Posted by violet13 on 2006-02-10 10:49:06
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del.icio.us is great and I use it in a few ways.
1. I bookmark craft ideas, not the whole website, but just the page with the pattern I want or idea I find intressting.
2. Things I need to (or want to) buy, art supplies or clothes, I bookmark and tag with wish. This also gives my husband heads up around birthdays and other gift giving holidays.
3. I use the Internet at Home, Work, School, my Mom's house so its nice to have your bookmarks every where.
Here is my del.icio.us page, http://del.icio.us/violet13, I've just cleaned it out so its a bit smaller that usual.
Posted by Athos on 2005-12-14 20:09:27
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my favorite subject! i've paid off somewhere around 40K in the past few years. of that, approx 22-25K was credit card debt. from a host of reasons.
i now owe $734. plus 10K in a student loan. with christmas expenses, as well as a school trip i'm taking in january, i won't be out of credit card debt for reals until feb 15, 2006.
and any unemployment could send me right back there. i put off grad school, i haven't gotten married or bought a house because i can't afford any of that. i'm trying to adjust my hopes and dreams for a wedding me and my partner can afford (not that we're at that point yet) for under $2K.
what worked for me, hugely, was getting ALL of my credit card debt to one account. that way, i could see easily every month how much it was. i also started shopping around for better interest rates. i had good credit, and i got a 0% interest offer from one of my two cards. i transferred the entire balance. for one year, i paid off a lot. then i switched it back to the other card, which at that point gave me a 0% offer. and now that expires in feb 2006, which is when i'll be paid off.
it also helped that i very rarely eat out - or go only to ethnic restaurants. i very rarely drink any kind of alcohol - cut my "food" budget way down. i also don't buy art supplies - i can usually trade or borrow what i want. i rarely buy things like new shoes. i hope to get a new pair tax free when i'm home in jersey next week. ;)
it feels REALLY good to pay down debt. and when it gets daunting, i just look at the numbers, at how much progress i'm making, and it encourages me. i'm also doing this all by myself. and i've managed to save $7500 in an IRA account, and $1500 for my next semester's tuition. i don't have a car and i rent an apt.
i pay all bills and schedule credit card payments WAY in advance. subtract the money right away from my checking account. paying online makes it a lot easier for me to make more than one payment a month if i'm getting some extra cash somewhere.
i also really looked at my "fixed" expenses (i think suze advised this) and found that, as she said, they weren't really that fixed. i moved to a cheaper place, i cut my phone service since i had a cell phone for long distance, stopped seeing my therapist (which it was time for anyway, it just happened to free up $), stopped getting a $55 bus pass every month and started walking. and yup, it took me 1/2 hour each way to work, but it was worth it.
i also put the time in to work out my taxes. i made my income as low as possible by taking advantage of every offer. i got my medical insurance payments taken out pre-tax, my labor union dues, my 403B plan, the money i do spend commuting, and my flex spending medical account. this saved me $$ on my taxes. i know we're in the lowest income tax bracket in history now, but for me, deducting that money got me an additional $500 in a refund, which i needed.
i found ways of getting what i wanted. for example, i wanted to travel. well, i saved my miles from going home to see my family. i booked 6 months in advance and got free tickets to peru. while in peru, i went to a weaving school - because i taught english at night to adults at the local school, my weaving lessons were free. i paid for lodging and spanish lessons, but it helped. being willing to travel somewhere the dollar goes further is a definite plus - european and resort vacations are SO expensive. maybe later in life when i want something cushier, but for now, i'll take the coach bus from lima to cuzco, please.
and what also helped was looking at money as something that empowers me, not takes power away. by KNOWING i had $30 in my checking account, i was empowered to spend that on groceries. if i didn't know, i would hem and haw and worry over what i was buying, scared, and maybe going without a little too much when just by knowing how much i actually had, it helped. my IRA is in a socially conscious mutual fund, so the little money i am investing supports my values.
suze also says not to hoard money because it improves your attitude and releases you from money's power to be able to give it away. so i started increasing my charitable contributions, and it's all worked out for me. in fact, i wrote my christmas check to church this sunday, and unbeknownst to me, a friend who was selling some of my crafts at a home show made back almost the exact amount. which is pure profit, since the supplies had already been paid for.
good luck to everyone struggling with this! i am right there with you, it is so hard to keep moving forward when you feel like you're the turtle and everyone else is racing ahead to their duplex/exotic trips/fancy cars.
