Debt-free By 33's Personal Finance Blog

So as some of you know, I have four jobs. There have recently been some changes with my main job at a small IT company. We won our re-compete, and there's a definite chance of me getting a slight promotion, and a pretty good chance of me getting a BIG promotion. For the past several years, I've actually done the work of the position I'm being put into, but since this was my first job out of college, I've had to pay my dues and earn my 'years of experience'. So even though I've been doing the work of an intermediate business analyst running two products, my official title has been program support. Not anymore ya'll! At the very least, I'll be a junior analyst, but they're trying to put me in the intermediate position.

Depending on how yearly evaluations shake out, this may entail some budget changes, so I'll keep you posted.

I've been crazy busy, but I thought I'd pop in and give a quick update on how the food situation is going. I brought back a bunch of stuff from my mom's, so this week wasn't too bad. For lunch two days, I had a cheese flatbread with some mashed cauliflower and grapes. By Friday's lunch, I was running lowon momovers, but scrapped together a garlic biscuit, the last of the mashed cauliflower and pineapple slices. I cooked up a box of mac and cheese Wed. night, so dinner Wed. and Fri. was mac and cheese (one night with garlic biscuits; the other with chicken tenders). Tues. and Thurs. nights were frozen pizzas.

Overall, I haven't had a bad meal yet and haven't touched my bank account all week! I also somehow only managed to use a quarter of my gas tank so far, so double win.

The food thing is about to get significantly harder though, as I took inventory yesterday. I have half a bag of frozen chicken tenders, a pack of chicken that has to be cooked, a frozen meal, 2 bags of frozen veggies, one tortilla, and then 10 or so pantry items like mac and cheese, ravioli, and ramen. (Remember, I live in a basement, so I never keep too much food on hand.)

Remember those 'How I spent my summer' presentations we always had to do the first week back at school. This one won't be nearly as interesting. About a month ago, I took my dog to the pet expo like I do every year. They were having a raffle, so I put my name in. Imagine my surprise when I actually 'won'!Turns out, it wasn't a real raffle, but one of those timeshare presentations. So today, I had to sit through 90 minutes of a timeshare sell. I was upfront with them and let them know that I could not afford it and would not be swayed, but that I'd politely listen to their offer and keep it in mind for the day when I am in a financial position to even consider it. For my time, I got $125 gift card, 2 $25 gift cards to Tropical Smoothie, and a voucher for a follow-up stay. Not a terrible deal. From there, I drove my brother down to his girlfriend's place. And then sat in ridiculous traffic on the way home. I finally made it to the last highway stretch when BAM! dead stop. I immediately switched to the parallel road and started flying home....

And then I saw the sirens. I was so tired by that point that I didn't even bother to fight it. I told him to just write the ticket fast, so I could continue on my way. He marked it as speeding rather than reckless, and since I have 5 years of fantastic driving, I'll still be positive in points. The fine sucks, but I took the risk and got caught. Oh well...

On the positive side, my aunt and uncle had a cookout, so I got some delicious chicken and filipino barbecue

Today's payday! Unfortunately, it's all already spent. I'm talking every dollar (and then some...). So for the next two weeks, I'm attempting to spend nothing outside of gas money. No nights out with friends, no fast food, nothing. This will be a real challenge as my pantry is pretty bare. Last night I cooked up a chicken breast, so I have that with some leftover broccoli and rice for lunch today.

The only other fresh food I have is a pack of chicken tenders in the freezer. Everything else is processed/prepackaged....think mac and cheese, ramen, ravioli, etc. Luckily, I'm visiting home this weekend and my babysitting family buys fruit from Costco and doesn't mind if I occasionally have a little, so I'll have some fresh fruits and veggies. Wish me luck!

It was a very active and relatively low-spend weekend. Did a 10-mile run/walk to my Saturday Zumba class, took line-dance lessons at a country bar Saturday night, and then another 5 mile hike on Sunday. Luckily, dance rehearsal got cancelled. Otherwise, I don't think I would have made it out of bed today.

In other news, I've been obsessing over the Vegas trip. Need to make a bucket list and start fine tuning a realistic budget for the trip. I also need to refigure my goals for the year (the car and personal loan). I think they'll still be doable even with the trip, but that will depend largely on my yearly evaluation which happens within the next month. Fingers crossed that it's as big a bump as everyone's leading me to believe...

