Which Credit Cards to Pay and Which Cards to Hunt Down and Kill

By christina | Published: March 16, 2011

I finally made a spreadsheet of my credit cards and included the balances, minimum monthly payments and interest rates to help determine which ones need to be paid and which ones actually need to be attacked. Aggressively. I have read in a few places to pay the ones with the high interest rates as soon as possible. I have also read about the Snowball Method for paying credit cards and always intended on trying it (but haven’t really stuck to it). The problem is that these two methods are sort of conflicting.

For example, the cards I have that currently have the highest APR’s are Orbitz (23.9%), Hooters (21.45%), Target (25.24%) and Best Buy (22.99%).

First of all, I have to admit that I wasn’t completely aware that these particular cards had such outlandish interest rates. Which is a grave mistake to make if you’re trying to clean up your credit. You have to know what you’re paying. I knew that Hooters was pretty high and Target, just because it’s Target. I did not really know Orbitz and Best Buy were though, which is another reason to keep a spreadsheet of your credit cards.

The good news is that the Target card and Best Buy card have the two lowest balances, so essentially the Snowball Method would work. I could pay those off and then “snowball” those monthly payments onto the next lowest balance. BUT, the next lowest balances, are the lowest APR’s on my list of credit cards which are Capital One Platinum (13.99%) and Juniper (15.99%). So paying in order by highest APR is not always going to work with the Snowball Method.

I think instead, I’ll go to the next credit card with the highest APR as these are not only ridiculous but a large chunk of money. The two very lowest APRs are the Chase cards that I’m on the Hardship Program with. Part of the agreement with them is that my APR would be lowered to 6.00%, but the cards are closed. I’m not even fiddling with those at the moment because the payments are taken directly from my bank account and aren’t costing me as much in interest as a couple of the other cards. I also have to keep in mind that my debt to credit ratio has to lower to increase my credit score, which means I need to pay down the cards with the high balances.

Something else I’ve realized is that after bankruptcy, you may be stuck with some pretty crappy cards that require a lot of fees and are at the bottom of the credit card food chain. Even though I waited and avoided those cards, I still ended up with a lot of cards that are not much better than the bottom ones. Yes, they’re unsecured and no they don’t have additional fees or annual fees, but all in all, they’re still pretty crappy credit card deals. I would advise bankruptcy filers to hold out for the best cards with low APRs, which you can get…it  just takes a little time and patience. Once I get these paid down, I may try for some better credit cards but as far as bad deals and extreme interest rates go, I’m pretty much done with them.

Posted in Bankruptcy, Credit Card Snowball Method, Credit Cards and Bills, Credit Repair, Financial Goals, Paying Bills and Collections | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Why Gas Boycotts Don’t Work

By christina | Published: March 14, 2011

I recently received a number of event invitation requests on Facebook to boycott gas for No Gas Day or whatever in order to send the oil companies some kind of message that we won’t stand for high gas prices.

My initial thought is this: didn’t anyone learn this doesn’t work when gas rose to $2 and we boycotted gas for a day?

I don’t like high gas prices either. Broke people obviously suffer the most, and if I remember correctly, the last time gas jumped over $3.00, many people were spending more on the commute to work, than they were being paid. There are a number of throwback articles online on how to save on gas (ie carpooling, etc) that may be helpful this time around as well.

But, not buying gas for a day isn’t going to change that. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you how to effectively lower the price of gas, but I can tell you that I suspect that if the entire nation boycotted gas for a day, it would harm gas station owners and employees of those gas stations more than anything. If there’s anything we don’t need, it’s more unemployed people. And although I’m generally no conspiracy theorist, (not all the time anyway), I specifically said last time this happened that it would never go down. Generally, we made it just fine paying the higher prices for gas, so I didn’t see why anyone would lower it and thus make less money.

