Debt Free Kid

From Retrospace: Ads # 83: Money

It took a few months for me to figure out that the theme for 2016 is "Make Do." Because I have compulsive spending habits (that got me into over $20 000 in credit card debt), I have to be very careful with my idle time. If I am on a computer I have to avoid online shopping, and if I have a few free hours on the weekend I have to avoid the shops. It is not made easy when my newest credit card allows me to designate three shopping categories to receive my 2% cash back each month. Since January, one of my self-selected categories is "Drug Store." I have been out of my nice face serum since late 2015, and it has been so tempting to go into the drug store and purchase another $50 bottle, knowing I will get $1 back for the purchase. But I have avoided the drug store and saved the money, and I am instead using up a jar of $50 cream that I purchased last year. Making do with what I already have. I am similarly avoiding Sephora, since I have at least 10 lipsticks and liner...

So far not off to a great start. I misread a letter from the student loan company and was $4 short for one of my payments. I started off the new year with a $45 NSF fee in my "no-fee" account. It was a really stupid mistake, since the line of credit they granted me is sitting there unused, and I could have transferred an extra amount from there just in case ... could have, should have. The mistake will eventually be forgotten, but not my grudge against that bank. I have already pulled almost all of my money from it to use another no-fee bank that is serving me much better. It felt great to end 2015 with all my bills paid, thanks to the "Xmas Saving" account I set up, where I deposit a small amount each month to cover December (extra) spending. However, I forgot to leave a little bit in there to visit a friend before New Year's, and ended up having a larger than expected credit card bill to pay in January. So I'm playing a bit of catch-up this month and not...

Yep, I almost did it. I almost pulled the trigger on a couple of sites today. I had stuff in the carts, but I closed the tabs before I pulled out the credit card. The first cart contained a couple of "ugly christmas sweaters" for Bean and I, and they weren't even that ugly. The one for me was pretty cute, and since it was pink and black, I could wear it year round. I knew Bean would get a kick out of the one I picked out for him. The second cart was for skincare, my most favourite thing to splurge on. I'm almost out of my $55 serum, and I saw an email for some sample primers at a great price. I needed to add only $2 more to get bonus points, so I picked out a new face wash. I scrutinized my purchases a few times, and read a couple of reviews of the primers. I needed to make sure the cosmetics company was cruelty-free. And then I clicked "x," twice. And went to heat up my ramen noodles for lunch. I also figured out how to file a dispute with amazo...

One morning last week, I woke up with a little giddy feeling, sort of like it might be my birthday*, or christmas morning, but it wasn't. It was Friday the 13th I think, but that had nothing to do with the feeling. I was excited because the night before I received an email from Tangerine** telling me that I'm pre-approved for their new cash-back credit card. As soon as I saw the email on my phone, I went over to the laptop and logged in to accept my acceptance. I was pre-approved for $14 000 but I was able to change it to $7500. I chose this amount because when the new card arrives I will cancel two other credit cards worth $10 000 combined. We are sometimes told to keep our oldest credit card opened for good credit history, but now that I have a mortgage and car loan in place, I'm not too worried about what my credit rating looks like. I hopefully will not be opening too many more credit products after this. I'm excited for this card to show up. Not only will i...

I might have mentioned 100 or so times on here that I get paid only once a month. I've been working at the same institution since 2002, so I'm over it. We get paid on the 28th, but if the 28th falls on a Saturday or Sunday, then we get paid on the Friday before. The days leading up to payday are full of anticipation for me, because I look forward to seeing the amount go into my chequing account, and I love removing bits and bobs of it into my various savings accounts. Then I calculate what bills are going to be removed electronically and leave that amount in chequing, while the amount of bills that I pay manually later in the month goes into a savings account. I usually have less than $200 on the credit card that I pay before the due date. This past weekend I knew I would leave extra in the chequing, because the kid would be home and we had lots of plans. Friday morning, I didn't receive an email about the deposit, and I logged into my account about a half dozen times, ...

I get paid on the 28th of each month, and sometimes, like this past January, it feels like weeks between payday and the beginning of the next month. I have about three months worth of pay saved up so I'm never quite short on funds, but I do try to make each current pay last till the end of the month (the 30th or 31st, rather than the 28th), Since February has only 28 days (normally) it is a nice feeling to head right into March with a full paycheque. This month, to make it even sweeter, I have declared it "no spend month." This means that all non-essential spending (groceries and gas excluded of course) is to be delayed for four short weeks. And I am not allowing myself to cheat by using a credit card and paying it off next month. Half of my January pay went towards a hefty credit card bill from December spending, even though I had a christmas savings account set up. Still, it is nice to check my credit card statements and see that zero balance. Since I am single agai...