So

this happened earlier in the week. Now I'm faced with a new goal of saving for an efficient, but fun vacation. Looking Forward mentioned something called MyVegas. I looked it up and now I'm hooked. Basically, you play slots for the the chance to earn real rewards like buffets, show tickets, and yes, even comped rooms. I'm hoping to be able to use these rewards by my trip to help defray the cost. Even three rewards at $40 each will save me $120. I'm also trying to get my family to play as each person can only redeem three rewards, but so far they haven't shown much interest in it.

Added bonus: by the time, I actually make it to Vegas, I will probably be all gambled out...

Yesterday, I made a choice. It's not one I regret as this was a goal I've wanted far longer than I've been wanting to get out of debt.

Frontier Airlines was running a special sale. Tickets from Dulles to Vegas were $15 one-way. The other way was $109. Altogether it was about $125/person. While I want to go to Vegas, my mom was the real motivation behind the purchase. She's always wanted to go (she loves casinos, but just the penny machines ). I've been wanting to surprise her with a trip for years. (Last Christmas, I framed a Vegas skyline puzzle and she asked me if it came with a plane ticket...) I decided it was worth the $250 to knock off one of her bucket list items.

...But it didn't stop there. I went ahead and also got them for my brothers. To be fair, this is all of our presents for Christmas this year, so that $400 I budgeted for November and December will be open for debt repayment.

All told (stretch seating for two people), 4 round-trip tickets from DC to Vegas for $610. Not a bad deal in my humble opinion.

We've also already worked out tentative plans for the pets and my mom is going to look into using her credit card points for the hotel. (She also gets free hotel offers from the sister casinos of the one here, so we may also be able to use those.)

For the next few months, I will take $100/month and put aside all snowflakes into a new Vegas account in Capital One 360. This will be our first ever real vacation as a family and even though we're all adults, I've never been more excited!

Quick Editor's Note: I did not go into more debt to fund this, but it will be taken out of the money I allot to debt repayment. There are some other opportunities in the works that will hopefully offset this minor setback that I will elaborate on later.

I went way overboard. Part of it was last-minute plans that cropped up.

Saturday I went on a blind date. When I date, I usually offer to split the bill. Never have I been taken up on the offer, but it's a polite gesture. This guy said 'Sure. Okay.' If there wasn't already 0 chance of a second date, that'll do it. (I'm thinking he took me up on it because he could tell I wasn't interested...)

On Friday afternoon, I made brunch plans with a former coworker. We're trying to get her back for a program, so I met her Sunday morning. There goes another 20 bucks.

My brothers and I hadn't coordinated Mother's Day plans. Turns out, the little one and myself were planning to go home and surprise her. The older one (who lives at home) mentioned that she'd been really sad because she was having trouble streaming Frozen. We also both planned to pick up Frozen on DVD for her. So the little one got the movie and I got food so she didn't have to cook.

All in all, most of the expenses were worth it. All I can do is try to be better next time...

It's status quo over here. I'm hoping the dance gig kicks in more soon. Trying to make this weekend a no spend weekend except for one check that I have to turn over for some cheer gear for the coaching gig.

I'm also debating surprising my mom for mother's day. She already got her present, but I may pop in for the day to say hi since my ex used my car today and was nice enough to fill the gas tank.

So I got paid for my first show. It was supposed to be 50, but she gave me $75 since I did a solo and was basically one of the main dancers. Normal shows are $100 which is way more than I had thought. Side note: this month is Pacific Islander month, so hopefully there will be the opportunity to do a few more shows this month.

I also cashed out my dietbet winnings. $74 and change to lose 10 lbs. I'll take that!!

Unfortunately this money won't go to snowflaking my car. I'm still having major problems getting my credit card spending under control, so I'm using both of those to pay the card to avoid taking extra money from my car payment. (I'm hoping to get this under control in the next month or so as that extra spending was for bike and show stuff.)

