Happy Holidays

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.
Wish everyone the very best in the new year - joy, love, health and wealth.

Anyone want to 'fess up to any new year's resolution? I'm in the process of fine tuning mine. I promise to post them. Lord knows I will need all the support/help/encouragement I can get.

Taking it to the bank

So it's that time of year where I "release" the piggy. Meaning...I release the stopper in my piggy bank and let the change flow. I collect coins all year long and count it up at the end of the year.

I used to have a coin counter but that busted literally after 3 or 4 uses - cheap ass thing. I still had the roll sleeves so I just counted them up myself. No biggie.

What was my tally?

$130.50. WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

I had coins leftover too. If I couldn't actually fill up a whole sleeve, I put those coins back into the piggy.

What to do with this small bundle?

I've already told myself that any "extra" income I come into will be split - 50% savings and 50% debt. I have a small little exception for this though. I've decided to use $50 of the 50% savings to send to my maternal grandmother in CA as a Christmas present.

Ups and Down for the Week

So I didn't really end this week on a high note. I did a little bit of shopping - bought 3 pairs of shoes. Only one pair was DESPERATELY needed for work. One was necessary but not dire - I needed new ballerina flats which I wear as walking shoes in the city. My old pair literally RIPPED in the rain. I have another pair that I can't just wear with anything. I did show SOME restraint by waiting until the 25% off coupon kicked into effect. Does that count for something?
This is one of my problems. I can initially hold off on purchases. The moment I can find two semi-good reasons, I'll go for it. I have a hard time denying myself for too long. Low willpower. (sigh)
I had a friend's holiday party -- luckily didn't spend any money on food/drinks that night. However, my friends and I did split a cab on the way home. Oh wait...back up...I did spend $$ for a cab to the party as it wasn't that close to the subway. Plus, I was in super high heels. I did stay in the rest of the weekend -- well, this was partly attributed to my being semi-sick.
One really good note - I wrote all my christmas cards today. And guess what? I didn't have to buy any cards, not any extra/new ones that is. I try to stock up on cards post-holidays when they are 75% and higher. Most of the time, I still have to buy an extra box. This year, I really took a look at my list -- who do I really keep in touch with...to whom do i want to send a personalized card? As for the rest...those whom I don't really keep in touch with but don't want to leave them high and dry...I may just think of some sort of e-greeting. I'm still figuring that out.

This is where I stand

Okay so I just turned a year older...33. I feel like now is a perfect time to start being truly accountable to my current finances....a new year....a new start....it's time to get cracking on eliminating my debt. I know it won't be easy. I know I'll make PLENTY of mistakes along the way. I will own up to each and every good day and bad day.

So as I turn 33 (ending 32), this is where I stand:
Mastercard: 15468.75 (7.99%)
Amex: 8420.94 (9.99%)
TOTAL: 23889.69

I just rec'd notification that my Amex APR will be jumping to 15.99%. WTF?!?!?! I opted out which means I will be closing this account by July 2009. In the meantime, I opened another card with 0% balance transfer. I was only given $2K limit. Hopefully when I receive the card, I can call to request an increase. I would like to transfer thhe whole balance of my amex over.
I'm assuming my credit score probably took a hit from this. I currently stand around 772 according to Equifax. I'll have to wait and see what this does to it. (sigh)
I honestly don't know how to best tackle this. I'm in the process of gathering my expenditures from the past 2 months to see where I are the biggest pitfalls. I've already cut back on eating out/ordering-in multiple times in one week -- but not such an easy task when living in NYC. I'm trying to cut back on taking the taxis at a drop of a pin. These are immediate things that pop out at me.

Double incentive cutbacks: I recently purchased 2 Camelbak water bottles (10.99 each) - one for work and the other for the gym. I normally buy Poland Spring sports bottles -- granted I had it delivered by the 'slate' which was cheaper. However, I felt so guilty b/c of the plastic waste I kept throwing out. So I stopped order the 24 bottle delivery. And now, I'll be using these reusable water bottles. Most of the time, I ended up buying water at the gym b/c it was too cumbersome to carry a bottle from home (I normally go to the gym right after work...so that would mean carrying the bottle around all day). So that was $1.75 I would spend on water 6x a week. A little more saved. PLUS, a little less plastic waste produced.

Taking my first stab at this...

So lately I've been reading these different blogs on people discussing their finances - specifically their debt and how they're eliminating it. By blogging about their debt, they seem to keep themselves accountable. And along the ways, they're ideas or steps have helped other people. I know I've picked up a few good tips. Hopefully those tips will help me.
So this is my first stab at getting my debt in check. I have yet to get a handle on it. I'm hoping that if I put out on a blog, I'll be a bit more accountable to myself. I'll try to be as brutally honest as possible. Should you come across this and have an opinion about what I should be doing...what I shouldn't be doing...or something I've missed altogether, please comment. I'll try to take the good, the bad and the ugly.