I read this article recently regarding the Facebook gas boycotts and thought that there were a number of interesting myths regarding pumping gas and such. The real reason that gas boycotts don’t work is pretty much summed up in one sentence, “It’s not a boycott if you’re using the product a day later.” Some day, you will need to go to the gas station unless you plan on ditching your car altogether. This is one reason I wish I lived in a metro area where everyone rode the city bus to and fro. Cars in general are a huge expense.

The only clear advice that I have for beating high gas prices is to catch a leprechaun. Otherwise, let’s be honest, we don’t have much choice. It just means a little more budgeting, a little more shuffling around the few pennies that we do have. And as with all things, it’ll work out. Hopefully.

 

 

Posted in Budget Shopping | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Tax Refunds and National Consumer Protection Week

By christina | Published: March 8, 2011

I know it may seem that the two topics are unrelated, but for me and my current situation, they seemed to fit together. Somehow. Anyway, it is officially National Consumer Protection Week and so I began reading through the blog of ways in which consumers can protect themselves financially from any number of boogey men that are lurking with the sole intention of tricking us and dragging us further into debt.

I don’t believe that, actually. I think a lot of us are in the situations we are in because we made some pretty clear mistakes. I do know that once in a while people are tricked and for instance, aren’t aware of what they will end up paying for that big screen television if they only pay the minimal monthly payment on their credit card for all eternity. In the end though, we should not be using our credit cards for purchases that we may have to pay for by credit card until we’re dead.

But, I digress. Included in the blog was the grandparent scam (fake relative calls and tricks you into wiring money), which I barely skimmed because I had heard about it in the past and know for a fact, that no one will ever call and ask me for money. If you’re in an emergency situation and trapped say, in Africa, I will not be of any help, not because I don’t want to help, but everyone knows that A) I don’t have any money and B) I don’t have any money. Thus, if anyone does call me, I know it’s a scam. This information of course is useful even if you’re not a grandparent though in that maybe you may use it to warn others that you know. (ie your grandparents.)

"I know you're stuck in Africa. But unfortunately you called the brokest person on Earth."

What caught my eye though, was a post on budgeting which posed the question, “What will you do with your tax refund?” I remember reading an article way back before I kept links as references, on why broke people stay broke. One of the reasons, which made perfect sense to me, is because when we (broke people) ever do get any amount of money, we spend it. We immediately think we should reward ourselves for something, or we buy something that we’ve really, really wanted for a long time.  Thus, even though we get the occasional lucky break, it isn’t around long enough to make a difference in our finances or our lives. And we stay broke.

Nowadays when I do get a tax refund, I usually spend it on bills. I don’t spend as much on bills as I should, nor do I pay off any credit cards completely. I don’t receive tax refunds that are exceptionally significant, but yet they are significant enough that I will admit I have bought or spent a piece of it on something that follows the “why broke people stay broke” theory. In fact, pre bankruptcy, I’m pretty sure I spent that sucker like I won the lottery.

To be quite honest, I’m not sure what the best plan is when you receive a small extra payment. Do you put it in a savings account? Pay all credit cards? Pay down a large bill? I know a lot of people probably slip up and don’t make the most fiscally decisions with their tax refunds, but what exactly is the wisest choice?

I am planning on buying a house, so I’m saving. I also need to pay down credit cards and bills. Although I know what not to do with extra money, I have to admit that I’m not exactly sure what to do with it either. I may try to save and pay down at the same time (which is what I usually do, minus the extra dinner out). I am not perfect by far, I am however, trying to make smart decisions that will help me get where I want to be, which is hopefully not in the broke people that stayed broke out of stupidity category. I lived there once. It ain’t fun.

Anyway, what are your plans and what will you do with  your tax refund?

Happy National Consumer Protection Week, by the way. Protecting ourselves is a great way to start.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Which Personal Finance and Budgeting Software Is the Best?

