Weekly Recap 10/16 - 10/22

How much extra money did you earn this week? How much did you save? Here's my weekly recap of money/gift cards earned, cash saved by using coupons, and freebies received.

It's fun to see your savings/earnings amounts all added up. It clearly shows that it's time well spent when you cut coupons, hunt for sales, and make little bits of money here and there. Here's my recap for last week, 10/16/11 - 10/22/11. 

Cash/Checks/Gift Cards Received
$2.73..... Quick Rewards (paid to view ads)
Total: $2.73

Coupon Savings
$74.63... Kohl's (30% off coupon!)
$0.90..... Dunkin Donuts (Free donut coupon for completing receipt survey)
$4.50..... Walmart (Grocery coupons)
$5.00..... Friendly's
Total: $85.03

Freebies
Shout Wipes sample
Coupon for a free 8 lb. bag of Iams dog food

Total 2011 Cash/Checks/Gift Cards Received: $1,695.72
Total 2011 Coupon Savings: $1,463.60

Find my previous weekly recaps here.

Weekly Recap 10/16 - 10/22

How am I going to pay off this debt?

Last week, I posted my latest update on our Credit Card Debt Payoff Journey.  In case you missed it, you can find that here.  We finally knocked out one of our major credit cards - the CitiCard1 that had a balance of $900 on it!!!

So, now we're down to the one major credit card, the CitiCard2, with a balance of $3,830. This NEEDS to be paid off by November 2012. So that gives us about 13 months to accomplish this.  It needs to be paid off by then because that is when the 0% interest offer ends. And with all the interest I paid on it in years past, I'm certainly not going to pay them a penny more.

Obviously, if we've paid off over $10,000 in debt in the past 10.5 months, then we could easily pay off $3,830 in 13 months. But... (yup, there's a but!)... just to make things more complicated I have a few other goals first.

We'll still be working on paying down that card, but I also have some dental issues going on and I need a good amount of money to go towards paying for all of that. 

Also, we're taking a trip to Disney World next year and we need to make payments towards that.  The only trip Hubby and I have ever been on together was our honeymoon back in 2005.  This past summer, the kids and I went on a short vacation with my Mom, but we've never had an actual family vacation.  So this will be our first, and I'm super excited about it!!!  This will also be our kiddos' first trip to Disney World, so that makes it even more exciting!!!

Some people might argue that the money for the trip would be better spent knocking out the debt first.  And this is the logic we had been following for the past several years.  We've been dedicated, we've been living frugally and we've worked hard.  And we are all well-overdue for a change of scenery and some super amounts of fun!

So we decided to plan ahead and make payments on our vacation, so it would not require us to go deeper into debt. 

We've had two yardsales in the past few weeks... a larger one that made us $173 and part of a smaller one that made us $43.50.  All of that is being saved for Disney and we hope to sell some things on ebay and craigslist to earn some more extra cash.  Also, there will be Disney gift cards on all of our Christmas lists this year, as several family members have already expressed an interest in helping with that! 

Anyway, these are our goals.  To keep paying off the CitiCard2.  But at the same time, work on paying for medical expenses as they arise and to save and make payments for our Disney World vacation.

To read my previous posts about our debt payoff journey, go here.

How am I going to pay off this debt?

Paid Off

At the start of 2011 we had $13,402.24 in credit card debt between two major credit cards.  Oh, and then some debt on a few store cards.  Although we had never been late on any payments, it was certainly a burden to carry the debts.

Up through most of 2010, we were paying not much more than the minimums on our credit cards.  We just didn't have the extra money to knock it down any further.  I was sure we'd be in debt for awhile to come. 

Then at the end of 2010, we finally decided to work harder at paying it off.  At the beginning of 2011, Hubby started a new job with an increase in salary.  Instead of increasing our lifestyle with the salary increase, we've tried hard to keep living on the old salary and splitting the increase between savings and paying off our credit cards.

We've worked extremely hard to stick within our budget and to keep knocking down the debts.  If you haven't been following along with our Credit Card Debt Payoff journey, you can check out the series of posts here.

Anyway, all this to come to my latest update.  I didn't want to wait another two weeks for my monthly recap for this one!  We have finally, finally, paid off one of our major credit cards!!!  For those following along, this would be the CitiCard1 that we had a balance of $900 on my last monthly update for September.

My goal originally was to pay this off by the end of the year.  Then when I saw how well we were making progress on it earlier in the year, I decided I wanted to make it our goal to pay if off by the end of October.  Well we did it!!!  And with two weeks to spare!  

I'm so proud of this accomplishment, it's hard to put it into words how happy I am.  But trust me, I'm overjoyed. 

Coming up.... our goals for the rest of our credit card debt.  I know you're waiting at the edge of your seats!

Paid Off

Weekly Recap 10/9 - 10/15

How much extra money did you earn this week? How much did you save? Here's my weekly recap of money/gift cards earned, cash saved by using coupons, and freebies received.

