Rebuilding

The most frustrating piece of paying off debt has occurred.  We had a setback that took pretty much all of our savings and a portion (albeit, incredibly small portion) also wound up on a credit card.  Ouch.

First of all, I am grateful that we had the savings to buffer the blow otherwise our credit would have taken a much bigger hit.  My biggest regret is not having more savings.  We had the $1,000 recommended by Dave Ramsey and the rest of our money was going straight to credit cards.  Sounds good in theory, but once put into practice, $1,000 disappears quickly in a bind. 

Another upside is that the amount that needed to be put onto a credit card was so small that it is a hiccup in the grand scheme of paying off our debt.  It will only take a month or for the evidence of that credit to disappear.

But now we are left paying the bare minimum on each of our loans until our savings is back up to snuff.  Personally, I want it more than up to snuff.  I want it to be twice what it originally was, just in case.  There will always be the possibility of extreme circumstances that can sap your savings dry which, short of being a millionaire, are unavoidable.  But I still feel a little gun-shy when it comes to using our credit cards, so taking a little extra time to bring the savings higher than we originally intended holding it at is well worth it to me.

Luckily I chose this month to really slash groceries, and it was a complete success.  Having that extra money has been a blessing.  I have also locked down another income source for myself which I am hoping will help as well.  I have been double-timing on finishing my second book and optimizing the monetization of my blogs.  All in all, things are moving forward.  One step back, two steps forward.  Staying positive is key and recognizing that my mentality is much different than the one that aided in our debt-laden lifestyle helps me to not feel as down on needing to use a credit card.

The month of November will be a hardcore savings month.  My goals are:

• Groceries - $350 (for a $200 savings)
• Eating out - $25 (meaning only one emergency eat out allowed for the month)
• Zero extra expenses
• Increasing my income by $100
• Finishing half of my book

I whole-heartedly recognize that I am asking a lot of myself financially, especially as we enter the holiday season, but having a strict plan is key to getting ourselves back to where we wanted to be. I am adamant that this set-back does not hinder our long-term goals and plans and that is going to require a lot of hard work. What was demolished can be rebuilt.

Major Road Block

Sometimes crappy things just happen.  People get laid off.  Important things break unexpectedly.  Medical issues arise.  It happens.  It's frustrating, frightening and sometimes overwhelming, but it happens. 

And it's not the end of the world.

Recently, I lost a major income source.  It was like being laid off.  Yahoo Contributor Network (YCN) announced that they are shutting down at the end of this month.  For my debt-paying momentum, this is a huge road block.  Content writing was the bulk of my income not to mention the residual income it produced made me feel like I was really getting somewhere.  Now I must remove all my content and find a new avenue.

It's incredibly frustrating.  There really aren't any other content sites out there with the freedoms and the payments that YCN offered.  Now I need to spend time that could have been used making money on finding a new way of making money.  It's like a freelancer's version of getting laid off and looking for another job, sans the unemployment checks.

I still have some income sources as any freelancer should not put all their eggs in one basket, but YCN was my biggest basket.  I am hoping that something just as flexible arises.  I am blessed that this setback isn't horrifically life changing.  But I'm still frustrated. 

So for now, I'm rethinking my goals, both long term and short term, and am setting out looking for another avenue of income that feels worth my time. 

Becoming debt-free is not always easy but I have to remember that even slow progress is progress.  We're still getting there, despite this huge setback.

It Never Fails

You make the decision.  You set the date.  You are filled with optimism and excitement.  And then, inevitably, everything stands in your way.

We were off to such a great start, so close to paying off our first credit card in order to get that snowball rolling and the obstacles have all ready begun.  It is such a discouraging and frustrating feeling, but I know the key to success is accepting how crappy things can seem sometimes while still staying positive, grateful and seeing as much silver lining as possible.  So despite the following obstacles, that is what I am trying to do.

First it was a shattered window.  The who, how and where are not really relevant, but one of our brand new $200 windows was shattered and needed immediate replacement. 

Negative thoughts: There goes money we could have used to keep paying down debt.  We'll never get anywhere.  It is no wonder the world lives in the hole.  Life seems to make it that way.

Silver lining:  We have the cash and do not need to put it on a credit card.  Granted, payments will slow for a little bit until we can rebuild our emergency cushion, but I thank God that we have that cushion.  While we have to slow slightly in paying off the debt, at least we aren't accumulating more.

But even worse, one of our vehicles was totaled.  Like totaled totaled.  It's done, dead and gone only worth the scrap metal it has become.

Negative thoughts:  You're kidding me.  My husband works an hour away from home meaning two cars are an absolute necessity for us.  We had actually just planned on selling it as it was a gas-guzzling SUV in order to buy a more cost-efficient car but now, we are certainly not going to be able to sell it for enough to replace it which means, unlike the $200 window, we are going to be out a couple thousand dollars.  Ugh.  Worst part?  It was only insured for liability and towing which means, due to the cause of the accident (horrible miserable awful stupid weather conditions), we don't even get any insurance money for it.  When it rains, it pours.

Silver lining: No one was hurt.  Praise Jesus.  It could have be much, much worse but other than my husband sustaining a sore ankle and some minor whiplash, he is unharmed.  This is enough silver lining to make any financial worries disappear.  Also, we didn't technically lose money on the whole deal.  We were able to sell it for $275, plus claiming the tow so in the end we made $50 (if you ignore how much we could have sold it for, of course).  We are also very blessed to have a functioning second vehicle so, while it will be a struggle until we can replace the second car, we are not in a dire emergency of needing to spend thousands of dollars.  Much like the simple broken window, while we need to wait on paying off the credit cards, we are not going to accumulate any debt in this situation.  God is so good!

They say bad things come in threes, so I am hoping there was some minor third issue that may have been overlooked and that, at least for now, we can focus on rebuilding our emergency fund as quickly as possible and get right back on the debt-free horse. 

No matter how difficult things can seem, there is always so much to be grateful for and I pray that I never lose sight of that, especially in this journey to freedom.