Blogging Away Debt

Are You Paying the Minimum Payment on Your Credit Cards?

Remember how I mentioned a little while ago that I landed a paid writing gig? Well, I used Prosper.com to help me consolidate our debt and not too long ago I was asked if I would like to contribute to their blog. Extra money is nice, and I like Prosper, so I said yes.

My first article was published today and it illustrates what can happen if you choose to pay a fixed payment to your credit cards versus only paying the minimum. It was sobering after looking at the graphs I made because for many years we used to only pay the minimum payment on our cards. I think if I saw the total amount we have paid in finance charges for the past 12 years I would go into shock. I’m sure it’s a lot.

Anyways, there are quite a few great bloggers writing over there, so you might want to check out the Prosper blog. While people-to-people lending is discussed quite a bit, there are also articles about general personal finance.

Baby It’s Cold Outside…

by Tricia

Wow. Brrrr. With temps below zero (and the windchill making it even colder), shoveling out the two feet of snow in our driveway is pretty tough. I’m back in the house now after one trip out there. We’ll have to do another trip before we can go anywhere today. I may complain sometimes about the snow, but I really do like it. Depending on where my husband finds a job, we may no longer have snow to shovel. That would be really weird.

Speaking of my husband’s job search, he’s heard back from a couple jobs. He received the “Thanks for playing” letter. There are still some that he hasn’t heard back from yet, including the awesome job. I have this feeling, though, that there is a job out there that we haven’t found yet. One that would meet our monetary and non-monetary goals, such as getting closer to our families. We will keep searching.

I’d like to thank everyone for your input about health insurance. Our premium is due soon ($800 for two months) and while I gulp every time I make the payment, we will keep that policy for a while yet. If we move we may get insurance through my husband’s employer or we may have to get a whole new policy anyways. So we’ll sit tight on that expense for now. As for reducing the deductible on the policy we have (as a few commenters mentioned), it’s not possible. We already have the lowest cost individual policy that they offer.

I have a few more updates to give, such as a new tactic we are trying to save money on groceries (and so far is working!). Right now, it’s time to go back outside and shovel some more snow 🙂