It's fun to see your savings/earnings amounts all added up. It clearly shows that it's time well spent when you cut coupons, hunt for sales, and make little bits of money here and there. Here's my recap for last week, 10/9/11 - 10/15/11. 

Cash/Checks/Gift Cards Received
$5.00...... Amazon.com gift card earned using Swagbucks search engine
$43.50.... Yard Sale profits
Total: $48.50

Coupon Savings
$12.95..... Lands' End ($10 off + free shipping!!)
$33.44..... Kohl's ($10 Kohl's Cash redeemed & 20% off coupon)
$22.00..... Garden State Discovery Museum (Two B1G1 free admission coupons from the Entertainment Book!)
$0.90....... Dunkin Donuts (Free donut coupon from the Entertainment Book!)
$13.38..... Drugstore.com (Instant coupons & Drugstore.com Dollars redeemed)
Total: $82.67

Freebies
Icy Hot Naturals sample & coupon

Total 2011 Cash/Checks/Gift Cards Received: $1,692.99
Total 2011 Coupon Savings: $1,378.57

Find my previous weekly recaps here.

Weekly Recap 10/9 - 10/15

Oops

Ok, so it's been awhile since I last posted anything other than Weekly Recaps on my coupon savings and extra income and my monthly Credit Card Debt updates.  I've got so much going on that it's hard to concentrate long enough to type out a blog post.

My daughter started full day kindergarten this year and I thought that would give me so much extra time to blog. Ha. Sure.  With just my three old home, I realized I could also fill my time with so much more.  I've been able to tackle other things, like cleaning, grocery shopping and exercising. So alot of my time is still eaten right up. 

Add to all that... soccer games, packing lunches, dance classes, school fundraisers and collections, keeping track of so many important dates, planning a vacation, preparing for and holding two yard sales, Christmas shopping, making Halloween costumes for both kids, and visiting my Grandfather in the hospital (just a quick stay, he's out and well!).

So yea, I've been going just a tad crazy over here.  BUT.... one other thing I've been diligently working on in the background is paying down our credit card debt.  And that has helped keep my sanity just a little bit. 

We're doing really well with paying off our debts.  I'll have another post up shortly with our new goals!

Oops

Weekly Recap 9/25 - 10/8

How much extra money did you earn this week? How much did you save? Here's my weekly recap of money/gift cards earned, cash saved by using coupons, and freebies received.

It's fun to see your savings/earnings amounts all added up. It clearly shows that it's time well spent when you cut coupons, hunt for sales, and make little bits of money here and there. I've gotten a little bit behind, again, so here's my recap for past two weeks, 9/25/11 - 10/8/11. 

Cash/Checks/Gift Cards Received
$0.07....... YouData (Paid to view ads!)
$10.00..... Dunkin Donuts gift card from credit card rewards
$10.00..... Amazon.com gift card earned using Swagbucks search engine
$200.00... Won from the Philadelphia Phillies Home Run Payoff!
$1.46....... PayPal Debit Card rewards
$173.00... Yard Sale profits
Total: $394.53

Coupon Savings
$24.99...... Acme (grocery coupons)
$6.50........ Walmart (grocery coupons)
$45.00...... Fashion Bug (coupons & $10 Fashion Cash redeemed)
$34.92...... Kohl's ($40 Kohl's Cash redeemed & 30% off coupon!)
$4.29........ Dunkin Donuts (B1G1 free box of munchkins coupon)
Total: $115.70

Freebies
Woman's Day magazine
Shape magazine
American Baby magazine

Total 2011 Cash/Checks/Gift Cards Received: $1,644.49
Total 2011 Coupon Savings: $1,295.90

Find my previous weekly recaps here.

Weekly Recap 9/25 - 10/8

September Credit Card Debt Recap

For the past nine months Hubby and I have tackled our credit card debts. We started the year with $13,402.24 of debt on two major credit cards. 

Through frugal tactics and cutbacks, an increase in income, transfers to new 0% interest cards and sheer determination, we've managed to slice our debt in half, and then some. Here's our recap for the month of September.

At the beginning of September, our credit card totals looked like this:

Chase 1 - $0
Chase 2 - $0
CitiCard1 - $1,800.00
CitiCard2 - $3,890.00
Total - $5,690.00

And then at the end of September, our totals looked like this:

Chase 1 - $0
Chase 2 - $0
CitiCard1 - $900.00
Citicard2 - $3,830.00

Total - $4,730.00

In the month of September, we paid off $960 in credit card debt!!!

I'm incredibly proud of our effort and our progress.  I really hope that our story can help inspire you.  If you're reading this and you have credit card debt hanging over you, please know that you can change that.  You can work on chipping it away, little by little, and soon enough you'll be making real progress.

Last year I thought all of this was impossible.  But now, I have a totally different outlook.  Not just on paying off debt, but on life in general.  Now that we've created a plan, worked at it steadily with commitment, and made such a huge difference, I feel like we can get through anything life throws at us.

To see my previous posts about our debt payoff journey, go here.

September Credit Card Debt Recap