By christina | Published: March 2, 2011

 

 

How to Import My Account Information From This Bank

I have been trying to manage my finances with mint.com for a year now,  but for some reason one of my banks will still not update correctly.  The most frustrating part is when I was screaming that mint.com was the best thing that had ever happened to me, all of my accounts worked perfectly. This lasted for 2 weeks and ever since then, it will not. I have sent messages and pressed the help button and whatever else it says to do when your bank is so obscure it doesn’t work with the internet, but…it still isn’t working and now that I think about it, no one over there is really trying to help.

So, I’ve started searching for yet another personal finance/budget program. Since it’s only March I think I have time to get things going with a different system. I really want to get organized and I adore fancy little programs and software that do all of the work for you. Okay, maybe I’m lazy too.

There are so many to choose from though that I’m overwhelmed and have no idea which one to try next. It seems from all of the reviews that Quicken is one of the main programs that people like and my dad happened to have it (because he actually didn’t like it).

I’m 800% gung ho ready to get this party started and guess what? The Bank isn’t on Quicken either.  You know why? Quicken is mint.com. In fact, Quicken online isn’t available anymore and everyone is being shoved over to mint.com.What the Hell. I can still manually add my information in Quicken, but I really like the automatic updates that occur with every other account that I have. It’s just this one, small account that’s giving me grief. And guess what again? The account is the account with small town bank which I don’t like but have been afraid to close.

How Does a Girl Get a Budget Around Here?

I am now stuck with the decision of getting everything set up with Quicken and actually giving it a fair trial, or finding another personal finance program, either online or software or whatever and trying that one out before I get too far into Quicken. I was even prepared to pay for Quicken but now I’m not sure.

Which personal finance software is the best? It depends on what you need.

This is What I Need from My Software

1. Budgeting tools- I’d like to be able to look at what I’m spending in each area so I can decide what is ridiculous and what makes sense.

2. Automatic account updates – I want to pull my account information by pressing a button. Maybe two buttons, but that’s it. This is not the most important factor and I am willing to manually update the small account that currently isn’t available anywhere. The other accounts however, I am not willing to update manually because that would actually take me until next year to enter everything. I may as well use an Excel spreadsheet otherwise, and I don’t have time for that.

3. Pies and charts – I need to see where my money is going in the form of a circular pie chart. Pretty colors are preferable but I can live without that too.

4. Price – I’m thinking that less than $50 would be okay but free is even better. I realize that free isn’t always the best choice though, especially when dealing with money. If that makes sense.

5. Help means help – I am pretty self sufficient but when things start getting wonky, I would like assistance or at least be able to find what I need somewhere. I guess this means I just want halfway decent customer service. It’s technology, it’s online, I don’t expect anyone to hold my hand.

Quicken actually looks like it could be a nice program to use, but if anyone has any other suggestions…I’m wide open. (Or maybe I just need to get rid of that damn bank account.)

 

 

Posted in Budgeting, Credit Cards and Bills | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Plans for Buying a House Post Bankruptcy

By christina | Published: March 1, 2011

As I’ve stated before, one of my main goals is to buy a house. I have been dragging my feet a bit on planning for this for a couple reasons. 1) I don’t think I have enough money and 2) I live in an area that doesn’t offer much.

To address my two ridiculous reasons for renting instead of working toward buying I will say that buying a house is similar to deciding to have children. No one ever thinks it’s the “right” time. As far as #2 is concerned, I have decided to look harder. In my particular corner of the world, the housing arrangements vary from either really cheap and crappy to really nice and way too expensive. Yet, I know there has to be something in the middle that I will be happy raising my daughter in. Everyone knows that renting is throwing away money and I will not feel the least bit satisfied until I have some place of my own.

Still, there are things I need to get in order and here are the things I’ve come up with so far:

1) Pay down credit. I need to make a huge dent in what I owe in order to raise my credit score. This will help a great deal in getting a decent mortgage that I can pay and keep up with (which is my main concern).

