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.  

One step at a time

I know I haven't been updating, but I have been insanely busy.  We are caught up on the mortgage but still behind in our credit card payments.   Bad news is that Amex sent our account to collections but all the other creditors are willing to work with us.  After 3 hours of phone calls, I was able to establish the following: 

1. Citicards has agreed to stop all late fees + finance charges for one year, 0 % interest rate and monthly payments of $57.
2. Discover has agreed to stop all late fees + finance charges for one year, 9.99% interest rate and monthly payments of $135.
3. WaMu has agreed to stop all late fees + finance charges for 6 months, with interest at 10.99% and monthly payments of $100.  

DH and I are determined to pay off WaMu by the end of the six months.  Then we will just continue to snowball onto our next card.  Since DH is going to be getting a bonus in February, in addition we will have our tax return in mid February, we are hoping to save $1,000 and use the rest to pay off the WaMu account.  

The funny thing is that when we were paying on time every month, none of the above creditors would work with us to reduce the interest rate on the cards.   It wasn't until we weren't able to pay the cards after I lost my job & we stopped paying in order to keep our house, then they were eager to work with us.  It makes me very angry at myself for allowing us to get in this situation but also very angry at the credit card companies who wouldn't lower the interest rates in the first place.