Help! I hate student loans!

Race for the Cure!

2010-09-08T13:20:00.000-07:00

I am doing a 5k to raise money for Race for the Cure where I live. I haven't updated much, but feel free to donate!

http://race.komenwabashvalley.org/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=1030&px=1004348

Mini Win

2010-02-24T18:05:00.000-08:00

My private student loan is now only a four digit number! Yay! $9769.97. This seems like a much more conquerable number than where I started.

There was a happy dance included with seeing this number!

Net Worth

2010-01-30T11:45:00.000-08:00

I was looking at my NetworthIQ page, (that I updated today), and realized it probably looks funny that I am saving so much more than I am putting to debt. I have decided to save a little more in case I were to lose one or both of my jobs. If that happened, I have only myself to depend on. It's not as if I were married and someone else would have income.

Next month will show a more significant decrease in debt though! (Well, I hope it will. I have some weddings I am in coming up, and still have to pay for one of the dresses. Not yet sure how much that one will cost).

I can't wait until all this debt crap is done. I am tired of thinking about it!

Not Sure What I Was Thinking...

2009-11-14T19:38:00.000-08:00

I don't know why I was wishing for November last month. Yes, October was a really bad month, but November isn't going to help anything. Nor is December. The last two months of the year get really lean. I lose hours because of so many holiday closings and breaks and things. I should be okay; it's just that I won't be able to pay as much to my student loans as I wanted to. I wanted to get my Sallie Mae loan below five digits before January, but now I don't think that will be happening.

For some good news, my birthday is this month! Yay!

October Sucks

2009-10-15T16:51:00.000-07:00

This month is terrible. I had accounted for my car insurance and the doctor's visit that was going to have to happen this month. I knew I had an "extra" paycheck that would cover that stuff. I was so wrong.

I'm nearing $300 over my budget on things that aren't even any fun for me. There is no going out, no vacations, no extra food. Yet, I'm way overbudget.

Things I was not expecting:
expensive alteration to a dress
needing tires
updating license plate (should have thought of this one, but for some reason I didn't)

Things I should have remembered:
oil change
gas for my car for all the trips back and forth
wedding gift

After I pay rent, car insurance, cable/internet bill and my two student loans, I have $130 left over to pay the rest of the above. Sweet. Some of this stuff is already on the credit card. All but the tires will be on there soon. At least it gives me another month to pretend money will show up to pay for it.

Being broke is lame. Is it November yet?

Ahhh! Going back down

2009-09-29T18:13:00.001-07:00

I didn't pay all of my bills last month before putting up the numbers. So, the "cash" category was a little inflated because I definitely didn't have that much money to just spend on random things. Oh, well though. The important numbers are there.

Actually, it's a little off balance anyway, because I've already counted the money as being out of my account to pay the student loans, but I didn't take that money off the student loan amount, because it hasn't shown up yet.

Maybe I need to rethink the way I do things. Either always pay them so they show up before the 1st of every month, or always pay them after the 1st. Hmmm...

Random update on life...

2009-08-23T12:39:00.000-07:00

I've been in an apartment for a few weeks now and things are going well. There are only two things that bother me: One, I really should have been able to get a house, Two, this apartment is more than double what I was paying at the last place, and is about the same for what I'd be paying on a house.

Anyway, last month I didn't put anything into savings and that has been bothering me. I sent some off the other day, and it made me feel a little bit better. Although, I think having a real bed was worth the $200 I spent, rather than putting it in savings.

One exciting thing: I might start paying double to my Sallie Mae loan this month! I've run the numbers a few times because I'm just crazy like that, and I can make it work! I just can't decide if I want to do that or send some more to savings.

Getting an Apartment

2009-06-29T05:25:00.000-07:00

So, no one wants to give me a loan that would buy a decent house. (I'm not even asking for a lot of money either. I asked for less than the full amount I could fit into my budget!!) That means, I can't afford a house, but apparently I can get an apartment and pay utilities on it which, in this town, is paying the same amount of money, only the apartment isn't mine at the end of paying. It sucks, but it's what I've got to do now.

My next plan of action is to save as much money as possible over the next year, in case things are still similar and a bank wants to lend me money then. Hopefully, things are working out for the best.

