After some incredibly rude comments the last time I updated about my debt, I decided I'm not going to let assholes get me down, and I'm going to keep updating about this. As a side bar, if you have a problem with me, or anything I blog about, you don't have to follow me. You also don't need to comment anonymously on this or any of my other blogs.
Anyway! Now that that's off my chest, here goes! I bought Rick's birthday gift partially on my credit card, because it was an online purchase. The other portion used up some Amazon gift cards I had saved up from SwagBucks. Some people might suggest skipping buying gifts because I am pretty broke, but that's just something I won't do. He got me an incredible birthday gift this month, and I feel the need to return the favour. His gifts were something he specifically asked for, and he was with me when I ordered them.
Without getting into anything too specific, my debt is now around $1475. I'd purchased some earring supplies a little while ago that weren't charged to my card right away, and I had kind of forgotten about them.
I decided I'm going to use a part of what I make at my two upcoming craft shows to pay down some of my credit card. Normally, I use it for rent, and treat Rick and I to a nice meal at a restaurant, but I'm going to be a little more responsible this time around. With work hours being what they are, I need to make this money work!
Showing posts with label money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label money. Show all posts
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Monday, January 14, 2013
Monday Update: January 14, 2013
Happy Monday! I've been busy working on the fundraising for my trip to Guatemala, and I haven't been doing a whole heck of a lot else. If you'd like to help, you can purchase something from my Etsy shop, or join the Ready to Ship sale on Petite Tuques' Facebook page.
Last week, I finished three small (very very very small) balls of yarn, as well as one slightly larger one. I am tracking how many skeins/balls I reduce my stash by this year, and this brings me to minus 4. I almost didn't even want to count the small ones at first, because they were so small and insignificant, but I figured if I get some numbers going, it will encourage me to keep going, and not give up less than a month after setting myself the goal. I am hoping to reduce my stash this year quite significantly. I have a LOT of yarn. Most of it is in clear plastic totes, but there is quite a bit in cardboard boxes, and reusable shopping bags. The lowballing goal is to get rid of the cardboard and bags, and the extreme goal is to clear out those, as well as three of the eight plastic totes. If i reach the latter goal, I will allow myself to stock up on yarn that I use most often, such as Homespun, Thick and Quick, and hopefully some sock yarn for the Beekeepers quilt.
To eliminate these balls, I made a bunch of bows, and a colour block neck warmer. I haven't been super productive, partly because of all the fundraising stuff I need to take care of. I've also been working on Christine's baby gift, which I need to have finished soon!
The middle photo is of a bowl with a bazillion little bows waiting to be sewn. I also made one of my lace neck warmers in dark blue. I am still in love with this pattern. I tweaked it a little bit to adjust the size, just based on how the one I kept for myself is doing.
As far as debt goes, I'm still at $1400. I paid a small chunk on the card, but after interest charges, and a couple small iTunes purchases, I'm back to square one. Some more crappy news on this front is ahead. I don't know whose bright idea it was, but things have changed drastically at my workplace. We got two new full time employees, who've transferred from other stores, as well as a new manager who will be working with us full time (unlike our current manager who splits his time between two stores). What this means is that our already thinly spread hours are even thinner. I'll be lucky to get 5 hours a week. This is all coming at a bad time for me. Not that there is ever really a good time to lose hours at work, but with going away for a couple weeks, I don't feel comfortable applying for jobs now, and then have them call while I'm gone. I think it would just end up making things more difficult for me.
The other option is to try the knitting thing again. I knit almost constantly already. I have a few local stores that sell my stuff pretty successfully. My Etsy shop is getting decent traffic. It seems like this year would be a good year to try doing this again. I'd still keep the one day a week at the Beer Store, but maybe, just maybe, I could supplement with my handiwork. Argh, I'm so confused and torn!
This week has been a busy, confusing week. I hope to get through this in one piece.
What have all of you fine folks been up to?
Last week, I finished three small (very very very small) balls of yarn, as well as one slightly larger one. I am tracking how many skeins/balls I reduce my stash by this year, and this brings me to minus 4. I almost didn't even want to count the small ones at first, because they were so small and insignificant, but I figured if I get some numbers going, it will encourage me to keep going, and not give up less than a month after setting myself the goal. I am hoping to reduce my stash this year quite significantly. I have a LOT of yarn. Most of it is in clear plastic totes, but there is quite a bit in cardboard boxes, and reusable shopping bags. The lowballing goal is to get rid of the cardboard and bags, and the extreme goal is to clear out those, as well as three of the eight plastic totes. If i reach the latter goal, I will allow myself to stock up on yarn that I use most often, such as Homespun, Thick and Quick, and hopefully some sock yarn for the Beekeepers quilt.
To eliminate these balls, I made a bunch of bows, and a colour block neck warmer. I haven't been super productive, partly because of all the fundraising stuff I need to take care of. I've also been working on Christine's baby gift, which I need to have finished soon!