The other day I was standing in our "back backyard," a large lot behind our backyard that we share with several other houses in the area, watching my son kick his soccer ball again and again into the net that someone had set up there. Parked nearby was a red SUV, and the appearance of the driver reminded me of one of the "stupid money mistakes" that I referred to in my last post. I think I posted over and over about my problematic previous vehicle, the red Ford. I had just put out another large sum to keep it on the road in July 2011. About two weeks later, one of the graduate students was in my office, and she mentioned that she had to sell her Toyota in two days before she left the province for good. I asked her about it, and she mentioned it was a 2005 Echo with 72 000 kms on it. I asked her how much and she said $5000, to which I replied, "Sold!" Then she told me that it was a standard, and I decided then that it was time to learn how to drive manual...

Happy New Year everyone. I have been working on my budget for 2011 and I am confident that I will have the last of the credit card debt gone by the end of the coming year. I can't say I will be debt-free because I will then have the $30 000+ student loan debt to tackle, however I am feeling pretty ecstatic to see the end of the credit card era of my life. It was nice to receive my paycheque on the 28th of December and be able to allocate it entirely into my new budget. I didn't have any credit card bills to pay since I managed to use some savings for all my xmas gift purchases. I also bought way less this year than in previous years. My sister and I agreed to buy nothing for each other and instead got together on xmas eve for a nice visit. I also didn't buy for any of my step-siblings' kids (of which there are now 6) because they keep multiplying while I responsibly keep my number of offspring to just one :) I kept my traveling to a minimum this xmas and when I di...

The health food store near our apartment has a customer appreciation day on the last Tuesday of the month: 10% off all purchases. I try to get a list going and when I direly need something I'll try to time it to make it over on this special day. Last Tuesday I noticed I was running low on Vitamin D. I take Vit. D, a multi-vitamin, and fish oils every morning. I was also feeling a little under the weather, so I thought I'd pick up a natural cold remedy while I was in there picking up the Vitamin D. When I got to the store I noticed the "Customer Appreciation" sign wasn't up on the door but I decided to go in anyways. You know where this is going. I walked out with Vit. D, echinacea, (EDIT: AND more fish oils), a bottle of Floradix (liquid iron supplement), two bags of organic cereal, a bottle of shampoo, a box of rice milk, and a bottle of China Cola. I spent almost $80.00. When I got out to my car with my bag of stuff, I remembered that customer appreciation...

I just got off the phone with VISA. I have a card with a $30 000 credit limit and a "low-interest" rate of 12%, with an annual fee of $29. I had them switch it to a no-fee, 1% cash-back card with warranty extension and a $5000 credit limit. I am just not comfortable with so much open credit now that my balance is on its way to $5000, but at the same time I was not yet ready to close out the account entirely, which was my intention. I realize that it's useful to have a VISA card for the locations that do not accept MC - like the eye doctor I visited last summer. Eventually I will be credit card free, but not yet. Seriously, Karissa

So my Ford is still sitting in my parking lot, and I'm still driving the borrowed Honda. I can't say I've saved much money, since I have paid $130 for a new (used) tire and a replacement brake line. Both situations leading up to these repairs were costly in terms of stress and slight trauma as well. I have a feeling I should bring the Honda back to it's owners' house and say "thanks!" If I do that I have three choices: 1) Get back on the bus 2) Buy a new(er) car 3) Repair the Ford The mechanic who installed the Honda's new brake line said more lines are rusty and are going to break, and will need replacing. He's willing to take look at the Ford for free. He thinks $3000 was a high quote for the repair, but admitted that it will still be expensive. I hope to have the credit card balance down to $7000 and in a couple of months I will transfer it back to the LOC (5.5%), before the interest rate on the card goes back up to it's normal 19%....

Jolie wanted to know how the cash jars are going so here's an update. We're going into week four with the cash jars. So far I think I'm getting used to it. One problem I can see so far is with gas money. For the past three months I have spent around $80 on gas for the car, so for this month I budgeted $100. The whole amount was spent a week ago. I suspect it's because I am using a full-serve station now and maybe they aren't very honest at the pump. I can't think of another option because my son is usually in the car when we fill up and I used to rely on pay-at-the-pump with my credit card. I'm thinking of going back to that. For groceries the cash only seems to be working though, and we still have $60 out of $200 remaining with just over a week to go. I don't have any of my $100 personal spending money left but that's to be expected. I sold my sister my crappy cell phone and all its accessories for $50 and I still have $40 left from that. In...

