Blogging Away Debt Blogging Away Debt follows real people on their journey to debt freedom — with tips on the debt snowball, budgeting, cutting expenses, and staying motivated.

by Tricia

I’ve been a slacker since July with posting financial details. That’s when things got busy with life and I let the details slide. As long as our debt was going down and we spent less than we earned – in my mind we were doing alright. I’m almost done with our income and spending report and I hope to have that posted this weekend.

I do have an update for our net worth and the little graphic in the left sidebar is updated. It is so nice to still see that line going up. Our net worth as of January 31st is ($23,489). You can see all of the detail on my NetWorthIQ profile.

There are a few things to note. Our car has finally decreased in value to around $4K, probably due to the lower gas prices now. For quite a while, it was hovering comfortably above $5K. If gas prices go up again, there is a chance the value could go up since it is a fuel efficient car (not a hybrid, though).

During one of the last net worth updates I posted, I received a few comments about my retirement fund. I wasn’t updating it, even though the value was very likely changing. I’m sure it has lost value with everything that is going on right now. Since there wasn’t even $3K in it and I am no longer contributing to it, I decided to remove it from our net worth. It’s not money that I plan on pulling from anyways. The rest of our assets we can sell/pull from if we need to.

There is one other thing missing from our net worth. Back in October, I sold this blog to Jeffrey Strain (from SavingAdvice.com and FreeMicroLoan.com and other sites too). That is sitting in a separate savings account earning interest and I am pulling a salary from it monthly to equal the income I would normally make from this site. There is still money in account, but since the sale price is not public it is not on our net worth.

Part of the sale agreement was to keep blogging here for six months. That means that my commitment per the terms of sale ends March 31st. Our credit card debt will probably not be paid off by then, so I’ll be here for a while longer after that. Some of you have asked me to keep blogging. You will still see me around here because I am looking forward to following the next blogger and participating in the comments. You’ll also probably see me around other debt blogs as well. I haven’t had the time to read many of your blogs lately, and I’d like to get back into doing that. I’ve also thought about finding a blogging gig somewhere. If that doesn’t materialize, at the very least I will join a forum. If I do, I will announce on here. I’d like to thank those that shared your opinion about me still giving updates now and then – you’re right.

Everything still seems very surreal. By the end of this month, we should be able to get our credit card debt to close to $4K. Only a little bit more to pay off and we could technically use our savings to pay off the rest. It’s hard to describe, but I feel like asking my son to pinch me. After three years at reducing debt, so much of it has become second nature…extra money automatically went towards our credit cards. What will it be like without having credit card debt? I guess only time will tell.

by Tricia

It’s always nice to see the numbers change. After all, our goal is to get our pesky credit card debt paid off. I think what I am finding the most interesting right now is how much we have changed. Don’t get me wrong, I love that our debt is going down. I really smile inside when I think about what we used to be like and what we are like now because I believe the change is for the better.

Stuff used to rule our life. A holiday coming up – well, gotta go buy some decorations. Fisher Price came out with a new Little People set today – well, that is a must have addition to our son’s toys that already fill his room. We didn’t have money in our checking account for it so on the credit cards it went.

We don’t put things like that on our card anymore. It’s not just because we are trying to reduce debt. It’s because we know that we don’t need all of that stuff for happiness. The book Debt is Slavery actually was a big eye-opener when it came to stuff (if you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it – see if your library has a copy to borrow). I felt sad selling most of our stuff. It wasn’t because I was going to miss it – it was because we spent so much money on it.

An interesting change is one that I’ve tried writing about before, but couldn’t find the words. I still can’t quite seem to get it out. So I’ll give an example of what changed. We knew that reusable shopping bags were out there but never gave them a second thought. We’d get plastic bags and toss them in the trash (less a few we kept around the house for various uses – but we didn’t use many). It was really starting to bug the both of us so we paid the money to have some reusable bags.

It’s almost like since we were cutting the wasteful spending we were doing – we started cutting other waste from our lives as well. I wish I could convey this better – I’m not sure I fully understand it yet LOL.

Even though our goal was to pay off credit card debt, we have received so much more in return. We are a much happier family overall. That is a wonderful benefit 🙂