Credit Card Debt Gone!

And it "only" took 33 months to pay it off :(. $13,700 of debt divided by 33 months--that's an average of $415/month. I'm really glad to be done with this debt. I had no idea when I was charging on the credit cards that it would be this difficult to pay them off. Never again!
I still have the car loan to go ($2300) before I'm free of non-mortgage debt. I'm going to take a break for April, then starting in May, try to pay off the car in three months. With pay from the summer job, that should be possible.
It really hasn't sunk in yet that I finally paid this debt. I think I'll stare at the sidebar for a while!

Capital One--Canceled, but not gone

I just called and cancelled my Cap 1 card because they were changing the terms of agreement.
My current interest rate is 5%, and it was increasing to 13%. If I opted out of the new terms, my card would be cancelled., but my current rate will apply while I pay off my card. This sounds almost too good to be true--that I can keep the 5% rate. I'm holding on the the written notice, in case my rate does go up.
My new goal is to pay off the card by Oct. 15. This sure is taking longer than I thought!

CC Interest Rates Going Down?

The interest rate on my last credit card has been slowly declining over the past year. It started at over 7%, and now it is just over 5%. Has anyone else experienced this? I think the CC company is trying to lure me into charging more!

Debt is Going Down!

My credit card debt is coming down! It now stands at $4140! I am very excited to be below $5000 and I should be able to get below $4000 by the end of the month. Maybe a payoff of July is possible :).
Tracking my spending is still fun. I'm going to check my spending percentages in each category at the end of the month to see if my spending is in balance with what Dave and other financial gurus recommend. I don't want to be obsessed with spending, although I must confess that I am right now. My goal is to get a workable system in place, and then move my energy to other hobbies.
On another note, I mistakenly deleted my blog roll on Sunday. I'm slowly building it back up. If you see that your blog is missing from my blog list, please leave me a comment so I can add it!

Confession from 2008

Here it is:
I used my credit card to buy Christmas presents online, so now my CC debt is up to $6000. This shows me that I am not cured of the CC habit. To help my rehab, I applied for a new debit card and changed my address at the bank. This should give me the tools I need to avoid future charges.
This also showed me that I don't have a handle on my budget, because I thought I would have enough cash for Christmas, but there is nothing left-over and I charged $300. What happened? Tracking my spending in 2009 should make the picture clearer.

I need to cut up the card, but I'm afraid I will need it in an emergency.

I keep remembering Sharon Rose's quote, "Slow progress is better than no progress". I'm better now than I was when I started in 2007.

One Credit Card Down, One to Go!

I just paid the last of Credit Card 1. It was a store credit card that I applied for to get the 10% off an iPod for my son's birthday 3 years ago. I think I have probably paid $360 in interest and I saved about $20 on the iPod. Smart? I don't think so! Never again!


One more card to go--the largest balance $5900. Even though I won't be able to pay much more this month, just having one debt to focus on is nice. When I began my debt-reduction journey, I had 4 credit cards and a car payment for a total debt of over $13,000. The debt is coming down slowly, but surely.