Money is My BFF

May may not be so good..

2009-05-16T12:16:00.000-07:00

My definition of "not good" is not bad. I won't be saving every penny that comes my way, but I won't be able to make good payments to my CC debt (hey my initials are C.C. and I am in CC debt, dur I'm silly). I'll definitely try, but this month with Mother's Day and graduation season, I'm having to spend my money elsewhere.

Only 2 graduations this month and I can check off one already (went yesterday). I have another one coming up in a week and this one I have to travel for. So I had to spend some dough on a plane ticket, hotel, food, graduation gift, and will probably end up spending more than I should on flowers since I won't know the area as well and can't bargain shop since I won't have a car. Oh PLUS, I will probably end up hanging out in San Francisco and getting coffee and such. I don't have to, but surely I will. When you're in SF it's hard not to indulge.

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Did you guys know that Chase is letting customers off in paying off their debt for the month of May? They are so nice, right? NOT.

So while they are letting you off for the month, they will still collect interest on your balance. I suggest logging onto your Chase account and making some sort of payment to offset next month's APR. So for those who saw a $0 minimum payment and was surprised, go back and show them who's boss.

It's Going Down, Down, DOWN!

2009-05-12T01:09:00.000-07:00

Today I received an email from Etrade kindly letting me know that the APY for my savings account is now.....

0.95%

Yes. Less than 1%. Might as well put all my money underneath my mattress. Sad times.

They also kindly let me know that it's still 5x the national average. Really? REALLY?

My Crazy Checkbook!

2009-05-11T12:49:00.000-07:00

I have been so tired lately and haven't found ANY time to do the things I enjoy like watch my prerecorded TV, read my books, people-watch while having brunch, and balancing my checkbook.

I use to balance my checkbook daily and past few weeks, I did it every other day or even every 3 days. And boy, oh boy, that really screwed me up. I believe the reason why I balance it every day is because if I didn't, I would lose my receipts.. So became the habit of me being obsessed over my checking account reconciliation.

This weekend, I decided to see if my total matched up the available balance on my checking account. And usually when I do this, it's correct. But this time, the numbers DID NOT ADD UP!!! It was off by $13 and I was going to find out why. I went back months and months and months, chewed on my pen, yanked my hair out, became one with all my past monthly statements, and still I could NOT FIGURE IT OUT. I was so angry. I ended up ripping out last month's transactions in my balancing checkbook notebook and started all over.

Do you know how long it takes to write out each and every transaction over? It took about one hour and afterwards, my poor wrist.. it was in pain. So after stressing over my checkbook for 3 hours, it is correct and up-to-date. I can breathe much easier now.

So moral of the week, RECONCILE EVERY DAY THERE'S A REASON WHY YOU DO THIS. DO IT EVEN IF YOU'RE TIRED (you'll save yourself one stressful weekend)

And seriously I was stressed out because of it..

My April Review

2009-05-06T19:22:00.000-07:00

My April was not so good. My debt didn't go down as much. I had to take care of my car and I didn't eBay much. I don't know if I have anything of value to sell (that I can let go of) anymore. Maybe I should just try putting any knick-knacks up and see if I can make a buck or two. My debt went down by a little over $200 last month. It makes me sad. Very sad.

Another big move I made was I did a balance transfer. I had some options from Chase CC (one that has been paid off) with some great options. I am dumb. I should have written down my offer on a piece of paper!! I did this last time. I'll have to call them up and see what it was. But it was something like 4.99% APR until June 2011 or something. I only moved $500. I don't know why. All I knew I didn't have much time to make my decision (offer was ending in less than an hour) and since the APR on my Nordstrom's card was a whopping 21.5%, I decided to leave $117 in there (don't ask) and move the rest. I must remember to research and think carefully next time and not make such an abrupt decision. In the back of my head, I was thinking I will pay minimum + $15 on this card and concentrate on the other cards with bigger balance... Am I weird? I think I need to do more research..

I ate out too much in April. It's so hard. I'm so accustomed to dining out that it has become second nature. My roommate and I have decided to watch what we eat and we're thinking this will keep us from eating out as much. I sure hope it works. It'll be good for my health and wallet.

Free Kentucky Grilled Chicken Coupon

2009-05-05T23:07:00.000-07:00

Oprah is giving me a free dinner tonight. Hurry up and check out Oprah's homepage to get your coupon for a free meal @ KFC. You get yourself 2 grilled chicken, 2 sides, and a biscuit. That's a great offer!! Go now before it's too late! (Coupon will be up for 24 hours from Oprah's show air).

April Debt Update

2009-04-28T01:20:00.000-07:00

I just updated my debt sidebar & debt breakdown.

Since I didn't do a lot of ebaying this month, my debt payment wasn't quite as high as last month. I wish I just had more extra income to throw at my debt..

I am happy it's under $7,000. I think once it reaches $5,000, I might just give myself a party. Just kidding.

I've been really tired lately. I haven't been spending as much time online as I've done. I think it's due to this psycho weather. It was nice and breezy, then it got insanely hot, and now it's chilly! Chilly to the point where I'm wearing socks to sleep. My body is not use to this weird weather pattern and my body just seems to stay still.

Anyways, $6,837.76 is good. It's $2,800 lesser than what I started with. Isn't it funny how debt is similar to weight. So much easier to rack up money on your credit card than paying it down.. Easier to gain weight than lose it. Oh life, you crack me up.

