Monday, June 30, 2008

Independence Day Comes Early!!!

It's finally the end of June and I have A LOT of progress to report finally! At the begining of this month, I posted that my goals were to:


1. Avoid Evil Overdraft Monster

2. Stop Payday Loans Forever


And I am happy to report that, drumroll please....

I succeeded in both of my goals!!! It is such a relief to know that the money I earned this month actually went towards ME and what I needed to pay and didn't just dissapear out of the bank before I could even make a sustainable budget.

But, and here's the thing I've been sitting on for a while now. In the process of making these goals, I had to take a good hard look at how much my financial mistakes have cost me. And it's pretty damn shocking. So, please try not to judge me too harshly when I reveal the numbers:



This chart shows how my money has been spent from March 13 (the earliest I could look up online) to today. And it includes:

$2,375 in LOAN repayment. $100 of which was repaid to Friend A. $240 I eventually got back. But I did end up paying a grand total of $2035 to Payday Loans in three months time. And it's FINALLY OVER. My last payment posted on Friday. I am so happy I finally got out of the disastrous cycle. Now, I will have SO much more money to devote more wisely each month.

I also managed to avoid the Evil Overdraft Monster fees at my bank. Something that I've paid, wait for it, $741 to since March 13th, representing 7.41% of my spending. $741! That's more than a month's rent down the drain. Never again!!

Now that I have finally been released from the shackles of payday loans and regular bank overdrafts I am looking forward to planning a Master Budget that's more realistic and building an Emergency Fund so I never have to borrow money again!

3 comments:

Jim ~ mydebtblog.com said...

You sure did rack up quite a bit of overdraft charges. At least you're starting to pay attention to you can avoid the balance dropping below $0. I'm also happy for you that the payday loan nightmare is finally over. I think you will have some money to finally get down to business and pay back debt/bring everyone current. Where did the chart come from?

Sallie's Niece said...

My bank's web site lets you do "budget management" and categorize every transaction and then track those categories over time. It's a really useful tool to help me get out of "head in the sand" mode to actually seeing where my money is going. I can't wait to get current on everything else now!

Savings not Shoes said...

Sallie, I'm also a notorious overdraft fee person. Even last week I went into overdraft due to a mistake in my calculations. I'm right there with you in the fight against the evil fee monsters.

If I added up all the over the credit limit fees and late fees I've paid in the 10 years since I was first exposed to credit, it would probably make me sick. So, I look forward to savings and not fees! Great job, I love your blog.