No Motivation

I’ve been MIA for two weeks.  Sure, I’ve got excuses…and a massive to-do list with zero motivation.

Recovery from my sinus surgery took about a week.  I guess I should let you know that I’m doing fine.  It was one of the least painful recoveries I’ve ever had.  I only took 3 or 4 of my prescription pain killers but that was usually at night because sleeping sitting up took some getting used to.  I’ve learned that lidocaine tastes disgusting and nasal endoscopies will never be fun.  Getting my ears vacuumed out every six months is one thing but getting my sinuses vacuumed out every week is another. Yuck.  I go back for round three next week and hopefully they won’t need to do too many more.

I went back to work after a week off despite lacking energy and I then developed three different infections.  I probably should have been resting instead of trying to get back into the swing of things.

Thanks to a bunch of eyelashes growing into my eye, I managed to get a small corneal abrasion in my bad eye.  I had to wear an eye patch for 24 hours.  Aaaarrr!  It wasn’t fun…but it was funny to see the reaction of people as I walked into the waiting room at my ophthalmologists, the kids especially.  Oh, and the reaction of my ENT doctor at my follow up appointment was pretty priceless too.  That took about 6 days to completely heal.

So I’ve got all this going on in the past two weeks.  Surgery, recovery, time off from work, a handful of infections and one-eyed Kasey, everything just keeps piling up.  I’m so behind in everything.  My to-do list at work keeps growing and growing.  The dishes didn’t get done for two weeks.  The catboxes have only been cleaned once a week (I usually scoop every day).  Laundry piles.  Missed trash days.  Boxes, so many boxes that need to be broken down and put out for trash.  The apartment is a mess because it (and our car) apparently became my husband’s dumping ground, his own personal trash can too.

I’m flustered and have no motivation to even begin to pick up the pieces and get my life back in order.  I don’t know where to begin.  I could say I need more time in the day but really, I just need to not be a procrastinator.

I signed up for a free month of Skillshare and didn’t even utilize it.  That online class I was taking to improve my time management skills is just about over and I’m still on week 4…yeah, pretty much gave up.

To those people who make a living working numerous side jobs while raising a kid or two, I envy you.

Any tips for slaying the procrastination dragon?

16 Month Progress Update

Original Debt (December 14, 2012): $102,645

Current Debt (16 months later): $95,315

My debt has decreased by $502 since last month.  An overall reduction of $7,330 in 16 months.  I’m now at 7.14% of my debt payoff goal.

DEBT BREAKDOWN

Federal Student Loans $57,851 $58,091 (up $240 since last month, an overall $2,191 increase over 16 months)

Private Student Loans $37,016 $36,459 (down $557 since last month, an overall decrease of $4,162 in 16 months)

• StudentLoan#1: $5,268 $4,835 (down $433 since last month, an overall decrease of $2,325 in the past 16 months)
• StudentLoan#2: $10,645 $10,599 (down $46 since last month, an overall decrease of $601 in 16 months)
• StudentLoan#3: $17,276 $17,220 (down $56 since last month, an overall decrease of $1,020 in 16 months)
• StudentLoan#4: $3,828 $3,805 (down $23 since last month, an overall decrease of $216 in 16 months)

US Bank Credit Card $950 $765 (down $185 since last month, down $3,892 in 16 months)

I love seeing significant progress on StudentLoan#1 now that I’m actually paying off the principal.  I wanted to take a look at when this loan might actually be paid off.

Considering this loan gains about $1.09 in interest each day, that’s roughly $30 interest each month.  I hate interest!

If I can throw about $700 at my student loans each month ($278.50 minimum towards loans 2,3, and 4), StudentLoan#1 would decrease by about $391.50 each month.  Payoff date would be approximately one year from now.

I’m hoping to take on more side hustles and throw more money at that first loan and have it paid off by December 31, 2014!  With 8.5 months to go, I’d have to be able to throw about $569 at that specific loan each month!  Wish me luck!

I also wanted to see how far the other loans are from touching principal.

