Debt $ense

The director of my company site issued an open call for ideas for 2007 - new products, ways to better sell existing products, and improvements to existing products. The deadline’s tomorrow, and apparently as of yesterday, I was the only one to suggest anything substantive. He’s asked me to present my ideas to the site directors (him, plus each department head) during one of their regular meetings next week. And I’ve gotten rumblings from an inside source that he’s looking for a way to move me into a larger role in the organization. (Yes, that would come with a pay increase.)

Lots of things are in flux, and he isn’t the final say, but right now it’s looking like I could be in much better financial shape by this time next year - even after replacing my car. While a bit of that would go toward loosening up my budget - $80 every two weeks for everything that’s not a monthly bill is cutting it pretty close to the bone - most of it would help with CC repayment (if that hasn’t been accomplished) and then be put into savings once the debt’s gone.

I won’t know anything for sure any time soon, but I could get a better picture by mid-October.

I had to renew my car registration this morning, and the Hyundai dealership is two lots down, so I stopped by to do some research. Fortunately, I got a salesman who’s related to one of my co-workers, so there was no pressure and he went out of his way to be helpful. So I had a chance to sit in the model I want, get a good look at the features and figure out which trim I like the best.

The car replacement is still a few months a way — knock on wood — but I have a better idea of what I want and now have the name of a salesman who I can trust. (Why? Because his S-I-L is a formidable woman and she wouldn’t take it well if I got hosed.) He even suggested I sell my car on my own to one of the newspaper carriers rather than trade it in. Apparently it’s a popular car because it’s a gas-sipper and fairly inexpensive to maintain. He estimated I could get $1,500 to $2,000 for it. I’d probably go for the lower end of that - it would still be three times more than I would get as a trade-in and it would likely go quicker. So I’m estimating I can get $1,000, to allow for negotiating room. That, plus savings based on my current rate of pay, mean I would have about $6,000 for a downpayment by this time next year, when they’re trying to get rid of the 2007 models as the 2008 come in. And, of course, by then there should be several leased models back on the lot as used, which greatly increases my options.

(If you’re wondering why I would consider new, basically it would only happen if between year-end incentives and the owner loyalty discount, I could get a comparable deal to a used one. New also comes with the full warranty, whereas used only gets part of it.)

The really nice part about the car - a Hyundai Tucson, for the curious - is that the rear seats and the front passenger seat fold flat to allow for carrying some pretty good-sized items in a small SUV. As somebody who lives alone and far from the family members with minivans, this is a good thing. It also means I won’t have an excuse anymore to leave stuff at my parents’ house. Guess that childhood closet will finally get cleaned out…

I was driving home from a weekend trip to visit a friend (and help her rip out linoleum) when my check engine light came on. Not the occasional flicker, or the thing where it randomly comes on and my mechanic can’t figure out why. This was the “blink three times then stay on” that means something major. Unfortunately, I was about two hours from home, so I just kept my speed down and kept going.

I’ve been having issues with the car refusing to shift out of Park when I turn it on. It’s an automatic transmission and I’ve been having trouble getting the button to depress so I can shift into reverse or drive. So when the light went on and the car was jerking at highway speed, you can imagine what my first thought was.

Turns out it was just a misfiring cylinder and new plugs and wires fixed it. But it was 24 hours before I knew that, and in the meantime I was trying to figure out at what point it wasn’t worth fixing a car worth less than $1,000 and how I would come up with a downpayment if I did have to replace it.

So - lesson learned - I’m cutting back my weekly CC payments a bit and sticking about $250 a month ($65/week, to be precise) into an ING Direct account, which I’ll start in a couple of weeks when I have the $250 stashed for a referral bonus. It will prolong my CC debt, but if I don’t have money stashed, the downpayment would have to go on my card, which also would prolong it. And if I get close to the end and the car’s running well, I can make a big lump-sum payment from that fund to kill it for good, then rebuild my fund with the money no longer going toward debt.

I’ve been remiss in my blogging lately. Most of it is because there’s a lot of stuff in flux, which has me rethinking some of my financial goals. I haven’t posted about it because I’m at a point where things need to evolve (or unravel, I’m not sure which) for two or three months before I can figure out what the big picture is.

