Debt Reduction 101

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One of the things that I liked – and continue to miss – about the world of journalism was the expectation that on a daily or weekly basis, I was paid to tell stories. Oh yes, these were stories that were rooted in fact and some of them weren’t very compelling (i.e. – explaining school tax levies? Thank God for flow charts and graphics.). But every once in awhile, I got to talk to someone pretty nifty and ask them a series of questions that I would then turn into a narrative of about 18 to 20 column inches. I talked to a young man who was about to spend the next 15 years in prison for a drunken driving accident. I talked to the mother of a woman who had been shot and killed during a random act of violence at a college campus. I’ve talked to governors, senators, mayors, teachers and young kids.

Some people were very good at conveying their message to me (ahem … politicians?), while some people stumbled over their words. And I’ve always wondered – if I was interviewed by a reporter – how would I fare?

Well friends, I found out on Friday how I’d fare if I was interviewed by a reporter. I was interviewed by a Japanese newspaper about my debt journey and I’ll be honest. I think that the word to describe my performance? Rambling. The reporter had some great questions, I had some mediocre answers that were punctuated by a couple of “ums” and “ahs.” But the gist of the interview was this: How did you get into debt? How are you getting out of debt and do I think that the American perception on spending has changed due to the crappy economy? (Crappy wasn’t the word used by the reporter – that’s my editorial privilege coming out. )

Out of all the questions asked yesterday, one of the ones that stick out for me was what was I charging that got me to my $10,000 hole? And you know what? It’s rather sad that after paying down the majority of my credit card debt, I really don’t have a lot to show for it. My credit card spending went toward clothing, gas and groceries. The only real vacation I ever went on was paid with cash. Otherwise, I don’t have a big screen TV. I have a ton of CDs that I listen to on occasion and some DVDs that are now gathering dust. Everything else that I bought are things that I used to have. Whether it was something perishable or temporary like gas or groceries, those are gone and as for the clothes? Most of them I’ve gotten rid of during my moves.

I don’t know – I’m glad that I’m 30 years old and only squandered about 10 years of my financial life. Ten years is still too long to be an idiot, but I’m glad to be on the right track.

I’ll keep you all posted as to when the article comes out. Incidentally, it’s in Japanese so they could write that I’m the “son of a motherless goat” and I wouldn’t know any better, but still … it’s cool to be on the other side of the pen.

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It’s no secret – just ask my mom or my dad who put up living with me for 18+ years. Ask any of my college roommates, ask my beloved husband … my name is Michelle and I have a problem – I’m a pack rat.

First and foremost, there’s the college papers that I hated writing and probably would never read again. So why are they in a box in my closet? Then there’s the tiny pair of patent leather ballet shoes that I wore when I was five years old. Not sure what in the name of nostalgia is making me keep those bad boys. How about the years worth of magazine recipes that I’ve been clipping? At this point in my life, there is no way that I’m ever going to be able to make all of the recipes I’ve amassed, even if I cooked something new everyday for the rest of my life.

Ill-fitting clothes, shoes that are worn past their wear, books that have been stacked to give away to people. Somehow I have the greatest intentions to get rid of all of this crap, yet it stays in my house. Is there anyone else out there who has this problem?

Well – hubby and I had a talk the other day and we’ve made a pact that we’re going to go through our closets and get rid of the stuff that we no longer wear, that no longer fits, etc. Now the frugal thing to do is to have a garage sale or maybe try to sell some stuff on eBay, but I don’t know that I have the time or the patience to organize either activity. So I’m thinking about just shipping all this crap off to the Salvation Army, Goodwill or Savers to get rid of. Anyone have any advice?

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OK – I’m going to be honest. I like to think that I’m an optimist, but the older I get, the more I think I’m becoming a pessimist. I’m not all and out grouchy yet (and I emphasize the “yet.”) But there are definitely days that my mantra of “this is going to be a good day” more turns into a begging conversation with God to “make this a good day, pleeeeze?” that’s coupled with a sickening pit in my stomach because I don’t want to walk from my car to my office.

