Debt Report Mar 2008
Debts Paid in Full:
- Debts paid in full: 6
- Amount paid in full: $4,404
Status Report:
- March 2008 payments: $1,072.22
- Total amount of payments made to date: $11,859
- Debts left to pay off: 15
- Next debt in line: Northland Group - Capital One Visa $3,549.53 (to get the balance to go down on this one I’ll need to come up with $35/month)
Balance Report:
- Original Debt Balance: $200,946
- Current Debt Balance: $200,001
- Balance change since last month: $663 (increase)
- Balance change since starting the plan (April 2007): $945 (decrease)
Income and Spending
I have a total of $1,862.39 income this month to pay for everything. This isn’t enough money to pay the essentials of food, utilities, gas in the car, the first mortgage on the house, and essential medical care (essential in that without it I won’t be making any money at all). Those total costs are $2,294.96. I’m short $432.57.
On top of that, I have the non-bankruptable debts of $572, I wanted to get out from under the at&t advertising and publishing bill of $440, and I needed to pay the rest of my creditors a little something, like a few dollars each along with a letter explaining (again) that I’m working on getting a new full-time job while working part-time and earning as much as I can. That comes to $61.
The total comes to $3,367. I covered the shortage of $1505 from my Traditional IRA and we counted up all our change and rolled it. I withdrew $1500 (plus taxes and 10% penalty, ouch!). The change amounted to about $35.
I spoke with my accountant and I’m getting a tax refund for 2006. I’ll probably get at least a small one for 2007. I’m not quite done with taxes for 2007, but plan to finish that up by the end of this week and turn it over to my accountant.
I’m also eligible for the federal tax credit, so I’ll get a check for single head of household with one child.
Temporary Game Plan
The tax refunds will go into a “hill and valley” fund so we’ll have enough to pay for essentials.
After this month, if I have enough money, the non-bankruptable debts will be paid the minimum payments before the bankruptable debts. Any debt that is bankruptable will be paid a minimum of a few dollars a month until my income increases if there is any money left.
I will not be working on my debt snowball until I start making enough money to pay for more than the essentials. There may be some progress because I put every debt in the debt snowball, including a large business loan and a large home equity loan.
We are having another yard sale, and any money we earn will either pay an essential bill or go into the savings account to cover essentials next month in case my income is still too low, depending on tax refunds.
February was a slim month tutoring. It was a short month, and in Louisiana, we had Mardi Gras week with no school, so I had many cancellations. I will make more in March because there are more school days. It still won’t be as high as it could be because spring break is in March and I’ll have a lot of cancellations for that week. April will be a full month with no breaks, and May will be lucrative because of final exams. I’ll get lots of extra sessions from my regular students and I’ll be able to pick up a few extra hours from students who just want exam review tutoring.
I’ll still need to sock some money away for summer (June and July) when tutoring hours are lean. I’ll also pick up another part-time job (pizza delivery) to cover expenses unless I land a good-paying job or get a business going like gangbusters.
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