Thought I did it...

Finally...I balanced my checkbook. I don't do this as often as I should but I know that I have money in there, I just never know how much there is. It's complicated, people owe me, I pay my mom's bills after she gives me the cash among other things, and it's hard to keep track of it all sometimes.

So...I had to do it because I knew I had SOME money and I'm so close to paying off my car. After I made all the calculations and figured how much money I need for food and car insurance before my next paycheck, I realized I had about $350 extra.

What does this mean?

I have the money to pay off my car!!!

So... I did!!! Or so I thought.

I looked at the balance, made a transfer and went to look at the $0.00 balance, but instead it said $0.05. Hmmm??? Oh yeah, a day's worth of interest on the balance I had.

My car isn't paid off yet.

I could make another transfer to my account, but instead I think I will go to the bank tomorrow and tell them I want to pay off my car. Then I can find out how to get the title for it.

So now, all the extra money I make goes to AMEX...my last debt!!!

Listening to Dave Ramsey and hearing callers stories has really kept me motivated in this journey. It was just what I needed and I found him at a good time...early this year when I started paying things off. If I remember correctly, I was driving to the Post Office to take some ebay packages when I heard him on AM radio. Around that same time, my local bank was offering a free trial subscription to mytotalmoneymakeover.com for a few months so I signed up.

Really, I don't know which of the two came first. Doesn't matter...I'm just glad I found him to keep me going!

A little more...

My car loan balance is now down to $243.00!!

Under $500 owed on my car

As mentioned in my last post, my direct deposit came through and I have paid $380 to my car loan. This leaves me with a balance of $393!

I have officially knocked out half of my starting debt (mid-January 2009) in just over 9 months! -- Can I eliminate the other half in the same amount of time?

All for now :)

And another car post....and a dead camera

I'm up and it's late...one thing I am thinking of is, "Wow, I can't believe I'm about half way there from when I started in January...and my car is really about to be mine!"

I'm amazed...I thought I would be one year early in paying my car off, but really, it's two years! My loan is not due to be paid of until September 2011!

In the morning, my direct deposited paycheck should be in my bank account and I will be able to pay a nice chunk of money to the bank. -- My sidebar is currently not updated, the real amount is $773.xx and not $997.xx since I paid a bit more in the last couple of days. I'll update it after this post.

On another note, my camera died. I need it. My ebay needs it. I'll have to get a new one and I can't wait much longer. Do people still use film cameras? I'm too impatient for them...and what if you took a bad picture with old school film and you didn't know it until it was developed??? No thanks.

Final countdown for car!

I've reached the thousand dollar mark, $997 to be exact, for the balance of my car!! I'm so excited and plan to have it paid off by mid October.

Today I made a payment of $200 and tomorrow will probably add another $65 or so.

Now, if my ebay will stay steady (or increase) and I get to keep housesitting...and keep my job...my last debt, AMEX, will be paid off next year!

Home again

I'm back home from housesitting which is nice, but I was so exhausted yesterday from going, going and going some more.

Today I paid another $210 to my car loan which brings it down to $1197. In a couple more days I will be paying another $200, I just set up a PayPal transfer to my bank account for ebay stuff that sold and it will take two days to reach my bank account. After that payment, I will owe less than one thoudsand dollars!!!

It's hard to believe that if I would have just stayed focused long ago, I could have been out of debt by now. I have tried, but obviously not hard enough. Everytime I got a part time job, I swore the extra income would go to my debt but had a hard time sticking to it.

Now...I guess I am just so sick of debt that I can't stand to NOT pay the loans down. I can't wait to be free from owing...

Another $60

Today I took $60.00 out from a bank account where I've saved up some ebay money, and paid my car. This brought my balance to $1567.xx! I'm getting close to being half way done paying off my debts. It's hard for me to believe that about half of my debt has been to American Express and I really don't have much to show for it...besides pictures of trips and some electronic stuff which by the way is outdated now.

These nine months since I started my journey have really gone by pretty fast, I can definitely do another 9 months if that is what it will take to be done.

Housesitting

Once again I am housesitting which is great because I get paid, but not so great because I miss my BF :( I still get to go home and see him for a very short while each day, but it's ever long enough. He doesn't like it either but knows I'm trying to get out of debt and this is really helping. My last check went straight to my car loan which is dwindling away.

More car payments & AMEX

I've made a couple more car payments and am so happy to know I only owe $1,626 on it! I'm on track to get it paid off in October which means I will be one year early according to the original payoff date from the loan agreement.

On the other hand, I am upset that American Express sent me a letter to advise that my interest rate will be increasing due to the economy... Um sure, I believe that one. We'll see what they raise it to on my next bill. Good thing is, they are next and last to go!

Shame on me...

I've been pretty bad at keeping records lately, so my balances haven't changed much. I should have paid a bit more to my car from overage in my checking account...but I haven't made that happen.

Also, I went on a nice little camping trip for Labor Day weekend and probably spent about $200.00 on it! That was supposed to go to my car, but there is nothing I can do about that now.

Moving on...and thinking my car won't be paid off until Novemberish. BUT...I updated the sidebar and am happy to know that my car balance is $2,261!