That statement just tells me that I need to find another job, but seriously … I do believe that the only person who can control their happiness is the same person that’s wearing their underwear. And usually – that’s going to be you. Unless … well, I’m just going to leave that.

For some odd reason, I received a few sample magazines from one of Martha Stewart’s new publications “Whole Living: body + soul.” I’m finally catching up on some back issues that have been piling up and came across some reader input on how to live positively. Because I’m not too keen yet on finding a new job, I’m going to see how I can incorporate some of these tricks and share a couple other ones that I’ve picked up along the way.

1) Mantras. I already mentioned that I sit in my car and reassure myself that “this is going to be a good day.” I’ve also started training for a 5K along with my sister-in-law and I’ve been finding that mantras are also very useful when one is sweating their arse off on the treadmill. Here’s the scenario – we’re doing a “couch to 5K” program and it involves three 20 minute workouts per week. Let me be blunt – I’m in pretty poor shape right now and even the idea of altering jogging with walking shoots fear directly into my kneecaps. But I’ll be honest – I’m probably in better shape than I give myself credit for and I’m no chicken. I try to put the fear of embarrassing myself on the treadmill high upon a mental shelf and when I think I want to quit, I have a little phrase I like to say to myself. “My legs feel fabulous.” I think it’s the word “fabulous,” but whatever it is – I keep going.
2) Rituals. I learned this one from a family of six whom I adore very greatly and had the opportunity to travel with when I was in college. Dick and Marian have four kids – three of whom are triplets. We traveled to Malta when I was a junior in college – their oldest son was probably 9 and I think the triplets were six. Our friendship remained strong during my senior year of college and even after I graduated, I still got invited to share supper with them. And they had a ritual that they even made guests participate in – right before we all dug in, we had to go around the table and share our worst and best parts of the day. Worst came first and then it was redeemed by the best part. It was a very cool element that I hope my husband and I use when we have kids. It opened the lines of communication and was a great way to start a meal.
3) 3:1 Ratio. This one came from the magazine that I’m reading and bless this person for pulling it off. If this person is confronted with something that went wrong, she’d immediately counter it with three good things. So say you’re driving to work and your tire goes flat. Well, it’s a good thing it’s not raining. See?
4) Writing down the simple pleasures. Again – from the magazine and one that I think I’m going to incorporate. This reader has a journal and each day she records five things that she is grateful for each day. This has had a marked improvement on her attitude.
5) Treat others the way you want to be treated. First and foremost – I’m pretty biased because I think my city has some of the best grocery stores in town, but I love the sense of customer service that my local Hyvee has instilled in their coworkers. They are all uber-friendly, they are so darn polite and even if they don’t feel like smiling at you, they still do. It makes it easy for me to give them a heartfelt thanks when I’m strolling through the checkout, but at the end of the day – people should always be polite to the people they encounter. All it takes is a returned smile to turn a crappy day into a positive experience.

So what does this have to do with debt reduction? Not a whole lot. Thinking positive probably won’t make me rich, but it makes the journey all the better.

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My husband and I were friends long before we got married, so instead of the awkward dating period, we just hung out for about 10 years before we decided that being drinking buddies had transitioned to something more meaningful.

So now I’m into date night. But I have to be honest – there is nothing more frustrating to me than going to a restaurant, spending an outlandish amount of money and be served subpar food. Because that’s when my hubby smiles at me, tells me that he loves my cooking and why should we waste money when I could make something better in the comfort of our own home? (And I admit that he has a point and he does dishes, so I can’t complain that the man loves my cooking.)

So what are some good, cheap ideas for date night? I got this list of 20 dates under $20 from The Nest, this is a website that’s geared towards newlyweds.

As much as this website is geared towards making me want to buy stuff, they have some really good ideas that are broken up by category (i.e. – sporty dates, at-home dates, etc.) and range from cheap ($) to around $20 ($$$).

Here are some of the dates I look forward to having this summer with my hubby.

1) Picnic in the Park – One of the best gifts I got for a wedding shower was from my cousin Cheryl, who bought me the loveliest picnic basket and filled it with all of the things needed for a successful picnic (i.e. – plastic plates, plastic glasses, silverware, water guns, etc.) One of these first weekends, I’m going to take hubby on a picnic. Pack up some good crusty bread, grab one of the multiple bottles of wine that we received as a wedding gift, make a pasta salad and enjoy the great outdoors. And hopefully no ants.

