I'm Back!

It has been a while since I have posted here and I apologize to those who have missed me. It has been a little crazy trying manage working two jobs, having two kids and a husband to take care of but things are going pretty well.

My part-time job is going well but is taking up my late night Internet time that was previously used to post on my blog. I am thankful, however, to have the opportunity for this part time job and am glad I listened to the advice given me by posters on the blog to accept as many classes as I can. I really struggle with balancing a second part-time job with my other responsibilities but I am hanging in there. I have classes lined up through June so I am happy about that. They have always been pretty consistent so I plan on continuing to teach until my credit card debt is paid off (expected date January 2012) and then probably stop.

After credit cards are paid off we will still have some debt in car loans and student loans but according to our budget by that time we should be paying an additional $1,200 per month above minimum payments to our credit cards (which we will snowball) and I'm good with that. That will be an additional $2,223 each month over the minimum payments. I think debt payoff and life balance is extremely important. That is also why we live a little bit in the process. I realize there are those who can live to the bare minimum for years in order to pay off debt. I am not that person. I did not get in this situation overnight and I can attest that it is not easy to change your ways overnight either. But I am trying and my husband is trying and together we will make it through.

Just for an update......we have not charged anything to our credit cards since I started this blog on January 19th. Which means, we are living within our means. Now we certainly aren't doing as much as we would like to with those means, but have made some good progress. When I started this blog our credit card debt was at $51,688.87. At the end of March (just a little over 2 months) our balance is now $45,132.15. That is a total of $6,556.72 paid down in 2 1/2 months. I think this is a great improvement considering we were at times charging up to $1,000 per month. It could have been more, of course, but it also could have been a lot less. I am proud of the accomplishments so far. These credit card payments were made with minimum credit card payments budgeted for, additional payments above our budget, items sold on eBay, and tax refund money. The plan for right now is to be below $30,000 in credit cars by the end of December. It is an ambitious plan, but I would rather aim high and barely miss then aim low and meet my mark. I figure I am still better off. Originally I had only planned on paying $3,000 above my minimum payments for the year. We have doubled that. At that time I was scared to commit because I did not want to give up some of my spending habits. Well I have given up most, but still have a weak moment every once in a while. But were plugging along and very happy to be making progress thus far.