Progress Puppy – Day 213

::shakes head::

WOW! So, I completely skipped the month of July, which is probably for the best. Progress puppy means progress was supposed to be had eh? It’s not awful. I’ve made progress, just not as much as I’d hoped for.  Small excuses lead to big excuses and before you know it I’m back at the start. One thing I have noticed is there is a direct correlation between blogging and my attitude towards my debt. I think I kind of lost sight of the big picture. Well, not the whole picture, but my focus seems to have gone astray when it comes to discipline. So, I’m going to try my darnedest to get back to blogging regularly in hopes that it will help me get my butt back on track. Here are the magnificent numbers.

We must go down further men!

Disappointment in an array of colors….

Has anyone else picked up on the trend here? Pay,spend,pay,spend, pay, spend. Ugh. I’ve come up with a new strategy that I’m hoping will help to eliminate this tendency. If the rest of August goes like I originally planned, it should be a great step towards paying off another card, but only time will tell.  On a more positive note tomorrows Friday. TGIMFF!

Debt you win this round

D

Progress Puppy – Day 136

“I will cut a bitch!”

Sorry I’ve been MIA. If you hadn’t noticed, then its fine, I haven’t been MIA. I just haven’t been as bloggly active as I like to be. I was too busy maxing out my cards, borrowing money from people, and doing everything in my power to get me back to square one. Come June 1^st though, that’s all going to change! It’s time to play START BACK OVER! ::insert The Price is Right music:: You hear that self, I’m starting over! No more f@#%ing around. I feel like I’m having déjà vu. Been here before, said that before, time to get serious, again. When I look at my charts  and see I started with such great momentum, it’s a little discouraging. All you can do is get back on the horse that threw you.  For those of you who’ve never been on a horse, this is a figurative analogy, because there’s a fat f#%&ing chance I’d be getting back on a horse that threw me.

Despite my attempts, you can not write cursive using line charts.

Is this real life?

 

Since our spirits are already so high why not discuss May’s goals. This month I went 1 for 4. I’m going to go ahead and declare May a victory. Although, if this were any kind of class, that’s a 25%, which is absolutely failing.  Hey but it beats April’s goose egg. Tomorrow I will have June’s goals for y’all.  I’m going to rig it so I get at least a 50% because that’s passing in my book. I have teachers who would argue otherwise but they can bite me.

Chipper as always

D

Progress Puppy- Day 102

"I leave her for a couple of weeks and this is what happens. Dogshit!"

The wounds been opened, so rather than make you all wait till Monday to see the damage, I’ll give it to now. Plus, I hate Mondays already, and I don’t think adding depressing posts to the mix will help our relationship. This was an awful, awful, month.  April sucked if I can be so blunt. It just downright sucked.  Well April didn’t suck, I sucked. -_-.  April was decent. Weather could’ve been a little nicer in my opinion.

April has shown me that a single person has the power to build and destroy their future.  Fate sometimes plays a role, but for the most part April has shown me you are in charge. No one else spent my money for me. No one else controlled what I purchased or didn’t. I did. I am, completely, 100% at fault for this progress puppy being so bad.

April has also showed me I shouldn’t set goals for myself.  If anyone had their money on me not completing any of my goals then you’re the big winner!  If you have absolutely no idea what I’m referring to, you can see my dead goals here.  And that children, is why following isn’t always for the best. I followed and fell flat on my face. Maybe next month I should set more reasonable goals, like get out of bed in the morning. I feel like I could handle that one. 😉

Well here are the scary charts that reflect just how awful I’ve been. Thank goodness for car payments because I’m pretty sure it would’ve been a flat line without.

Avert your eyes

It's all fun and games until someone spends outside their means

April showers bring May…. Diane not spending any money. It has a nice ring to it.

D

Progress Puppy – Day 77

"Sup Bitches!"

The sergeant was nice enough to spare a couple of minutes of his time to help update you on the status of my progress. I guess the easiest place to start would be my charts. Dunt-Dunna-Na, that was supposed to be the sound trumpets make, fail.

                         

As you can see, I am slowly making progress, getting my tax return REALLY helped. I paid off two of my cards. I know I said 3 before, and it was 3, until I charged some things to that card. -_- I’ll probably get yelled at but here is my poor excuse. This is a little tiny card credit, I mean its normal size, but the credit limit is only $400. I opened this card to stop me from spending on my other cards, which has worked. Look at the trend for my American Express and Capital cards. I pay off this card almost every month.  I DO NOT recommend this because it’s not a solution. It will, and is slowing my progress down, but there are times when I really need money. I use this card for necessities, groceries being the main point. Like I mentioned before I started a vegan diet and that shit is expensive! I probably should give it up but it makes me happy. I love the way it makes me feel and I am loving the results. Poohy on me, but it’s my reasoning.

