Compulsive Debtor's Finance Blog

After watching water boil -- and my old junker laptop do nothing -- for 24 hours, I went to the boss lady and said, "Quit being cheap and invest a little in your company so it can grow."

Boss lady stewed about it for a while, but then gave in and said I could spend $1,100 out of the business accounts on a new laptop if the computer repair guys said it would cost more than $300 to fix the old junker.

They did, so I did and now have mobility again.

Boss lady, which just happens to also be me, is back to stewing.

Thankfully, I go on vacation in 48 hours....

As of today, the "office" job will be officially over (dancing a little jig here....).

Summer vacation starts Friday for Mini, though, so there won't be much sitting around at home working on the booming business for me (so much for those no drive days....)

This poses a little problem since I do have work that I need to get done and my laptop blew up last year. (I usually work on a desktop.)

Thankfully, I was able to resurrect an old laptop from the junk heap known as my office closet, and I'm sloooowwwwwly getting it up and running.

Slooooowwwwwly as in watching water boil slooooowwwwwly....

Part of the problem is that it wasn't mean to run anything above Windows 2000 and it's now running Vista.

I don't know enough about computers to know what -- if anything -- I can do to speed it up (or if it's worth it cost wise). But I do know summer will be over by the time this thing gets done processing one request.....

I've decided to keep track of my no drive days, one of which I had yesterday. We rode our bikes everywhere we went and saw some beautiful sites, including this:

clipping coupons....

It's sad really. Other people go to church or take the opportunity to sleep in. But, not me.

No, I get up at 6 a.m. every Sunday to clip coupons in anticipation of Gil the Grocer making his weekly delivery to my house later in the day.

I do manage to get some work done for the booming side business while clipping coupons, though, so it does make for a productive morning. I call it multi-tasking while my husband calls it insane....

So someone (I'm not saying it was me) forgot to take into account the time it will take to get through customs on our return from our upcoming vacation and booked the second leg of our flight home a little too close for comfort.

Oh, and that second flight is the last flight out of Dodge for the day. So, if we happen to miss it because we're standing in line in customs for longer than the 1 hour and 7 minutes that certain someone allowed between flights, we'll be spending the night in the Lone Star State.

Anyone in Houston got a couch we can crash on?

I went on the airline website to see what it would cost to fix this little boo boo and found out it will cost a whopping $300 to change all three tickets.

Uh, no thanks.

I'll just take my chances; and if we do miss the flight home, I'll be playing dumb at the airline counter and hope all I have to pay for is a really cheap hotel room for the night.

Hey, but good news: I had another no spend day yesterday.....

Yesterday turned out to be a no-spend day even though I did leave the house to go into the "office" job.

I'm hoping I have another one today.

Think I can do it?

Just for fun, last night I used one of those online debt snowball calculators to figure out when my whopping debt will be paid off.

In the past, I just didn't want to project that far because I knew it was going to be a looooonnnnngggg, slooooooowwwwww process. But now that I have my personal credit card paid off and have more money to put toward the other debts, I was curious to see what would happen as my payments increased drastically.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that within this decade I'll have everything but the mortgage paid off.

"Within this decade" may seem like a long time for most of you, but considering the original amount of my debt I'm feeling pretty good about it.

Of course, this is all based on my current payments. My plan is to make even larger payments as our income increases and as we have extra money available from windfalls, so the time to pay it off will shorten drastically with any luck.

Because I only fill my car up every two weeks, I rarely notice the increase in gas prices. However, yesterday I filled it up and it took $60 in gas where just two months ago I remember it taking $40 in gas.

Thankfully, I rarely drive that far and quitting the "office" job means even less driving. Plus, my husband is taking the bus and train to work on a regular basis, so that's helping as well.

I just can't imagine paying that much for gas every week, which would be the case if I were working full time somewhere other than my home office....

I had a couple freelance checks come in today, so after setting some aside for taxes I'm putting $330 toward the challenge. My new total is $10,303.03.

