Blogging Away Debt

Good Things Come to an End – Bye to Our 0% Interest Rate

This month marks the last month of the 0% interest rate on our credit card debt. We have enjoyed that special rate for a year, and we are very thankful for it. But good things do come to an end. Now what do we do?

First things first, we do have a collection of cards that we are not using but are still open. I checked out all of the available balance transfer offers on those cards and noted them. There are no 0% offers, but there are some offers between 5-8%. That is better than the 10.9% we are facing with our current card.

Next up, I did a little bit of shopping around for a 0% credit card. Quite a few bloggers have handy lists of 0% offers so that is where I go. I always review Jim’s list since he keeps it updated regularly (plus he’s a nice guy to boot). There are some very nice offers on there. But do we really want another card?

The last option is to just pay the darn credit card off as quickly as possible and pay the finance charges. This is definitely the less confusing option, but would likely cost more in the long run.

One thing I always try to do is look at the options and think about them for a little bit. I think about our situation and what is the best thing to do right now. Do we really need one more credit card to track? What about paying a little bit in finances charges for the last bit of credit card debt? How would getting a new card affect our credit rating? Could I swallow some pride and pay some finance charges for a while?

I am still undecided as to what route to take. I can’t help but be so thankful there are options. Way back when we started this journey, we didn’t have many at all. I’ll think about it for a few days and then make a decision.

Operation Bread Making – Success!

by Tricia

There’s that saying out there that is used to described something great, “This is the greatest thing since sliced bread!” That should be revised a little bit – “This is the greatest thing since warm, sliced homemade bread!”

I made my first batch of homemade bread today (2 loaves) and it was absolutely wonderful! I took basic ingredients (yeast, flour, salt, sugar, & shortening) and made bread out of it. I felt a little bit like Tom Hanks in Cast Away when he was able to make fire. I made BREAD! I feel so empowered LOL.

The entire process was very easy. I admit, I had a little bit of help since we own a Kitchenaid stand mixer with a dough hook. The entire process of mixing everything together and preparing the dough for the oven probably took about 15 minutes total. The majority of the time spent was from letting the dough rise (over an hour total) but you can do other things while the yeast does its thing.

About 30 minutes into cooking, I could smell the bread baking from our living room. I stood up and walked towards the kitchen and the aroma increased. Only 15 or so minutes to go!

The timer went off and I took out the first loaf out of the oven. I was so anxious to put it on a cutting board I came close to burning myself. I sliced a nice, thick slice and the butter I spread on it melted on impact. I took a bite, and I was whisked away to the homemade bread my mom used to make. Sigh.

Our son came running into the kitchen, “I want to see the bread!” I showed it to him and he said he wanted to try it. I gave him a piece and anxiously waited for his reaction.

“Yummmmm!”

Not only did I make some homemade bread, our son likes it! He wanted a piece with jelly on it. After he ate that, he wanted a piece with butter on it. It took only a few hours for that first loaf to almost disappear. All of us dug into it. You would have thought it was as great as….well, warm, sliced homemade bread 🙂

I think I always thought that making bread was really hard to do, but the recipe I used proved me otherwise. By running some very crude numbers, the two loaves of bread that we made cost around $2.20 for the ingredients that we used. I checked while in the grocery store today and one of their bakery loaves of white bread cost $1.99. The brand of bread we usually get runs on sale 2/$4.00. We are saving some money and we have control over the bread and what goes in it.

Next up I would like to try to make bread better suited for sandwiches (the bread I made here is a heavier bread), some hamburger/sandwich buns, sub buns and our own pasta. If we keep up with making more things from scratch, we just may make a huge dent in our grocery spending. That is always a good thing!