• StudentLoan#2 is $2,509 away from principal.  Monthly payment is $90.13 and this loan accrues about $2.39 each day in interest.
• StudentLoan#3 is $5,560 away from principal.  Monthly payment is $152.12 and this loan accrues about $4.12 each day in interest.
• StudentLoan#4 is $2,483 away from principal.  Monthly payment is $36.24 and this loan accrues about $1.01 each day in interest.

As you can see, I’ve got quite a ways to go.  These loans won’t decrease much while I’m paying off StudentLoan#1.  And sadly, even after it is paid off, it’ll take a while to even get #2 down to principal.  In it for the long haul, many years to go.

Weekly Review

Guess who caved and finally signed up for Mint.com?  After seeing that my credit union actually recommends using Mint.com, I figured I’d give it a try!  I was always wary of giving out my account access information but if it goes highly recommended, I’ll give it a shot.

I’ll still be tracking expenses via the new spreadsheet I created and I think I’ll be focusing more on just tracking our expenses so we can re-evaluate our budget and have a good money talk.  Hopefully hubby will be on board or we’ll never break this cycle!

I’m still waiting to hear from my credit union whether the balance transfer for the credit card was approved or not.  I figured they would have known by Friday (one business day) but I haven’t heard anything.

HEALTH/FITNESS

I pretty much failed at trying this week.  No gymnastics and no at-home conditioning for it.  Does carrying around a ten month old for hours count?

THE ART PART

Hey look, it’s me!

THIS WEEK’S FAVORITES

Karen, guest posting at Frugal Rules – How I Delayed My Earning and Saving Ability

Thanks to Our Freaking Budget, I have a new wish list item!  Can you guess what it is without reading the comments? – Our Obsession With Product Reviews

Johnny Moneyseed got me thinking this week with Finding Happiness.  Expect a highly introspective post in the future!

How was your week?  Your weekend?

February Budget Update

Meh.  I haven’t been keeping up with the budget at all this month, or this year.

Now that we use my husband’s rewards credit card for most purchases, the budget has been thrown out the window.

I need to devise a new plan, a new spreadsheet, to track what we’re spending in both our checking account and on the credit card so we can pay that amount off as we go!

Screw my usual grading scale because this month deserves a big, FAT F!

Fixed/Expected Expenses (Rent, Netflix, Utilities)  – Yada yada yada…these are the same every month or I get advance notice what our bill for the month will be.

Gas – Spent $95 on $100 gas budget.

Car Stuff –  $55 for routine maintenance, to patch a tire (had a nail in it), and to fix our cigarette lighter port.  I budget $15 each month for maintenance/repairs and most months we don’t use any of it.  I’m thinking I should either open another checking account solely for that budgeted $15 or just take cash out every month for a maintenance/repair envelope.

Prescriptions – New prescription is being filled at Rite Aid, no more Express Scripts for prescriptions that aren’t free!  Still within budget.

Medical Bills/Co-Payments – Spent $47 of the $90 budgeted.

Groceries – $575 out of $300 budget.  Holy guacamole!  Yeah, that’s for a whole bunch of crappy processed food.  While I’m slowly trying to change my habits to healthier eating, hubby’s all about convenience…but at what cost?!

Dining Out – Budgeted $25, spent $57.  No excuses.

Energy Drinks/Navy Cash – Spent $191 of budgeted $100.  Le sigh.

Slush Funds, Electronics and Games – My husband spent almost $400 on games alone this month!

Pet Expenses – Budget met.

Splurges & Miscellaneous Expenses – A trip to Home Depot and Walmart have us well over our $25 budget for Miscellaneous expenses.

How did you do overall on your budgeting this month?

Weekly Review

Welcome to the first installment of my Weekly Review!  I’ll regularly be summarizing my week with updates, personal goals/thoughts, and some of my favorite posts from other bloggers.  I also want to start sharing some of my art.

As you may know, I racked up my student loans by going to a for-profit school majoring in Media Arts & Animation.  Upon learning the amount of debt I was in, I considered it the biggest mistake of my life.  The weight of my student loans completely wiped out any passion I had for art.  I felt like a failure and that feeling resurfaced every time I approached a medium.  Regaining my passion has been a long process, and I’m still slowly progressing.  I figure if I make it part of a weekly blog schedule, I’ll be more inclined to spend the time to make something worth showing my readers.

