Now that I have your attention…
The hack being from the only thing I have really been able to do lately, which is hacking up a lung with this bronchial infection I have had for two weeks now. My chest hurts from coughing so much. I hate being sick.
Anyway, onto better things. Figured I would update the status of things, if nothing more than to help myself remember where we are at with this whole evil debt thing. Since momma is at home now and we are one income only, we can’t make any huge payments anymore even though we are living as frugal as ever. Gone are the days of mailing in an extra grand payment. Now we are lucky to scrape up a snowflake of a hundred or two. In the last two weeks we managed to pool our survey money and extra frugal savings and write a check for 150 bucks towards the truck. Every little bit counts.
There is some good news… I had my annual review at work this week and netted a 4% raise. Still grossly underpaid for the job and what I do, but at least its a small bump (again, every little bit counts).
And to top it all off I so stupidly logged into my 401K even though I knew it would sting. OUCH, down 15.7% in the last month. I feel like saving for retirement has become a fruitless endeavor these days. I know you are supposed to buy low and since I have a good 35 years till retirement I should look at it as an opportunity, but it’s hard to keep pouring money into it and seeing the value drop by hundreds every day. Lets face it… things are ugly.
Oh well. Overall the ‘ol debt pie chart hasn’t changed much since last time. We are still sitting at around 112,000 dollars left to pay (55% left). *sigh*
As far as the blogging things go, I have to answer a question from a reader. I am blogging because I want to. I blog about what I want to. Mostly I enjoy blogging about our progress into the elimination of debt, ways we have taken to save money and occasionally some helpful links like freebies I find. I am in no way, shape or form trying to be a financial blogger, nor do I have any desire to be.
If you want advice, there are hundreds of other good blogs and sites out there.
If you just want to see how I am getting out of debt or saving money and with any luck become inspired yourself… pull up a chair and sit down, I won’t bite.
Anyway, now that all my thoughts are down on paper so to speak… time to hit the cough syrup and hit the sack.
What I’ve been advised to do, is leave what’s in there, in there. But stop *adding* money for now, and apply it to debt instead.
Something to think about!
Don’t get discouraged with the debt reduction. I know it can seem insurmountable at times, but you WILL get there, and the lessons learned in frugal living along the way are priceless. Frgality and simple living are the only ways I am able to stay home with our kiddos while hubby works. It WILL be worth it! Plus, we love to read what has worked for you along your journey.