Ugh, one of those things I have always really dreaded doing. I have only joined twice in my life (once with my mom, but really she just signed me up online when I was a teenager and I went with her a couple of times)... and then back in about 2011, when I joined LifeTime Fitness with a friend. We actually went pretty much 4 times per week for a month or so. It was awesome. SO WISH I could afford a membership there year-round. But it's about $80/month, and Mama doesn't have that type of dough laying around for herself. I mean, we could afford it... but it feels... wrong?
Anywho, so I've been scoping out gyms in the area online, and I've signed up for a few passes to get into some and check them out. Only problem is I haven't actually gone and done it - I need to! I think I will tonight after I take the boys to their dentist appoint (please, LAWD, no cavities!) and go grocery shopping.
I have a problem with the guilt associated with spending money on myself on a monthly basis to do this, especially if I don't actually go. It won't make or break us, but... I wanted to pay off most of the credit card debt first. (And I am failing at that.) I need to buy a Dave Ramsey financial planning book or something, because in THEORY I know what we need to do... it's just getting up the funds to actually put more than the minimum payment toward certain cards.
For instance, the Toys 'R Us card we have for birthday and holiday expenses? It only has about $420 charged up... we could probably pay that in full this month (Christmas bonus). But why not just... pay it off slowly so I can throw all of the cash toward the Capital One card that has 10x that charged up? But then it comes to paying that and all I can usually do is put $100 toward it, because it's due the 2nd of the month (just like the rent).
FUCK. It's so hard to be responsible. I think the best option might be to change the payment dates, because I have SO MUCH come up at the beginning of the month, and that's typically when my bills are due... that it just seems impossible to get ahead. I did just change my Capital One payment to the 14th, so that will help.
I'm going to lay it bare. And anyone who has no interest in hearing about my financial woes, I bid you adieu for today.
Here's the breakdown (and I'm going to check in monthly with this):
Capital One: $3,780.65
Chase Freedom: $1,445.00
Amazon: $851.60
Toys 'R Us: $411.86
Ashley Furniture: $100.00 (card going away next month!)
That's over $6,500 in debt. That's TOO MUCH.
My lame excuses are:
1.) We just got married and I used the Capital One card for honeymoon/last minute expenses.
2.) I bought I few Christmas gifts on credit.
3.) Steve uses them to pay for schooling since typically we can't front the money for multiple classes.
...but seriously?
It feels like a black hole I can't see a way out of. When we get our tax return (and it should be decent, considering for the first time EVER I'm going to claim both of my children as dependents) I'm going to pay off the smaller ones in full, and go from there. Maybe once I pay off the Capital One, I can negotiate a lower APR, because currently I'm at 22.9%. I got it as a rebuild your credit card, and it did help... but not as much as it's hurting now! I have a $6,500 credit line and I've got over 50% tied up at the moment. Shoot.
As you can see, I have a million good financial reasons why I don't want to join the gym, but I'm going to anyway. Don't worry, that'll be coming out of my bank account monthly. Found an okay gym that's only $9.95/month.
Anyway, that's enough for today. Hope that wasn't too much of a drag blog post! Felt good to get it out, though.
Money woes suck. They absolutely do. I remember how difficult it was to pass up on something even though I "had the money" because I was paying down credit card debt. It totally sucked. And it probably contributed to me eating like crap to "save money". But in the end the only way to get out of debt it to be disciplined about it.
ReplyDeleteUgh. It sucks. Work the frustrations out at the gym. One step at a time!
So my favorite Dave R tip is the snowball. So you pay off the smallest bill first. Then you go to the next smallest, using the payment that you were putting towards the smallest and put it towards the next. You keep doing that until all of your minimum payments are being paid on the last debt. Does that make sense? Maybe you already know that, but I love it. It has helped me clear up all my debt except house and cars :)
ReplyDeleteI was just going to say... snowball it, pay off the smaller amounts first. And if you can work on the interest rates with the other ones, do it. But with Dave Ramsey, he would like you to eventually close out the dang cards and be rid of them.... and then do the envelope system. Its kind of hard not having some credit... especially if you all plan on buying a house in the future, because lets be real --- most people need a loan to buy a house, which means you need some credit cards or something open to see how responsible you are.
ReplyDeleteAs for the gym... I was just looking up different gyms in my area too. I think I have made a decision though -- YMCA (I won't get stuck in a contract if we need to cancel) and it has other awesome benefits for my kiddos. I really just want to use their classes -- like Yoga & Zumba. Sorry for blogging in your comments... Haha. Hopefully you find yourself a gym. BTW... the YMCA is waiving joining fees.
Yay for joining the gym! I used the snowball to pay off a ton of debt a few years ago...I get the frustration but with it.
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