2) Save a large down payment. I would like to have a large enough down payment saved up to help get a house with payments I can afford. I will need to be able to make the mortgage plus pay property taxes and insurance, which I am factoring into a monthly payment regardless of how it has to be paid. This means that I need to start saving more than the $100 I’m putting into my ING savings account.

3) Figure out my banking situation. This one is tough because I recently found out that one of the main banks that provides mortgages in my area is the small town bank that told me I would never make it as a single woman that has filed bankruptcy. I don’t wish to be prideful, but when I left that office in tears, I decided I would not ask them again for anything. Unfortunately, my parents’ realtor said that the Credit Union I adore won’t be able to provide any of the government programs for me. So either I need to start looking at other banks or I need to suck it up and eventually go back to little bank that I hate.

My bankruptcy is old enough that when combined with a clean credit report, it should be less of a problem when mortgage hunting. I am in no way delusional and know that in order to counter a bankruptcy from almost 7 years ago, I need to have perfect credit.  I really just need to save a lot more and pay down my credit cards a lot more, which seems daunting, but at one time, even acquiring credit seemed hopeless.

The biggest problem that weighs heavily on my mind is dealing with small town bank. What do you think? Suck it up…or find a lender somewhere else?

 

Posted in Bankruptcy, Credit Cards and Bills, Credit Repair, Financial Goals, Purchases | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Where to Find Cheap DVDs for Kids

By christina | Published: February 24, 2011

If you remember way back in March of 2010, I broke up with Dish Network and went completely to DVDs for our television entertainment. I didn’t miss it like I worried that I would and my daughter seemed fine as long as we rented or picked up her favorite shows once in a while. I know for a fact that I didn’t spend almost $70 a month on DVDs so I can totally declare a win in this field.

According to this article, cable generally costs at least $500 to almost $1300 per year and I know that a lot of consumers have a bunch of extras in their cable packages that raise the monthly bill. The article also gives a few ideas for alternatives if you can’t go cold turkey, but most rely upon an internet connection so depending on how much internet costs for you, these alternatives may not end up saving you much. Most of the alternatives I looked into at the time involved my computer, and since I work and go to school, my computer is pretty much tied up. My daughter wouldn’t be able to watch it anyway. So, we opted for straight out DVDs and since she watched television way more than I did, I thought I’d give you some idea where to find inexpensive (cheap) DVDs for kids.

Walmart and Target

Seems like a no brainer, but you have to look in the cheap areas otherwise, both Walmart and Target have some pretty expensive DVDs. Yes, I ended up buying a lot of DVDs out of the $5 bin at Walmart. Luckily, my daughter is young enough to appreciate most of the cartoons and kid’s shows that are in those bins, although she thought the cover for Lassie looked way better than the movie actually was.

DVD Rentals Are Not Dead

There aren’t many places that still rent DVDs but I live in a small town that has a discount store almost literally down the street. We can rent movies from there for $2 a day. If I rented a DVD from the discount store every day, I still would not be spending as much as I did on Dish Network.

Borrow and Beg for DVDs

I am lucky to have people in my family that pretty much hoard DVDs and allow me to borrow a movie for free from them on occasion. I am also lucky enough to have someone in my family that owns quite a few new releases. If I ever needed a movie that was not animated or made by Disney, I could borrow one from them (as well as the kid’s movies too).

Garage Sales and Discount Stores

Not only can you find really, insanely cheap DVDs at garage sales and discount stores, but you can also find VHS movies as well. Yeah, that’s right. I said VHS. I don’t have a VCR but I was always amazed at the movies you can still buy on VHS for less than a dollar and sometimes just pocket change.  If you have one, hook that thing up and watch some cheap movies. Kids don’t know the difference. In fact, they may think they have found something new when you pull out the rusty, dusty VCR.

Don’t Go for New Releases

My daughter has become a huge fan of I Love Lucy and The Dick Van Dyke Show (for some unexplainable reason) and I can find really cheap DVDs with entire seasons of these shows in most stores. We never ever bought new release movies and I can save that for a special treat to the movie theater. I know it’s cheaper to actually buy the DVD, but sometimes it’s nice to get out and do something. Plus, it’s a lot of fun for kids.

