Blogging Away Debt Our Journeys to a Debt-Free Life

by Tricia

Wow. We are almost in the negative 30K’s now. It looks like the start of 2007 will leave us with credit card debt under $25K and our Net Worth in the -$30K range.

I do not regularly check my profile over at NetWorthIQ, and when I went over there to update for November I noticed that I had some comments over there! One of the comments mentioned that we have paid off $14K in debt in 10 months. Quickly, I thought, no…it’s around $12K. But, the commenter is correct because he was looking at our total debt.

With this blog, I am only tracking the credit card debt at the moment. Since I used Prosper.com to obtain a loan to get some of that credit card debt at a lower rate…I include it in the balance. That means I do not count our mortgage or student loans. I also didn’t include our car loan, but since that’s now paid off we don’t have to worry about that anyway 😉

Back at the end of February, out total debt was $105,468. At the end of November, it is now $90,557. So, we have paid off $14,911. Before the end of the year we will have paid over $15,000 towards our total debt. Forecasting our income, it looks like we will make around $47,000 for the year. About 32% of our income will be going towards our debt.

It’s too early to speculate what’s going to happen in 2007. It would be nice to keep up the pace. Many times on this blog I’ve mentioned that we’ll be losing income, but then something happens to help keep it steady. Like the time my husband cut his hours, but he is making almost the same due to the minimum wage increase in Michigan. Starting January 1, I will only have my one full-time job and my husband will have his part-time job for our steady stream of income. There will be some blog income, but it is actually decreasing now.

I do believe you need to be active when it comes to your finances, but I also believe that there is a point where too much speculation will drive you crazy. I think I’ve reached that point. I think for a while we are just going to keep doing the best we can and taking life as it comes to us. All the while keeping our head up and eyes open for new opportunities.

by Tricia

Up until this year, we had little in terms of money that we could donate. We gave a few dollars here and there to the Salvation Army kettle and purchased toys for the local toy bin at Christmas time, but we’ve never really given a great deal.

What we’ve tried to do in the past is give in terms of our time. Whether it be to go to the local animal shelter to walk some dogs, help with a holiday dinner for the elderly or volunteering at my son’s school. Just something to give a little back.

This year, we are doing much better with income, but I am a little ashamed to say that we haven’t given much in terms of monetary donations or volunteering. So far, I have only given $47 and with the year coming to a close I wanted to give more. Paying off our debt has been a top priority, but with the holidays coming…it’s a reminder to us to give a little. But who should we donate to?

A little while ago, Jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity came up with the idea of having an American Cancer Society Drive. Since I have lost two people close to me to cancer, it was a great choice.

My grandmother died at the young age of 69 of lung cancer when I was 17 years old. It was one of the hardest things I have ever gone through. I was really close to my grandmother, for she lived with us. She never had much in terms of money, but she gave a lot with love. I could always go back to her room for a back scratch, and she never complained. Of course, as I got older I went back there less, but my grandmother was always someone who gave little things that meant so much. She used to make these little sandwich baggies with treats for Easter to give all of us grandkids and while it wasn’t much…it was really a lot.

Earlier in the year, a friend of mine passed away. She too died of lung cancer.

So, Sunday I made a donation to the American Cancer Society.

If are interested in donating, please visit Jim’s site for some details. He’s heading up the drive, and he’d like to keep a list of those who donated.