I just have a bad habit of disappearing these recent months! I have a lot of good reasons though, I promise.
Quick Debt Profile for you:
CC1: $1076 and some change (it was at $600 until this morning when I had to buy a new laptop)
CC2: $4059 and some change
So, what’s been going on and why aren’t those numbers lower?
Well, like I said, I had to buy a new laptop. My old one is still working, but barely, and that just isn’t allowing me to do the things I need to do. So, before it really kicks the bucket, I wanted to get a new laptop so that I can have some time transferring files.
Another reason is because we have been feverishly trying to fix up our house. We had an amazingly awesome turn of luck and sold it without having to put it on the market! We still have some stuff to do, though, to bring it up to snuff for the buyer, so there has been a lot of buying paint and other supplies, paying contractors, etc., to meet the contingencies. Sooooo, this means the obvious.
We bought a house!
Bigger, better, will meet our needs, current and future, better than our current home. We are purchasing the house on husband’s name and using some of the equity of this house to make a down payment. We are using another portion of it to create an emergency fund, and the rest husband is using to buy a bigger car (no, I’m not pregnant).
With the selling and buying of a home, it threw our finances into sharp relief, so we really talked (and fought a bit) over my financial situation. Husband put his foot down and said I absolutely needed to find a better paying job so that I can help more with the household expenses. With reluctance because I have only been with my current job a little over a year, I searched.
And applied.
And got an interview.
And got a job.
A job that pays me around 11k more annually than my current job.
So, after a night’s sleep and a discussion with my office manager, I put in my notice and accepted the job. I start the same week we close on the new house.
Needless to say, the past month and a half have been me doing those little things to fix our current house and packing. The silver lining is that because we are moving, the only spending I’m doing (besides the laptop) is groceries and house fixes. Husband has been covering a vast majority of the latter, but I help where I can. Since we have had a few honest discussions about my debt, he is on board with me at least paying the credit cards off ASAP. The new job will help too since it’ll be an extra $300 a paycheck approximately. I expect CC1 debt paid off by the end of the year, CC2 hopefully by March. Oh, by the way, I finally called my credit card company and asked for reduced interest rates on both credit cards and was rewarded lower rates by 4% each. Not a ton, but still it will help!
ALSO, I have heard from my ace-in-the-hole. I don’t have much time left to act on it, but with transferring my responsibilities at my current job, I will have time to call this week and check on the current status and hopefully it will be resolved within the next two weeks, which would mean extra money to pay off the credit cards. Maybe even pay them off completely before my above projections. I just won’t hold my breath in case it doesn’t turn out the way I expect.
I hope you all understand. With two major life events happening so soon, I have been a bit distracted. Both have been a blessing though in so many ways that I’ve really had to focus on the finish line for both of them and neglect my blog. It’s been a big year, and I’ll keep you all updated as much as I can over the coming weeks. 2014 will hopefully be the year I can REALLY focus on that student loan, but for now it continues to go on the back burner.