Had my first Polynesian show last night. What a rush! I even did a solo because we were short on dancers. The woman who runs the program seemed impressed (although she did say I had to work my fast hip movement...). She gave me 75 since I went for it and did the solo. Shows are normally 100. I volunteered to do a lot more. She said they were waiting to see how I did in NY first one, but I think they'll book me more now. I'd much rather spend my Saturday nights getting exercise and making money

So I just posted my updated

April numbers. I think part of the reason I end up so far over is that little things keep coming up. For instance, with these two new jobs I've taken, I'm going to have to shell out some upfront money that I wasn't expecting. For the Polynesian gig, it's not too bad. I bought two practice pareos (12 each) and need to get some additional costume attire, but I'm not sure of the cost yet (one piece was 4 bucks). The cheerleading job is a little pricier. For the new hire packet alone, I have to get fingerprints, a background check, have a document notarized, and take 3 courses. I found a place that does free fingerprinting and apparently, I just have to turn in the whole hiring packet and the office will mail out the background check and everything else to where it needs to go, so I just have the cost of the notary and classes. Two are free (one being a CPR course which is great since I've been wanting to get certified...), but the third is $75 out of pocket. The good news is that this is reimbursed; the bad news is that it's not reimbursed until the end of the fall season.

As for the impulsive purchase...I will say that I paid cash for it. I went running last weekend and by the end of my 3 mile run, my knee was in a ton of pain. I needed a low impact way to get regular exercise, so I stopped in at a bike shop on the way home. They were $300-500 bikes. Now I really want a new way to commute to work (4 miles) without stressing my joints or taking more than an hour, but I really DON'T want to pay $300 for said way. So I checked Craigslist. Lo and behold, they had a decent Schwinn bike for $60. I do have to clean up some slight rust on it since it's been sitting in storage and never used. I also need a new seat because the one on it is a little too tall even with lowering it all the way, but even $100 is better than $300. I was willing to take the slight hit in my debt payoff plan because it'll save me on gas this summer.

Have you had any unexpected costs or impulsive purchases recently?

(One more side note, I felt really guilty after the impulse purchase, so I've started a 30 day want list - I had two things on there that I decided I didn't need already...)

Let me start with saying, I don't look overweight, but my BMI was a little high, and I'd gained some 20 lbs. since college. These past couple of years got really bad as I experienced the dreaded relationship gut. After we broke up, I wanted to lose the weight, but couldn't seem to find the motivation.

Enter DietBet.

It's a website where people host games which involve people losing 4% of their body weight over a month or 10% over 6 months. At the end of the game, everyone who has met their weight loss goal splits the money in the pot (minus what DietBet takes to keep running). I just successfully weighed out of my first game, but with mixed feelings.

My favorite part was the motivation. Suddenly having money on the line made me want to move and make better food choices. I haven't touched fast food in about a month, and I don't even really miss it. Being able to join multiple games at once was even more motivating because I just had to lose the weight once and then I'd potentially get paid multiple times

My biggest detractor happened in the last few days. Those who had slacked off or weren't making steady progress suddenly felt the pressure, and some went to (what I believe are) extreme measures. To me, this was about steady, measured progress and changing my attitudes towards food and exercise. I think juicing or fasting for a week before to get rid of 5 lbs. to make weight is cheating yourself (and me and others who lost it in a more healthy way). To me, there's little point in working so hard all month to regain it right after weigh-in and then have to join another dietbet...unless that's just some people's plan to continually 'win'.

Regardless, DietBet helped me successfully take off 7 lbs. (10 total from my heaviest weight), so I can't be that mad at it...

I went from nothing happening to lots happening. What's that saying about 'when it rains, it pours'...

Made some major decluttering progress. Spent yesterday switching out clothes. Ended up with a bag that I donated to Goodwill containing the clothes and some of the items I couldn't freecycle. I also set up the Pet and Car Accounts in Capital One 360. I'm not putting a whole lot to either for now, so it will be awhile until they're useful, but they're there and the payments (however small) are automated. The list stands at:

Switch out winter shoes (Done)
Switch out winter clothes (Done)
Donate unused clothing to trim down clothing collection (Done)
Break budget down further/set up maintenance accounts (Done)
Clean up work emails (Done)
Clean up/organize work computer documents (In progress - this will not be done in April, but I was able to do quite a bit this month)
Clean car (Done and it's shockingly still clean!!)
Cash out change bank (I counted this and it's less than 10 bucks, so I've decided to let it build)
Organize makeup and throw out old makeup
Read all fashion magazines or get rid of them (50% Done - every time I seem to make progress, I find another stack)
Freecycle things I haven't touched in months (Done)
Identify 3 items to list on Ebay (66% Done - found two and listing them on Craigslist instead as their small)
Organize cheer goodies box (Done)

Later this week, I'll share some of the unexpected upfront expenses from my new jobs, the results of my foray into social dieting, and an extremely impulsive purchase that I don't really regret at all. Told you it's pouring...

