Just tracking my spending for the remainder of the week...

Wednesday::
$4.27 - coffee and pastry before work
$3 - went out to a show with jae

Thursday::
$0

Friday::
PAY DAY!! = $555.32

This is going to be a rough 2 weeks though because our electric and gas bills are both a month behind and we need to catch them both up before Jesse pays his first month of bills at the house on April 1 ... plus I need to pay my car insurance and cell phone bill.... EEK!

On the brighter side of things I finally talked to Lindsey about the $420 that I still owe to APS from the old apartment. I told her that I don't think it's fair that I have to pay that whole thing just because it was in my name, when she and her boyfriend at the time were both living there. So she's going to give me 2/3 of that bill after her vacation next month.... then once I get that from her I can just put in my 1/3 and that will be bill #1 paid off!!

Here's my short term goal .... since the plan as of now is that I need to move to my own place by October 1st I need to save a decent amount of money by then. I need money for a deposit... need to pay off what I owe to the electric company so I can get that turned on... and save up enough to get some basic furniture and other things needed for my own place.

I'm getting $811 back on my tax return... I plan to take $200 of that for a weekend trip, only because I won a 2 night stay at a resort in San Diego and tickets to Sea World ... I figure $200 should be enough to cover my half of the gas and food for 3 days, and maybe a little bit of extra spending money.

The remaining $611 is going to go to paying off the electric company ($420) and I'm planning to use the other $191 to get new tires for my car, they're getting worn out and I don't need to have any more blow outs on the freeway.

My goal is to save $500 a month April-September .... which will give me $3000 .... about $1500 of that will be the deposit money for my own place, and the other $1500 will be for my furniture and other things, I plan to do LOTS of thrift store and garage sale shopping for those things, and look for any hand me downs from friends and family.

So yesterday I gave a little background about the giant mess of debt that I am in ..... here's the list of it all ::

Accounts in Collections::
Chase Visa - $2410
Target - $576
Capital One - $1133
First Financial Bank - $7329
Verizon - $791
APS - $420
Old Navy - $128
Cox - $296
Chase Mastercard - $8235
Best Buy - $3200 (approx)
Sprint - $400 (approx)
Old bank accounts - $600 (approx)
I couldnt find any statements for the last 3, but that's about what I remember them to be at....

Student Loans::
Sallie Mae - $4622
USDOE - $9500

:::TOTAL DEBT:::
$39,640


Income::
$1700/month

Monthly Expenses (starting April 1st)::
Rent - $217
Utilities - $75
Cable/Internet - $40
Cell Phone - $100
Insurance - $53
and estimating
Food - $100
Gas - $100

::TOTAL MONTHLY EXPENSES::
$685

So with that remaining $1015 a month I need to come up with a plan to save some and pay off some of that debt. As of now the plan is that I am suppose to be moving into my own place around October 1st... so I need to make sure to have money for a deposit by then as well as to buy some things for my place since I have NOTHING of my own.... any ideas/suggestions/advice is greatly appreciated

So after a million times trying to create a blog and failing, I'm finally here and think I have the motivation to actually stick with it this time around. Soooo ... here we go for the obligatory introductory post.

I'm 26... college student ... working full time... and have MASSIVE amounts of debt between credit cards, student loans, and other random things that have gotten sent off to collections. How did I get into this mess?? Well ... here's a little bit of my background....

I lived at home until I was 20 ... I had to pay my own cell phone, internet, car payment, and insurance from the time I was 16. I got my first credit card at 18 ... I used it quite a bit but always paid AT LEAST double what the minimum payment was. I was working a management job and bringing home $600 a week ... one paycheck covered all of my bills... and instead of being smart and SAVING the rest (or ANY of it) I went shopping .... A LOT ... and treated my friends to dinner/movies/concerts/whatever .... A LOT.

I decided at 20 to move out with my boyfriend and a roommate ... shortly after that I quit my job and took a lil part time job where I was barely bringing home $600 A MONTH .... BIG CHANGE from what I was used to .... sooooo I started putting EVERYTHING on my credit card. I'd get offers for more credit cards ... and take them ... and rack those up as well. Since I had what seemed to be an endless supply of money I bought myself and my boyfriend everything we wanted and took us on vacations.

The minimum payments on my cards slowly started getting up to $50-$100 EACH ... and I had 7 of them. By this time I had gotten a full time decent paying job again (about $1600 a month) ... and was able to STOP putting everything on credit cards, but by then the payments had gotten to be impossible to keep up with. Of course the late fees and overlimit fees all added up and I pretty much just gave up and stopped paying them altogether.

My boyfriend and I broke up in September 2010 ... I couldnt afford the apartment that we were living in at the time on my own and I KNEW that but I was being stubborn and refused to move. Within a few months I had my internet shut off and cell phone shut off for non payment and those sent to collections... and was on the verge of being evicted. I brought in 2 roommates in January which helped to get my rent paid... I was also able to get my internet and phone turned back on through different companies.

I was starting to save a little money and was going to start working on paying off some of the smaller bills (like the internet and cell phone) and then I lost my job in April. I moved out of that apartment and moved in with my best friend who was willing to help me out until I could find a new job and get things in order ... and even then he was willing to let me pay only $200 in rent while I got things caught up.

I found a new job fairly quickly and thought that things were going to get better... until my roommate lost his job in July. Since he helped me out I felt it was only fair to help him while he looked for a job... so my WHOLE paycheck was going straight to rent and the other bills... AGAIN .. and the little bit that I had managed to save earlier in the year had to be used. He didnt have as much luck finding a job ... he picked up odd jobs here and there and helped out where he could, he also did all of the cleaning and cooking that way when I got home from work I didnt need to worry about those things... but we were definitely struggling to make it.

Which brings us to now ... he has a regular weekday job now and is a stage manager for a burlesque troop .... I have my full time job... and his boyfriend just moved in with us. All of the bills will be split 3 ways starting April 1. All of my bills for the month should be just around $400 ... leaving me $1300 a month ... my GOAL is to save AT LEAST $800 a month out of that... leaving myself $500 a month to cover gas (which my roommate will help with since we share a car) and any entertainment/clothes/whatever else .... I feel that that should be enough so that I don't feel like I'm giving up anything, and also still save quite a bit.

And there we have it .... me and the lovely mess that I got myself into.... hope you all stick around to follow my journey out of it!! I'm sure I'll be needing plenty of advice and support!