A belated happy Thanksgiving! The pumpkin pies turned out better than the candied yams, but all was edible, and our feast and friendship was fully worth it.
Money has become particularly scarce lately, due in large part to the fact that I am moving (again!), putting down a security deposit, and acquiring kitchen items. It wouldn’t do to have an ill-equipped kitchen.
What all this means is that, though I have enough for the move, my aggressive debt-paying-off scheme has fallen by the wayside for a bit. I am making just over minimum payments on my larger bills, though at least the credit cards have remained free of debt.
The other thing that happens at this time of year is that the sales come out and my love of shopping emerges with them. Luckily, this year I can turn some of that shopping fascination into the acquisition of goods for my new place. There are a few other things that I’m using instead of the stores. These are garage sales and Craigslist. Initially I tried freecycle as well, but had some issues with their Yahoo groups system, which didn’t recognize me as a user. And as someone at work recently pointed out to me, my time is valuable too!
But what am I doing about the debt?
First, I make sure that all of my debt — except for work related reimbursements, which are paid off in full every billing cycle — is on non-interest bearing cards or accounts. Since my major debt is things not paid by my health insurance company, I get 1-2 years with a health care account to pay off the debt myself. While I think that my health insurance should cover some basic services, it doesn’t, and it’s not worth trying to get them to cover it anymore. Plus, buying my own insurance in California would be much pricier than paying off the debt, according to my calculations. Instead, I work with my doctor and dentist to make sure that I get the best deal possible to cover my debt.
After that, my scheme is just to pay as aggressively as possible before things come out of their non-interest period. I pay the minimum on one account and the maximum on the other, figuring that if I don’t pay it off before it starts to accrue interest, I’d rather be paying on one account than on two. I also put some money aside to help my family with anything they need each month, and — please don’t laugh — have a kitty savings account for any necessary vet bills.
So even though I’m moving, I’m doing okay. My debt is still being paid off, not piling up. If I were to go to the big black Friday sales, I’m sure we would begin to see some issues, but as long as I stick to Craigslist and the garage sales, all seems to be working quite well. With luck, we’ll be able to furnish the new house in something other than cheap chic.