I was not completely sold on the idea of charts but now that I’ve created them I see how beneficial they really are. If you’re interested in using my template, click this link > Debt Template. Also you can find some other budget excels HERE. I highly recommend them. Number one rule, be honest with yourself. You do yourself no favors by hiding purchases here and there. Numbers can’t lie unless you’re lying to begin with. You can’t start to make progress until you accept your situation and understand you need to make some changes. If you need help getting started please look at some of my first posts where I outlined the basics for getting out of debt.

I hope for those of you in similar situations, who have been following from the beginning, that you are beginning to see some progress as well. If anyone ever has any questions, or want to know more information, or you just feel like sharing your story, please don’t hesitate to contact me. My email address is SunnyD10121@gmail.com. I will help to the best of my ability and remember no one judges you here. 🙂

Happy Muesday Everyone

I have Friday off, so its already like Tuesday for me.

D

Progress Puppy – Day 32

Stop spending right meow!

Regrettably Sergeant Pupperstein couldn’t be here today so he sent in General Friskers, who means to do business. I personally cannot believe it has been 32 days since I started this thing! It feels like it was just yesterday I was seeing this blog off to preschool, tear.  This has been much easier than anticipated. I hope everyone has continued taking steps to improve their lives! Whether you’re following my advice or someone else’s advice just make sure you stick to the plan. I have strayed from the plan. This isn’t going to be a good progress puppy for me. I relapsed.  Let me try to plead my case before you judge, it was a thrift store, sort of. I got nine, semi new tops, for the price of what I would’ve spent on one outfit. I’m not justifying my actions because I know it was wrong but I just couldn’t resist! Ugh, this is what defeat feels like. I contemplated sharing this with you right after it happened but I was in my cupid mode and didn’t want to ruin the love flow. I hope you aren’t feeling betrayed. Please know that I’m still sticking to the plan, I just took a little step backwards. This doesn’t mean you should take a step back either. I’ve cheated myself and no one won. I undid a month’s worth of work in a matter of day.  If I had to give today’s progress puppy a grade it would definitely be in the C area, more towards the plus side because the tops are cute. 🙂

Stay strong soldiers!

D

Progress Puppy – Day 9

" My name is Sgt. Pupperstein and I'm here to kick some ass"

Instead of naming this a progress report I decided to go with progress puppy because nothing good has ever come out of anything involving the word “report”, Report Card (bad), Police Report (never good), “Please report to the manager’s office” (palms sweating). This is supposed to be a good thing and what’s better than a puppy? Well maybe a kitten but that’s a matter of opinion.  Also, apparently he’s German and very persistent. Something about nomming us to death if we don’t succeed.  So here we are 9 days into our journey and I hope you’ve made some positive changes like I have. Below I’ve listed some steps I’ve taken recently or in the past that have helped me.

• I canceled my gym membership. My membership cost me $24.99/mo, I could’ve downgraded to the cheaper option of $12.99/mo. But, so as not to be a hypocrite, I don’t have the cash therefore I cannot afford this luxury. Plus, this is saving me $300 a year! There are plenty of workout routines that you can do from the comforts of your home so the excuse, “eh but I’m going to get fat”, isn’t a legitimate one. Don’t make me sic Sgt. Pupperstein on you.
• I am no longer indulging in my magic morning elixir, Starbucks, sad face. This number is going to WOW you because it sure slapped me in the face. With refraining from making this tiny purchase of $2.75 a day I am saving $528 a year! That is at the cheapest cost, at my highest I was spending $5.25 for an effing cup of joe yo! We’re in debt, we can no longer or never could, afford this. So stop justifying small purchases, silly ass! That was directed more towards me than you.
• Call your card company, say what?!  They want your debt gone as bad as you want it paid. They aren’t going to yell at you, or send the police to your house for owing a debt. Ask if they can lower your finance charge or interest rate. Interest rate is a little harder to get lowered because you’ve previously agreed to this rate. Check the fine print of your card information. Please call, it can’t hurt. But whatever you do, don’t cry because that’s embarrassing and makes it awkward for the poor fellow on the other end of the phone, not that this happened or anything, I’m just guessing it would be.
• Car insurance, little known fact here, you can be set up on a monthly payment plan. Call up your insurer and explain that you’re having a difficult time making the onetime payment of $5,000,000 and you would like to see if  you could be set up on a monthly plan. This makes you bill much smaller and more manageable. Obviously your insurance isn’t 5 million dollars but you get the point, call!

Just by abstaining what I viewed as minor purchases I am saving $828 a year. It just blows my mind and maybe this why normal people don’t go into debt because they grasp where debt comes from.  It may not seem like the issue when you’re glancing at the monthly bill but it sure seems like a start when you factor in the yearly total. Keep on keepin’ on.

The sergeant scares me too, I’m sorry for this

D