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Home > Archive: February, 2009

Archive for February, 2009

VICTORY IS MINE!

February 6th, 2009 at 03:28 am

Ok, maybe that's being dramatic. ; )

I decided to call Citi about my interest rate jumping from 6% to a whopping 24% on a card I've never payed late ever. I had learned about this a week or two ago (there's a blog entry about it, too lazy to go check out the date) when I logged in to pay the bill that our interest rate went up. We owe thousands and thousands on this card... *sigh* The jump from 6% to 24% was just huge and added over 100$ that we DO NOT have in any way, shape or form. So needless to say, I was upset.

I decided not to call them when I was upset. I was looking at the Door O' Bills and decided I had to call them to see what was up. I warned my husband before the call that things might not work out my way and I'd be in a bad mood the rest of the night.

So I called, asked what was up with the interest rate. I was shaking because I was so nervous and expecting rejection, them telling me that my credit is bad so they're not going to lower the rate, blah, blah, blah. BUT NO! The girl on the phone said something about some letter I was supposed to get in the mail and I could reject the change of terms to the account. Well, I honestly open and read every single piece of mail that we get here. No foolies. I do not remember anything of the sort. I thought that now we were REALLY screwed because I didn't get some letter in time and that we were now doomed with a 24%+ interest rate.

There really was no thinking about it. I know closing (or whatever they did... I think she said I could use the card until it's expired, which I don't use anyway) the account is a hit to the credit report, but my credit probably is crappy now anyway. And 24% vs 6% on a card where we owe so much on, there wasn't much to think about.

So the only caveat is that this month I have to pay the higher minimum payment. I have no clue how that's going to happen... but at least next month it will be back down to the 6% minimum payment. It's a HUGE load off my shoulders.

Phew.

If I have to SEE my debt ALL the time...

February 3rd, 2009 at 01:46 am

I thought maybe SEEING all my bills in a VERY OBVIOUS spot would help me 1) pay them on time being that I wrote the dates on the outside and 2) be a reminder of what I'm doing, WHY I'm doing it. When I get a bill in the mail, which seems to be ALWAYS, I can tape it up with the rest of the bills and the due date written on it...

So, on a door that goes from the living room to the back of the house, I taped all my bills up there. How depressing. I don't even think these are ALL the bills/statements/late notices, etc Frown

So yeah, here's my door.

Ok, now that the tantrum is over, let's focus.

February 1st, 2009 at 05:18 pm

Focus, focus, focus.

I think I'm getting an ulcer.

I MUST MUST MUST get current on bills. It's SO DIFFICULT with the last few months we've had and it being so slow at my main job. I got absolutely slammed at work the last week, and this upcoming week will be like that too. At least I have a backlog of work now, which is very, very good. I have a TON of work sitting on my desk right now under my laptop that I've been chipping away at all weekend. I really could use a shower, LOL!

Getting current on the bills is proving to be very hard. It's amazing how you can't pay one bill one month and it turns into an awful reverse Dave Ramsey snowball. So that's my goal this month, to try to get bills current.

I'm still very upset about the credit card interest rate hike (see last blog post) and haven't figured out what to do about that. I've been scared to open ANY bill with the fear they ALL have done that... *crosses fingers* so far, so good.

We're telling our tenant his rent is going up $50/mo. It's time. His rent is WAY too cheap. If he does decide to move, we already have a couple willing to rent the place, so I'm not too worried about that.

I have everything all together for our taxes. I think we might be getting some $$$ back, just a little. I adjusted the taxes this year so we'd take home more and not get a huge refund like we did last year. So I can't wait to get them done... the problem is that I don't have the money to get them done!!! ARGH!

I've just been trying not to think about everything and focus on work. I love being busy at work. Last week my boss asked me if she was giving me too much work and I wanted to laugh at her... I mean, we work on 100% commission, so NO, you probably CAN'T give me too much work!!! You'll never hear me complain about that!! I got some great cases to work on and Monday and Tuesday alone, when they're finished for me to get paid for them, will be in the $2000 range (usually it's not that much, but there were a LOT of lawyers involved which means I get paid a lot more) so that will help for next month.

Here's to better times ahead, my friends. I love this site and the support I get. It's so hard not being able to talk about any of this mess in real life.