I am very happy to have this weekend off. After a long week (3 days at my branch and 2 days in a consumer lending class), I'm definitely in need of some "me" time. I really like to set goals for myself on the weekends, otherwise I end up laying in bed watching TV or doing nothing! I feel like if I set goals to achieve, I have a more productive and fullfilling weekend.

Some things on my agenda are:

• Get oil changed in car.
• Get gas for car.
• Pick up lunches at the grocery store for the work week.
• Finish reading Dreamfever by K. Moning (almost there!).
• Start another book.
• Watch at least one of my Netflix DVDs.
• Go running at least once.
• Do laundry!!!!

It all seems pretty do-able and not very stressful. But being structured helps me feel like I had a more complete weekend.

So, in addition to my update about the weekend, I also have some BIG news. J is officially in the US Air Force. He ships out to Boot Camp on December 29th, the day before his birthday. Because of this, we are getting married sometime in November. It will be a very simple, very small, but lovely and intimate wedding. Honestly, I could care less about the wedding, I just want to be married to the man I love. =)

We weren't expecting his ship out date for Boot Camp to be until February or March, but now it's happening a lot sooner than expected, which is both good and bad. Good, because he gets Boot Camp over with faster and starts earning money sooner than expected. Bad, because I thought I'd have about another full year to get that BofA loan paid off. While he is in Boot Camp I'll be paying whatever little monthly bills he has with his paychecks, but I'll also be taking a portion of the money for myself to pay down my debt.

After Boot Camp, he goes for about 60 days of technical training for his job and then after that, we will be moving to our first duty assignment. This means I will be giving up my job to move with him. Our plan is to have that big BofA loan paid off completely before we move. It will make things so much easier. Of course, I'm planning on working after we get settled on the base, but I'm honestly looking to take at least a month off work to get moved in, get aquainted with our new area, and to relax a little.

Anyway, our goal will be to get as much debt as possible paid off before we move. We want to pay off the BofA loan, then start working at the credit cards, and finally the car loan. Obviously the car loan is the largest debt item, however it is the lowest interest item right now. As I stated yesterday, I'm not really putting a lot of money in savings right now, but I would like to build up to a $1,000 to $1,500 Emergency Fund, possibly more depending on how the debt looks.

There is a lot to be done within the next 6 to 9 months, but I know that if I keep focused with paying down the debt, we'll make it. =)

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend!

- Bank Gal

Labels: air force, debt, emergency fund, goals, money, weekend plans

J paid me back for the $210 credit card payment I made for him last week. In fact, he gave me $10 extra! So after plotting for a week how I was going to spend the money, I decided the best thing to do was split it up into a couple different accounts. I really need to beef up my savings a little, especially since I have nothing saved for Christmas and I've taken so much out of my emergency fund lately. Here is how I'm dividing up my $220:

• $100 to Emergency Fund
• $50 to Christmas Savings
• $10 to Vegas Savings (not really doing much with this account, just tired of seeing it at zero)
• $30 to Slush Fund (the money is going to my hair appointment I have next week)
• $30 to Nordstrom credit card

I thought about putting it all toward a credit card payment or all to the Emergency fund, but I decided that putting some in each account was a good idea and I'm even putting a little toward debt too.

I'll update later on my weekly spending and current balances.

- Bank Gal

Labels: christmas savings, debt, emergency fund, savings

So I haven't updated lately because frankly... my finances are just depressing and it sucks to write about it. But I feel like if I keep writing about it and tracking it, things are bound to get better. Lots of things are happening in my life lately.

My unemployed future-husband is considering joining the Air Force, which I totally support 110%. He is a wonderful man, but unfortunately he has no education and has been out of work for the last 13 months. His younger brother recently joined the Air Force and loves it, so my fiance (who I will call J) have discussed long and hard about the Air Force option. Honestly, there aren't many options, but this seems like the most logical. We are in our mid-20s and while I have my career established, he does not. I know we want to get married and have a family within the next 3-5 years, but we can't do that until he gets his career set. Unfortunately, the Air Force doesn't need recruits, so they are never in their office and don't return J's phone calls. In the mean time, J's dad in Boston has some work for him to do where he can make $600 a week, so J is leaving on Tuesday to go back to Boston for a month to earn some quick cash.

Aside from that, on Wednesday, I received a phone call from a collection agency. At first I thought it must be a mistake, so I called them and they said I owed $133.25 to PGE from my old apartment that I moved out of back in April. So I called PGE and talked to them and they said I owed $91 from a February-March bill I never paid (WHAT?!) and another $31 from a March-April bill I didn't pay (SERIOUSLY?!) and $11 from a small April bill. I tried hard not to cry on the phone. I couldn't believe it. I've never missed a payment or made a late payment to anything in my life. And now I was being sent to collections?!

So I looked at my bank statements and low and behold, I totally missed those two payments they said I owed them. I never received any information from PGE because they didn't have my new address, but they did have my current phone number, yet I never received a single phone call from them. I am just furious... at myself for forgetting those payments, at PGE for not calling me, and at the stupid collection agency.

I had no choice but to pay the debt, so I called the collection agency and made a $133.25 payment (plus $4.50 fee for making a phone payment). I'm going to call them on Monday and request that they send me a receipt for payment in full so I have it for my records. But I'm utterly furious and upset about having a collection on my credit report now. I've worked so hard to have perfect credit.

I also did a $2000.00 balance transfer from my Nordstrom Visa to my bank's employee credit card which offers 0% interest for 12 months and after that the rate is only 5.25%. That still leaves about $300 on Nordstrom. My BofA loan is down to $6,500 and my Chase credit card is at $3980. So it's getting paid down, just not fast enough. My savings has taken hit, especially after the $133.25 I just had to pay, plus I had another emergency I had to drain my savings for back in July.

As far as my finances go, things aren't going very well at all. And it just makes me depressed. =(

- Bank Gal

Labels: collection, debt, emergency fund, finances, savings