Making Extra Money

2009-06-18T18:03:00.000-07:00

I need some ideas on how to make some extra money. I'm thinking selling plasma might do the trick, but I hate needles. Any ideas besides sitting on the street begging? (haha, although I might make more that way!)

I need just a little bit extra cash in my savings so I can get qualified for a loan. I wish they could just take my word for it that I am amazing with money. Maybe I should send them links to my blogs, and explain to them that I lived on nothing last year and still paid off $5000 worth of debt. Seriously. I don't think anyone else could do that. I hate that they use their computers to figure everything out as well. And I had to sit and wait on her for 20 minutes when I was meeting her on my lunch break. Apparently, no one can conduct meetings after 4pm.

Ahhh... so this turned into more of a rant, but I think I feel better. Hopefully things start to fall into place.

My Current Money Plan

2009-06-10T18:37:00.000-07:00

Wow. I didn't write anything for the month of May. I've really got to get back on this blogging thing.

Anyway, in financial news last month was awesome. My net worth jumped almost $1000 in one month. I was very happy about that.

As for debt, it won't be going down very quickly for the next few months. I have other plans for money right now, and it is save, save, save! Probably around October I will start paying double to my private student loan so that it disappears faster. It's currently near the $11,000 mark, but at 3%. That won't last forever though, as it is variable. I want that sucker gone before I get blindsided by some outrageous interest rate hike.

The federal student loan is basically treading water. I pay the minimum, and it pretty much covers the interest that has accrued for that month. I don't enjoy that, but it is the last thing on my list at the moment.

It's like I have a life!

2009-04-20T18:13:00.000-07:00

Last year I really didn't do much. But since I got my second job. (had to since I was losing part of my hours at my original job), and got a raise at my original job, I actually have some "spending" money. I don't know how I did it last year, but I'm glad I'm not doing it this year! hahaha It's nice to be able to go out to eat every once in a while with some friends, or to be able to do more 5ks (well, if I didn't have to work all the Saturdays that they happen!) and buy more groceries.

Yay recession because it's been good to me! hahahaha

Steady Progress

2009-04-02T09:46:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I logged in here, but I've been making good progress on getting rid of stupid debt. Plus, my CC debt is COMPLETELY GONE!! Woohoo!

I did take some money out of my EF to pay it all off for March. I went back and forth on that idea quite a bit before making my final decision to just do it. When money goes into savings, I hate taking it out. But I figured I could wait two months and pay it all off, plus $60 in interest, or I could pay it all off now, and put the money back into savings over the next two months and not pay any interest. I went with the latter.

Now that I have another zero, (first one was my car last April), I'm a little more motivated again.

Barely a Move

2009-02-10T10:49:00.000-08:00

By the time I remembered I needed to update my networth iq page, I think I'd had two months worth of interest piled into the consolidation loan. That meant my update was rather sad looking. $68 dollars up. I guess at least it's going up.

Probably about to lose my job (or at least half of it), so February's payment to the CC will probably be the last big one, and it's not as big as I had planned on. I was going to send the majority of my tax return there. Now that return is going into my savings until I know for sure if I have a job.

Oh well, hopefully things will work out. February will look rather awesome though. I'm looking forward to that. Tax return plus I will have two extra days worth of working this month. (Yay for Sunday overtime!)

They're worried about losing my "business"

2009-01-13T10:28:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've posted here. I guess I'm just not so enthusiastic because it seems as if this is taking forever. But I had a funny story to share, so here I am.

I got some mail yesterday from the CC company. It said I had recently made a large payment, and they wanted to make sure they weren't losing my "business." Haha! They want to make sure they keep getting that ~$20 in interest every month. So, They sent me those checks that come with a 0% apr for 6 months or whatever the length happens to be. I was amused that they are so sad about $20.

Anyway, it is nice to see how far that CC amount has fallen. The student loan amount going up isn't making me happy, but it doesn't bother me as much as seeing a balance on a CC, even though both balances are because of tuition.

A Nice Jump

2008-11-30T10:46:00.000-08:00

I updated my networth iq page yesterday. I was surprised at how high it jumped up. But October had 3 paychecks, (one was on Oct. 31st I think), so I used the "extra" paycheck to make a rather large payment to the "tuition card." That, plus it was my birthday this month - so the "cash" category is higher as well.

Yay for a good month. I needed it. :-D

That's where that interest was...

