Resolutions for 2009

I celebrated the new year by staying home with my husband and kids. I made bbq ribs, mashed potatoes and salad. Hubby and I drank a couple glasses of champagne and turned in just after midnight. I'm so thankful for 2008 to be over with!

For 2009, I hope that things improve for us. I would like for us to be healthy & be in a better place financially. I hope to accomplish the following:

1. Get completely caught up on our bills. This means our electric bills and credit card bills.
2. Track my spending for the month of January.
3. Balance my checkbook every Friday night.
4. Have at least one garage sale this year and sell things that are just sitting in the garage.
5. Find a part time job for the summer.
6. Keep my grades up.
7. Plan a garden for less than $200 this summer.

Checking things off the list

Today, I managed to do one of the 4 things on my list for this week.  

1.   Balance my checkbook 

2.   Pay utility bills.

3.   Call my utility companies (phone, insurance, cable company, etc) and ask them to lower my bills.

4.  Pull up my last month's bank statement & highlight every single thing I spent that was not bill related or necessary.  I guess I would be trimming the fat. 

In addition to #4, I want to track my daily spending.  I decided to do this in my planner. I use a Franklin Covey planner, and they have a spot where I can quickly jot down what I spent for the day.  I have to say that I'm rather proud of DH & I, we both packed lunch & brought our own coffee today.  It's little, but it's progress. 

Another positive step

After I got over the shock I decided the best thing to do is get organized.  Today, I spent a couple of hours shredding & organizing all of our paperwork.  I also decided that I can't do this all at once or else I will want to stick my head back in the sand.  So, my goal for the week are as follows:

1. Balance my checkbook 
2. Pay utility bills.
3. Call my utility companies (phone, insurance, cable company, etc) and ask them to lower my bills.
4. Pull up my last month's bank statement & highlight every single thing I spent that was not bill related or necessary.  I guess I would be trimming the fat.  

I hope to have the above done by next Saturday.  I know that DH & I need to change our mindset & really get focused.  We have talked about it and when we file taxes we are going to keep $1,000 and then we are going to tackle the smaller debts (I think the first on the chopping block is going to be the Amex card & then the smaller balances.  Originally, we were going to pay off the WaMu card but I think to get us a boost, we need to see results quickly.  Paying the smaller balances first will help to achieve that. 

*Sigh*  I hate that we are in this position, but we don't have to stay here.  There's no where to go but up.  

In what order to pay off debt?

I honestly have no idea which way I'm going to tackle the debt, whether it be by smallest to largest balance or lowest to higher interest.  I'm tempted to go from smallest balance to largest but it irks me to pay more in interest so I will probably pay the highest interest bearing acct.  Which, may just be that damn Amex card.  I haven't called them and won't until probably Thursday night as I have a huge final tomorrow.  

I'm going to bed after a full 20 hour day of working (9 hrs + 2 hours of finals + 9 hours of studying). 

The ugly truth

I have been dreading this post...the dreaded adding up of your worst mistake = the total debt owed.  This is how much we owe to date:

-WaMu - $7,445.10 - 10.99% for 6 months. 1st on the chopping block.
-Amex # 2 - $2,218.80 @ 29% 
-Amex # 1 - $7,638.61 @ 29%
-Discover # 2 - $3,714.79 @ 9.99 %
-Citicard # 2 - $5,601.78 @ 0 % for 12 months
-Discover # 1 - $8,726.78 @ 9.99% for 12 months
-Citicard # 1 - $13,910 @ 8.024% 

Total:  48,255.86

Sigh...I knew the number was crazy but all added up it's staggering.  Excuse me while I go throw up.