So, without further ado…

UPDATES

You may have noticed my blog URL is now mydebtperception.com!  I probably would have waited on purchasing a domain for another month or so but I stumbled on a GoDaddy special that was too good to pass up.   You might notice a few changes here and there over the next week.  Nothing major, just trying to make everything more functional.

HEALTH & FITNESS

I spent a great deal of time meal planning this week.  I went shopping for healthy food but failed to spend the day preparing snacks and separating portions for crock pot meals.  Out of the 4 days since I got the food, I’ve only made one thing on my plan…and I skimped on a bunch of the ingredients because I didn’t want to chop them up.  Old habits die hard!  WIP!

I did try out an adult gymnastics class on Friday evening.  I probably should have transitioned into it by working out at home for a few weeks before I dove in; I’m so out of shape.  I was feeling the burn in my legs after running the third lap around the floor during warm-ups!  I’m still so sore and it takes a lot of effort to get moving.  It’s great exercise though and my ultimate goal is to cross a kip off my 30 Before 30 list!  I can’t wait to go back next week!

The only downside to this class is that it’s $22 per class (the first was free).  When did fitness-type classes get so expensive?!  I’ll probably only go to this class every other week starting in March.  Getting a kip will require a lot of muscle strength/conditioning and these are things I can do for free at home or at the base gym for free.

THE ART PART

I’ve mostly been playing around in Photoshop.  I was inspired by this Pin and used a photo of my best friend’s husband and baby to create this.  They loved it.  It will probably happen again.

I also came up with a potential logo for Debt Perception.  You can check out the rough version on Twitter.

THIS WEEK’S FAVORITES

Dear Debt – I’m Going to FinCon!  So happy for Melanie!

Our Freaking Budget – Weekend Recap:  Zion National Park  I’ve always wanted to go there, so pretty!

Red Debted Stepchild – Eating My Financial Words Erin fesses up to past flawed financial views.

Club Thrifty – Why a Four Hour Workday is Better Than Early Retirement Holly makes a great point here!

Do you know anyone who would pay to have a photo face-swapped?  What’s the most you would pay for it?

13 Month Progress Update

My debt update is kind of late this month.  I’m still without a computer and am using my husband’s.

Original Debt (December 14, 2012): $102,645

Current Debt (13 months later): $96,792

My debt has decreased by $629 since last month, an overall reduction of $5,853 in 13 months.  I’m now at 5.7% of my debt payoff goal.

I’m not going to take the time to calculate how much has gone towards interest in the past 13 months, but it’s A LOT.  I hate interest.

DEBT BREAKDOWN

Federal Student Loans $57,468 $57,627 (up $159 since last month, an overall $1,727 increase over 13 months)

Private Student Loans $38,135 $37,953 (down $182 since last month, an overall decrease of $2,668 in 13 months)

• StudentLoan#1: $6,122 $5,967 (down $155 since last month, an overall decrease of $1193 in the past 13 months)
• StudentLoan#2: $10,725 $10,714 (down $11 since last month, an overall decrease of $486 in 13 months)
• StudentLoan#3: $17,433 $17,425 (down $8 since last month, an overall decrease of $815 in 13 months)
• StudentLoan#4: $3,855 $3,847 (down $8 since last month, an overall decrease of $174 in 13 months)

US Bank Credit Card $1,818 $1,212 (down $606 since last month, down $3,445 in 13 months)

November Recap

Based on my grading scale, I give our November budget a B-, at 80%. 

Fixed Expenses – Rent, pet rent, washer/dryer rental, and Netflix are the same every month.

Expected Expenses (Electric Bill, Cell Phones, Renter’s Insurance) – As expected.

Gas – With hubby out to sea for two weeks, I only spent $82 on gas.  That’s a lot better than the $120 we usually spend sharing the car.

Car Stuff –  Renewed our AAA membership, forgot to budget that in.

Prescriptions – I wasn’t on top of budgeting this month so I mistakenly put a purchase for antibiotics into the grocery costs and threw away the receipt, oops.

