Monday, December 27, 2010

DECEMBER TALLY $21,154.58

Well, I'm very late with this post, and it's not hard to see why. The tally is depressing depressing depressing.

It's all about that new A/C unit. And then I had to have the water heater repaired. Only it turns out that merely repairing it ($100) might not have been good enough, and I may well need a new one ($450). Well, this house is 12 years old. I guess it's not surprising that things are falling apart. The dishwasher already doesn't work, but I'm okay with that. I am, however, waiting with bated breath for the refrigerator to go one of these days.

In November, I got $528.15 from PayPal (my eBay sales). And $7 from a Chex check. Lesson: If you find something in a box of food, always mail it to the company. They send back coupons and/or money. I mean “free” item coupons. Also, some amount from Amazon, but I don't recall how much.

On other fronts, I managed to overdraw one of my two bank accounts by $161.24. I'm still not sure what happened. But at one point those stinkers drew $25 off of the credit card attached to the account (overdraft protection)--and charged me $10 for the privilege from the checking account side and ANOTHER $3 from the credit card side! So I complained and got both of them credited back. Two separate phone calls. It never hurts to try! And always ask for the supervisor, because the first person will often say it can't be done.

My other bank account, meanwhile, has been running an excess balance of $470.13 for months now. I also have no earthly idea how this came about. I've been afraid to touch it, but last month I finally did. I acknowledged $400 of the money, then promptly spent it.

When I paid my bills, I decided to keep out around $900 so I might actually have some money to take care of a few things during December (having my house washed: $150 and overdue; and don't get me started on getting my shower recaulked... and my porch repainted), but things came up in rapid succession and within a few days I was down to $74.

Well, Christmas is behind us, as is all the associated spending. Tax refunds are ahead of us. Time to tighten the old belt buckle (I'm down to 132, so that shouldn't be too hard!!), nose to the grindstone, recommit to getting this done.

By the end of 2011, I want my credit card debt to be in the four figures and out of the five figures. That's my goal.

1 comment:

  1. When are you going to update? How are things going in 2011?

    ReplyDelete