November 2007 Debt Report
Debts paid in full: 5
Amount paid in full: $2,659
October payments: $959.99
Total amount of payments made to date: $4,932
Southern Credit Recovery $452 - paid off!!!
This was an old hospital bill that cropped back up that I’d forgotten about. My son had to have stitches the night Hurricane Katrina started coming ashore. I drove him to the hospital and back home in tropical storm wind and rain and we spent 2 hours in the emergency room. That was one of the shortest visits we’ve had. It took 8 hours to get his prescriptions filled because so many people who were evacuating had their prescriptions transferred to pharmacies in Baton Rouge. The people didn’t do it, the pharmacies did it as they closed and evacuated themselves. SCR stopped sending letters for payment when their business was damaged during Hurricane Katrina. Their records are back up, so we got the bill.
Next debt in line: at&t advertising and publishing: $1,359
They’re tacking on a late fee of about $12/month for lack of on-time payment. I keep asking them to stop, but I’m pretty sure they won’t.
Debts left to pay off: 13
Current Debt Balance: $162,457
Balance change since last month: -$607 (increase)
Balance change since starting the plan (April 2007) plus the principal on new debts that have come up since: -$2,911 (increase)
Man! Those of you who know me may translate that into what I’d really say. I’ve paid nearly $5000 in payments, I’ve paid off 5 debts, and my balance keeps increasing instead of decreasing. At least the increase from last month to this month was much smaller. Okay, now I’ve got to continue taking one bite at a time and forget I’m eating an elephant.
Why was I able to do better this month? Lots of things happened for the better and Murphy stayed at bay so far this month. My main business made enough money to pay all its bills and the pro rata debt payments for the business. That money didn’t come out of my pocket this month, and at least some of it usually has, decreasing my income. I also doubled my tutoring income. This month I’m taking on 4 new students to increase it even more.
I’m going to restructure some of my online work to make it more profitable, more reliable and less costly. I’m dropping a couple of programs I signed up for and I’m going to move all my blogs to my own domains and hosting over the next 2-3 months. Then I’m going to work like a mad woman on one site at a time until it’s making at least $10/day. Then I’ll move on to the next one. Anything I can’t keep running or make profitable will be dropped, or left on Blogger and eventually deleted as I make the final decisions of their fates.
I hope and pray I can do as well next month so I can get rid of the at&t advertising bill. Still, the debts of $10,000 or less will likely end up being paid in full. Debts over $10,000 will likely have to be settled with each company for pennies on the dollar. That is unless I really start raking in some serious income from my main business and my online income. Tutoring is already doing well. December is a high-paying month because of mid-terms, but January is a slow month because of the semester break.
One bite at a time…
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Keep up the great work. You can do it.
Comment by Natural | November 12, 2007
Natural, thanks for the encouragement! I can always use it. It’s hard to keep from getting discouraged sometimes, especially when I see my balances increase month-to-month. Thanks again!
Comment by Sherri Joubert | November 13, 2007