Skip to main content

Paying Off Debt, Decluttering Pause, and Overspending on Fast Food


We were supposed to pay off our second credit card during the month of the last time I wrote about it, but a car issue came up 😥We had to pull money from our emergency fund and then add money back to it so it would be full again.

Having an emergency fund is so important! Without it, we would have probably just charged the amount that was needed to fix the car.

Though it was delayed, it is nice to finally say that we have paid off credit card #2! Yayayayayay!

That leaves us with one card left, the car payment, my loan for service (will be paid off as long as I finish the school year off), and the mortgage of course.

I know I should be proud of how far we've come, but I feel a bit defeated whenever I look at the numbers of the amount left. I have to go back and add the extra interest fees that were paid along the way, but based solely on the numbers we started out with on our debt snowball paperwork, we are $8,202.57 down since May, and with three of those months we were only on one income since I was on maternity leave.

We've turned our debt snowball into an avalanche (though I know with an avalanche you pay the debt with the highest interest rate off first, but you know what I mean). We are paying everything we have left aside from basic living to our debt. I did mess up this month though. With the stresses of what happened to my daughter and the anxiety of leaving my baby, I caused our family to eat out a lot. 😐
We went from using $45 for eating out in August to $180 this month! Oh the shame! It was so easy to say, "Fuck it, lets order a pizza." I was trying to make up for the pain I was feeling and I had no motivation to cook anything. I'm still pretty sad, but I'm going to try so hard not to do this again this month.

I have to put a pause on decluttering my daughters' things because I had a panic attack about two dresses I gave away to friends now. They were understanding and are going to hold on to them for me. I was so embarrassed though. I know it's ridiculous, but my anxiety is very high. I'm going to continue to declutter my own stuff. I'm certain we've donated over 25 bags now and I know there is more I can get rid of that is mine, but I will wait to donate the girls' stuff until my anxiety subsides.

I really hope we make it to pay off everything by the house by next summer, but even more so I want my anxiety to chill out!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Decluttering-Getting Rid of Facebook

I have a month left of maternity leave. To say that I'm overwhelmed is an understatement. I've spent the last year decluttering my house. I recently realized that I need to declutter my social media as well. I don't have a Twitter or Instagram. I only recently got a Snap Chat. I joined a decluttering group about a month ago. At first it was very helpful. I was glad to find other people who were on the same journey as I. I noticed a few shared blogs of their journeys. I thought that was a fantastic idea and shared three posts of my own. It was then announced that posting your own blog wouldn't be allowed. I panicked. I felt like I was in trouble, that I did something wrong. I am in a state right now where I am struggling postpartum so what some may have seen as not a big deal, was a big deal to me. I apologized for sharing my blog, trying to explain that my own posts would be too long so that's why I shared it. But I continued to panic, and with fight or flight, I...

Teachers: Enjoy Your Parental Leave

This time last year, I was planning for every day that I would be on maternity leave. My due date was August 25, so I would only be with my kids for two weeks before I would be gone. I worked tirelessly, uploading lessons to  tes.com , so all the substitute would have to do was hit "play" on the slideshows. I got copies made, planned on speaking with my substitute weekly (which I did), and thought I would also connect with the students somehow if I read their journals and wrote them back, along with their personal narrative essays. I was going to take only two months off so that it would be like I was never absent. I ended up not going back . Prior to all of this, I asked other teachers what they did while on leave. Almost all said that they provided lesson plans and graded EVERYTHING while on leave. I also heard a horrifying story of a teacher mom who was getting phone calls while her baby was in NICU because the substitute couldn't find a binder with copies that...

Seventh Generation Pod Laundry Detergent Review

I've been really interested in simplifying everything we use, including what we use in our surroundings. I've cut down on most things in the laundry room. I purchased some Norwex dryer balls two years ago and stopped using fabric softener. I tried using All Free & Clear, but found it would leave an odd smell to my clothes after. I started using Seventh Generation Dishwasher detergent; I purchased it from Sprouts and it came in a  box and is in loose powder form. It has lasted us quite a long time vs. the Sprouts pods we were using! We are very much all about saving money while using better products for our family, so I thought that if the dishwasher detergent was great deal, then I'd like to try the laundry detergent. I looked up the company and they have a program called Generation Good  that will let you try free samples if you give a review of their product after. So I reached out because I wanted to try them. I'm not getting paid or anything like that, I j...