More Debt...For Now

In the past two weeks, life took a chaotic turn but in a positive way. Currently, we have our house for sale with no intentions of buying another house when this place sells. But we still need to live somewhere and, due to the cost of living in our area, an apartment would be almost twice as much as our current mortgage, robbing us of all the extra cash we have been throwing at our debt.

Any decision that leads us away from paying down debt is the wrong decision.

So we opted for a radical concept of living that I won't get into just yet, but it required an initial investment leaving us with a little more debt (though dramatically less than if we chose another mortgage). I know it seems backwards to accumulate debt in order to get out of debt, but the math did not lie. Our initial investment, upon selling our house, will save us quite a bit each month leaving us with even more money to throw at our debt in the long run.

Sometimes saving money is all about playing the games. I hate the games. The games are what confused me for years keeping me in the same awful loop because I was so bad at playing them. But over the past year, I have become much more educated in the realm of debt, loans, interest and game-playing, leaving me very confident in the road we have decided to take.

Our debt pay downs are still 100% on track and will only improve in the months to come!

Holidays

So this month feels like it has been a success so far.  All of the holiday shopping is done and I am feeling really good about where we have landed financially.  Sometimes the end of the year is just a matter of holding ground rather than making progress.

We have been able to get our savings back up to a comfortable level, though still not as high as I would like.  The goal is to finish that out at the beginning of next year.  We have not been putting extra money toward debt the past couple of months as we have been getting our savings up to snuff, but I am okay with the little lag because the payments are still being made and no extra credit is being accumulated.

My income is staying steady as I work on some long term projects and my husband has managed to do some selling which is helping immensely in extra cash.  Eating out could be sliced down a little more so I am planning on no more last minute fast food stops for the remainder of the month. 

So a quick and simple update just to say that we are staying on track even through the holidays and in some areas, doing better than I had hoped.  Once Christmas is done, it is back to hard core focus and throwing extra money at those debts!

Merry Christmas!

Accidental Summer Vacation

Unfortunately, this is another post to share my lack of progress.  I have zero motivation to work lately.  It's summer.  It's gorgeous out.  There's a pool in the backyard, strawberry infused green tea in the refrigerator and a comfortable lawn chair screaming my name.  I don't want to sit at the computer typing away while I watch my kids having a blast through the window.  And whenever I take a pad and pen outside to motivate me to work from the lawn chair, I can't seem to pull my eyes away from the nature that surrounds me (the vegetable garden, the trees, the birds and even the occasional rabbit or deer) long enough to write a couple of sentences.

Summer has been my biggest debt-fighting enemy yet.  I think it can be difficult to walk the fine line between looking toward the future and living in the now.  If I stay focused on the future, I am motivated to work, to sell, to save, but I am also missing out on what life with debt still offers.

I know there is a happy medium.  With a little more discipline, I'm sure I could pound out an article a day or a chapter a day for my next book.  Some days I feel motivated, but then one request from the kids to head to the beach and I cave.  It's not their fault, by any means.  I am a sucker for the beach.  It's my downfall.  But it takes me 15 minutes to write one article.  I seriously have no excuse. 

I keep looking at the residual income from my book and other writing.  I also just received another $30 check for simply clicking on some emails over at Inbox Dollars.  But I am no where near my goal of hours worked or income per week.  I've even slacked in my surefire areas that were set in place to help me focus.  There is no budget on the refrigerator anymore.  The debt snowball chart even managed to make it's way on top of the fridge instead of blatantly posted on the face.  I've gotten a little better at tracking my grocery spending, but not so much at saving on groceries. 

So I need some written goals to get me back on track.  Realistic written goals that do not distract from the present (and still include a ton of beach and strawberry tea-sipping time!).  Goals that are not designed to overwhelm me but just to refocus me.  This week, I'll strive to:

• Post all the reports back on the refrigerator (and even add some color to make them stand out to my brain instead of just existing as constant objects in my line of sight).
• Continue to track my grocery spending, even if I don't save (making me aware of it is a great step to keeping my focus).
• Write three articles a week, giving me plenty of time away from the computer while keeping an income stream.

Very simple and doable goals that should leave me with no excuses come the end of next week.  Sometimes I think it's just a matter of stepping back and looking at what keeps us on track.  It's often easier than we think once we break it down and analyze it.  And keeping the mentality that something is always better than nothing helps immensely too. 

Hopefully my next progress report will be a little more in line with my goals!

Getting Lax with the Budget

While I can happily report that my motivation to earn extra income has been very high lately, my motivation to tighten the budget is certainly lacking.  The past two months, I have not even glanced at the budgets my husband has made, I have a very loose idea of how much money I have spent on groceries, and I have been all for eating out whenever it's convenient.

While my husband always ensures that we are within budget and making sure we are not living above our means, I have certainly not been playing my part in finding ways to save in order to put extra money towards debt.

I've been enjoying living comfortably and conveniently and have not had any motivation to change that.

At first, I felt guilt any time I thought about it.  With each swipe of a debit card at a fast food chain and every impulse buy off the grocery store shelves, I was plagued with the feeling of failure.  Keeping my goals at the forefront of my mind has made working more hours much easier, but it has not fueled budget cuts.  Instead it just fuels the guilt of not striving for those cuts.

But I'm starting to relax a little.  Guilt will definitely get me no where.  In fact, it tends to have an opposite effect.  I grab something that wasn't on the grocery list, feel guilt with no desire to change, then think "eh, I might as well get ice cream too."

I know we could do better with the budget and saving money but at this point, it just isn't high on my priority list.  I want to relax and be comfortable (obviously still staying within budget) and enjoy living while we try to pay down the debt.  When I have the energy and feel the motivation, I can definitely do an amazing job at finding extra money, but right now the numbers look pretty good.  I'd rather exert the energy on making more money doing things I enjoy than overly sacrificing and pouring over frugal cookbooks to save it.

The balance is definitely in saving and making but there is only so much time in a day.  Right now, I feel motivated to make more so I will let that motivation guide me, guilt free.  Maybe next month I'll be a little more motivated to focus on cutting the budget.

Working Away

I have barely had a chance to keep up with any of my extra recreational writing because I am proud to report that I have been working hard lately.  All my extra time and energy has been going into working and making money.  And I am excited to say that I am very proud of my progress this month.

What I originally thought was going to be a dud of a month on making extra income has really turned around.  I have had zero writer's block (the biggest fear of anyone relying on writing for income) so I haven't even had a moment to transcribe. 

While transcribing is good, steady money, writing is way better.  Any time I can make money from writing, transcribing always takes a huge backseat.  The hourly rate I get is much higher because writing is fairly easy for me.  I can pound out two or three articles an hour as long as I have the ideas.  Plus, unlike transcribing, I build a residual income on every article I write.  The larger my portfolio grows, the larger the passive income.  The dream is, ten years from now to never have to write for money again.

So working hard now is not only paying off the debt faster, but it's making our three year, five year and ten year goals that much more achievable.

I think I'm going to write a blog post at some point outlining the specifics of each year's goals, but for now, I'm too busy making money!

So back to the grindstone I go in hopes of really having a stellar month of May as well!