Wednesday, January 21, 2009

The Dread Credit Card Bill January

Mmmm. Love this post about credit card debt.

Speaking of.... November & December were a little hard on the budget here at The 'Stead.

My "nose job" bill finally came through insurance and cost me more than I thought. Plus Christmas. Plus some serious work on the pickup. Plus another ton of pellets to heat our house. Oh and those omigod-cold temps are going to ding us when the (electric) heat bill arrives.

Well, it's officially taken care of (carrying a credit card balance makes me break out in hives... seriously....) but we made a conscious effort to cut back in January. Unfortunately, the billing cycle is mid-month to mid-month so I have half of December on this bill... but we shopped early so it isn't as bad as it could be... right? Sooth me here.

I'm not going to lie.... I'm not back in the $500/month credit card bills of my singleton days.

But if the bill is around $1500 I'm happy. Andy has cut back considerably on his "daily Bob's" purchases.... going from almost $200/month to almost nothing the last few months. I still spend a lot at Costco but it is our primary grocery source and I've cut out impulse buys almost entirely. We have a big line item for fuel. That's the problem with living in BFE.

We budget $40/each for cash each month. I mostly save mine for bigger purchases... like a dvd recorder or a new recliner. And I pay my library fines. And buy girl scout cookies. And I pay the kids the occasional bribe. This weekend it was a dollar each to help me clean up the dog poo in the yard. They scanned and located the piles and I picked them up. If they were too frozen to scoop they marked them with a croquet marker and I came back for them later that afternoon. It is a glamorous life I lead, isn't it?

Ok, so I know some of you are still gasping at the $1500/month credit card bill.... let me explain. I'm not buying myself a new wardrobe every month or anything. I have a Costco cash-back card and I try to put EVERYTHING on it. Fuel. Groceries. Car repairs. Doctor bills. Home phone. Cell phones. Internet. Netflix. I haven't figured out how to put the electric bill on it yet.... wish I could. Pellets are up to $300/ton and we use about 3 tons per winter.... on the card.

I know. I know. Using a card instead of cash isn't very "Dave Ramsey" of me, is it? But I haven't taken his course and I haven't committed to saving all that money over the convenience of plastic.... maybe someday but not today. For today I just bury my head and say "cash back, cash back" instead of listening to Dave's philosophy...

What about you?

4 comments:

Elle said...

OMG. I'd cream myself with joy if our credit card bill was $1500.

Anonymous said...

We just started using Microsoft Money to keep track of our budget...and my husband is almost creepily excited about it. He made a pie chart of our expenses...the largest piece of pie (like 3/4s) was "cows." That's where our money goes...big black piles of future burger.
We don't own credit cards, and our debt is pretty standard--student loans, mortgage, farm loan, and one of 3 vehciles). The problem usually lies within my impulse buying--who can resist the 25% off of Ariats at Murdochs????
And could you please get motivated about painting, so I could get motivated from your motivation??? I desperately need to paint.

Homestead said...

Elle-

You also have twice as many children to feed, clothe, educate and entertain.... you might have to do an excel spreadsheet to calculate it....

SP- Do you like microsoft money? I was just trying to decide if I should update my Quicken to 2009 and get a free copy of "will maker" as a bonus.

kae said...

We too pay every expense we can on plastic....American Express for the same reason. I would jump with joy for $1500/month but the last two months have included Christmas so I have high hopes for January. We're too tired to go do anything and I have my fingers crossed for something around $2000.