2008-11-12T17:54:00.000-08:00

I wrote last time that my student loans only went up by $21. Well, about a week later when I checked the status of the federal loans again, it went up a lot. I guess they just don't update the interest as often as Sallie Mae's website does.

On a different note, I am anxiously awaiting the end of this month, as I will be able to use the "third" paycheck from last month to make a much larger payment to the credit card! I love when the jump is bigger.

So Close

2008-10-28T11:29:00.000-07:00

I updated my networth iq page today. I'm $20 from moving up to the next thousand range. Actually, I would be there if I include the paycheck that comes on Friday, but I've decided that money is going to count as being from November. Most of it will be going towards the stupid tuition that's still on my credit card. I can't wait until the day that it is gone.

In strange news, my student loans only went up by about $21 for the month, even though it was a $100 jump last month. The larger one is in forebearance, and so I thought it would jump $100 every month. Unless they just haven't updated the interest that has accrued yet, in which case, next month I may have a bigger jump on that number. Oh, well. Next month should be a good one anyway.

Time for a post

2008-10-12T14:03:00.000-07:00

It's been a little while, so I figured I should write.

You've probably noticed there was an update on my networth iq. Or, maybe you didn't because it was only a $12 increase. Either way, I'm hoping it will be a more significant jump up at the end of this month. It is a three paycheck month, but since the third one comes on the 31st it doesn't give me much time to do anything with it. November will probably see the bigger jump because of it.

Nothing else really exciting going on yet on the money front this month. I will get about 10 extra hours on my 2nd paycheck this month, so that will be good news. Maybe I'll have a bigger jump than I think this month. Fingers crossed!

Good News for Once!

2008-09-18T18:28:00.000-07:00

Well, one of my loans is in forebearance. Yay! Then, I got more hours at my job, which is really more hours in a different department. Bonus: it's on Sundays so that means time and a half! Woohoo!

I can't believe that I actually had good news. It's kind of exciting. :-D

Stinking Loans

2008-08-28T19:36:00.000-07:00

I'm thinking of putting my student loans in deferrment for 6 months until I can pay off the rest of the tuition that is still on my credit card. If I do that, and I get a decent tax refund, I can have the card paid off by May 2009. Then I will actually be able to breathe, AND I might actually get to visit people. Or eat out every once in a while. Or anything.

It would be so nice to just have one less debt to have a monthly payment on. I wish $4000 would just fall out of the sky. lol yeah I know that's stupid and impossible. But it would make life MUCH easier.

Stupid Federal Loans

2008-08-12T11:07:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated in a while because my federal student loans are being screwy. First, $7000 disappeared, then it came back, and for some reason they overpaid my original loan holders by $7000, which is why I have that "refund." If they overpaid by so much, then why did my nelnet thing say I owed them $5.00 still after all my other loans had been "paid consolidated"?

So yeah, my net worth iq page is now messed up. I think I might just delete the entry for July.

Grrr.

I've got a Zero!!

2008-07-15T12:16:00.000-07:00

Credit card #3 is officially at $0! The rest...

CC#1: $2438
CC#2: $1807

SL#1: $11,300
SL#2: $20,488

Those numbers are exact as of right this moment. I just sent off the payments for the two remaining credit cards and that is reflected in the above balances.

New Numbers for June 08

2008-06-27T16:46:00.001-07:00

All the numbers are as follows:

CC#1 - $2488
CC#2- $1833
CC#3 - $235

SL#1 - $11,364 (sallie mae)
SL#2 - $20,527 (fed. consolidated)

CC#2 doesn't reflect interest accruing right now. I don't think it will show up until around July 13th.

Hopefully by this time next month CC#3 will be gone!

It's been a while...

2008-06-13T09:42:00.000-07:00

Here are the numbers as of today. I haven't paid them yet for the month of June (although, I'll be doing that this weekend).

CC#1 - $2538
CC#2 - $1873
CC#3 - $535

*Card #2 is now accruing interest at 8.9%. Lame.

I'm paying the cards off in reverse order that they appear there. It works best for my budget that way.

The Current Numbers as of May 2, 2008

2008-05-02T12:40:00.000-07:00

Let's start with the "tuition cards":

Card 1 - $2593
Card 2 - $1890
Card 3 - $850. Didn't pay on this one yet because it's not due until the 20th of May.