I got my first call for the Polynesian dance job. It's a training show a couple of hours away. 50 bucks and I can carpool so little to no gas. Considering I thought it was 10 an hour and shows last less than 2, I was pleasantly surprised.

I'm a little nervous since I only know one dance and my technique is not at all refined, but I'm guessing the untrained eye really only cares that your hips are moving and doesn't really notice whether it's the exact shape

I've been trying to decide whether to snowball the money from this job or use it to start building a slush fund. I have a linked savings account that I put 25 a month into, and I could use that as the slush fund and (since I've stopped touching it) put the job money into debt repayment. Any thoughts?

Got my adjusted phone bill from when I

switched phone plans. Apparently the combination is even cheaper than the second plan (135/month) because the bill for the month where I was partially in my first plan and partially in the new one came to 119. I'm one very happy girl

I know I promised an actual numbers update Tuesday, but when I started the draft, I realized it would be more prudent to wait until May so the numbers would reflect all of April.

Below is the updated numbers for what I owe at the end of April:

Car: 7876.26
Sallie Mae 1-6: 20786.57
Dept of Ed 1/3: 8220.55
ACS: 10439.37
Wells Fargo: 2480.56
Personal Loan: 3278.15

Slowly but surely making progress. However, I am noticing that I'm spending much more than budgeted in categories outside of debt so here's my planned April spending versus the actual for everything not accounted for above:

Item

External Savings
Netflix
Insurance
Credit Card
Gym
Linked Savings
Phone
Kohls CC

Obviously, my problem is the credit card. In order to continue to show utilization, I am trying to only charge my 110 food/gas/catch all budget and pay it in full each month.

I've started analyzing my credit card purchases to figure out where I'm going wrong, so more on that as I pinpoint my problem areas.

Haven't made too much additional de-cluttering progress. I did find two more batches of magazines cleaning up last weekend, so I'm bringing those home for my upcoming 3 day weekend. De-cluttering and organizing stands at:

Switch out winter shoes (Done)
Switch out winter clothes
Donate unused clothing to trim down clothing collection
Break budget down further/set up maintenance accounts (90% Done - just have to actually set up the accounts)
Clean up work emails (Done and inbox is still on 1 pg)
Clean up/organize work computer documents (In progress)
Clean car (Done)
Cash out change bank (Hellooo snowflake!)
Organize makeup and throw out old makeup
Read all fashion magazines or get rid of them (50% Done)
Freecycle things I haven't touched in months (Done)
Identify 3 items to list on Ebay (Still searching...)
Organize cheer goodies box (Done)

I haven't done an actual financial update in a bit, and payday is next Tuesday, so I'll update my totals after that.

Happy Friday!!

So a little bit ago, I wrote about my two potential

part-time jobs. I must be crazy...or really bored...because I've decided to take both of them. Tonight is try-outs, and I will be helping select next year's team. Rehearsals for the polynesian dance job are every Sunday evening. It's a lot of fun, and I'm not nearly as terrible as I thought I would be. Shows are flexible, but I was told they're pretty much every weekend during the summer. I get to choose which ones I can/want to do, so I can make as little or as much as I want with it.

I honestly think it will probably break even when you consider the gas I use to drive to rehearsals every week, but it's a lot of fun, great exercise, and keeps me busy, so I'm less likely to go out shopping.

I think I will make some money from the cheerleading job, but the stipends don't get paid until the end of the season. I've already thought through some potential options for cutting gas costs since I will be driving a lot more than I currently do.

Does organizing pounds count too? Today, I shed some extra and put some where they need to be by running/walking 4 miles to the gym, doing an hour-long zumba class and walking back home.