I've been off nursing a nasty flu that I've had for the last two and a half weeks and trying to wrap up work at the "office" job, which is officially over on May 21. Thus, I haven't had much time to focus on financial matters.

One thing I did manage to accomplish, though, was setting up a Roth IRA with Fidelity. This was all part of paying off my one-and-only personal credit card using some of my savings. I arranged to have the Roth funded with automatic deposits from checking each month, so it should be easy on my part from here on out.

I'm off to lay down down and hopefully build up enough energy to plow through some jobs for the booming side business later today....

Another freelance check arrived for $690. After I meet my minimum spending plan requirement for the month, I have $247.73 to put toward the challenge. The new challenge total is $9,973.03.

Last week I got a letter from the administrator of my daughter's 529 plan that said a hard drive with client information was missing and I was among those whose vital records were on it.
The administrator included a number of options to "safeguard" clients like myself against identity theft. Among them was signing up for a service that would alert me to anything changing on my credit report.

Today, I signed up for this and in the process was given my current credit score. I was surprised to find that it's still in the excellent range -- despite all my debt. Now, I'm thinking WTF?!?!?!?!?!

I mean, come on, aside from my booming side business, I have very little reportable income. And, as you can all see, my debt is HUMONGOUS!!!! (Plus, there was that unfortunate incident last year when I was more than 30 days late on my credit card.....)

So someone tell me, just what are these credit folks thinking rating my credit score as excellent????

I'm no financial genius (obviously), but I think it's safe to say my credit score should be around the "sucks to downright stinks" rating.

Another freelance check came in the mail today. After putting $262.50 into my tax fund, I'm putting the remaining $787.50 into the challenge. That brings the total to $9,725.30.

I also got the rest of my payout from my savings to put toward paying off my credit card debt so I've adjusted the savings and debt figures over there on the left.

I made all of $2.97 from an eBay sale so I'm adding that to the challenge. The new total is $8,937.80.

I'm having one of those weeks....

The other day -- the day I called in sick with vertigo -- my husband's car broke down in the middle of a major intersection near our house. He had Mini Me in the car with him so I ran over and got her and then we went to the nearby garage to wait for the tow truck to show up with my husband's car. A while later, in drives my husband. Apparently the car decided to start again -- but it would only run if my husband kept his finger on the ignition switch.

The mechanic looked at it and said the ignition switch or some do-hickey had to be replaced -- for $600 (thank you, car repair fund....).

Also that night, I realized our rice cooker, which I had dropped a few days ago, was broken. It still will cook the rice, but the plastic is cracked, there are all these wires sticking out of it and one of the legs is broken so I have to stick a plate under one side if I want it to be level. (Did I mention it bounced a few times when I dropped it?) So that'll need replacing sometime soon.

Then, yesterday, I realized why I had vertigo -- it's because my husband has shared his nasty cold with me and my ears, head, sinuses, chest, whole body are a mess now. But, like an idiot, I went to work at the "office" job anyway (since the full cold hadn't hit yet and I was at the moment feeling OK). Work itself wouldn't have been so bad if some crazy lady hadn't gone ballistic in the middle of the "office" right before I was scheduled to leave.

Said Crazy Lady has done this numerous times over the last few weeks, but never to this extent. My response is to let the person in charge deal with her, because I'm sorry but I'm not making enough money to deal with crazy people.

So, while I was calling the person in charge (who just happens to be a control freak), Crazy Lady got right in a coworker's face in a very confrontational, threatening manner. Coworker told her to back off or she was calling the cops. Crazy Lady didn't, so Coworker did and in the course of all this Control-Freak-Person-in-Charge shows up.

I then went about my business (figuring one more crazy lady/control freak wasn't going to help matters), but while standing there counting down the minutes until I was off Control-Freak-Person-in-Charge came over and whispered to me "I really think the person in charge should deal with this and I hope nobody calls the police."

I point out that Coworker is still on the phone with the police, who appear to be on their way. And then Control-Freak-Person-in-Charge whispered to me: "That's not the procedure...."

