Diva In Debt

January Budge Recap

2008-02-07T19:39:00.000-08:00

After closing out the month and reviewing my expenses against my budget, I discovered that I had an extra $470.91 in my budget that I did not spend. So I put it against my HELOC. Yea!

January 2008 Networth

2008-02-07T13:57:00.000-08:00

2008 Financial Goals

2008-01-01T11:31:00.000-08:00

I've established several goals for myself this year. My financial goals are:

1) Increase emergency fund to $2K
2) Save $600 for Christmas Fund
3) Save $1,500 for Vacation Fund
4) Pay down HELOC to $25,000 (Current balance is: $49,999)
5) Contribute max towards 401(k) to get match*
6) Max out IRA contribution ($5,000)
7) Live frugally!

My employer matches 100% on the first 4% I contribute. My goal is to save 10% of my salary in my 401(k), so I'm contributing 6% of my salary. With my company's 4% match I'm making my 10%.

With the $5,000 in my IRA I'm beating my goal of saving 12% of my salary.

Depending on how I'm progressing at the mid point toward my goal of paying down my HELOC, I may re-look at these goals.

2007 Year End Networth

2008-01-01T11:28:00.000-08:00

Expenses - 8/14/2007

2007-08-14T17:55:00.001-07:00

Today, my only expense was to get gas for my car. The price of gas has gone down to $2.969! Awesome! I dropped off dry cleaning which I'll pick up on Friday. I also went to WAMU to move money from my business and personal checking account to my HELOC. I moved $6,993.75 to my HELOC, but when I got to the office I checked my accounts and yes the money has been taken out of my accounts, but hasn't shown up in my HELOC, which makes me very nervous.

Agg! Anyway,

Gas - $28.02

Expenses 8/13

2007-08-13T19:43:00.000-07:00

Today I woke up in Dallas and had to catch a 6:00 am flight to Chicago. I got to the airport at 4:45 am and by 5:15 I was starving. The only thing open was McDonalds. Since I was gone for the weekend I had to buy lunch too. Then I ran to the pharmacy and grocery store. I shouldn't have to spend any money until the weekend.

So here are my expenses for today.
Breakfast/ McDonalds $5.17
cash / pop-tarts $0.85
Lunch/Dominicks $5.48
Prescription/ BC pill $20.00
Groceries/Jewel $28.78

Total for the day: $60.28

Finanical Goals for the Rest of the Year

2007-08-13T19:29:00.000-07:00

1) Save $1000 for emergency fund
2) Save $500 for Christmas fund
3) Save $1000 for rental emergency fund
4) Pay down HELOC by $15K; my HELOC is at $58,221.72
5) Set a budget and live to it.

Month End Report - January 2007

2007-01-31T22:55:00.000-08:00

I had hoped to be ending this month with a job in hand. This is not the case. I'm still unemployed. And my unemployment insurance payments ran out this month. I did however get paid for some freelance work that I completed in December. The work that I completed in January, will be realized in March. Bummer.

Overall, I received $1,992.43 in. I transfered $2,000 in from my HELOC and $60 from a savings account. I also received a credit for returned Arbonne merchandise of $200.43. Total in was $4261.84

However, my expenses are totaling $4,148.31 for a negative difference of $76.44. I'm not sure why that is.

My Net Worth as of 1/31/07 is $123,642.57. My total debt outside of car payments and mortgage is $34,036.71. Uggh!

Purpose - Live Debt Free

2007-01-07T20:49:00.000-08:00

The purpose of this blog is to document my efforts to live a debt-free life. Currently I am $32,260.11 in debt, due to being out of work and rolling my credit card debt into my HELOC. I will utilize this blog to public shame myself (not so publically as I’m so embarassed by this I can’t even begin to tell my friends) into saving money and paying down my debt.

More to come…