Debt $ense

I’ve increased my net worth by $5,300 since I started tracking it six months ago, and I’m now at -$1,750. My best estimate has me breaking into positive territory by Nov. 1, which would rock!

Part of that is because I’ve increased my emergency fund and 401(k) by about $2,200, and part is because I’ve cut my debt by about $3,500. I’m on track to pay off my CC by late February if an opportunity I’m pursuing pans out, or mid-March if it doesn’t. That’s much better than my original target of August 2007!

Now that I’ve got a few hundred dollars stashed in my ING Direct account, I decided it was time to reduce the amount I put into my pinch-point savings from $50 a week to $25 a week. $15 of the difference is going toward my CC payment; the other $10 is going to ING Direct.

I also set up three subaccounts with ING: House, vacation and car. The house account gets $5 a week, the vacation account gets $15 a week and the car account gets $50 a week. That leaves $5 a week from my deposit to stay in the main account. Once my CC is paid off (February is my best guess), I’ll adjust the amounts as I start putting the bulk of that money into savings.

My plan this month is to give my CC balance a big hit because I get an “extra” paycheck in September. So I’ll be able to put an extra three weeks worth of money toward knocking down that debt.

My initial ING Direct deposit cleared, and my first weekly payment goes in tomorrow. (Yay!) I’ll move a chunk over to my CC shortly before the low interest rate goes away so I get as much interest from ING Direct as possible, then knock the CC balance down as low as possible before the rate goes up.

(For anyone interested in opening an ING Direct account, clicking on a link below will get you a $25 bonus when you deposit at least $250. I’ll get a $10 for referring you.)

Open!

Open!

Open!

If the links are either used or expired, e-mail me at colorguard@mac.com and I’ll post more.

I’m also starting to plan for Christmas and birthdays. (My immediate family’s birthdays are ALL in December and January.) Of the 11 family presents I have to buy, four are purchased. I have a price estimate for the three others selected - $55. That leaves four presents for two people. I suspect my post-Thanksgiving shopping trip will take care of the remaining four. But I’m in good shape for me, both progress-wise and budget-wise.

Also in good news, my electric bill will go down below its current $25/month now that the weather’s cooler, and gas prices are dropping dramatically, so that should allow me to stash some extra money during the next few months.

I haven’t been into my spreadsheet for a while, so I just spent a few minutes updating figures and calculating my current net worth.

Thanks to better 401(k) performance and a slightly revised estimate of my car’s value (from a local dealer), my net worth is up to -$2,500! And that includes about $7,000 of a student loan at less than 4 percent interest, so I figure I’m in pretty good shape.

I also opened an ING Direct account this week, using a referral link from Jane Dough to get the extra $25. Starting the first week in September, I’ll be putting $65 a week into it as a car fund. At the end of the year, I’ll assess my car’s health - it’s due for a major servicing then - and if all seems well, I’ll transfer a big chunk out to pay down my CC balance.

On the negative side, some work craziness plus my recent vacation led to me adding to my CC balance. Nothing huge, but enough so that what I’ve been putting towards it the last two or three weeks is just about covering what I added. I’m trying to get back on track, though.

It’s been a deflating couple of weeks. I’ve made good progress toward my goals, but mentally I’m just kind of blah about the whole thing. I think part of my problem is I’ve been pushing so hard to pay everything off by the end of the year and to do that I have to live so close to the bone that it’s making me panic over minor things.

My payoff goal was April 2007, down from August 2007 when I started. Then I started trying to hit the end of 2006, and while I think I’ll be close, I’m also thinking that the idea is spazing me out enough to be hindering me more than helping at this point.

So at this point I’m going to chill out, remind myself that Jan. 16, 2007 is eight months earlier than I was originally scheduled, and almost four months more than my goal and be happy with that. I’m hoping that by releasing the pressure I’m putting myself under, I’ll get back in a positive mood on this instead of the borderline panicking I’ve been doing lately.

