Oct 20, 2008
The Daily Poverty Post.
When last we saw Bossy she was filing for divorce due to a newly discovered student loan balance of $8,124.06 –where .06 cents equals the pickax stuck between Bossy’s eyes.
You see, when Bossy met her husband she was in school, but she quit soon after. And then soon after that, she went back to school, this time in a new direction. And then soon after that, Bossy’s husband went back to school. And then soon after that, Bossy went back to school again, this time in a newer direction – and that is the bedtime story of Project Dysfunction.
All of that School interfered with Bossy and her husband’s ability to focus on things other than school, for instance: jobs. To counteract the fact that money was moving outward with very little coming in, Bossy and her husband moved with their baby son into a tiny one-bedroom apartment—the bedroom designated for their baby son, while Bossy and her husband slept on an inherited sleep sofa in the living room, where Bossy would awake like a fireman early each morning in order to hide the bed and bedding from view.
But the debt incurred during this period of time was something that Bossy and her husband could never shake, as there always seemed to be a pressing need, one behind the other, like the Rockettes.
That said, Bossy is now ready to befriend the balance of Mastercards One and Two.
The first thing Bossy did was gain online access to both accounts, and she bookmarked both accounts and stuck them in her Debt Watch folder on her desktop along with her Honda information and her school loan.
And Bossy has good news! Mastercard Two dropped from $2,200 owed, to a balance of 2,165.07! That’s a reduction of $34.93!
But then Mastercard One actually went up $34.93. And then another $34.93. And then $183.85 on top of that. Bossy isn’t sure what accounts for $253.71 worth of new charges on Mastercard One, which leads Bossy to the topic of tomorrow’s Poverty Post: keeping track of your spending.
Check out the (below) list of blogs participating in Bossy’s Poverty Party, and don’t forget to comb the comments for links to the latest Poverty posts across the web.
Bossy,
How many times do I gotta tell ya? I’m not going to party with poverty; I choose to mock it. Poverty can bite me. Although I did get you to give me the blog bling, huh? Nice of me. I’m just here for the cocktails and because all the cool people hang out with you. I’m a poseur.
Love, Cheri
Dumpster diving is the new wave. Again. (Thanks, collapsed economy!) Check it out at amycates.blogspot.com.
I bit the bullet and climbed out of debt….then I retired last year, debt free. No more credit cards. If I can’t buy it, I go without. My debit cards work just fine.
My husband just confirmed his total student loan debt at $210,000. With interest, by the time he pays it off: $300,000. One and a half more years until he makes the big dinero, then we have 7 years to come up with college money for our son. I have had that same pickax between the eyes, sista. Here is my newest find for all to share (and it’s FREE!) http://quicken.intuit.com/
This has many of the same functions as Quicken, but is the online version, and helps you watch your accts., pay bills, and track spending. I particularly like the pie charts because, well, it’s like a big PIE IN THE FACE when I see what I spend on things like “Personal Care”.
On the topic of watching our spending habits, here’s my first Poverty Party post: http://karenmaehr.blogspot.com/2008/10/soupe-aux-fves.html. I’ll share more ideas soon!
http://www.unclaimed.org/ So another blogger posted this link and I went to it, and within ten minutes I found unclaimed money for myself (Hawaii), my dad and an uncle (Louisiana) and another uncle (New York). It’s worth a few minutes to see if you have any old tax rebates or phone company rebates or property tax rebates or any other kind of unclaimed property lurking around the corner. No joke, not spam, not a Rick-roll thing, but actual links to state departments of treasury and comptrollers.
I think you’re giving me a panic attack. The best day of my life was when the Husband took over my finances. I haven’t been in debt since. However, we don’t have kids (yet), we don’t have credit cards (anymore), and we don’t have student loans (we’re dumb).
That hasn’t necessarily helped with a bad spending habit. I like to buy things for my kitchen and pretend I’m an iron chef and thus the reason we don’t own a home. Dang it.
Wow its a wonder any of us actually learn anything at school because we are all so busy trying to survive. The hubs and I did school the Bossy way, and now owe more in student loans than we do on our house.
Hey! I (Finally) completed my first poverty party post! Yea me! It’s called: Frugalicious. Yes G – I was working on my site.. na na naa naaaaa.
[...] I’m taking part in Bossy’s Poverty Party, I’m sharing my ideas for how to save money/get out of debt. I think I may have mentioned [...]
My second Poverty Party post is up at Eriepressible. It’s a hint on how to save a little bit of money. Whether you use to to help pay down debt or put it toward a new pair of boots, well, that’s up to you.
http://blogs.brocknet.net/eriepressible/?p=1926
We may have to join the Poverty Party–21 years of the most responsible living possible means we can make it a year with my husband out of work and my son and I both in college at the same time. In this economy, a year may not be enough. This is scary times.
I love that you have a debt-watch folder. I have a spreadsheet. Which I am still going to send you, right after I impress the hell out of my new boss by working extra hard this week including answering emails at 10pm at night. This is my own personal war against the monster, getting an actual proper job having been self-employed for four years. It burns. Anyway, this spreadsheet, every week I enter my spending into it, balance it off against my bank account and look at the balance sheet I keep for each credit card and bank account and sometimes make decisions based on things like ‘0% balance transfer’ offers to pay off A, B and C from ‘D’ and then work at paying down ‘D’ in chunks before the 0% offer runs out. Anyway, back to work or my mysterious bank balance which I am too scared to check at the moment, ceases to receive things like salary cheques.
My sister wants to be a Rockette when she grows up.