Collection.

Sooner or later I guess it was going to happen. My only credit card went to their collections dept. But oddly enough its better this way. I have been paying what I could on the card for awhile now. Only with interest it just was not getting paid down fast enough. I talked to the guy today and he said that since I have been paying on the card that is good. Now I can make payments and the amount will go down faster. Of course they asked me how I got behind, what I make, what I can pay bla bla bla. We came to an agreement for now. Oddly enough I'm ok with this. My credit is bad now with the student loans so this will not make much of a difference. And it will be paid off sooner and out of my hair. So in 4 years or less if  I can make extra payments it will be gone.

So I have been thinking and considering our debt. I wish I had a better time line of how it will go. But so far the car will be paid off in Dec, 2 bills will be paid off in about 3-4 years. Give or take depending on if I make extra money to put toward those debts. The others will be paid off by spring. Which will leave me the mortgage and student loan.

It could be worse and it could be much better.

I did put into action an envelope system!  I have been thinking and well there are things that I want to do, we need to get away and a few things I need but hate to go out and just spend the money on them. So I have made up envelopes put on them what they are for and when I get a dollar or so hanging about I'll put it in one. Now this may seem slow but think about what you spend a dollar on? I like a lottery ticket from time to time, a sweet tea from McDonalds, ice cream cones, something from the thrift store, pop from the store, a donut, a McDonalds hamburger and well you get the picture. That adds up over time. So I figure if I have a dollar or more hanging around at the end of the week it will go into an envelope. One I have just for one's. Another I stick fives in there, other larger amounts I might stick a twenty in them. And that is what that money is for. Now I know I can use that to pay off my debt. But this to me is something that I keep myself from over spending on stuff. So instead of getting a tea today I'll save that dollar, if I have it until the end of the week it goes into and envelope. A silly game I know but its motivation. Anything is worth a try. If all else fails and I need to I can go in there and use the money for my debt if it looks like I can pay it off with what I have saved. I got to start saving something somewhere along the way.

And once again I am setting up my bills in my bank account to get paid weekly. This worked for me in the past until an emergency came up and then I messed it up. So I put it back into action. I think I will eventually set the utilities up to be monthly payments instead. But for now this works.

Always learning, always thinking of how to get out of debt. Starting is the hard part, keeping it going is the challenge but in the end is the reward.