The January 16 date is with my existing weekly payments, plus money from my “extra” paycheck in September. It’s very possible I could get there a couple weeks earlier, but I’m going to look on that as a bonus, not a necessity.

Thanks to both my debt repayment and an improvement in my 401(k) balance, I’m less than $5,000 in the red overall!

I have to say, it feels good to be able to say that. I won’t be in the black until the end of October, assuming I get at least some return on my 401(k), but that’s a whole lot closer than it seems.

I hope it also will be a kick in the butt to remind me why I’m scrimping and saving and encourage me to save as much as possible, not treat my weekly money as something I have to spend. I was doing well for several weeks, but have slipped back into my habit of running around the corner at night for dinner rather than bringing it from home. I haven’t gone outside the bounds of my budget as yet, but only because I haven’t been spending money on nonfood items, something that isn’t sustainable long term.

I’m trying to come up with some sort of sustainable incentive plan to reward me for coming in below budget on my household expenses, but haven’t come up with one yet. Something to muse on through the weekend, I suppose.

I’ve returned from my weekend helping a friend with home repair-type projects, and gained much fodder for the blog in the process. For now, the brief update is I will be able to put an extra payment of $400 toward my CC later this week - once a check for the bulk of that amount clears - which will drop my balance below $7,000. (Go me!) That’s even with dental bills, etc.

I should be back later today with a longer post, but I wanted to at least update those interested in my progress.

I sorted/counted coins last night, and was able to roll one of each type, giving me $17.50. Adding that to the other money I have stashed for this month’s extra payment puts me in good shape to make a nice dent in my CC balance. It will definitely cover the dental bills, which gives me more a cushion in my savings.

I also recalulated my monthly expenses and realized I could increase my weekly CC payments by $5 more than I thought when my raise kicks in.

The combination of the two news bits means I have a little more breathing room to hit my year-end target. If I stick to my plan of paying $100 extra each month, I’ll make it with a couple of weeks to spare.

I got some more information about my extra income potential for the month in the last couple of days, and once I plugged that in, my projections for the rest of the year make it highly likely that I’ll meet my Dec. 31 goal. I actually have about a two-week cushion *knocks on wood* barring any major car repairs or other expenses.

Fortunately, the low interest rate I have runs into January, which means even if I get hit with the idiotic two-cycle billing, I’ll have enough to cover the whole $5 in charges.

One thing that will help in the upcoming months is some additional driving for work. My car gets really good gas milage, so driving 1/4 of the miles in a tank gets me enough money to pay for about 3/4 of the tank. I’m hoping to use that to contribute to my extra monthly payment, provided I don’t need it to cover the increasing cost of gas.

I’ll also be putting my various money-making plans into action during the next two weeks - more about that in a later post. Those, plus the milage, should net me enough each month to hit my $100 extra payment goal. I’d like to increase it to $210 - equal to a weekly payment - but I don’t know if that will be possible.

No review yet, which means no idea what kind of raise I’m getting. Grrr… The suspense is killing me.

However, I did decide that I’m going to cut back my weekly money by enough to increase my payments next week to $180 and after my raise kicks in to $210. If my raise is high enough to hit the $210 mark without trimming spending, I’ll likely go higher. That will get me much closer to paying everything off by the end of the year.

In other news, my department head took me to dinner tonight to bounce ideas off me for some current issues we’re facing in the department, so I see that as a good sign. I toyed with the idea of bringing up the wishbone situation I’ve been finding myself in - today was definitely a wishbone day - but decided to wait until after my review and some new staff members start. I think the combination of my supervisor’s comments in the review and the change in my duties from the new people will provide the perfect opening to discuss the issue. My goal is to get “upgraded” so I report directly to the department head, not to his second-in-command. That would have to translate to a pay raise, plus it would improve my position relative to some other changes he wants to make down the line. I’d also get rid of the wishbone effect, which would really make life easier. But I any upgrade is likely several months off. I just want to plant the seed while he’s starting budgeting for next year.