Today, for the first time this week it seems, I did not sit at my sewing machine and cry due to stress.
The dresses are almost complete. The coat tree has been removed from my dining room. I will finish the dresses and I will clean and decorate for Christmas in a matter of days, as well as complete my Christmas knitting and sewing.
That's a good feeling.
An even better feeling is this: once this order is completed and shipped out, I will be able to pay off one of my credit cards in full. We can then take that monthly payment and (What's that? Spend it on yarn?!? A great suggestion, but NO.) apply it to another card that needs to be paid off. After that comes my car, which is paid thru June, and then the big credit card. We should, in theory, be able to have all of these paid by next February.
That's roughly $8k that we will have paid off in just over a year, provided we can stick to our budget and not "cheat" on it.
For those of you that don't know me well, this is a huge deal.
The "big" credit card that was mentioned has been pretty near its max for the last 2 years. Why? I pretty much drained my bank account in order to purchase my home in 2010. Driving 3 hours round trip for work (180 miles PER DAY) did not do my pocketbook well. In order to avoid overdraft fees from the bank, I would use my credit card on gas and groceries, and pay my bills with my measly paychecks from the AACPS. And then, later that year, I was in pretty desperate need of a new couch. So, onto the card it went...
...and then I just put off paying it in full.
Now, my monthly payments barely make a dent. I know that once we get the little ones paid, the big one will come tumbling down far more quickly than the company would care to see. Interest, after all, is how they make their money.
My car is old. It's a 2005 Chevy Cobalt, and is slowly losing functions. It was paid off, back in 2006. And then, due to a failed relationship in which there were financial obligations that had to be cleared, I was forced to take out a title-secured loan on my car for 90% of its current (in 2010) value. So, in essence, it's actually my student loan that I am paying off against my car.
Because we live in the city and happen to not be "city folk," our first short-term (less than 5 years) goal is to get out of the city and not take a loss on our quaint little duplex in the North End. Paying these things off and having that extra money to sock away will help us achieve our goal, and many goals beyond that one.
The end, my friends, is near.
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