I’m glad that I disconnected the satellite TV when I did. I hated the idea of wasting so much money on channels and television shows that we never watched and I think it made a big difference in getting caught up on a lot of bills. If you are considering cutting cable, I would definitely say go for it. You don’t have to go all Amish and actually sell your TV, although I did but that’s another story, there are tons of alternatives available that make living without cable a lot easier.

What do you think. Could you live without cable or satellite television?

 

 

Posted in Budget Cuts, Budget Shopping, Children, Purchases | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The Nook Color and Free eBooks

By christina | Published: February 16, 2011

I forgot to mention the newest addition to my bag of electronic obsession. My parents bought me an eReader, the Barnes and Noble Nook Color to be more specific.

I am one of those people that always thought I enjoyed being able to hold a book and look at it on the book shelf, but I can honestly say that the handiness of the Nook has totally won me over. I understand now why everyone’s screaming that print, as in printed books, magazines and newspapers, will someday become obsolete. It’s sad as a writer to imagine such a world, but as a new owner of an eReader- well, I get it.

The best function of the Nook so far, is that I am able to download the reading material for my classes and read it on the Nook while at work, or wherever. I don’t need to go into how uncomfortable it would be for me, at my age, to be carrying around a stack of school books. With the Nook I can read the assignments without anyone even knowing what I’m reading. I can also view PowerPoint presentations and Word documents. The Nook Color also comes with Pandora (which I use ALL the time), as well as Chess and Sudoko puzzles and crossword puzzles.

But, besides all of that, you do have access to virtually any book, magazine or newspaper that ever existed and currently exists. There are always deals available at Barnes and Noble for bestsellers and you can find a large number of books there for one or two dollars. There is also a lending program that allows you to lend the books you have and you can lend from others as well. I haven’t tried it yet, since I currently have plenty in my library to read.

I have also come across quite a few websites that provide free eBooks.

Project Gutenberg – this is probably the most well known place for free eBooks. If  you’re looking for a classic, you can probably find it at Project Gutenberg. (Or one of those old books you’ve always wanted to read but never did.) These are all books that are in the public domain and thus, free to distribute.

Barnes and Noble Free Nookbooks – Barnes and Noble has a section online of free Nookbooks that you can browse and download. Amazon also has free ebooks available for the Kindle. There are programs that you can use to convert books from one eReader to the other. From what I’ve seen and read, it seems like a bigger pain to try to convert the books that are strictly for the Kindle, so I don’t.

Free eBooks.net – this site carries a ton of books, but is also a site that allows you to write your own eBooks as well. It appears as though there are a lot of free eBooks here that are written by people you’ve never heard of. Still, they’re free and when you’re looking for something different to read, this is a good place to try.

Public Libraries – Check for eBooks at your public library. You can usually check them out and download them to your eReader, exactly the same way you would check out a regular book. Also if you’re a student, you have a large amount of books available to you for free.

Many Books.net – I’m including this site even though it contains a large amount of the same books from the Gutenberg Project (and other sources) as well as a bunch of conversion tools for different formats. If you have an eBook for one eReader and want to convert it to another format, you will need one of these programs or tools to convert it.

There are a ton other sites for free eBooks if you don’t want to pay for them. Enough that  you will never run out of anything to read. eBooks are significantly cheaper than regular books so I don’t see a problem with buying one once in a while. In fact, one of the free children’s books that came with the Nook is an audio book and my daughter loved it, so I let her download the Tangled book about Rapunzel.

All in all, I think it’s an awesome gift (and not a bad investment if you’re planning on buying one). Happy reading, and if  you have any tips on free eBooks, let me know.

