Hi! Hello! I’m sorry if you’ve been keeping up with my journal entries. I haven’t written one for several weeks. A lot has happened, both financially and just in life. Let’s get right into it as we end the last day of March.
In my last blog, Journal Entry 10 (click here to read), I shared some books that were great resources for me on my financial journey. The plan for this blog post was to share some social media influencers and YouTubers who have also helped me on my financial journey.
Instead, I want to share how I’ve been dealing with debt to achieve financial independence and how I’ve felt along the way.
After Journal Entry 10, I consolidated two credit cards and a medical loan with my credit union. By doing this, I was able to lower my APR from an average of 25.71% to 11.94%. This may still sound high to some but to me, I’m grateful that I was able to get that APR down.
Along with my APR going down, it also brought my minimum monthly payment down by a little over $500 per month.
I almost forgot to mention that I already had a signature loan with my credit union. For me to consolidate my credit cards and outside loan, I needed to combine it with my existing credit union loan. In total, the minimum payment for all four loans before consolidation was $1325.81. Now, my monthly payments will be $791.62.
That $500 difference per month will be so helpful for me now since I’m dealing with debt and trying to budget better.
On top of consolidating my loans, I have also been working a lot of overtime. During the last pay period (March 2 to March 15), I worked 30.52 hours of overtime on top of my 80 regular hours. Needless to say, I have been exhausted. Hence, there has been a lack of blog posts lately.
However, I have been super grateful for overtime because I was able to fund my trip to New York, which was from March 20 to March 23. It was a short and sweet trip, but still super expensive.
I went with my girlfriends, who love to eat and eat at really nice places. I was fortunate enough to have such memorable experiences with them.
Although it may sound like I have been in a really positive space lately with my finances, I will admit that that has not been true lately.
I started the month strong, and New York was strong. However, when I got back, I lacked discipline and spent money on things I didn’t need.
For March, I purchased almost $800 worth of clothes. $300 of it was clothes from New York, but the rest were purchased when I got back home.
The whole time I was walking up and down the aisle of the store, I kept telling myself, “You don’t need these things.” Then that statement turned into questions like, “Why are you like this? What is wrong with you? You know what you need to do, yet here you are, doing the opposite.” “Why?” “Seriously, why?”
And the whole time, I couldn’t give myself a good enough answer to stop. Even though shopping seems harmless, it can be a real addiction. Because I noticed that for me, it felt like this itch I desperately needed to scratch. The only answer was to scratch this nagging itch to get rid of the feeling, for example, by making the purchase.
The old me also crept up in other ways as well. I almost didn’t track my spending, and I used my credit cards for a lot of the purchases. Thankfully, I paid them off as soon as I got home. I had to remind myself that I’m still dealing with debt.
There’s something else I need to admit. Although I’m dealing with debt, I’m going to New York again in June. This time with my middle daughter. She’s going out there for work, and her company is putting her up for 3 nights. Her company’s headquarters is based out there.
We both decided that I would tag along, and we’d also extend the trip from the 12th to the 21st. We plan on splitting the hotel costs, and my other daughters might join. If they do, we plan on splitting the hotel costs with them, too.
Anyways, back to dealing with debt. I ended up charging our room and my flight, which came out to a total of $2849.35. Room and board were $2307.75, which my daughter and I will split. I also plan on paying off my flight this week; if not, it will be in the next two weeks.
If you haven’t read in an earlier post, the whole reason I started my financial freedom journey is that I really want to live bicoastal. I would love to live between where I’m at now and New York. Any chance I get to go to New York, I’m most likely going to take it.
Oh, on another positive note, I told my two daughters who still live with me that moving forward, we will be splitting the house bills. This includes utilities, food, and house supplies.
Last month, my oldest and I went to Costco and split our $600 grocery bill. This has been nice and a better way to waste less food. We all know what’s in the fridge, and I’ve been cooking a lot more.
I still plan on working overtime for now. My company has extended overtime until either June or July.
So, there you have it. This has been how I’ve been dealing with debt lately. Does anything in this post resonate with you? Does how I’m dealing with debt piss you off? Are you in the same situation? If so, please share; I’d love to hear from you.
As always, thanks for reading!
Love, Sutivi.
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