Medical Bills/Co-Payments – Used my credit card to gain rewards from paying a hefty medical bill, way over the $90 budget.

Groceries – $292 out of the $350 budget.  I think this is a bit high considering my husband was gone for two weeks this month.

Dining Out – Budgeted $25, spent $17.

Energy Drinks/Navy Cash – I’ve added hubby’s Navy Cash card to this category while he’s out to sea.  He can transfer money from our bank account to use to purchase drinks and snacks out of vending machines.  $179 out of the $100 budget.  I’m going to predict the future here and say we won’t be saving money while he’s on deployment…

Slush Funds, Electronics and Games – Hubby’s $49 over budget in games but well under budget for his slush fund.

Pet Expenses – Under budget.

Splurges & Miscellaneous Expenses – Nothing came up this month, just using any extra money to pay off hubby’s laptop purchase using the credit card!

I’m kind of disappointed how much money hubby is spending while he’s out to sea.  I’m sure items from the vending machines aren’t cheap and it’s nice to have more than just mess hall food but we probably could have saved a bunch of money and bought junk food for him before he left.  It’s hard to get ahead on the debt when spending habits don’t change!  I wanted to be out of credit card debt by the end of 2013.  That’s not happening any time soon!  It’s frustrating!

Did you over-spend at all in November?  How did you do overall on your budgeting?

NOVEMBER GOALS RECAP

• Meal plan!  Aside from Thanksgiving dinner, FAIL!
• Don’t waste fresh produce!  Considering I didn’t really buy much until the few days before Thanksgiving, PASS?
• Prepare snack-sized portions and (freezer) meals ahead of time.  FAIL!
• Meditate for 2 minutes each day.  FAIL!
• Play a brain game at least once a day.  I made an effort, but definitely wasn’t once a day.  FAIL!

My goals for December will be the same as November, plus, I want to knock a few items of my goals for 2013.

9 Month Progress Update

This past month was slow in terms of debt payments.  I had a job interview recently and have another lined up for Tuesday.  Hopefully I’ll have a real job soon!

In the case of The Second Car Dilemma, we won’t be getting a second car.

I found a park and ride 2 miles from our apartment that leaves early enough that hubby could get to work on time, but he was not persuaded and will not be taking public transportation, nor is he interested in carpooling.  So, as long as the 90 degree weather is done for the year, I will be trying out the bus system, for the most part.  Hubby hasn’t taken leave since this time last year and has quite a few days built up.  He also has sporadic underways building up to his deployment next year and he plans to use his leave days in between these underways so I can have the car more often.  One of the potential jobs is only 3 miles from our apartment.  If I end up getting that one (cross your fingers!), I’ll probably purchase a bike and bike to work! I’ll have our shared car to myself during his deployment and by the time he gets back, it’ll be time to reenlist and PCS (move).  However convenient it would be to have a second car right now, we can do without.

PROGRESS

Original Debt (beginning mid December 2012): $102,645

Current Debt (9 months later): $98,287

My debt has decreased by $245 since last month, an overall reduction of $4,358 in 9 months.  I’m now at 4.25% of my debt payoff goal.

DEBT BREAKDOWN

Federal Student Loans $56,989 $57,115 (up $126 since last month, an overall $1,215 increase over 9 months)

Private Student Loans $38,710 $38,540 (down $170 since last month, an overall decrease of $2,081 in 9 months)

• StudentLoan#1: $6,400 $6,245 (down $155 since last month, an overall decrease of $915 in the past 9 months)
• StudentLoan#2: $10,821 $10,831 (up $10 since last month, an overall decrease of $369 in 9 months)
• StudentLoan#3: $17,627 $17,597 (down $30 since last month, an overall decrease of $643 in 9 months)
• StudentLoan#4: $3,862 $3,867 (up $5 since last month, an overall decrease of $154 in 9 months)

I’m finally below the original amount I borrowed on StudentLoan#1.  This is not something to be thrilled about.  After 3 years of payments, totaling nearly $4,300, it’s finally back to what I originally borrowed.  I hate capitalized interest!