Whenever I read other PF blogs I get inspired, so it's time to get inspired. And I apologize for my lack of posting. Nothing seems worthy to blog these days. I need the weather pattern to stay still so I can become my silly, jumpy ole self again.

A Little Bit of This & A Little Bit of That

2009-04-20T23:15:00.000-07:00

I don't have anything to say. I guess I can update my debt, but I am way too hot to start moving my arm towards the mouse and clicking all my folders to see what the total is. I don't know where everyone is from, but did you know California is having its heat wave a bit early? Did you know that as a Californian living in California for the past 24 years of my life, I am still not comfortable with sweltering heat? My ideal temperature is mid-70's to mid-80's. Right now, on a Monday evening (specifically 8: 19 PM), it is 90 degrees. Uhmm, that's summer temperature. It should be mid-70's. Am I complaining? Yes? At least it's cool inside with central a/c, but the minute I step outside or think about what tomorrow* will be like, my heart skips in a beat (in a bad way).

Please be prepared I will be jumping from topic to topic because my mind can't think straight from the heat.

I read on Consumerist that a Tennessee couple took a $5,000 loan from CashCall and was charged a 59% interest rate. Now they are in a giant hole, a $20,830 hole. And if you read the article, you can safely assume that this couple are not brainy surgeon types. I always believe it's the persons fault for charging this or taking out loans on that. I take full responsibilities for my dumb debt. I knew when I was signing up for a credit card that although they adverised an APR of 9.99%, the back of the sheet said up to 19.99%. And luckily (or not), I got the mid APR. I knew all that in the back of my head even though I assumed the best. But this story is insane. 59% interest? That's robbery. It sounds like CashCall found an opportunity to bank on this poor, poor couple. The couple has already paid back the principal of the loan and I think CashCall should apologize to them and pay for their literacy program. (link)

My debt is just under $7,000. I am still too lazy to update. But I just wanted to share that with you all.

I need to find more frugral activities to do after work. One that I think I will take up is watching American Idol. I've heard so much about this Adam Lambert guy and how he is the next American Idol. I'm thinking $2 buck chuck from Trader Joe's and some buttery cracker for 2 nights a row (wait, that's how American Idol is, right?) will save me some money. By the way, when is American Idol on?

*All the weathermen is saying that by Wednesday, our weather will be back to its normal self. I hope they are right.

My Embarassing Coupon Story

2009-04-14T20:03:00.000-07:00

Warning: this post mentions a girly product.

Yesterday after work I stopped by CVS to buy some necessary girly product (tampons & pads). I usually don't buy pads, but I had this awesome coupon from Always for 1 free 18 count Always Infinity pads!!! So I gather my items go up to the cashier and she rings it up and I hand her my coupons. Beep, beep, cashier takes a look at my free coupon. She tells me it's "buy one, get one free," I nicely tell her it doesn't mention ANYWHERE that it's BOGO free. She repeats herself as if I'm deaf and I grab the coupon and read to her that it says 1 free 18 count Always Infinity Pads!! The line is starting to get long. She calls a manager or something and hands her the coupon. The manager reads the coupon OUT LOUD (by this time I'm digging myself a hole to hide), and then my cashier grabs the box of pads and lifts it up in the sky to confirm with the manager that this is it. Oh boy!! The things you have to do to get a box of free pads. In the end, I walked away paying $8 for pads, tampons, and cotton pads for my face. The embarassment was worth it. My only hope now is that cashiers learn to comprehend coupon wording to not embarass any other girls out there looking for free pads or tampons....

BTW, check out Always Infinity pads (no sponsors here). I'm not a pad fan, but these pads are awesome. Get a free sample here. I can't guarantee you'll get a free 18ct. pad coupon, but it's worth a try. I want to experience the embarassment too, give me those samples!

Oh Lordy Lordy.. I'm Back!!

2009-04-12T07:28:00.000-07:00

Oh Lordy! My computer had a malfunction and was in the hospital for couple of days. Then I became quite lazy and decided to let it sit for awhile before I plug in everything. That's what's been happening to me.

Some files were lost :( so I will have to do my spreadsheet of debt all over again.

For the past week, I haven't used the internet at home a lot and boy did it feel good. I'm going to catch up on my PF bloggers and will be back for normal broadcasting in a couple of days.

P.S. Happy Easter!

I Closed An Account

2009-04-01T00:40:00.000-07:00

Today I finally made time to call one of my credit card companies to close a card. I hate that I have so many open lines of credit. So with that and knowing that this might decrease my FICO score, I closed CC#5. CC#5 was paid off sometime between November and December 2008. I believe I opened up a new card that had a 0% balance transfer and used that to pay it off. CC#5 had a crazy APR (something like 30%) because I was late on a payment (late 1 week; OOPS. I was in the middle of moving).

I want to close another card as well, CC#7. It's a Macy's card that has been paid off. I still get calls from an outsourced collection company regarding this card. Uhh, hello it's paid off. I don't know what when on with my information being turned to a collection's agency, but I owe Macy's a BIG FAT $0 and they are still calling me. Sometimes I pick up their call and say "hello" and then silence and let them talk their butt off while I put my phone down at work. Other times I just pick up and hang up. And I think they are getting sick of me because before they use to call 7x a day. Now they call 2x a day.

Anyways, yeah I just want to close all my cards eventually. When I have $0 debt, I hope to have 1 credit card with a really good rewards program that I will take advantage of. I will pay my balance off on a bimonthly basis or whatever is smart. Until then, I guess I have to outweight the good and the bad of canceling an account..