New Balance for October 2011

Beginning of the Month	Credit Card	Student Loans	Car Payment	Net of Debt	Paid off
August	$979.96	$8,968.33	$13,836.81	$23,785.10
September	$0.00	$8,877.18	$13,455.70	$22,332.88	$1,452.22
October		$8,374.76	$13,100.83	$21,475.59	$857.29
			Diff of:	$2,309.51

I paid off $857.29 in September but a total of $2,904.44 since August. Not bad but need to step my game up. September had a lot of set backs. October is a new month and a set of goals have been laid out. I am going to bust out as much as I can for the month of October and hopefully I will be working my second job and making some extra payments on my student loans.

October Goals

I am already setting up goals for next month. No more excuses of stupid spending. My first two months were for that, lol… So here they are;
　
1. Put credit card and debt card somewhere else besides purse.
2. Monday-Friday no eating out. (This includes buying coffee, sodas or anything else food related except for groceries)
3. EVERY paycheck I get from second job (whenever I start) goes directly towards my debt. (Student loan first then car payment)
4. All the change I get back from my cash purchases all go into a jar. (Have not decided what I am going to do and how long I will save on this)
5. I will be using ONLY cash for all purchases.
Hopefully this will get my butt into gear. I think these steps are going to change my spending a lot and make me step back and look before buying anything!

Second Job

Well so far this month has not went as planned. Money has been a little bit of an issue for me. I got a little carried away with spending again on stupid stuff which I put on my credit card! OMG!!! I didn't learn my lesson from last month. I am putting my credit card somewhere else besides my purse. It's so easy to grab that little sucker and swipe! I am thinking about putting my debt card in the same place too. Then I am only relying on cash which is my ultimate goal. I really think if I only had cash it would make me stop and think about every purchase I ever make. The number one idea of getting out of debt is " STOP CREATING NEW DEBT". I just want to kick myself in the ass for my spending this month. I did get my emergency fund set up ( baby step 1 completed), still was able to pay some down on my debt (not as much as last months and waiting for my statement to see my standings) and paid my stupid debt off on my credit from this month. At least I am not paying interest on my credit card debt this month because I am paying it off before it's due. Which leads me into the title of this post. Since I am not seeing a lot of movement with my debt I have decided to get a second job. I know I know you guys are thinking just cut back your spending and stop buying crap! Well that is what I am going to do in October! I applied for a second job this month, have been hired but just waiting on my back ground check to go through. I am just planning on working 12 hrs a week, nothing crazy or extreme. So if I cut my spending and all of my second job paychecks go onto my debt (no if's and's or but's about that) I am hoping to see a bigger decrease faster on my debt.

Next on my list

I know baby step one was to have $1,000 put away first before paying down debt but kind of did the opposite for August. Now that I paid a little chunk off it's time to get that emergency fund up and going. The reasoning why I am choosing this is because I already had a set back in my first month without having that emergency money put into place and had to use my credit card to help out. So not only am I going to have to put money into my emergency fund but will have to pay off the money I put on my credit card. It makes me sad to see money back on that card since August I had it paid off.

New Balance for September 2011

Beginning of the Month	Credit Card	Student Loans	Car Payment	Net of Debt
August	$979.96	$8,968.33	$13,836.81	$23,785.10
September	$0.00	$8,877.18	$13,455.70	$22,332.88
			Diff of:	$1,452.22

I paid off $1,452.22 in my first month!!!!! I put as much as possible on my debt this month to get the ball rolling. I am very proud of myself!!! Only $22,332.88 more to go! Hope next month is better!

August Spending

I set up my guidelines for each category of expenses that Dave Ramsey says and started off my first month with my head held high! Within the first week I already had a set back. I don’t even have my emergency fund set up completely yet. My apartment complex told me that I still owed 1/2 of the pet deposit. I guess when I signed the lease they just asked for 1/2 instead of the full (let me note this was in small print and didn't look that close at the pet deposit). So already within the first week I am off. That is okay I just try to spend less in another categories. The month went on and I wrote everything down that I spent. I did but didn't pay attention to my amounts I wanted to stay in but was really just focusing on where I spend my money. I went a little over for the month and had to use my credit card on a few things. After reviewing my cash flow I noticed I could have gone without several things. I need to stop spending money on coffees at work, eating out a lot less ( the money I set aside for food is allocated for eating out and groceries) and spent a lot more on gas than planned. I went back to see my family a lot more than expected. I have to start somewhere and they say the first month to two are finding out how you really spend your money and where to change things. So taking this month and next month for learning lessons.

Getting Started

August was the first month to start my budget. I knew it was going to take me a month or two to get use to being on a strict budget but it was something that had to be done. I decided to go with the Dave Ramsey's idea of getting out of debt. I am going to start his 7 baby steps to financial freedom. So the first thing that needed to be done was to brake everything down from bills to money I need to save for or pay for each month;

Housing:

Rent

Electric

Gas

Water & Sewer

Cable

Loans:

Car Payment

Student loans

Capital One

Other things:

Cell

Car Insurance

Savings

Envelope System:

Gas

Groceries/Household Consumer

Blow Money

Savings

Medical (Co pays, meds)

Cat (Food, shots, litter)

Gifts/Birthdays

Clothes

Hair cut

Cosmetics

Christmas savings

Contacts

Oil Changes

Taxes (Property)

I opened up an excel sheet and plugged away. This is an example of what mine looked like. These are not my real numbers just an example of how I did mine. Everyone’s budget is different. I just threw numbers into this sheet. Goal is to have all your money spoken for.

Income & Expense Items	August
Income	$2,000.00
Expenses
Housing Expenses	Planned	Actual	Diff
Rent	$300.00		300.00
Electric	$50.00		50.00
Gas	$20.00		20.00
Water & Sewer	$20.00		20.00
Cable	$80.00		80.00
Total	$470.00	$0.00
Loans
Car Payment	$205.00		205.00
Student loans	$125.00		125.00
Credit Card	$50.00		50.00
Total	$380.00	$0.00
Monthly Bills
Cell	$80.00		80.00
Car Insurance	$100.00		100.00
Total	$180.00	$0.00
Gas/Groceries
Gas	$300.00		300.00
Groceries/Household Consumer	$300.00		300.00
Blow Money	$100.00		100.00
	$700.00	$0.00
	$270.00	$2,000.00

Introduction

I am in my late twenties and just decided to kick debt out of my life. I have always hated owing anyone money... HATED!!! If I ever wanted anything I would save up for it or work more hours to pay for it. I saved $10,000 for a car during high school. Crazy uh!!!! Lets just say I worked my butt off! You are probably asking yourself, "How is this girl in debt if in high school she saved all this money for a car?" Well I have one word for you "college". That is when all my hard work went down hill. I had to take loans out and never really thought much about having to repay them or how much I was racking up. After I graduated I had between $22,000 - $24,000 in debt just from school loans. Oh man did that open my eyes. Then a couple of years after graduating college my car broke down. I had no money to put down so I just took a loan out for the whole thing ($23,000 on top of my student loans). So right there I already have over $40,000 in debt, ugh! This year I took a step back and noticed I have paid off a lot of debt since I graduated college but still have a lot left. I am starting to think about the future (getting married, buying a house and having kids). All of this costs A LOT of money. This July I started looking into ways to becoming debt free. I have looked at so many articles and books about debt. The one that stood out the most was Dave Ramsey. So I am doing his baby steps. I have also read that blogging about your debt holds you accountable for it. So here I am, an ordinary girl, blogging her way through debt. So hope you enjoy and that I may inspire someone to do that same thing and become debt free! Enjoy =)