2) Support your local baseball team – I lived in Wisconsin for a time and had the fortune of moving there right after the Brewers built their new stadium. I went to several games with my friends and even the cheap seats were good seats. I’m not as fortunate in the great state of Minnesota – yes, they have cheap seats, but it’s a pain in the arse to find parking in Minneapolis, so I’m getting my outdoor baseball fix closer to home. Our town has a summer collegiate baseball team and for $5 a ticket, my hubby can “take me out to the ballgame.”

It’s odd – I’m not a huge baseball fan, but I do love going to live baseball games. Just one caveat – a cheap date can turn spendy in a hurry if you’re hitting the concession stands.

3) Become one with nature. I’ll be honest, after going to my favorite park last weekend and getting my butt kicked by breathlessness, I don’t know if I’ll be bringing my hubby hiking with me until I’m back to my fighting shape, but many counties have wonderful resources when it comes to parks and hiking trails. Just avoid the very scary Port-A-Potty at the Cannon River Wilderness Area in Rice County, Minnesota. It looks like someone might have hit it with a truck and although the door locks, there’s enough of a crack to show other park goers Paris and France. Not that I’m talking from experience or anything.

4) Town festivals/fairs – I’m lucky – our town has an event called “Thursdays on First” where they shut down parts of downtown and have free music, food vendors and local artists displaying their works.

I tapped hubby to get a couple ideas – here’s what he came up with:

- Board games (I think he mentioned this so I am compelled to note that he’s kicked my butt multiple times at Scrabble.)
- Find a planetarium
- Coffee at a bookstore

Finally – the best date I’ve been on in awhile was a recent movie night that my husband orchestrated. We had a gift certificate to one of our favorite restaurants (a wedding gift from one of his co-workers), so we went and had burgers and then watched “Strange Brew.” I had never watched that movie in my life and hubby considered that a travesty. The next movie night is my turn – and it’s either “Sense and Sensibility” or “Twilight.” All is fair on date night.

What’s your favorite cheap date night?

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Thanks for the comments about garage-saling. The best one I got from Twitter was a cast iron skillet for $2.

I can remember when I decided to enter my Debt Management Program (DMP). According to my program’s records, I would have started my program in July 2006 (I joined the day after Independence Day – yes, I see the irony) with over $10,000 in credit card debt.

I had maxed out credit cards, late charges that kept multiplying and phone calls to my cell phone, my home phone and on one embarrassing occassion – a voice mail to my old employer. (That was a fun email to receive: “Uh, Michelle – there was a message on my phone today for you from this credit card company. I thought you’d probably want to know.”)

I remember asking my buddy Deb who was working in the financial industry if she had heard anything about Debt Management Plans, what it would do (to my already suffering) credit score and if she thought it was a good idea. And sorry Deb, I don’t remember what you said but I know that I had a certain feeling of desperation – you know the kind, when you get a letter from the credit card company that demands immediate payment on your $6,000 outstanding balance and there’s no negotiation because you’ve already missed a payment (or two), but there’s also no way in hell that you can scratch up said $6,000.

So in with the Debt Management Plan. I blogged about that in depth a bit when I first started this blog – you can find that old piece here.

So my three-year anniversary’s coming up with my DMP and although I’m very happy with the progress I’ve made, I’ll be honest with you – I’m a little embarrassed that it’s taken me so long to get to my $3,500 mark, because I really didn’t start working in earnest towards reducing my debt until my husband and I bought the house and started living together. And I remember my thought process – here was my (then) boyfriend of the perfect credit score and what would happen to said credit score when we got hitched? It was bad enough that he had no debt whatsoever, what would happen when our credit histories merged?

It was enough to really shock me into reality. It wasn’t enough to let my DMP pay off my debt at a snail’s pace – I needed to bring my A game to the challenge and try to pay off my debt before we got hitched.

