Debts Paid in Full Report:
- Debts paid in full: 5
- Amount paid in full: $2,659
Status Report:
- February 2008 payments: $360.86
- Total amount of payments made to date: $6,890
- Debts left to pay off: 12
- Next debt in line: at&t advertising and publishing: $429.53
Balance Report:
- Current Debt Balance: $165,905
- Balance change since last month: -$5,037 (increase)
- Balance change since starting the plan (April 2007 plus the principal on new debts that have come up since $156,869): -$9,036 (increase)
I checked all my math and the above numbers are correct. I’ll have to go back and correct my past numbers. They aren’t correct. This is what happens when things change nearly every month; changing interest rates, changing fees, sale of debts to other collectors, you name it.
Now that my business is closed, I am going to make a major change in what I report to include everything including my SBA loan and my HELOCs. I didn’t put those into the debt snowball because they aren’t bankrupt-able in my situation. I’ve talked to a bankruptcy attorney and I still don’t know if I will end up filing. I don’t know how this will end, but I’m going to fight it all the way down.
Here are my new debt snowball balances; the above balance of April 2007 plus the rest of my debts. Listed are original balance, current balance, total payments made since 4/2007 and payments this month. I won’t start comparing monthly balances until March 2008.
Status Report:
- February 2008 payments: $792.35
- Total amount of payments made to date: $10,787
- Debts left to pay off: 16
- Next debt in line: at&t advertising and publishing: $429.53
Balance Report:
- Original Debt Balance: $200,946
- Current Debt Balance: $199,338
- Balance change since last month: N/A
- Balance change since starting the plan (April 2007): $1,608 (decrease)
All debt reports will be based on these numbers starting in March 2008. This is everything except the first mortgage on my house.
My Vocation
I’ve finally figured out what my vocation is:
I help people fight for economic and social justice to better their lives by assisting them to remove those barriers to their success.
Right now, I do that by tutoring, home-schooling and writing about these issues on my blogs. This blog is a specific story about my own experience of economic justice. In the past I volunteered, had hurricane evacuees stay in my home, helped friends with child custody and other divorce issues, and assisted my son’s school with donations to pay for books and supplies.
I haven’t written about the general topics as much as about specific experiences. I plan to add more about the general topics as my blogs grow, now that I’ve articulated my vocation. It’s sufficiently broad that I can do many things for a living and still fulfill it. It’s clear to me now that working in the chemical industry did not fulfill my vocation, and is probably why I always had a TGIF attitude.
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February 10th, 2008
Posted by
joubess |
Career, Debt Reports |
no comments
Do you remember the Paul Simon song “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover”? I always liked this song because it cut through all the bull about doing what needs to be done, leave. No excuses.
I used the same mindset to make a list of 50 ways to leave your debt.
- Extra job
- New job
- New career
- Inheritance
- Receive a gift of money
- Win a law suit
- Tax refund
- Refund of other type
- Tutor students in subjects you’re good at
- Clean houses
- Mow yards
- Garage sale
- eBay sale
- Craft sale at flea markets
- Snack and drink sale along with a garage sale or craft sale
- Book sale
- Wash houses
- Paint houses
- Repair furniture
- Build furniture and sell it
- Make clothes and sell them
- Change oil in cars
- Detail cars
- Minor home repair
- Honey-do list service
- Write an ebook or report and give away for small donations
- Accept donations
- Sell a piece of land
- Sell a house
- Sell a car
- Sell all your electronic gadgets
- Sell your kid’s old video games
- Sell music CDs you don’t listen to any more
- Sell your vinyl record album collection
- Sell movies you don’t watch any more
- Sell your old camping equipment
- Sell a camper
- Sell your unused dishes
- Sell your unused small kitchen gadgets and appliances
- Sell old, unused furniture (not family heirlooms)
- Sell advertising on your blog
- Sell old luggage
- Sell old or unused software
- Sell old but useful computer (wipe your stuff off of it first)
- Sell your old printer
- Sell your old modem
- Sell you cassette tape deck
- Sell your cassette tapes if you don’t listen to them any more
- Sell a collectibles collection you no longer want
- Sell your used textbooks
Ok, that didn’t take very long. Let’s try another 50.
- Beg at the interstate off-ramp
- Play music in a downtown outdoor mall for donations
- Draw caricatures in a mall
- Be a clown part-time
- Become a wedding planner part-time
- Freelance at anything you can in your spare time
- Work at your child’s school if you’re the parent home with the children
- Open a home-school
- Open a day care
- Open a day camp
- Work at the YMCA as a camp counselor during the summer if you work a school schedule
- Write a book and sell it
- Throw boxes at UPS part-time
- Deliver pizza’s in a wealthy neighborhood
- Throw boxes at FedEx part-time
- Join the National Guard
- Join the Navy Reserve
- Join the Army Reserve
- Sell Avon
- Sell Mary Kay
- Sell Amway
- Bookkeeping for small businesses on the side
- Help small businesses with QuickBooks
- Assist an accountant part-time
- Work at a coffee shop
- Work at a bookstore
- Work at a casino (but never play there)
- Help people organize their homes
- Work for an elderly person doing small chores they can’t do anymore
- Shop for the elderly or a busy executive, doctor or lawyer
- Run other peoples’ errands
- Sharpen knives and tools
- Be a wait-person at a restaurant
- Shovel out horse stables
- Dog grooming
- Dog kenneling
- Veterinary assistant
- Nursing assistant
- Night commercial building custodian
- Security guard
- Work night shift at a hotel
- Night help desk for a business
- Answering service
- Work part-time at FedEx/Kinko’s during evening and night hours
- Make a cookbook out of all your recipes, self-publish and sell it
- Collect aluminum cans and turn them in for cash
- Trim trees and bushes
- Give an inexpensive seminar on a topic you’re proficient at and charge $10 - $20 per person or couple
- Bartender
- Declare bankruptcy (as a last resort and only if it will help you)
The second list took a lot longer. But there you have it, 50 + 50 ways to leave your debt.
Now stop reading blog posts and get busy! I’m quiting writing for today and getting busy with a few of the above that I can do right now. It’s time to take action!
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February 6th, 2008
Posted by
joubess |
Resources |
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I check my blog traffic numbers and sources at the end of each month and put them into a spreadsheet for tracking. Traffic to this blog is growing substantially month-over-month, and I’m very happy about that. I hope those who read it learn from my mistakes and my journey.
When I checked traffic sources at the end of January 2008, it came to my attention that the majority of traffic to this blog by a wide margin is from the We Need To Be Debt Free blog.
I wanted to write a post to say thank you for putting my blog into your blogroll and for putting my blog onto the blogosphere!
I’m about to add a set of links to other blogs on getting debt free on this blog. I am still building it after moving it from Blogger.com.
Thank you, Laura and JW,
Sherri
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February 4th, 2008
Posted by
joubess |
General |
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