After resting for a bit, I had an incredible amount of energy, so I organized my box of treats that I use to fill my cheerleaders' goody bags. They're now all neatly organized in little containers. I also went through a box of crafts I'd gotten from Freecycle, picked what I wanted for the cheer box, tossed the unusable stuff, and put the rest back to freecyle again. I also found an old Polaroid camera, some kids hangers, and a cookbook to freecycle.

I found another pile of magazines under my bed, so I'm spending my relaxing Saturday night flipping through those and then I'll try to freecycle the pile before recycling them.

All that plus laundry. Boomskis!!

Yesterday, I had a

flat tire. Since they do a complimentary car wash, I decided the afternoon would be a good time to tackle cleaning. I forgot to take pictures (and even if I had, I'm still not completely sure how to even upload pictures...), but it's so nice and pretty now! It took awhile as the dog hair gets stuck in the seats, but I finally got it to a presentable condition. This weekend, I hope to tackle the cheer goodies/freecycle/eBay tasks. Happy Friday!

Switch out winter shoes (Done)
Switch out winter clothes
Donate unused clothing to trim down clothing collection
Break budget down further/set up maintenance accounts (Done)
Clean up work emails (Done)
Clean up/organize work computer documents (In progress...)
Clean car (DONE!)
Cash out change bank (Hellooo snowflake!)
Organize makeup and throw out old makeup
Read all fashion magazines or get rid of them (90% Done)
Freecycle things I haven't touched in months
Identify 3 items to list on Ebay
Organize cheer goodies box

So, I drove to work today like any other day. Except that today my tire pressure light came on. My car's been running a little louder than normal, but I figured it was struggling to get out of the winter blues and just need an oil change. When the light came on, I thought 'Oh, that's why it's been running weird. I get to work, and drumroll please...

My tire's flat...not just flat, but flaaaaatt.

Now, I get to take it in this afternoon. The oil change had been budgeted out of the extra money I throw at my debts, but now I'm faced with a decision, tap the EF or take more from the debt repayment fund. I budgeted 470 for my next paycheck to go to my car. 300 will bring it to 7 grand and (lots of) change.

Should I put that 170 to any additional car costs or tap the emergency fund? I don't feel like this is a true emergency, but I also don't want to derail my debt repayment too much...thoughts? Advice? General musings?

I didn't particularly feel like physically decluttering, so today I decided to see where I could break my budget down a little further. I broke my food/gas budget out into Entertainment, Gas, Groceries, and Other. Turns out I'm going way over the 220 I allot for the month. Since I put it on my credit card, I guess I didn't realize it was over so badly. I mean...I sort of knew since I'm now paying in full each month and it was always over 220, but I was kind of operating on a head-in-the-sand mentality. So now that I know where the money's going, I'm going to set new budget numbers, put the credit card away, and try the envelope system to see if that helps me stay more on track.

So a few months back, before I started this blog, my EF was right at the 1000 that Dave Ramsey prescribed...and then my ex happened. It's a whole big story, but the short version is that even though we're broken up, I lent him money (about 450) because he's going through a rough time. Like I usually do when I willingly give away money (which really only happens with very close friends/family), I counted the money gone. Thus, my EF is about 550. Lo and behold, the ex called today with 300 to give me. Color me surprised! I'm going to put 200 back to the EF and keep the other 100 for the circus on Friday (not that I'm going to spend 100 of course!).

Side note...has anyone seen the new $100 bills? They look so cartoonish.

Only made some minor progress this weekend. Set up two additional savings account for specific expenses: pet fund and car expenses. There will only be a very minimal amount going into these accounts, so they'll take some time to build up, but it's a start.

Also, got rid of the fashion magazines, minus two. So the list stands at:

Switch out winter shoes (Done)
Switch out winter clothes
Donate unused clothing to trim down clothing collection
Break budget down further/set up maintenance accounts (50% Done)
Clean up work emails (Done)
Clean up/organize work computer documents
Clean car
Cash out change bank (Hellooo snowflake!)
Organize makeup and throw out old makeup
Read all fashion magazines or get rid of them (90% Done)
Freecycle things I haven't touched in months
Identify 3 items to list on Ebay
Organize cheer goodies box

I've been looking for additional ways to make some money/fill my time. A couple of the things I've looked into are polynesian dance and coaching cheer. Both of these are ads I found on Craigslist. My first polynesian dance rehearsal is Sunday, and that really only pays 10/hr for actual gigs, so I have to decide whether it's worth the drive for rehearsals/gigs. It does sound like a lot of fun and not too commitment heavy, so I may give it a shot for a bit and see how I like it.