I opened my first savings account when I was six years old. My mom was a bank teller and she set my sister and I both up with Calculator accounts at the Royal Bank. I loved playing with my passbook, pretending to push the little buttons on the cover. I loved rolling up pennies and giving them to my mom to deposit, watching the typed numbers increase in the passbook. I always had a little bit of cash, even as a little girl. I got an allowance of $2 a week and I liked to spend it on books (usually Judy Blume). I remember coming up with extra chores lists, and would charge my parents 25 cents for anything above and beyond my usual chores. My sister always spent her money right away and would come to me to "borrow" my money because she knew I always had some. I had an ATM card when I was twelve, and used it wisely. I knew how to write a cheque. I took a business class in high school, with a component in personal finance and did very well. I took business math and marketing an...

April was a little too spendy for my liking (two impulse shops + one trip to the Capital + one trip to have my snow tires removed + Bean's fourth birthday = $500) so for May I have switched to cash only. I withdrew $400 cash ($200 for food & household, $100 for car-gas, $100 spending money) and divided it into a couple of old spagetti sauce jars. So far, I hate this system. I am just not used to cash. I like cards. I don't know if I'll get used to it. I'm going to try my hardest, because I can't rely on the security of my line of credit anymore, since I transferred the balance of my debt onto a low-interest master card (0.99% for ten months). Previously I was depositing my monthly paycheque into the LOC account and removing a weekly amount for expenses (usually $100 a week or $200 when car insurance was due). This system seemed to work really well for me: I was paying the balance down and feeling secure about access to my funds. Now that my debt is sitting...

I called Master Card to check the status of my application for the new card. It was still pending, but the rep informed me that I had a deal on my current card for 0.99% for the next nine months. I decided on the spot to go for it, and now my diminishing debt is back on the MC for a little while. It changes my strategy of pooling all my resources into my easily-accessible LOC, and means I will have to be more diligent to put a large chunk onto the card rather than hoarding it in a savings account with fear. However it will be nice to use my neglected savings account again. Hopefully I can keep some funds in there for once! Seriously, Karissa

Well, my debt is under $10 000 and settled nicely into my Line of Credit at 5.25%. The only strategy I had planned for the next year-and-a-bit is to plug as much money possible into that account to pay it down to $0. I was looking forward to starting with my next paycheque on the 28th (I get paid once a month, right?). I figured at least one of my credit card companies would come sniffing around since they all have zero balances. So I don't know why was I surprised today to receive an invitation from MBNA to switch to their PremierRewards card. Normally I shred these invites but today I sat down and looked it over. If they approve me for $10 000 I can move my LOC balance over and pay 1.99% for ten months. The "small" print at the back of the page tells me that there is a balance transfer fee of 1% of amount transferred with a minimum fee of $7.50. So right off I will pay $100 to transfer over. Interest on $10 000 is $16.58 per month, which would go down if I continue ...

Received my T4 at the end of February and immediately filed online. Received my income tax refund by direct deposit today and PAID OFF MY MASTERCARD. Looky at the pretty sidebars. I moved up the debt bar because I'm so proud. People have been asking me how I cleared $11 000 worth of debt in 15 months and to be honest, I'm not quite sure how I did it. I'm making a mental list and hope to type it out and post it soon. Hope you're having a great weekend. Mine just got that much better :) Seriously, Karissa

I'm proud. Hell, I'm bragging. In fifteen months I have paid off 50% of my credit card debt. Over ten thousand dollars. I don't know how I did it. I didn't take a second job and I didn't sell anything online. I still have a social life and a car. I even paid off a huge car repair bill ($1400+) and bought two pairs of orthopedic shoes ($500). I bought a crappy new cell phone ($300 with all the bells and whistles). And still, I managed to pay HALF my debt in just over a year. I'm psyched I tell ya. If I can keep this up, I'll be paying off my student loans in no time, and then I can start saving up for a bigger and better life for my son and I. Seriously, Karissa

I cleaned out my TFSA and put it on my MasterCard. I am so close to paying it off I can taste it. I will probably move another $400 from my LOC to bring the MC balance down to $1500. Then it's the waiting game for my tax return which will go right on there as well, hopefully paying it off. I'm not putting anything into my RRSP this year. I want this debt gone. After fifteen months sharing a one-bedroom, Bean and I are moving into a two-bedroom on March 1st. We're staying in the same building, just moving down to the ground floor. I'll be paying about $150 a month for the extra bedroom plus a small backyard behind our apartment. Plus the super said they would give us a basic cable account for free for one year. I will have to sign another one year lease, which I think is BS considering I just finished one with them. Seriously, Karissa