Blogging Away Debt

Another Reason to Watch Those Credit Card Statements

Even if you lock your credit cards away or put them in ice to help prevent you from using them, you’ll want to always check the statements. We “retired” some of our cards and for the longest time I wasn’t keeping a watchful eye on them for fradulent use. There was no way that someone could use them, right?

Well, I just read about a low-tech scam out there where thieves are trying random credit card numbers and when they find one that works, they cut out the numbers from an old card to form the working number and glue them onto a new card. They scratch the magnetic strip on the back so clerks have to punch in the number.

Yahoo.com Article

My concern with our old cards was that our number was out there at previous places we have shopped at and that the number could get stolen that way. So on the cards we are not using, I placed email alerts on them and I also signed up for Mint.com. They give me a financial summary every week of our credit card balances. So far, I like this system since it helps me to keep a watchful eye on those credit cards we aren’t using.

But pretty soon…it will be time to cut up almost all of the cards. I’m really looking forward to that 😉

Yep, September is Going to Be a Rough Month

by Tricia

I thought September would be a rough month, and I am right. As much as I’d like to pay off some debt right now, I can’t. There’s no wiggle room. Zip. Zero. Nada. I’ve been at this long enough to know that there are these lulls. It doesn’t make it any easier, though.

Part of me is wondering if I should take a little bit from our savings account to knock our debt below the $8K mark to have some progress with our debt. If we didn’t have an estimated tax payment to make this month we could have made it under $8K. I’m really thankful we have the money to make that payment, though.

We still haven’t had a garage sale yet, but hopefully we can soon before it gets too cold. I have sold a few things here and there and have made about $70. We aren’t touching that money because it will be our change money for our garage sale. I may also try listing a couple things on eBay that I know will sell. We’ll see.

Our business is making a small amount of money right now, but we aren’t paying ourselves yet. I’d like to get the bank account built up a little bit more before we do that.

I’ll think about it for a few days. I just may pull some money out of our savings to give a little debt reduction “boost.” I feel pretty “blah” right now.