posted at It’s Just Money. Congrats LAMoneyGuy! I just paid off my car loan too! Let’s have a party!
My New Choice presents Would You Like an Extra $200 Per Month? posted at My New Choice. You could have some more of your paycheck that needs to go in your pocket.
The Prince of Thrift presents Becoming & Staying Debt Free: Heartland Share Day posted at Becoming & Staying Debt Free. An interesting way to volunteer some time and receive groceries at a reduced price.
Savvy presents Starting from scratch – laying the groundwork posted at Savvy Saver. Savvy’s brother got a little bit of help from big sis on how to handle his debt upon graduation from college.
Scott presents Stuff Happens posted at Scott On Money. I don’t know about you, but the unexpected scares me. One occurance could really put a damper on our debt reduction.
King of Debt presents We’re In Debt » Pay Off Your Debt as Soon as You Make the Money to Pay Off Your Debt posted at We’re In Debt. If you have a problem parting with your money, perhaps automatic payments to your debt can help you.
J.D. Roth presents Control Impulse Spending with the 30-Day Rule posted at Get Rich Slowly. Man, I wish I read this article when I was in college!
NCN presents Monday Updates of NCN Network Members at the NCN Network blog. I’m a member over there, as are many others. Go check it out and if you like what you see…join us!
There was one submission that wasn’t quite debt reduction related, but more suited to personal finance: David Porter presents What do Mortgage Underwriters do? posted at Pacesetter Mortgage Blog.
That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading For more information on the carnival, you can check out the Carnival of Debt Reduction site.
Can anyone relate to the following?
Remember back when we you were young and either your mother or father would try to get you to save electricity by saying…
“Turn the light off when you’re done. Do you think we own the power company?”
“We don’t have stock in the power company, turn the lights off.”
“Every light in this house is on. Do you think we get paid by the power company to have our lights on?”
Or probably a dozen variations of the above?
My son is only 4 so I changed the above sayings around a little bit to make it more age appropriate.
“Make sure you turn the light off when you are done. That way, we save electricity and save money.”
My son would go and turn the light off because I told him to, but I’m sure the second sentence would always go over his head. I figure, if I keep reminding him about these things I could hopefully instill some frugal traits in him.
Well, low and behold, my son went into the bathroom and I had left the light on from the last time I went in there. I was washing dishes and I could hear him telling me…
“Momma…you left the light on in the bathroom. You need to turn it off to save money.”
I didn’t know whether to be embarassed because a 4 year-old is telling a 29 year-old how to save money, or whether to be proud of my young son for listening to what I say and learning.
I’ll just be a proud momma
I’m hosting the Carnival of Debt Reduction tomorrow, so if you are a blogger and would like to submit an article about debt, please submit it to me by using this handy form at Blog Carnival.
The deadline for submissions is today at 5pm EST.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been a fan of Howie Mandel ever since Bobby’s World. I still sometimes say…”Hello…I’m Bobby Generic.”
So, I was pleased to see Howie hosting Deal or No Deal on NBC. I try to catch the show when I can, for I find Howie very entertaining to watch.
Over at Mighty Bargain Hunter, he has an article about Howie and whether he is a risk taker. I find it interesting that Howie plays things pretty safe.
I’ve discussed Deal or No Deal before, and as soon as I reached enough to pay off our debt I would be done. But then again…I say that now. We never know exactly how we may react under the bright lights and with the cheering of an audience.
I ran some numbers today, and if I pay $1,100/month to our credit cards we will be debt free in December of 2008! That’s 5 months earlier than previously calculated before we shifted our debt around and lowered our interest rates. That’s pretty awesome and would make for a great Christmas present.
I ran the same scenaio, but changed the numbers around a little:
Pay $1,500/month – Debt free April 2008
Pay $1,700/month – Debt free February 2008
Pay $2,000/month – Debt free November 2007
I especially like the last option of being debt free because it’s only a little over a year away. But at $2,000/month I would need to make some extra income somehow. The highest we have ever been able to pay in a month (not counting tax return time) was $1,500.
Seeing the dates in front of me makes me really want to try.
My time is pretty much maxed, so obtaining a new job is not an option. I still have to ask for a raise at my one job (I’m a chicken when it comes to things like that *sigh*). I will obtain a raise for my full-time job if I take some coursework but I’m having a hard time sending off the funds to do it. I will get reimbursed when I finish though – I just hate parting with hundreds of dollars right now. Plus then I have to find time to study.
I could change my goal date of May 2009, but I’m not quite ready to do that yet. The scenarios I ran assume that I will be able to do another balance transfer if I need to. I have two low interest rate balance transfers that will expire in November (3.9%) and March (0%).
Gosh, I hope one of my other cards has a good balance transfer offer. Otherwise, I’m looking at 15%+ interest.
I try not to think about the looming 15%+ interest rate for it does somewhat depress me. It took a bit of shuffling to get all of our debts under 9.9%. In a way, I am just keeping my fingers crossed that I will be given offers at the right times. Otherwise, I will have to figure out plan B.
In the meantime, the biggest thing to do is to just keep paying as much as we can.
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About This Site
My Debt
- Original Debt: $97,293.06
- Paid: $1,927.89
- Remaining: $95,365.17
- Emergency Fund: $1100
- Broken Down
- Line of Credit 2: $0.00
- Line of Credit 1: $0.00
- Credit Card 1: $0.00
- Credit Card 2: $245.00
- Credit Card 3: $405.00
- Credit Card 6: $1,785.00
- Credit Card 7: $2,381.17
- Consolidation Loan: $11,000.00
- Credit Card 10: $14,519.00
- Auto Loan 1: $16,093.00
- Credit Card 11: $23,873.00
- Auto Loan 2: $25,064.00
Finance Blogging Buddies
- Beachgirl’s Budget Blog
- Becoming and Staying Debt Free
- Boston Gals Open Wallet
- Debt Free Hispanic
- Debt Kid
- Debt Reduction 101
- Dual Income No Kids
- Everybody Loves Your Money
- Financial Hack
- Free Money Finance
- From the Brink of Bankruptcy
- Generation X Finance
- GRACEful Retirement
- Grad Money Matters
- It’s Your Money
- Josephsangl.com
- Kick Debt’s Butt
- Lazy Man and Money
- Low Income Life
- Make Love Not Debt
- Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge
- Mighty Bargain Hunter
- Money, Matter and More Musings
- My 1st Million at 33
- No Credit Needed
- One Million and Beyond
- Personal Finance Advice
- pfblogs.org