The cheerleading position is a bit tougher choice. I currently coach for the local youth cheerleading team in the fall and winter in a strictly volunteer capacity. While it is still not certain, I received a tentative offer to assistant coach the varsity squad of a local high school. Given my full-time job and living arrangement, I don't have a substantial amount of free time. However, it seems like practices will somewhat fit in with my schedule and both my job and babysitting family are flexible and willing to work with me. Here's where I stand:

The Pros: It's paid. It's coaching at a higher skill level than recreational which would be more challenging and fun for me. I'd get to choreograph on a more competitive level.

The Cons: The pay is paltry, especially considering that I'd be adding a 25 minute commute twice/day 2-3 times/week. I'd be leaving my current girls, some of whom have been with me from the beginning. I'd be losing the friends I've built in the other adult coaches. The older girls in my current organization may find themselves without a coach as I'm usually the only one willing to coach the older girls.

Any thoughts/advice? How did you decide whether or not a part-time job was worth the effort?

I haven't made as much of a dent as I'd like in my challenge, but I did manage to clean out my work emails. From 152 down to 43. I'm one of those who likes to keep my inbox sparse, so once it goes over to the next page, it starts to bug me...Tonight, I have lots of laundry that's been waiting patiently to be put away. And my weekend goal will be the magazines since I'll be at my mom's.

In other news...My dog's fifth birthday was yesterday! Since he lives with my mom, I'm going to go home tonight and spend the weekend with him. This usually involves a gas fill-up and a trip to PetSmart for either his food or some special treats. We also spend a fair amount of time at the dog park, but that costs me nothing I was debating buying him some brand new toy, but the reality is that he has his favorites and loves playing at the dog park/being outside more than some new toy. So I plan to bring a book, maybe pack a light lunch, and just let him enjoy being outside all day long.

Since I'm more likely to accomplish it if I have a list, here's the things I'd like to do:

Switch out winter shoes (Done!)
Switch out winter clothes
Donate unused clothing to trim down clothing collection
Break budget down further/set up maintenance accounts
Clean up work emails
Clean up/organize work computer documents
Clean car
Cash out change bank (Hellooo snowflake!)
Organize makeup and throw out old makeup
Read all fashion magazines or get rid of them
Freecycle things I haven't touched in months
Identify 3 items to list on Ebay
Organize cheer goodies box

I'll try and revisit this weekly.

One of the other blogs I read regularly had a post about car insurance savings, so I decided to look at mine. While I didn't make any coverage changes, I did update my payment information to my bank account which saved me 4 bucks off each of the remaining 3 installment charges. Seriously?!?! 80% savings even though my debit card takes from the same bank account... Come June, I plan to pay the 6 month period upfront and then apply the budgeted monthly insurance to my extra car payments.

Looking at my

budget, the only things left that I could cut/reduce are Netflix, the gym, and the cable box. The cable box isn't an item in my budget right now as I don't actually pay for it. However, part of our agreed terms when I moved in with the family was that I'd cover my cable box since they had to add one. It's approximately 20/month.

I haven't touched Netflix in a very long time, but my family all uses it. I'm thinking I'm going to have us rotate months of paying for it. It's only 9 bucks, but if I can only pay that 3 times a year instead of 12 when I only have the occasional Netflix binge, it would be better.

The other thing I want to look into is Hulu Plus. My understanding is that it contains recent episodes of new shows which is what I keep the cable for. If I could cut that bill in half, then the vast majority of my paychecks would be going towards debt reduction!!

Side note: I'm keeping the gym for the time being although I do plan to put it on hold come cheerleading season since I won't be able to go to the classes I like.

I recently mentioned how I felt my family was holding me back in my journey. My biggest frustration with this isn't the one-off loans, but rather the phone bill. My phone bill is currently about 200/month for four lines for my immediate family. It's been like this for years and is something I've just always accepted. Recently, though, I've been trying to figure out how to cut back this expense. This past week, I'm very happy to announce that we switched to the mobile share plan and cut the bill to 135/month. Much better and I get to keep att which we're all partial to