Archive results for “October 2006f 2006”
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I paid a few more minimum payments on my credit cards yesterday, so that brings my credit card debt total to $26,664. There will be a bigger update by the end of the month, because I made an important decision yesterday.
I have been setting money aside for some home repair and I haven’t been having much luck in getting someone to do it. I am going to dip a little bit into that fund and pay off Credit Card #6. CC#6 was the one that was charging me finance charges and I didn’t catch it for a while because I wasn’t paying enough attention to my statements.
Since the terms that ended up being with the card were different then the sales lady told me, I was feeling pretty tricked. To add to that, I received new terms of agreement for that card. The change was not good.
I’ve thought it over, and I feel like I am holding a ticking time bomb with that credit card. I’m worried it is going to explode even more finance charges on me. I do not like this feeling, and I’ve never felt it before with any of my cards. I just want it to go away, and the only way to do that is to pay it off. I have the money, although some of it is for something else. I just feel so strongly about getting rid of that card that I’m willing to put off our home repair for a while longer.
Sometimes, I think you just have to follow what your gut is telling you. And my gut is telling me that CC#6 is bad news.
I cruised around and visited some of the other debt bloggers on my blogroll and I see that a couple of them are having some rough times lately. Being in debt certainly is not an easy thing.
So, today I decided to highlight those blogs:
Stop by if you can, browse around their blogs and perhaps offer a few words of encouragement.
Trips can be costly, but here are a few things I did to save money on our trip:
1.) I shopped around the internet for the best hotel price. That meant checking sites such as expedia.com and travelocity.com. Also, don’t forget to call the hotel directly and check the hotel chain’s website. In my case, the best rate I received was from the hotel’s website. Also, don’t forget to use any discounts available – this trip was the first time I’ve used my AAA card 
. Note: If you are not picky with the amenities available at the hotel, sometimes it pays to not book your lodging and then just shop around when you arrive at your destination. When we went on our honeymoon, we didn’t book any lodging in advance. We were able to get a kitchen suite room complete with a nice big hot tub for $80/night that way.
EDITED TO ADD: Here’s a comment from a visitor regarding the above: “I work for a travel agency, and the one thing that I would advise for your first tip is that if you are going to take a chance (which, as you say, sometimes pays off big time)… make sure there isn’t a big convention in town or something.” Thanks Steve for mentioning that! 
2.) All drinks and snacks for the drive were purchased ahead of time to take advantage of sales prices and quanity discounts. Small purchases at the gas station can really add up, and I noticed the prices for 20oz soft drinks were running $1.29 each. For $4.44 plus deposit, I bought two 20oz 6-packs on sale (don’t worry – mine was caffeine-free ).
3.) Plan…plan…plan. We made a list of everything we needed for our trip. We started the list a few days in advance and wrote down everything we could think of. Then, as we packed we would cross things off the list. I am usually horrible with remembering all of my grooming products, but this trip went smoothly and I didn’t have to purchase anything due to my forgetfulness.
4.) We do not buy travel-sized products. Instead, we used reuseable containers and plastic bags to hold our normal sized items. Yes, it takes up a little bit more space, but if you look at those travel-sized products on a cost per unit basis, they are very expensive.
5.) We used the items provided by the hotels and took the leftovers home with us. The fancy hotel we stayed at even had mouthwash in a neat little container. Now that it’s home with us, we’ll use the mouthwash and then reuse the bottle for our next trip.
That’s all I can think of at the moment. I’m sure I’ll think of more later.
As I mentioned yesterday, we took a six-day trip to visit our parents (near Lansing and Port Huron). It’s a route we travel about once a year or so, so this year we decided to do something different on the return trip…we stopped at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.
To those unfamiliar with the Soo (as it’s often referred to), it is home to the Soo Locks which is a must-see destination for those who enjoy watching freighters. That’s the main reason we enjoy going there. It is fascinating to watch those huge freighters up close and personal.
Going there did add a little bit of time to our trip and a little bit more in gas, but the big expense was with where we stayed. This time of year, we probably could have gotten a motel room for as little as $40. Instead, we decided to treat ourselves to a hotel that is right across the street from the Soo Locks park. From our window, we couldn’t see the Soo Locks, but we were able to see frieghters approaching the locks. We could then head on over to the park to see them.
On top of that, the hotel was mighty fancy. It’s the fanciest place we have ever stayed, I believe. We are very much used to the motel scene and we felt a bit out of place since most of the people we saw at the hotel were in suit and tie or dressed fancy. We didn’t explore the entire hotel too much since we only stayed a night, but what we did see screamed “elegant”.
Normally, the room goes for $300/night according to the sticker on the back of the door. But, when I called the hotel direct the rate was $125. By going online to Ramada.com (the hotel chain’s main site), I was able to get the room for $100. That was the lowest I could find it, and I even checked travelocity.com — I wonder if I had had some Travelocity Coupons if I could have found a deeper discount.
Our other big splurge came in the morning when we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant, Freighters Restaurant. By golly, it cost $21.00 for our breakfast, but I couldn’t quit talking about how good breakfast was all the way back home! It was the best breakfast I have ever had. The service was great too. It was so fancy in there and again we really felt out of place. We have been to a few fancy places before, and we have been treated differently and the service lacked. I always thought it could be due to our very casual appearance. Our waitress made us feel really special, so I left an $8.00 tip. No, not a huge tip, but the biggest (percentage-wise) tip I’ve given someone. I only wish it could have been more.
So, those were the big splurges on our trip. The rest was more low-key. Next I’ll write up how we saved some money.
Welcome visitors from Heute Online!
As it was noted, I used prosper.com to obtain a loan that was at a lower fixed interest rate. You can find out more about my borrowing experience with Prosper in my Propser Category.
Another article that may be of interest can be found at MyMoneyForest.com. He conducted a great interview with Prosper.com.
Thank you for stopping by
Jason at Pragmatic Finance was the host for this week’s Festival of Frugality. There’s a bunch of money-saving tips over there so make sure you take a peek and see if any of the articles can help you make the most out of your money.
I’ve actually been on a trip since Thursday of last week. Thanks to the availability of the internet, I have been able to pop in here and there to write a quick post and to see how things are going. I would have mentioned it on here, but I was a little worried about making it public that our house would be vacant. I am the first one to admit that I am a worry-wart sometimes. Ok…most of the time
I have lots to write about in regards to all of the money we spent (we did splurge on a few things). I also have a few tips to give on saving money during trips. I hope when all of the spending is recorded we will have some money left over to go towards our debt before the end of the month. It is very difficult to keep a running tally of our spending while on a trip – so I am hoping to come close to what we budgeted. I have a feeling we went over, though.
This trip was also the stressful event that I referenced when I’ve discussed quitting smoking. Driving and smoking go hand and hand with me, and we logged almost 1,300 miles the past six days. Now that it is over…well, I have no more excuses for not trying to kick the habit. I am giving myself a few days to get back into a normal routine and then give it my best shot.
Since I am very curious to see how much we spent on the trip, I will wait until tomorrow to write more about the trip itself.
It feels really good to be home, safe and sound.
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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
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- 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
