Chipping it Away......

When I first started this blog my credit card debt totaled $10,330

A couple days later I had brought it down to 9790.00.   

As of yesterday (5 months later) here's the new breakdown:

Credit Card 1: $1955.51
Credit Card 2: $1952.56
Credit Card 3: $   619.32
Credit Card 4: $ 3490.00 (ouch!)

Total:   $8017.39

When you look at it, this doesn't seem like a lot of progress, but I feel like I'm on the right track. 

First of all, since last time, I started a new job in a different state.  I still carry a mortgage until I can lease my house and I'm paying rent down here.  You'd think that would be a huge strain, but even to my surprise I've actually felt in better financial shape than at home....even though I am also still paying cable/utilities there for when I go back. 

I really don't know what it is.  My commute to work is shorter, so I don't fill my gas tank as often. I do go out to shop maybe once a week for groceries, house needs. I haven't made any big purchases or gone on any shopping sprees, online or otherwise. I don't know.  Besides the shorter commute I don't feel like my spending habits have changed all that much since December. 

But my paycheck looks better (that must be it) so I think I made a good decision to leave my last job.

Another update is that as of a couple weeks ago, ALL of my accounts are current.  There was one student loan that kind of slipped through the cracks and it's now up to date. 

I mentioned last time that I checked my credit score for the first time in years.  It wasn't pretty.  It still has a ways to go, but last week it increased by about 45 points.  Awesome.  The weird thing is that the increase is due largely in part to a student loan that seems to report whenever I make a payment.   I guess that's good but I haven't been hitting the student loans with more than the minimums yet...my focus has been the credit cards. 

So that's the update.  My strategy is to hit Credit Cards 1 & 2 hard.  I've calculated that I could have these two totally paid off by August, but I think I may be able to knock them out sooner.   I think things are looking up.   I can't wait until I can report here that all of my credit card debt is gone!