At this point, I almost went crazy-lady ballistic as well, but instead I ever so nicely told her to shove the procedure up her you-know-what and that if anyone feels threatened it is fully within their rights to call the police if they so please. Then I walked off to count my blessings that I'll soon be rid of the "office" job.

I thought that would be the end of it, but after four policemen hauled Crazy Lady out, Control-Freak-Person-in-Charge came over to me and said "I'm not second guessing anyone." To which I replied that she was doing just that the second she whispered her little procedure comment to me and shame on her for putting someone's safety before procedure.

She said she didn't know what to say to me and I said "What about 'sorry'?" She then looked at me all befundled and wandered off to dwell on how to control the rotation of the Earth on its axis.

I'm still waiting for an apology. I figure I won't get one. But I do figure I'll be hearing from Control-Freak-Person-in-Charge and the real freaks in charge at the "office" job about this little incident sometime between now and the end of my tenure there.

As far as I'm concerned, the only thing that should have been said to any of us worker bees by Control-Freak-Person-in-Charge was: "Is everyone OK?"

That's my story and I'm sticking to it and I dare one of those "office" bosses to question me on this one!

(And this is why I am the best CEO of ME!!!!)

Sold something on eBay yesterday, so I'm adding $5.50 to the challenge. The new total is $8,934.83.

I got $3 for doing a survey, so I'm putting that toward the challenge. The new total is $8,929.33.

My husband's car died on the way home tonight. He thinks it's something to do with the electrical system and is an "easy" fix (i.e. cheap). I hope he's right because shopping for a car right now sounds about as appealing as getting a root canal.....

I called in sick to the "office" job today. I'm down to my last 30 days there and the motivation is just not there most days. I woke up dizzy -- seriously -- so I decided it was grounds enough to stay home. That means I won't get paid, but it also means I'm not leaving the house and won't spend money. I haven't had a no-spend day in a few weeks, so it'll be good for me.

By the way, did I mention that I really AM dizzy? I'm not sure what it is. I have no other symptoms, but every now and then a severe wave of vertigo hits. Probably a good thing I'm not driving today....

Mr. Postman delivered a nice freelance check to me this afternoon to the tune of $900. Since I've already met the minimum income requirements for this month, it's all going into the challenge, which makes the new total $8,926.33.

I got the first of my two savings payouts to put toward my debt, so I've updated my totals over there on the left. On one hand, it hurts to see my savings take a nosedive, but I won't miss those monthly payments to Chase.

I made $14.77 on eBay today (after shipping) so the new challenge total is $8,026.33.

I made $13.32 on eBay today, so it's going into the challenge. The new total is $8,011.56.

Here's a conversation I just got done having with a Delta Dental lackey (seriously):

Me: Can you tell me why Delta won't pay for an emergency exam I had last month for a tooth infection?

Delta Lackey: Because we only pay for two exams a year.

Me: Yes, but this wasn't a regular exam. This was an emergency exam. I woke up and my tooth was throbbing and my face was swollen up like the Sta-Puff Marshmallow Lady.

Delta Lackey: But under your plan, we only cover two exams a year.

Me: So, how was my dentist supposed to diagnose me if he couldn't examine me?

Delta Lackey: I'm not sure.

Me: So what you're telling me is the next time I have a toothache if I've already had my two regular cleanings for the year I will need to wait until the next year to get the toothache examined if I want Delta to kick in its share of the bill?

Delta Lackey: Yes or pay out of pocket for the exam portion of the emergency.

Me: Doesn't this seem a little bit absurd to you since I'm already paying you all my money for dental insurance to begin with?

Delta Lackey: Yes, I see what you're saying.....

I decided over the weekend (after hearing back from all three of you) to do the unthinkable and take some money from my vast savings to pay off a wee bit of my vast debt. This will give me a little bit of breathing room and allow me to speed up my debt snowballing, plus will free me from Chase forever. (My husband assures me that when I'm old and decrepit he'll support me with his vast retirement, so that was an added incentive.....)

So, yesterday I called Vanguard and got the ball rolling on the payout. I did have to switch my remaining 401K to an IRA to make all this happen, but I should have the check in my hot little hands by the end of the week and be a little bit less in debt by next week.