US Bank Credit Card $2,094 $1,981 (down $113 since last month, down $2,676 in 9 months)

BOA Credit Card $739 $651 (down $88 since last month, $819 in 9 months)

Total payments for this past month were $700.   $455 has gone towards interest.  I hate interest!

8 Month Progress Update

I can’t believe I’ve been blogging for 8 months!  Yesterday’s Wishful Wednesday post (which technically should have been my 8 month progress update) was my 100th published post!  W00t!

PROGRESS

Original Debt (beginning mid December 2012): $102,645

Current Debt (8 months later): $98,532

My debt has decreased by $600 since last month, an overall reduction of $4,113 in 8 months.  I’m now at 4% of my debt payoff goal.

DEBT BREAKDOWN

Federal Student Loans $56,848 $56,989 (up $141 since last month, an overall $1089 increase over 8 months)

Private Student Loans $38,710 $38,710 (big whoop, the same since last month, an overall decrease of $1,911 in 8 months)

• StudentLoan#1: $6,483 $6,400 (down $83 since last month, an overall decrease of $760 in the past 8 months)  $100 away from original amount borrowed
• StudentLoan#2: $10,803 $10,821 (up $18 since last month, an overall decrease of $379 in 8 months)
• StudentLoan#3: $17,545 $17,627 (up $82 since last month, an overall decrease of $613 in 8 months)
• StudentLoan#4: $3,879 $3,862 (down $17 since last month, an overall decrease of $159 in 8 months)

I really hate seeing my federal loans grow each month but with so much other debt, I have to take advantage of my $0 IBR payments.

StudentLoan#1 is about $100 away from reaching the original loan amount.  I’m not really going to celebrate that.  Between me, my co-signer and my father, we’ve already paid over $4,100 on this loan and it’s still not even back to the original amount borrowed!  Ugh.  That’s absolutely frustrating.  Stupid student loans!

US Bank Credit Card $2,797 $2,094 (down $703 since last month, down $2,563 in 8 months)

BOA Credit Card $777 $739 (down $38 since last month, $731 in 8 months)

Total payments for this past month were $1,119, including making up for a stupid $25 late fee.  $519 has gone towards interest alone ($660 if you include the fed loan increase).  Yuck.

My husband is gone on a two week underway and I need to use this time with the car to myself to find extra income.  Whether it’s a job, side hustles, sell stuff.  Whatever it be, I need to pay this debt off faster!  I can’t stand all the money thrown away to interest.  Ho hum…

7 Month Progress Update

PROGRESS

Original Debt (beginning mid December 2012): $102,645

Current Debt (7 months later): $99,132 

My debt has decreased by $633 since last month, an overall reduction of $3,513 in 7 months.  I’m now at 3.42% of my debt payoff goal, an increase of .62% from last month.

DEBT BREAKDOWN

Federal Student Loans $56,685 $56,848 (up $163 since last month, an overall $948 increase over 7 months)

Private Student Loans $39,087 $38,710 (down $378 since last month, an overall decrease of $1,911 in 7 months)

• StudentLoan#1: $6,696 $6,483 (down $98 since last month, an overall decrease of $677 in the past 7 months)
• StudentLoan#2: $10,873 $10,803 (down $106 since last month, $397 in 7 months)
• StudentLoan#3: $17,673 $17,545 (down $145 since last month, $695 in 7 months)
• StudentLoan#4: $3,903 $3,879 (down $24 since last month, $142 in 7 months)

I always put my extra payments towards StudentLoan#1 but somehow I’ve paid off more on StudentLoan#3 which has a higher interest rate.  I don’t understand how that’s happening but I’m starting to keep an eye on my payments, maybe Sallie Mae isn’t allocating the way I set things up?

US Bank Credit Card $3,287 $2,797 (down $308 since last month, down $1,853 in 7 months)

BOA Credit Card $888 $777 (down $111 since last month, $693 in 7 months)

Total payments for this past month were $1,126, including $51.48 from eRewards/UPromise.  $413 has gone towards interest alone ($576 if you include the fed loan increase).

Progress is still frustratingly slow.  Gotta keep at it though!