Every Penny Counts!

My Credit Card balance is under $12K! I know it's a little early in the month and I shouldn't talk until the interest is posted, but I think it's great! I'm going to pay 1K of principle every month if it kills me. I need this cc debt gone in a year! I picked up eight hours every Saturday in September and October at the second job, and I'm going to try to live off that for all my expenses that don't come in the mail! I also going to try to pick up more hours and put the extra right to the debt. Woohoo!

Also, I was thinking about my $700 in unusual expenses, and realized that if I can have $700 in unusual expenses, maybe I shouldn't have such a small emergency fund. A big chunk of this ($400) is for a class I want to take for career development. In my opinion, it's a must, and the regular cost is $4000, but my work is paying 90%. It's a great deal, but $400 is alot of money for me right now. The other half is the balance on some furniture that I purchased shortly after moving into my apartment. It's less than $300, but I figure the class will have some extra expenses for course packets and such. But anyway, back the topic of emergency funds. I think maybe I should try paying a little over a thousand toward credit cards (1K plus the accumulated interest) each month. Then I'll see how much is left over to put towards the EF, and maybe make a new goal of $1-1.5K.

I was really hoping I could put some money towards a Roth IRA this year, but now I'm not sure that it will happen. I think the credit cards are more important. I am contributing 5% of pre-tax income to a 401(k), so at least I'm doing something.