The awesome news is that my net worth went up by $582! I now stand at -$32,283. Check out the graph on the right hand side if you'd like. If you click on the link for it, you'll notice my car is paid off! April was a good month.

Three Stupid Cards Now

2008-04-22T11:15:00.000-07:00

I had tried to use a balance transfer offer to put both of my previous cards onto one. Only, that didn't work because the stupid new card only gave me a $1000 limit and then only transferred $850 from the card that had more on it to begin with.

So now they look like this:

Card 1: $2648
Card 2: $2045
Card 3: $850

I also still have to make my payments for the month, so those numbers will go down a bit. I'm really annoyed at that company though. I wish they would have at least transferred money from the one with the lower amount. Then I would have just paid off that one quickly. Now I have to pay off card 2 quickly. $850 off of $2600 would have put me below the $2000 mark on that card, and would have been awesome. Oh well. That's what I get for trying to be smart with credit cards I guess.

It's A Mini-Up

2008-04-03T19:05:00.000-07:00

I've done my net worth update. You may have noticed if you clicked on the little chart on the bottom right. But I'm only up $5 for March.

I think with paying off my car this month I'll be in for a bigger jump that will actually be noticable on the chart! I like when the upward movement is something you can actually see.

A Few Extra Dollars to the Tuition Cards

2008-03-25T18:22:00.000-07:00

I sent my payments in to my "tuition cards." I paid an extra $6 to the card with the lower balance; (I'm trying to pay that one off as fast as possible). So the current totals are:

Card 1: $2648
Card 2: $2895

Student Loans Looming

2008-03-13T19:13:00.001-07:00

I was trying to plan for my loans coming due in June. When I started to do the math on them, I realized I wouldn't be making enough money to pay them all separately, and then thought I wouldn't be able to consolidate them either. (Apparently, you need to have at least $20k worth of federal loan debt to consolidate at most places - or all the ones I've seen).

Who stresses about something three months before it's supposed to happen? Me.

I think I've gotten it figured out though, so no worries. More updates on this when I actually consolidate.

WHOA!!! I didn't think it was possible!!!

2008-03-01T06:53:00.000-08:00

Somehow I managed to get an upward move instead of a downward slide in my networth this month. I really thought it was going down about $200 this month.

Wow, just wow. It's only a $21 jump up, but that's a whole lot better than $200 down. *Doing a happy dance*

Both Tuition Cards Below $3000 Each

2008-02-22T09:19:00.000-08:00

I set up the payments to my "tuiton cards" and on Tuesday they will be...

cc#1: $2714
cc#2: $2960

Obviously, that means I was able to pay the extra $36 that I mentioned in my last post. Yay!

I can't wait until those numbers are $0.

Ugh

2008-02-20T17:50:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, I had to put about $36 on one of those "tuition cards" to buy gas this past weekend. I will try to make the regular payment plus the $36, but I don't know if it will happen. Update coming soon on payments to the tuition cards as well!

My "Tuition Cards"

2008-02-12T15:25:00.000-08:00

I forgot to include in my "Numbers" post the tuition from my final semester that I put on two 0% APR credit cards. (I figured 0% on a credit card was better than 8 or 9% in a private loan).

Those numbers are:

cc#1 - $2774
cc#2 - $3025

That brings the number to $36,937.47. That number just sucks.

Donation already!

2008-02-08T12:44:00.000-08:00

A quick shout out to the awesome person who donated $25 already. You rock. :-D You know who you are.

The Numbers

2008-02-07T10:10:00.000-08:00

I thought it would be interesting to put all the numbers out here on my student loans. These are current as of right now.

nn1 - $3491.78 + interest $9.99 (this one is in repayment)

nn2 - $3194 + interest $105.84

nn3 - $5500 + interest $482.79

gl1 - $1142.23 + interest $163.51

gl2 - $5250 + interest $947.70

sm - $9165 + interest $1685.63 (This is combined. I really have two but it doesn't show them separately).

For a total of $31,138.47. Yuck.

(Like I said before, feel free to donate! :-D)

This isn't totally serious...

2008-02-05T10:31:00.000-08:00

or maybe it is. I'm doing this for my own amusement. Don't hate me. :-D

But feel free to actually donate. Is this allowed? I'm not even sure. Donate if you like my other blog. (I'm unable to put a donate link on there). Or if you're just an amazing person who wants to help me pay off student loans. :-P