That will help me adjust my financial goals accordingly. (i.e. which comes first, buying a house or replacing my car.) In the short-term - getting rid of my CC debt - nothing’s changed. In fact, doing so leaves me with many more options once I figure out the stuff in flux.

And yes, I know I’m being vague. It’s intentional, because this is all career-related flux. But no worries; it’s opportunities, not pitfalls.

Until things sift out a bit, I’m trying to stick to my budget, which I’ve struggled with during the last week. The heat wave has made me less inclined to cook, which means I’ve been running out for dinner. I’ve also wanted hot-weather foods, like sorbet, that I normally don’t. (first ice cream in about six months) I also bought shoes Monday, but that was because I needed a pair of black heels I could wear with slacks and a dress, and when I found a pair in my size (8W), comfortable, something I would wear and on sale for almost half off ($35, normally $60), I grabbed them. Now if only I could find affordable sandals in wide widths…

I posted once before about karma, and events today have me musing over it again.

First, there’s a book out I want to read - to the point of being willing to buy it - by Linda Hirshman about women and working. It’s getting lots of attention, both good and bad, and the blog entries she did while guest blogging for TAPPED a few months back intrigued me. Last week I happened to mention to a co-worker that I read a few feminist blogs (we were discussing another subject all together). Today she brought me printouts of Hirshman’s posts from TAPPED and said she had bought the book. She’s letting me borrow it when she’s done. That’s some money saved.

The bigger issue is one I can’t say much about - I don’t want to tempt fate - but if things pan out, I’ll be in better shape income-wise because of some things I’ve been working on, and it will happen sooner than I hoped for. And from the sounds of it, if it doesn’t pan out now, I’m still in better shape for future opportunities than I thought.

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.

You remember the fable about the tortise and the hare, right? I’ve got a friend who’s taken that approach to her house, and this weekend was a great example of how well it’s worked.

She moved into the house in April 2005, and started by painting and recarpeting the top floor. Until she did, she kept her bed in the second-floor living room, along with any furniture. Only when they were ready did she move things up there.

Last weekend, she finally got to stage two of the fixing-up - painting the kitchen and living room, along with ripping up the living room carpet to prepare for putting hardwood floors in. (Six-year-old townhouse, so of course the floors are plywood.) She didn’t do any of that until she had saved the money from her second job to pay for the supplies and flooring. As a result, we were able to go out Monday and pick out and order the flooring, which was on sale.

It’s been a slow process, and since she’s a fellow booklover, leaving the bulk of her massive library in boxes in the garage until she can get the living room floor in and bookcases set up has been a challenge. But after seeing how nice everything looked once it was painted and imagining the floor in that space, it’s definitely going to be worth the wait - even if we’ll be sitting on the floor. Why? Because bookcases are next on the list (more to match the ones she has), and then furniture. She’s done the same thing with things like paint and fixtures - waiting until she’s sure what she wants and can afford to buy - with cash - the good stuff.

Her logic is she would rather wait, do without and do it right then buy something cheap to make do and then replace it later. As I’ve watched the transformation of the house, I’ve become convinced that she’s taking the right approach - and it’s an approach I’ll be following when I buy a house late next year. But that’s the subject of another post…

In summary: Take your time, do it right and wait until you can pay cash.

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.

Sorry for the brief hiatus - things got a bit crazy around here. Posting also will be light this weekend because I’m taking a few days off to help a friend with some home repair/DIY projects.

In PF news, my CC balance is temporarily up because of some annual/quarterly charges I put on there to avoid possible cash-flow issues with my debit card. All will be resolved in a couple weeks, at which point I’ll be under $7,000 for the first time in a couple years. (Yay!)

Meanwhile, I’m looking for creative ways to find extra money to get the balance down as soon as possible. I need to stop procrastinating and actually get some decluttering done so I can convert as much of it into cash as possible. I also need to get card samples done so I can pitch the idea of a class to parks and rec. Procrastination has definitely been an issue the last few weeks, and I need to break the habit.