Posted in Budget Shopping, Free Stuff | Tagged , | 11 Comments

MyFICO Valentine’s Day Survey

By christina | Published: February 14, 2011

Whether your credit is shiny and pretty or crappy and being worked on, you will need to have an idea of what your credit score is. Post bankruptcy especially need to keep up with their credit reports and their credit scores in order kind of gauge what’s going on with their credit. If you are working on your credit, it also gives  you an idea of what you’re starting with.

Anyway, I received an email from MyFICO regarding the results of their relationship and finances, Valentine’s Day Survey.  Although, I am not currently part of a couple, I thought this was kind of interesting.

Even though there are a number of statistics claiming that the number one cause of divorce is finances, according to the MyFICO survey, it appears that couples are finding ways to work things out financially…together. The most interesting part to me was that a) people are discussing finances as soon as the relationship is serious and b) 46% operate individually. If you think about how the typical household was run even 10 or 20 years ago, this is a good indication that we’ve come a long way (particularly women).

Of course, the fact that 69% of those included in the survey said they would not let debt ruin or affect the relationship is a little romantic. All in all, as the caption at the end states, it looks like relationships and finances are doing okay so far, and well, that’s kind of romantic too.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Posted in Credit Repair, Financial Goals | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Really Bad, Bad Credit – Credit Cards

By christina | Published: February 10, 2011

I have noticed a number of suggestions for credit cards for people with bad credit and people that have filed bankruptcy and I wanted to mention that sometimes, some of those credit cards or cards are really bad. Some are such crappy deals, that I don’t think anyone’s credit is bad enough to have to settle for. (I personally have had really crappy credit, so I know.)

I know it’s easy to think that your credit sucks so badly that you don’t have a choice. In order to rebuild you have to start somewhere and any kind of denial can fool us into thinking that we have no choice. You do have a choice though. If for some reason you think your credit is the worst of the worst, I’d suggest just waiting it out a little while. It generally takes a year or two after filing to get any half way decent credit cards.

Anyway, here are some cards that I think are just downright horrid and should not be considered under any circumstance.

1.  Merchandise Only Cards

These cards are advertised as 100% guaranteed with no credit check and sometimes no application necessary. That alone should tell you something wonky is going on. You have to at least fill out an application and provide some personal information for any decent credit card. These cards usually offer an extremely high line of credit. Like $10,000.00. Like an amount you know yourself no legitimate bank is going to approve you for. Here’s the catch: you can only use these cards on merchandise that the card sells. A special “store” of sorts. You can’t use them anywhere else, for anything else. They also usually carry extremely ridiculous interest rates and furthermore, do not report your payment history to credit bureaus. Thus, a waste of your time and money.

Okay, so Horizon Gold says $500 (nothing outlandish), no APR and reports to “a major credit bureau”. It does, however state that it can only be used at the website. Still, in my opinion not a good deal. You can get a secured card with almost any bank that can at least be used at the grocery store if you need it.

2.  Fee Heavy Prepaid Cards

These are the cards that most post bankruptcy filers decide to give a whirl. The problem is that sometimes prepaid cards include obnoxious fees, such as an application fee, a processing fee, a monthly fee and a yearly fee. If it’s a prepaid card, you’re loading it with your own money in the first place. Add on all of the fees and you’re also paying to use your own money. These cards sometimes do not report to the credit bureaus either.

3.  Unsecured Cards with A Lot of Fees and Available Limit

Sure it’s unsecured, but again, the fees can add up to almost the entire limit that you are allowed. Here is an example from Applied Bank:

This card says “credit bureau reporting” which is probably better than none at all, although I’m not quite sure what it means. There are also no application or processing fees and cardholders receive a $500 credit limit. If you notice from the chart above, though, there is a monthly fee of $15.00 which starts the second year, plus the annual fee of $125 that you pay the first year. The APR is 29.99% and there is no grace period.

This seems to be a step up from a regular secured card, except with a secured card of course you have to pay a deposit which is held in case you default.

