good news and good news
I like good news. First, in case you haven’t seen my comment in the last entry, my old but treasured phone - the one I thought had gone to the big pile of electronics in the sky - is fully functional, and will serve as a super duper backup in case my new nifty phone is put out of commission. This is great news because I don’t have to buy another new phone to serve as a backup, and it’s also great because I don’t have to purchase phone insurance every month and go through that money-sucking racket.
Other good news: In case you haven’t noticed my progress bar over to the right, I have fully funded my miniature emergency fund! $1,000 is a nice round number, large enough to pay for any of my insurance deductibles, any surprise hospital co-pays, enough to buy anything I might need in an emergency (say, some freak accident happens, all my clothes catch on fire (heaven forbid it), and my insurer doesn’t cut me a check that day, but in the meantime, I need clothes for work and some drawls underwear). I’m not finished with my emergency fund, but I’m not as pressed to feed it right now with regular contributions while I’m still in so much debt. As I get windfalls, like the $50 gift my dad gave me for no reason a few weeks ago, or my income tax refund, they’ll go into my savings.
This means that I can now give myself permission to take the money I was regularly socking away into my savings and put it towards the faster repayment of my old credit card debt (which, if you hadn’t noticed, is up to 19% paid from the 15% I’d paid as of last count). According to my projections, between regular payments, extra paychecks in August and January, and a likely payraise at the close of this year, I should be able to pay it all off a few months earlier than August ‘08. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was gone by Mother’s Day, or even Easter… or could it be? Even President’s Day, LOL! This is so exciting!
