by Daniella Antelo

Created on: November 20, 2008   Last Updated: January 21, 2009

I have become crazy over the last year or two regarding paying off my debts and budgeting. I had to get a roommate to help take the load off of me a little bit. Outstanding balances on credit cards and lines of credit can add up fast! I've ended up spending most of my free time every night, with a binder, a pad of paper, a calculator, and a pen. Calculating and counting and budgeting became my norm for a while. It drove, and still drives my spouse crazy sometimes.

I would figure out how much money I make every month, including my roommates rent. Subtract my good debt, (mortgage, car payments, insurance) and then subtract the minimum monthly payments of my bad debts, (line of credit and three credit cards), then my allowable maximum for variable expenses, (groceries & gas). I had to figure out how much goes out of my account every two weeks and on what days. Figuring out how much you pay in monthly fees for your bank account is important too. I learned to spend on cash only and I wrote down everything I spent. If you think about it, it's cheaper with cash because you are avoiding the service fees you're charged everytime you use your debit cards. Have you ever thought about how much you spend using them? It adds up.

With all of my calculating I found out that I barely had enough to go to a movie during the month, (so my spouse would pay). I didn't even have a few extra dollars to put into a savings account for emergencies. I worried about that a little and became more of a hermit than I wanted to be to avoid extra spending. It's embarrassing really, but I'd rather be a little bit broke then having to avoid the phone when the creditors call. I would scribble down everything that I would spend on variables and I would be working with cash. I would go to the cheapest pumps and search for Safeway coupons to save a few bucks.

By last April I decided to get a part-time job on the weekends to help me out even more. I would work 16-18 extra hours every week, to try and put more money onto my debts. Since the money coming in from my second job wasn't always consistent, I wanted to make little payments here and there on every outstanding balance, just to make some kind of payment. I figured that I actually wansn't paying down my debt at all, and just part of the interest. My balances were starting to accumulate slightly and I was paying more than I originally had to. When I found another part-time job with a more consistent pay, I learned to pay down my smaller debts

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