I'm going to get back to making monthly reports. I have got to get back to tracking our finances more carefully.
Mr. A was saying he would be willing to start writing checks if that would help, because swiping the plastic just seems to lessen the effect of money being spent.
We were under budget on some items, but overbudget on others. We're going to try to crack down on this budget. And I need to make some credit card transfers to get rid of the interest we're having to pay.
Our credit card debt was at $23,574.49 last month, and it's now at $23,045.92.
I wish we could just use every bit of extra money coming in to pay toward the credit card debt. But we also have to take into consideration items needed for Mr. A's business. Two things that we have on our “wish” list. First, one business is manufacturing and done at our home. Mr. A really doesn't have a good working area. We really need to get a slab of cement laid, and a storage area built for the materials he needs to keep on hand. The other thing is I really, really need an office. I'm working in a cramped 5×7 area, and we cannot use the area for a business deduction since I do everything else computer related here. My office space will need to wait, but the sooner we get it built, the sooner we can actually use it as a business expense! The working space for Mr. A, on the other hand, is more pressing. So we're saving money toward getting that area built.
I was feeling very discouraged for a while there, because it didn't seem our credit card debt was going down, but it has been steadily going down, in spite of setbacks.
I will probably post my monthly report after the 15th of each month as that is when I pay the credit cards and know the tally on the credit card debt.
Yours Truly,
Don’t get discouraged! You’re doing a good job! A couple questions for you…
1) Have you tried budgeting with cash only? There’s a debt show on TV called Til Debt Do Us Part and the host always cuts up the credit cards and doesn’t allow withdrawals from debit cards unless you go into the bank and see the bank teller. She puts all budged money in labeled jars. For example, a grocery jar, gas jar, credit card repayment jar, etc. Then you can only use cash from those jars and you put the receipt in the jar and write it in your expense book. People seem to pay off their debt quite quickly this way, however, I realize that everyone is in a different situation.
2) Can you cut down the grocery budget and put more of that towards credit card repayment? I brought my grocery bill down from $200.00/weekly to $75.00/weekly last year and I thought it would be WAY harder than it really was. We go to the market on the weekends now and that has helped a lot. I’m really picky about eating healthy foods but I feel like we are still able to eat well on the reduced budget.
Best of luck! I know you will do it! 🙂
Natalie MacNeil,
She Takes On The World
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Mrs. Accountability Reply:
July 22nd, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Hi Natalie, thank you for the gentle questions. I thought I’d written a post regarding the dismal failure that was our cash only experiment. Maybe we should try it again and see if we fare better. I would love to cut down on the grocery bill. I am horrified at how much money we spend on groceries. But with my lack of energy, I have no choice but to leave grocery shopping up to my dear husband, and he can’t get it into his head what a budget is. I can’t really say he’s a spendthrift, and it’s not like he’s buying meat for $12.99 a pound or anything. He shops the sales, and he stocks up on bargains. But he also tends to have concerns about our economy and where it’s going. He is convinced prices are going to escalate and so we should stock up now. As a result, we now have more cans of tomato sauce purchased for 15 cents a can than we could use in two years. I will have to count them and post a picture sometime. Thanks for visiting and commenting.
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Gasp! Oh, that awful car expense!
Have you ever noticed that when one ridiculous expense happens, a whole bunch of other smaller unexpected (often ridiculous) expenses strike during the same budget cycle! Under the circumstances, it’s a real accomplishment to have knocked the credit-card debt down another $530. Awesome!
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Mrs. Accountability Reply:
July 23rd, 2009 at 6:01 am
Yes, I have noticed how one expense can sometimes cause an avalanche of other things to go wrong. Stay tuned for today’s (July 23) post…
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hahaha I would love to see the picture of the tomato sauce cans!
I didn’t see you post on trying the cash-only budget but I will look for it. I know what works for some people doesn’t work for everyone. Great job on the progress you’re making! 🙂
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Mrs. Accountability Reply:
July 23rd, 2009 at 5:58 am
I searched through my blog but I couldn’t find the post. The post in May 2008 where I said we were going to try using cash is here but I couldn’t find any posts referencing it not working… I think it was probably not a post specifically devoted to it, but perhaps just a sentence or two within another post. I will try to get a picture of the tomato sauce. 🙂 Thanks, Natalie for your encouragement!
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