Well, as all of you dear readers know, I didn’t get that far, but I’m getting closer. Right now I have about $3,500 in debt. With the help and patience of my awesome husband, I’ve been able to pour the majority of my income to my debt and my goal is to be (bad) debt-free by the end of the year. After that, my money will be focused towards the Rattling Death Trap (RDT) and my college loan. And home repairs/upgrades. And hopefully future kids.

I don’t believe in regrets, but I have to be honest as I am heading into one more summer where I’m spending weekends at a desk job instead of fishing, I do wish that I would have started this journey sooner rather than later. But it will be done sooner rather than later, so that’s the focus that I need.

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Garage sales and finding good deals are in my blood – my grandpa was an auctioneer, my parents are rabid when it comes to garage sales and I’ve always enjoyed finding nifty things for less than I would buy them in a store.

One of the unfortunate things about working on weekend mornings is that I’ve lost about two years worth of Saturday morning garage sales, but I’m still remembering the good times – the wooden quilt rack that I bought for $2, the purple juice glasses that I found at a garage sale in my old college town, the huge painting that I found for $1 that looked like a Tuscan landscape and made it through three moves with me until it was retired.

Not that everything I have found has been useless “stuff.” I’ve been lucky a few times for clothing and cooking stuff. I also like buying books when I’m at garage sales.

So what about the rest of you? What’s your best garage sale finds?

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Well, my no-spend month is over, although I’ll be honest – I think I learned a greater appreciation of what makes me spend (or not) than actually being successful at not spending money. Another upside of my experiment is that my pantry is a wee bit more manageable now since the moratorium on grocery shopping.

In other news, my snowball is continuing to roll. I paid off the one credit card last week and will have enough money to pay off a clinic bill (gotta love what the insurance doesn’t pay for) and half of my Care Credit card which is what I used to charge my wisdom teeth extraction.

I hope that all of you are well! I’m looking forward to a productive month … who knows what else will get paid off?

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How ironic that I hit “publish” on my blog and switch over to MSN to read this article from Jillian Michaels.

This article is to motivate people to lose weight, but when I think about my job situation, my aspiration to be a novelist and clawing my way out of the rest of my debt – this is really darn timely.

I’d let Jillian Michaels kick my arse any day of the week.

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My name is Michelle and I have a problem. I think I hate my job.

Well, wait a second – first and foremost, hate is a strong word. And secondly – I don’t think that I hate my job, I know that I’ve been pretty displeased with it for awhile. Work’s been reminding me of that bully from the playground. I take a beating and sulk, seem to forge a tenuous peace with said bully where I “share” my chocolate milk and then BOOM! I get sucker-punched again.

Did any of you ever get bullied when you were a kid? Remember how you would beg and plead with your folks to let you stay home from school? There was no excuse that was too feeble to try and escape what would be a sinister fate.

And that’s how I feel on the weekdays when it’s time to get out of bed. And I don’t whine and plead – I just stay in bed as long as humanly possible so I don’t have to face the day. (OK – that’s sounding rather pathetic …)

Last night the hubby and I had one of those wonderful late night talks where we just laid in bed and chatted without regard to the time. Unfortunately, I was grousing about work. But somewhere in the midst of griping, I was able to verbalize exactly what was wrong and what has been making me unhappy about my job.

Ready? Drum roll?

I don’t feel appreciated at work.

Some of you are probably nodding your heads as you read this – I might even get an “amen sister!” in your mental thoughts. And some of you probably echo this other thought that I have in my head – “So what? A lot of people don’t feel appreciated in their jobs, so suck it up and be thankful that you even HAVE a job.”

And maybe my biggest problem is that the feelings of inadequacy that I have with my full-time job split me into two parts. The first part of me is kind of meek, eager to please, thankful that I have this job in this economy and is willing to put up with however much shit I need to take to keep my job.

Well – then there’s my alter ego who has a healthy sense of ego. This is the swashbuckling ex-journalist who stared down danger, stood in the midst of storms to watch funnel clouds roll into small towns and was just a really big idiot most of the time. (At this point, my faithful readers have seen pictures of me – so hopefully you’re laughing at the idea that I was a swashbuckling ANYTHING. )

The ex-journalist is still chafing over being admonished the other day for some snafu that was made after I arranged some travel plans. The ex-journalist is tired of going into my vice president’s office and trying to have conversations with said VP only to have him staring at a computer screen and barely acknowledging my presence.

