Doing a little catchup

Sorry, I've been a little MIA for a bit. Things at work have been crazy. Citi just announced a joint venture with Morgan Stanley. I work for Citi -- Global Wealth Management/Smith Barney. In the midst of all this chaos, I took a few days off to head over to London, where my sister lives, to help her out.

So to bring you up to speed on where I stand re: my financials -- not much has changed. I've made some strides on my smaller credit cards but then ended up having to charge on the 'bigger 'card.

I'm trying to get to a point where I can completely switch to the "cash" method -- not actually carrying cash -- paying everything through my debit card. I had a few bills (cable, mobile, and gym) set up as automatic payment through the 'bigger' card. However, I've moved my mobile and gym over to my debit/checking card. My aim is to get my cable over by the time the March bill rolls around.

I'm also considering removing the data plan service on my mobile/iphone. Do I really use the internet/email options on my iphone? I do maybe once a day but it's never for anything super important. Most of the personal emails can wait until I get home to check. (And those who really need to reach or email me know my work email.) I also have those applications such as finding a bar/restaurant in my immediate area but I have yet to use them. So if I want to save a good $35-40/month, this may be the best thing to do.

I've had 2 successful NO SPEND TUESDAYS this month. Hopefully I can squeeze one more in this Tuesday. I had one failed attempt two weeks ago. It was purely poor planning on my part. I really didn't plan my lunch very well. I ended up breaking down to get a bag of chips -- which also didn't help in the "Getting Ph-It" part. So it was a double whammy day.

I have made some good strides on saving any $5 bills that make their way into my hands. Last week in particular, I had $20 worth of $5 bills. Those went straight into the piggy bank. All in all, my piggy bank is probably providing me the best "return" -- meaning it's one of the areas that are in the positive.

I do have a bit of good news!!! I just found out that I will be getting a bonus this year. YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. It's not close to what I made last year but, considering the economy, you will hear NOOOO complaints from me. I'm hoping to put away $1000 and then use the rest to pay off the 2 small credit cards. I think I may have a small balance left. STILL!!! If I'm left with one big card and one itsy bitsy one, I'll be so psyched!! And then I'll try to impose the snowball method. Once each card is paid off, I'll take the amount that was used to pay off the smaller card and add that to the amount that is going to the bigger card. (keeping my fingers crossed)