Blogging Away Debt Our Journeys to a Debt-Free Life

by Tricia

I’ve been signed up for a credit monitoring program since August of 2004. What’s nice about it is that I now have a history of my FICO score through TransUnion. I can see the ups and the downs.

Here’s a screenshot…

Back in August of 2004, my FICO score was 726. I do not have the screenshot here, but just a year earlier it was around 680. The biggest change that occurred is that a medical account that went to collections fell off my credit history because enough time had passed. That gave my credit score an instant boost because I didn’t have any other lates on my report.

Then, something happened in early 2005 and it reduced to 704. I know exactly what caused that. That was when my credit card was used heavily for my husband’s business. Therefore, my credit utlization ratio raised and my credit score lowered. My cards were soon almost maxed out.

After that, my credit score has teeter-tottered back and forth a little bit. Some of that has to do with the credit card companies raising my credit limit (therefore raising my score) and then I would charge more on the cards (therefore lowering my score).

This year, as soon as I started paying off the credit card debt, my credit score started going up. Looking to the future, as more debt is paid off I expect my credit score to keep raising. I would love to get to 800 at least once in my life, just to say I did it. Time will tell 😉

by Tricia

My last “To-Do” list from August didn’t fare too well. I only completed 3 out of 6 tasks. It’s time to update, since there are a few more things to take care of. Hopefully I can do better this time around.

First, the things coming over from the last list:

1.) Call one company to get application for life insurance.

2.) Fill out application for another company for other life insurance.

3.) Call junkyard about old truck in garage and get rid of it.

Now, the new ones:

4.) Once other life insurance is in place, call existing life insurance company (whole life policy) and cancel it. We’ve decided to just go with term life insurance.

5.) Wrap Christmas presents. My son discovered that a filing cabinet drawer is now locked and he’s mentioned that he knows how to get it open. He’s sneaky, so my guess is that he’ll figure out something when I’m not looking. Time to get those presents wrapped.

6.) Put plastic on our windows. This one is a big money-saver that I haven’t done yet this year. Me and two-sided tape do not get along very well. 12/17 – Done!

7.) File and find all of my receipts for November so I can finish my income and expense report to post on here! I am WAY behind on that.

8.) Post about my new FICO score and explain the history of my score. 12/17 – Done!

9.) Dig up a few of my older credit card statements and write a “blast from the past” post. I plan on divulging everything that we put on the credit cards for at least a few months.

10.) Read “Maui Millionaires.” And then once I’m done with it I can give it away 🙂

11.) Finish reading “The Millionaire Mind.”

And probably the one that is the most important at the moment….

12.) Get my Quicken file up to date! I have been majorly slacking because I usually reconcile my checking account weekly to keep track of things. I haven’t entered new transactions since the beginning of the month and I do not track things in my checkbook (only in Quicken). I think I’m in a little bit of denial as to how much money is going to be spent this month and I really don’t want to look. That is not good. 12/16 – Yay! Got it done 🙂