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| Sorry about the quality of the first one. I didn't realize how terrible it was until I uploaded it to Ribbet. |
As far as debt goes, I'm still at $1400. I paid a small chunk on the card, but after interest charges, and a couple small iTunes purchases, I'm back to square one. Some more crappy news on this front is ahead. I don't know whose bright idea it was, but things have changed drastically at my workplace. We got two new full time employees, who've transferred from other stores, as well as a new manager who will be working with us full time (unlike our current manager who splits his time between two stores). What this means is that our already thinly spread hours are even thinner. I'll be lucky to get 5 hours a week. This is all coming at a bad time for me. Not that there is ever really a good time to lose hours at work, but with going away for a couple weeks, I don't feel comfortable applying for jobs now, and then have them call while I'm gone. I think it would just end up making things more difficult for me.
The other option is to try the knitting thing again. I knit almost constantly already. I have a few local stores that sell my stuff pretty successfully. My Etsy shop is getting decent traffic. It seems like this year would be a good year to try doing this again. I'd still keep the one day a week at the Beer Store, but maybe, just maybe, I could supplement with my handiwork. Argh, I'm so confused and torn!
This week has been a busy, confusing week. I hope to get through this in one piece.
What have all of you fine folks been up to?
Monday, January 7, 2013
What I've been Up To
Thank you for the input on my last post where I laid my cards out on the table as far as my debt goes. I didn't publish all the comments, but I did reply to all of them. I will update now and then about my progress, and what I am doing to have more money available for paying off my credit card.
This is what I've been up to lately as far as knitting goes. The first and fourth picture, I've already shared. I'm going to try to do weekly recaps of what I've knit every Monday. Some stuff might be repeated, but I'll try to keep that to a minimum.
The second picture is a small pile of the bows I sewed up last night. I have 15 bows total in those five colours. I want to have 100 made for the craft show I'm doing at the beginning of March. The third photo is of yet another neck warmer. My mom got me this gorgeous Homespun colourway for Christmas. Two skeins of it! I love it! It's so autumnal and warm looking.
I've been knitting loads, but I haven't finished any skeins of yarn yet! This is hopefully going to be remedied with some projects I have on the back burner right now. I need to work on stock for the aforementioned March show before I work on more wintery things for next craft show season.
I'm going to watch some podcasts and knit some more bows! I can't want to show you what these turn into! I think you'll love them!
The second picture is a small pile of the bows I sewed up last night. I have 15 bows total in those five colours. I want to have 100 made for the craft show I'm doing at the beginning of March. The third photo is of yet another neck warmer. My mom got me this gorgeous Homespun colourway for Christmas. Two skeins of it! I love it! It's so autumnal and warm looking.
I've been knitting loads, but I haven't finished any skeins of yarn yet! This is hopefully going to be remedied with some projects I have on the back burner right now. I need to work on stock for the aforementioned March show before I work on more wintery things for next craft show season.
I'm going to watch some podcasts and knit some more bows! I can't want to show you what these turn into! I think you'll love them!
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Airing my Debt Grievances
So far this year, I haven't paid off any debt. This first pay cheque (I get paid every Thursday) was spent nearly as soon as I had it in my bank account. I had some bills to pay, mouths to feed (ain't nothin in this world for free) and what not.
My debt is currently at about $1400. This is divided between a credit card, and money owed to my parents. Not accounting for interest on the credit card debt, I would need to pay $27 a week to pay it off. So let's round it up and say $30 a week. I know I wouldn't be able to do this. My hours at work have all but disappeared. I went from an average of 40 hours a week in the summer, down to 14 this week. That leaves pretty much no extra cash for paying off debts. In fact, it's almost not enough to cover my basic expenses. (Contrary to what most think, I'm not making $15 an hour at The Beer Store. That won't happen for years, if at all.)
Anyway, I'm hoping at the very least to get my credit card paid off this year. That will take less than $20 a week, once again not accounting for interest. That's maybe a little more doable. I'm going to call them soon and see if I can get my interest rate lowered. It's REALLY high, and that's not conducive to paying off debts quickly.
Having this debt hanging over my head stresses me out immensely.
I'm hoping that by starting to open up about my money troubles, I can start fixing them. I used to have several thousand dollars in savings, and that has disappeared through a combination of events.
I won't turn this blog into a money related blog, don't worry. I am just trying to keep myself accountable.
My debt is currently at about $1400. This is divided between a credit card, and money owed to my parents. Not accounting for interest on the credit card debt, I would need to pay $27 a week to pay it off. So let's round it up and say $30 a week. I know I wouldn't be able to do this. My hours at work have all but disappeared. I went from an average of 40 hours a week in the summer, down to 14 this week. That leaves pretty much no extra cash for paying off debts. In fact, it's almost not enough to cover my basic expenses. (Contrary to what most think, I'm not making $15 an hour at The Beer Store. That won't happen for years, if at all.)
Anyway, I'm hoping at the very least to get my credit card paid off this year. That will take less than $20 a week, once again not accounting for interest. That's maybe a little more doable. I'm going to call them soon and see if I can get my interest rate lowered. It's REALLY high, and that's not conducive to paying off debts quickly.
Having this debt hanging over my head stresses me out immensely.
I'm hoping that by starting to open up about my money troubles, I can start fixing them. I used to have several thousand dollars in savings, and that has disappeared through a combination of events.
I won't turn this blog into a money related blog, don't worry. I am just trying to keep myself accountable.
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