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Chase Freedom in my sights

June 2nd, 2015 at 02:51 pm

The past week, I've made 3 different payments to the Chase Freedom card bringing it down to 445.44 (at it's highest, it was $1500). My goal is to have it completely paid off by the end of June as I believe interest starts accruing with the period ending 6/10 (already paid that statement balance). After that, I'm going to put it away and concentrate on paying off the Slate card and getting a handle on my spending before I attempt to start using it for rewards.

I owe several posts - a May recap (terrible!), a June budget (will be bare bones due to the May terribleness), and a goals update. I'll try to get to these throughout the week.

Making Progress

February 18th, 2015 at 02:34 pm

I just did a mini-assessment of my (and our) accounts, and I'm feeling pretty accomplished. Even though I went slightly over my alloted V-Day limit, I should have $14 left to send to a CC if I don't spend between now and Friday.

Thanks largely to my tax refund, I've paid off the Amazon, Target, and BOA cards. Chase Freedom only has $100 and Chase Slate has about $950. I anticipate fully paying off the Freedom and paying about $500 to the Slate card by the end of Feb.

SO's large check will go towards our $1500 buffer. I have to review the numbers a little more, but I believe the buffer will be fully funded. There is a $500 deficit between the minimum that we're putting in and the monthly budget I have set up. I base that number solely on what I know SO is able to contribute and not counting any additional contributions he may make. It's not so bad as there are definitely areas where we could cut back in leaner months. Starting with March, I'll share both my budget and our budget as I had to clear it with him whether he was okay with my sharing our finances (he's on board!).

It's going to be close, but it looks like I should be able to stick to our $300 grocery budget too which a huge plus considering we spent $560 last month!

Keep on keepin on...

CC Payoff Progress

February 11th, 2015 at 06:01 pm

Got my tax refund in today and immediately made progress towards getting the credit cards paid off:

Kohl's - 0 (CLOSED)
Target - 0
Bank of America - 0 (Transferred 1000 to the NFL Points card and paid off the rest)
Chase Freedom - 84.36
Chase Slate - 939.33 remaining
Total Rewards - 0 (CLOSED)
NFL Points - 5783.45 (2 balance transfers)
Amazon - 0 (Will be closing once the final payment posts)

I will use the money from babysitting to finish off the Chase card and beef up the e-fund. At the last minute, I decided to use the tax money all towards the cards, but I do want to make some progress on the e-fund.

Credit Card Plans

January 8th, 2015 at 06:41 pm

A lot of my posts haven't really laid out my plans for debt reduction, so I thought I'd give a little rundown of my credit card situation...

As I mentioned before, the whole churn thing is not for me, and in doing that, I ended up in a bit of mess.

I currently have the following cards open:
Kohl's - 0
Target - 156 remaining (Just paid the last statement balance of $45)
Bank of America - 1033.88 remaining (Just paid the last statement balance of $174.11)
Chase Freedom - 4665.94 (4500 is awaiting a balance transfer to NFL Points)
Chase Slate - 989.33 remaining (Just paid an extra $100)
Total Rewards - 0
NFL Points - 0 (Will be increased once balance transfers go through)
Amazon - 256 (I will pay this off this weekend with my babysitting money and close it right after.)

I've already started the process to close Kohl's and Total Rewards. I will pay the remainder of my babysitting money (an expected 400) to BOA and then transfer the remaining balance to the NFL Points card. At that point, I will put the BOA card away for good (I don't want to close it as that is my longest card.). In February, I will pay off the Target and Chase Freedom cards completely. Those I am also keeping, but will refrain from using until I get a handle on paying off the balances in full again. After that, it's extra payments to Chase Slate until paid (goal is May) and then closing that one. And then extra payments to NFL Points which will be paid in full and closed by March 2016 (well before the no interest period is up).

All About Me :)

March 19th, 2014 at 03:39 pm

Hi Everyone!

I'm new to blogging so be gentle Smile I recently made the decision to buckle down on my finances. After creating the dreaded 'B' word and working up some scenarios, I've given myself the aggressive, but attainable, goal of being debt-free by 30 (gives me almost 3 years). I'm pretty open, so I will be posting full numbers and would appreciate any feedback/help I can get. My blogging goal is 3 posts/week, so feel free to hold me accountable on that too.

I've been working on this aggressively since January (I started in November, but we all know how the holidays can derail things: finances, weight, work, etc...) and am happy to say that I've paid off my credit card (1500) and gotten my car under 10000 (originally 13000). And since no story's complete without failures, I will say they upon discovering my credit score was higher than it's ever been (720ish), I foolishly opened 2 more credit cards and took out a personal loan (more on this later). I've been good with the cards so far and they have low limits.

Next post, I'll lay out all my numbers and my broken down goals for this year.