Going for Not Broke

Anna Nalick's song "Breathe" has a line that sums up me. It goes: "These mistakes you make you'll just make them again If you only try turning around." It's been a rough year for us financially. On the home front, our heating-and-air unit crapped out to the tune of $5,000 and our roof started leaking. Add to that, my dad had major surgery three hours away, and during his nearly three-week recovery time, I spent a lot of money on gas, hotel rooms and dining out. Then, after he was released and was home just a little more than a week, he got a bad blood infection and wound up right back in the same hospital again for another three or four weeks. (He's doing well now.) The thing of it is, though, is that when tough times hit -- and they don't even have to be as tough as this year has been -- it becomes very easy for me to say, "Well, if I gotta charge A, then what's the harm in charging B, too?" Then, before you know it, I'v...

For once, I can say that I haven't had the time to blog because I've been doing work that actually pays me. I did some web-page writing. I was slow at it, and for two weeks worth of sacrificing my spare time, I made roughly just $80. My hope is that it will lead to better- paying gigs later. Fingers-crossed. If it doesn't, though, I still plan to continue working the extra as much as possible. I NEED to pay things down more quickly.  For some reason, I've been feeling the weight of how much we owe more strongly lately, and I just really am ready to see some significant progress.

This year has been tough on our pocketbook. My dad had major surgery , and because he was hospitalized three hours away, we spent a lot of money on fuel, fast food and motel rooms. Thankfully, he's finally home, and we're hopeful his health with continue to improve. Also, I got speeding ticket. I fully admit speeding, and I make no excuses, so I have no one to blame but myself, but that was still $150 we didn't really have. Plus, my daughter had hearing tests that are going to cost us a couple hundred (thankfully, though, her hearing is fine), our roof is leaking, and my husband has to have some costly dental work done. We've put a lot of things on our credit cards to accommodate, so, so far this year, we've made anti-progress. Here's hoping the rest of the year goes better.

Well, my break took a little longer than I expected. My dad's recovery took a short detour when he got an infection, but he's doing good now, my freelance project is mostly out of the way, and the consignment sale is behind me. I did MUCH better at the consignment sale this year. I got just a little more than $200, and my first act after depositing the check was to send an extra $100 to a creditor, and with how much time we've spent out of town lately and staying in hotels while my dad was hospitalized, I wish it could've been more.

I've been hoping for a chance to install the foot pedal onto my home computer so that I can do some transcribing practice. I'm a fairly fast typist, but translating what I hear into text isn't as easy as just copying something that's already written down. Over the last week, though, I've had a tough time sleeping and I've been battling a rather nasty cold. The result: I haven't done a thing with the foot pedal yet. Hopefully, the next seven days will yield better results. Debt Assessment I wouldn't trade my daughter for anything, but since we've had her, I've become even less organized than I was before. It's been months since my husband and I have looked at our total debt, something we used to do on a monthly basis. I think looking at our total debt periodically is good for us. It's one thing to know it's too high and file it away in the back of your mind, but it's something else to get reminded, to see whether you're...

My husband and I started a college fund for our daughter over the past week. We've had some money set aside for her account for several months now, earning a whopping 0.1 percent interest in our traditional savings account, as I tried to decide which investment option was best for us. Ultimately, though, we just went with what the financial planner recommended because the amount of information out there is just too overwhelming for me. As we reviewed the funds that the financial planner had prepared for us, I was pleasantly surprised to see how much we can see, eg., specifically what companies our money would be invested in. My retirement account doesn't provide information that detailed. After seeing what's available, I thought I might try reading a book like "Investing for Dummies" so that I can get the basics of investing down. I'd like to take a more active role in our investments. I had hoped I could borrow the book for free on my Kindle from Amazon, ...

One day last week, I read a headline for a column my local paper runs called "Everyday Cheapskate" by Mary Hunt, which focuses on living within your means and paying down debt. The headline mentioned using "unflinching determination" to reach your goals. I didn't take the time to read the article, but I like the idea of "unflinching determination." I was able to think of those words a few times when I wanted to buy something that I didn't really need. It also propelled me to take a walk (getting fit is another goal of mine). But as often happens, the words lost their impact. Perhaps I can get back the "unflinching determination" I had for those few days if I wrote the words on a piece of paper and posted them in a place I see often.

I had a rather hectic Monday and Tuesday morning, so I took an unplanned break from blogging yesterday. Hopefully, I can keep up with it better from here on out. But that's not the only thing that I've fallen behind on. To help us stay aware of where we are debt-wise, my husband and I have a meeting every month in which we both look at what we still owe and see how much progress (and sometimes, I must admit, it is anti-progress) we've made toward our goal to be debt-free. The meeting is tentatively scheduled for the first of the month, though sometimes we have it on the 3rd, or 6th or whenever, based on when we're able to gather up everything and jot down the necessary numbers. Well, tomorrow is the date of our next "meeting," and we've yet to meet in October yet. Oh well. I guess next month's will be a double meeting. Happy Halloween, everyone!

I think that in some ways, paying off your debt can be like losing weight. For me, when I had 100 pounds to lose, losing just one or two didn't feel like a big deal. It took my losing at least 10 pounds before I felt like I could really accomplish my goal. Similarly, paying an extra $20 toward tens of thousands of dollars' worth in debt feels like too little to make much difference too. Seeing a big drop of say, $5,000, might help me feel like I can do this and therefore spur me on to do what's necessary each and every day. However, it's tough to make the kind of "go-get 'em" effort on my current income. So, I'd like to make more. Since early this year when one of my sources for freelance work dried up, I've been focusing a little more on my hobbies, writing and beading. Both can be sources of extra income if I could just find the time to work on either one steadily. It's tough when you have a baby. I am amazed that there are so many mothers ...

A few years ago, I read that knowing where you stand financially will go a long way in helping you pay down your debt. After that, my husband and I started having a mini-meeting at the end of every month during which we look at what we owe. My thinking is that maybe seeing the total number would spur us to focus more on paying it down. We've seen a decrease every year since we've been doing that, though not as much as I would hope. Since our daughter was born, the meetings have been more and more spaced out until we wound up skipping them altogether from April until just yesterday, when finally, we sat down to get another glimpse of it. Over the past few months when we haven't been looking at it, we haven't done as well. I think in our case, it really helps to keep abreast of where we are. Because we made the time to look at it yesterday, I'm hoping we continue doing so from here on out.

Because I worked a few extra shifts recently, my check was a higher than usual. I haven't seen a whole lot of overtime since I had my daughter -- maybe an hour here or an hour there -- so it's nice to have a little extra on my check. It allows me to send an extra $175 to one of my credit cards. It's too bad I don't get that kind of extra on every check.

As I go through my "Coach Yourself Thin" book (first post on it is here ), I think first about whether the topic the authors are addressing applies to how I view weight loss, then I ask myself, "Does this apply to how I try to tackle my finances too?" When I came across a section that elaborates on how some people set unrealistic goals for getting themselves back to a healthy weight, it suddenly occurred to me that I've never done the math when it comes to our debt. Is it even possible for my husband and me to pay off all of our debt before our daughter starts school? So, I busted out the calculator and did a quick figure. First of all, it's been a few months since I've seen our total debt, so the best I can do on the fly is guess and base it on the progress we've been able to do in a month's time in the past. At this point, it doesn't look like it. We'd have to make more than $2,000 in payments toward the principal of what we ow...

This time, I sent $25 above what I normally send to one creditor and $50 more to another, so $75 total.

I made out my bills for the month earlier today, and managed to send an extra $25 and some change to one of my credit cards. Not much on my quest to no longer be broke, but it's a start.