The Best of the Bad Credit-Credit Cards

This is why Orchard Bank is one of the better cards for those with bad credit. The fees are lower, but you also have a card that can be used anywhere as well as a payment history to help rebuild or build your credit. You can also answer a few short questions to see which card you will qualify for, and more than one bad credit applicant has been pleasantly surprised when they find out they’re approved for a better card than they thought.

Otherwise, like I said, wait a little bit. Here is the list of credit cards I was approved for just over a year after I filed Chapter 7.  Your credit is probably not as bad as you think, so don’t let that feeling of desperation cost you more money then it needs to.

Good luck!

Posted in Bankruptcy, Credit Cards and Bills, Credit Repair | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Is Miss Bankrupt Still Bankrupt?

By christina | Published: January 12, 2011

I thought I’d post a small update on how things are going since I haven’t in a while. I’ve been focusing more on helpful things than my personal issues but I wanted to at least share some information on topics that I’ve covered in the past.

1.  Chase Bank

Yes, I hated Chase Bank. Yes, I said they raped me because of the credit limit and interest rate slam. But that was yesterday and all I can do is move forward. I am still paying the monthly payments that were set up as part of the Hardship Program and even added the other Chase card to the program as well. The card was already closed and it doesn’t affect my credit score negatively; in fact if you’re having problems paying your bill I would actually recommend a Hardship Program. It lowered my interest and payments and the balance owing on the second card was actually lowered as well.  So although we’re not dating, we’re at least friends. Not BFF’s but at least I don’t break out into a rash when I think of them.

2. Canceling Satellite

I still think canceling Dish Network was a great decision. I’ve saved $70 a month for quite a while now (almost a year) and have lived just fine on DVDs. I will admit that once in a while when at my parents’ house or a someone else’s normal homes, I do miss cable television shows. Never enough to add it back though and pay the monthly fees.

3. Canceling the Land Line

What land line. I’m about to throw away the land line phone actually because I don’t ever plan on having one again. Saved at least $30 a month and this I can say I don’t miss it at all. In fact, I will go as far as saying that I think land lines in homes will become a thing of the past. Cell phones are more than capable of handling phone needs. It almost doesn’t make sense to have a phone at home AND a cell phone. I never did try a pay as you go phone, which would probably be cheaper, but since getting the iPhone I’ve become way too reliant on it to change anything.

4. Savings

I am still adding money every month to my savings account with ING. Ever since they had that contest that I didn’t win and I signed up for the automatic monthly transfer, the savings has been growing. Let me tell you, even though I forget about it, when I do think about that savings account it feels good. Knowing that you are saving instead of wishing you would each month is almost as awesome as finding free money. Almost but not really.

5. Debt

Things are getting paid off so I can see a light at the end of the financial tunnel. My medical bills are almost paid down as well as the dental bill (after setting up payment arrangements and asking for discounts). My credit cards need more work but I’m paying those down as well. Nothing is in collections and nothing has late payments so my credit score is well on its way back up.

Other News

I bought a pair of tall BearPaw boots. Kind of a cheaper version of the Uggs that I wanted, but now that I have them I don’t even want Uggs. These BearPaw boots are awesome and comfy and the warmest boots I’ve ever had. I can wear them with leggings and not freeze to death even though I live in American Siberia. I’m considering getting some for my daughter also.

I’m back in school to finish a couple degrees. I need to not only reduce my debt, but I need to make more money as well and furthering my education can only help. I know what you’re thinking. School loans are going to bring me back down into a black hole in a few years. I plan on having everything in order by then though so all I have to focus on is the school loans. I’m confident it’ll be okay.

Am I still bankrupt? I pay my bills, I feed my child, I’m happy, she’s happy. Yeah, I am kind of still bankrupt but I really can’t complain. It’s getting better for us and it’ll get better for you.

Really.

Posted in Bankruptcy, Credit Cards and Bills, Credit Repair, Financial Goals, medical bills, Paying Bills and Collections, Savings | 4 Comments