Dear Debt Diary,
I drink a lot of water. I am trying to drink more so that I can take this extra weight I have gained back off. Plus, I feel so much better when I am hydrated, and my skin looks better. The downside is going the bathroom what feels like every 10 minutes. But if I lose 25 lbs I can live with that!
I went to the recycling center the other day with all my plastic bottles, as well as a bunch of glass bottles from my friend's place. Basically, I filled up the whole trunk of my car and then some. I got $12.73 back in cash! California, like many states, has a recycling deposit on cans, bottles and plastic. It's 4 cents for small containers and 8 cents for large ones. BUT the cool thing is - you get 5 cents BACK for small and 10 cents BACK for large. So, you net a little bit. It might seem like hard work, but it's fairly simple to remember to just rinse the container and put it in a separate bag. I now plan to go once a month to recycle what I have collected. The cash went right into my piggy bank ( yes, I do have a piggy bank and I promise to write a blog about it soon).
That's all for now....I'll write more soon on my current debt totals and plan to pay it down.
-me
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Monday, April 16, 2007
Taxes!
Dear Debt Loss Diary,
I am so glad that I got my taxes done early this year...and have already received my refund checks and deposited them into my bank account! Using TurboTax to do the calculations turned out to be very beneficial, as I found a couple errors I made, which was $300 in my favor. One of the errors was in how I applied my dividends, and it turns out last year I also made a mistake. By filing an amended return for last year's federal return, I got another refund check for $323.55, of which 21.55 was interest the government owed me on that money. Now, isn't that cool-licious!
I also made $20 today by attending a focus group that a local SDSU grad student was holding as part of research for a school project. It was about perceptions about Wal-Mart and it turned out to be quite interesting and enjoyable. I found the opportunity on Craigslist....one of these days I am going to have to write a book on my CL experiences....or at least blog about it.
I made a $2000 payment to Discover Card over the weekend, which posted today. I will make another payment once the billing cycle closes and a statement is updated - which should happend any day. Did you know that if you make a payment right after your statement is generated, it is to your advantage? That's right. The interest is calculated on the average daily balance. So, if you make your payment at the start of the billing period (and are not using that credit card for any new purchases) then the average daily amount will be lower than if you wait and make a payment right before the due date. It may be a matter of pennies or just a few dollars in interest, but it adds up!!
That's all for now...
I am so glad that I got my taxes done early this year...and have already received my refund checks and deposited them into my bank account! Using TurboTax to do the calculations turned out to be very beneficial, as I found a couple errors I made, which was $300 in my favor. One of the errors was in how I applied my dividends, and it turns out last year I also made a mistake. By filing an amended return for last year's federal return, I got another refund check for $323.55, of which 21.55 was interest the government owed me on that money. Now, isn't that cool-licious!
I also made $20 today by attending a focus group that a local SDSU grad student was holding as part of research for a school project. It was about perceptions about Wal-Mart and it turned out to be quite interesting and enjoyable. I found the opportunity on Craigslist....one of these days I am going to have to write a book on my CL experiences....or at least blog about it.
I made a $2000 payment to Discover Card over the weekend, which posted today. I will make another payment once the billing cycle closes and a statement is updated - which should happend any day. Did you know that if you make a payment right after your statement is generated, it is to your advantage? That's right. The interest is calculated on the average daily balance. So, if you make your payment at the start of the billing period (and are not using that credit card for any new purchases) then the average daily amount will be lower than if you wait and make a payment right before the due date. It may be a matter of pennies or just a few dollars in interest, but it adds up!!
That's all for now...
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Long time, no blog
Dear Debt Loss Diary,
Well, I can't believe a month has flown by and I have not been blogging! However, I have been hard at work paying down debt and saving money. I had a super day yesterday when I logged in to check my balance transfer offers from Discover Card - and to my shock and excitement, I have a 5.6% offer! Up until now, they were offering 19.99% so all the hard work I have been doing in the last 6 months has paid off (no pun intended). Now, I have a balance of $9100 on my Discover Card currently, so to take full advantage of this offer, I am going to take every available penny I can squeeze from my budget and savings to pay off that card, and then transfer the balance from my Chase card (currently at a crazy 29%). I'll only be able to make the minimums on my other cards, and I will have to be a little creative to make it happen - I have until May 10th to make the transfer, so I think between the money I have saved up as of today and my next two paychecks, it will come close. It's worth eating less ( I need to lose weight anyways) and really putting everything I can towards Discover Card at this point. I'll save so much in interest, and I will reduce my debt by almost 1/3 in the process.
Well, I can't believe a month has flown by and I have not been blogging! However, I have been hard at work paying down debt and saving money. I had a super day yesterday when I logged in to check my balance transfer offers from Discover Card - and to my shock and excitement, I have a 5.6% offer! Up until now, they were offering 19.99% so all the hard work I have been doing in the last 6 months has paid off (no pun intended). Now, I have a balance of $9100 on my Discover Card currently, so to take full advantage of this offer, I am going to take every available penny I can squeeze from my budget and savings to pay off that card, and then transfer the balance from my Chase card (currently at a crazy 29%). I'll only be able to make the minimums on my other cards, and I will have to be a little creative to make it happen - I have until May 10th to make the transfer, so I think between the money I have saved up as of today and my next two paychecks, it will come close. It's worth eating less ( I need to lose weight anyways) and really putting everything I can towards Discover Card at this point. I'll save so much in interest, and I will reduce my debt by almost 1/3 in the process.
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