The ex-journalist chafes at being an administrative assistant but recognizes that newspapers are really going into the shitter, so it’s probably good she got out while the going was good.

The ex-journalist is ready to quit. But the ex-journalist is trumped by the new wife who still has over $3,000 in credit card debt and the health insurance in the family. The new wife also has a healthy sense of responsibility and tries to remember that as much as I idealize my old life as a journalist, there were plenty of crappy things that happened while I was doing that as well.

What am I going to do?

Here’s where you can think I’m totally mental … when I left journalism, one reason that I left was to try and finish a novel that I was working on, hence fueling the cliche that every journalist has an unfinished draft of the “Great American Novel” in their bottom desk drawer. The other reason was that I loved my future hubby and wanted to move closer to him and convince him that I was the woman he was going to marry. (And ha honey! I was right … now to finish that novel.)

One of the reasons I don’t want to leave my current job is that I’ve finally started writing again and I don’t want to jinx the muse. Because as frustrated as I get with work, I know the precise amount of mental energy I need to exude to do my job competently. The rest of my energy, I put toward my life – my marriage, the novel, etc. I’m afraid that if I get another job, it will derail my tenuous progress because the energy will shift.

Another reason to not leave my current job – right now I have the health insurance in the family and will continue to carry said insurance until my husband is hired permanently. I don’t care how crappy the insurance is – it represents a buffer between responsibility and financial disaster if something should happen to hubby or I if we did not have the insurance.

So now that I’ve whined to all of you, what am I going to do about my current conundrum? I’d like to say that I don’t know what I’m going to do. But I’ve given this enough thought that I think I know exactly what I’m going to do.

I’m going to stick it out as long as I can. I’m doing this because I want to finish my book. I’m doing this because I have quit too many jobs (three newspaper jobs, one entire career) in the past nine years since I left college and I think that I have a tendency to bail when maybe I should stick things out.

But I’m not an idiot – I’ve recognized that I need to get myself out and network with other folks in case the time comes where I should find another job. When I worked in newspapers, I knew a lot of different people and had options. I feel like I’ve been out of circulation for the past three years. I’m thinking about joining a networking association for young professionals and I’m going to polish up my resume.

Aside from my crazy alter ego and my pie-in-the-sky dream to be a successfully published author, I’m sure I’m not the only one out there in this situation … what do the rest of you do?

(PS – Sorry this is long-winded. I think I have about a dozen drafts of this particular thought process and I’ve been holding some of my angst in for awhile. )

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ughalaual;alalalalal … OK – how is that jibberish to explain my uncontainable excitement. As soon as I got home, there was a piece of mail waiting for me.

“Oh hello, nice little Citi Card statement, it is good to see you today.” Now of course I didn’t say that, but how fortuitous that on the day that I intend to pay off a credit card, that particular statement shows up in the mail? So I made a phone call and I owed $402 on the remaining balance of said card. I ran downstairs to my Internet, clicked on my bill pay and It. Is. DONE.

Oh my friends … I used to get a rush from shopping. I used to find comfort in trying to be trendy and although some of my days are pretty darn mediocre and some days make me wish that I was still a shopping addict, I have to tell you – this is a wonderfully fine day. My total debt load? I’m under the $4,000 mark at $3,900 according to my spreadsheet (that still needs to be updated, so I could be lower than that – but I’ll take $3,900 any day of the week.)

As I’ve said in the past – I’ve utilized CareOne and their debt management program (DMP). I’m not going to sound like a commercial for them because my DMP works for me – but I’ve appreciated their assistance over the time that I’ve been trying (sometimes not so wholeheartedly) to get out of the HUGE hole that I dug for myself. According to their website, when I started paying off my Citi Card, I owed $1,075 and some change on that card.

When I started this journey in July 2006 I had $11,000 worth of debt. When I started blogging with all of you, I had about $5,500. So OK – I’m still taking the extraordinarily slow road to pay off my debt, but man – life is good today.