Cash Only Christmas

I have to say, I was a bit worried about doing things this way, but I feel a ton better knowing that I won't have a huge bill after the holidays :). We got all of our shopping done on black Friday, and have just been sitting back waiting on the fun to start.

I have been watching some deals and ways to save out there, and it looks like a lot of places are offering big discounts and cash back if you use your paypal account to pay. Check it out :)

Tis the Season

With the holidays approaching, some of you may be thinking ahead to all of the fun things you are going to buy, or perhaps the credit card bills you will be left with after things are over. Being a tech junkie myself, I've been greatly tempted by some of the gadget Black Friday deals. So far, I've been able to show some restraint, and my plan for the shopping season should help me continue that trend.

I've decided to do a wholly cash Christmas this year. Sure, it won't be quite as extravagant as previous years, but I'll also not have any after Christmas buyers remorse when those bills start to show up. For friends and family, we are going to do a very small card/candy type of deal saving the bulk of the money for the girls. We're even not really doing anything for each other this year either (our iPhones were our present this year). Although, I am hoping that we'll get enough cash from family for me to go buy a toy of my own :).

We did pretty much the same thing last year and people in the family didn't really complain about it (which is the common fear I hear from people). This year, we actually have a higher budget due to the full year of planning.

Here's to a cash only Christmas and continuing on the debt snowball! Just think of what I'll be able to do next year!

November Update

Not much has been going on since I wrote last, aside from picking up some side work. Payments for our hospital bills will start in Dec at around 150 a month, so I've got THAT to look forward to :).

The side work I just did has just about replenished our emergency fund. The good news is that there is probably some more to be had there, so I'm hoping I get some more work from that client. In the mean time, I'm still working on that project I mentioned earlier. Hopefully I can make some progress with it and get it out for all of you wonderful people to try :). It will be a free service that is ad based, so hopefully it will do well. Actually, I really want to be able to sell ad space to people after it takes off (a bit more money there than google ads).

Here's to scheming!

Quick Money Saving Tip

I was in Target the other night picking up a few things, one of which was diapers. If you have kids, then you know how many of those bad boys you end up going through and how much of a drain on the budget they can be. Anyhow, after I found the size 5 diapers, I noticed something a bit off about the price. I wasn't exactly sure what it could be, but the numbers just didn't sit with me.

The smaller pack was listed at $9.99 for 40, and the Super Jumbo Mega Value Pack was $18.99 for 72 diapers. It must be the little bit of OCD in me, but the numbers didn't feel right. I pulled out my trusty calculator to figure out the cost per unit of the diapers I was about to purchase.

I looked at the Jumbo Pack first, figuring it was going to be the best deal. The cost per diaper is $.263 per diaper. I thought that wasn't too bad, and checked out the smaller pack. To my surprise, the 40 pack came out to being $.249 per diaper.

So, I bought two 40 packs and went on my way :). The moral of the story is that the large bulk packs aren't necessarily the best deal. Always check the price per unit to make sure you're not that hapless victim of a marketing gimick.

Medical Bills Are Fun - Update 2

Good news!!

We got approved for the 0% financing for 18 months. I've got the paperwork here to sign and send back, but this is good. I don't have to take out money from any other credit lines and get screwed in the process. Sure, this will slow down our snowball a bit, but that's ok. In the grand scheme of medical expenses, this is minor :).

I'm actually working on a fun side project that has some serious potential after I get it up and running. I'll keep you all posted on the progress :).

Medical Bills Are Fun - Update 1

Well, there is a silver lining. I called the hospital to try to negotiate the bill down some if I paid them in one lump. They said that since they already discounted it from insurance they couldn't discount it again -- Whatever :). I'm sure that if I was able to prove I had no ability to pay they would drop it down some -- but that's a rant for another time.

I did find out that even though they have a couple different payment plans, the one I'm going to apply for has 0% for 18 months. This is actually a pretty sweet deal. Sure, I'm taking on more debt, but I'm not getting hit with any interest. If i did the same thing with my line of credit, I'd be paying nearly 10% on the money for an indefinite amount of time since it is the last on my snowball. With the payments on this being split to 18 months, it makes it a reasonable $139 a month. I've got more than that dedicated to the snowball, so it is going to all be piled on this debt. I should be able to pay this off in about 13 months if I can stick to it.

After that is paid off, then I'll have about another 13 months to go on the Van, so I should be able to knock out two major debts in 26 months. I really sucks thinking about things like that, but I made this bed, so I've got to sleep in it. Thankfully, after I get some traction going the rest will go fairly quickly.

On a side note, I've already burned through $1200 of my $2000 FSA... in 2.5 months. This thing is going to be burned out well before the year until it resets. Hopefully the coming months won't be nearly as taxing as the last year has been with medical expenses.

Medical Bills Are Fun

Remember back when I was talking about our hospital visit that we never got billed for? Well, the nice folks over there must have figured out they never billed us and sent us one -- for the expected amount of around $2,500.

I definitely don't have enough in the emergency fund to cover this (or to really begin to cover it), so I'm left with two choices. Get a personal loan to cover it, or use a line of credit I already have available to cover it. In dealing with hospitals in the past, they will usually allow for 3-4 months of payments to be made without interest, but if you need more time than that they insist you go with an outside credit agency of some sort. Since I can't afford an extra $600 a month (blasted current debts), I'm forced to go the route of financing this expense.

I suppose the route I go all depends on the interest rate and terms of the loan I might be able to get. My line of credit is set for 9 years at 9.9% interest. Technically, this is the last thing on my debt snowball, so this $2,500 will be lingering for a while. On the flip side, a separate loan I would get would most likely be on the 3-5 year term and add about as much to my monthly payments as the increase on the line of credit. The only downside to that plan is that this new debt would be at the bottom of my snowball, and would take president over my lowest item now. This in theory should make it go away faster, but then again, it will push off the current loan I am working on eliminating for another couple years. come to think of it, that loan will probably be gone in two years if I keep paying the minimums.

I'm still not sure what to do, but I am leaning toward getting a separate loan. sure, It is a bit psychologically defeating to know I'll be "taking a step back", but then again, I should be getting a raise soon and that will help knock this stuff out.

So yes, Medical Bills are fun. Fun indeed....