When I got back from running yesterday, I had a message to call Chase. Apparently they have an answer to my request last week not to raise my interest rate. I wrote the number down and then went on my merry way -- determined not to call them so that I wouldn't start second guessing myself if they suddenly said they love me and want me to be their friend forever so they won't start messing with my interest rate (YEAH RIGHT......)

It then ate at me all afternoon -- I so wanted to know their answer. However, my husband told me just to leave it alone and wash my hands of them so I burned the phone number last night.

I won't call. I won't call. I won't call. I won't call.....

I actually went to the post office today to mail some packages and couldn't figure out why it was so crowded.... DUH! April 15. TOMORROW!!!!

I'm adding a whopping $3.65 to the challenge from the eBay proceeds. The new total is $7,998.24.

I am thinking the unthinkable.... I am thinking of dipping into my vast savings to pay down my debt. Specifically, I am thinking of paying off my United Mileage Plus card, which has a balance of $23,867.86.

Why this sudden change of heart? Well, basically, I'm tired of Chase trying to set me up to fail.

Yes, I'm have decided that Chase -- the bank behind the card -- would love to see me not be able to make my monthly payment on time and in full. Thus bringing more money to its coffers in the form of late fees and increased finance charges.

You see, yesterday I got a letter from Chase saying they were raising my interest rate. I called and politely asked "WTF?" and they transferred me around to four different people -- disconnecting me altogether at one point. I finally got Jamie, who I have to say was one of the nicest, most helpful credit card employees that I have ever spoken to.

I nicely walked him through my situation (nicely always being the key when asking credit card companies to play fair). He then walked me through Chase's situation. I then nicely pointed out to him that Chase was setting me -- and others in the same position -- up to fail and dig a deeper hole for themselves. He said he fully understood my situation/point and even admitted he's in the same boat himself. He then walked me through my options. And, without outright telling me what to do, suggested highly what I could do to get Chase to lower my interest rate even more instead of raising it.

As we were chatting, he took some info from me and said he was going to submit a request for a lower rate for me. He said it's unusual for Chase to accept the request on the first try, especially considering my current state (which I won't bore you with the details). I said I appreciated him at least trying. He said if it didn't go through to make sure I call back monthly to see if I could eventually get it approved. I said I would. He then said he'd have an answer for me in the next 48 hours.

Then I obsessed about it overnight and I decided if Chase doesn't agree to at least leave my interest rate alone then I'm going to take the plunge and dip into my retirement funds to pay off the card, and be rid of Chase and credit cards forever. (Yes, Chase is my one and only personal credit card debt.)

I have already figured out that I can save the money I was putting toward the card and in 5 years have the total amount I withdraw from my retirement fund paid off. I will have to investigate my investment options, though, since I'm pretty sure my husband and I have priced ourselves out of the Roth IRA market. But, that's a minor inconvenience for something that will ease my mind greatly.

I am still digesting it all while I wait for Jamie to call me back. Even if Chase does agree to leave my interest rate alone, I'm kind of leaning toward just cutting my ties with them altogether.

Meanwhile, I'm thinking do I really need this financial news when I just gave notice at the office job to focus on building up the booming side business even more?

I DON'T THINK SO!

Now, tell me what you would do and explain your reasoning? Also, tell me what you know about the Roth IRAs income limits. (And, be nice! I'm not in a very good mood here. I'm having a bad hair day. ...)

I need to come up with something else to blog about. Instead, all I've got today is another addition for the challenge of $31.60. That brings the new total up to $7,994.59.

I shipped another eBay item today. My proceeds after shipping were $31, which I'm adding to the challenge. My new total is $7,993.99.

I also rectified my shipping dilemma with eBay by picking up a flier at the post office that outlines the exact costs for flat rate shipping. It's illustrated and includes international rates, so it'll be much easier to use than eBay's shipping estimator.

Sold some more stuff on eBay yesterday, so I'm adding $21.81 to the challenge. The new total is $7,962.99.