Today’s inspiration: A post on Sufficiency by Chris Guillebeau on his blog: The Art of Non-Conformity. Was led there from a link in another great blog: Get Rich Slowly
The Rules:
- Among all the debt-advice gurus, I’m most closely following Dave Ramsey. I’ll do the Debt Snowball, as well as Snowflaking.
- I will tally my snowflaking efforts on a daily basis, which will be more motivating than waiting until the end of the month. I will deduct the bits and pieces from my daily totals, which means that I may have to adjust periodically for finance charges that are added on to the next month’s statements.
- I will cut down my expenses wherever possible, paying attention to food costs, clothing costs, etc. All these savings will get thrown at the debt.
- I will sell my stuff–stuff that’s cluttering up my house. I’ll have a garage sale, and sell online. All these earnings will get thrown at the debt.
- I will maximize my income. As a freelancer, I’ll strive to get two projects a month. After paying down my debt snowball at the rate of $5000/month, I’ll save any extra money towards an emergency fund. If I get three projects, I will split the extra income between savings and debt.
- I will thank God daily for the good abundance He has given me which allows me to pay down this debt.
Those are the basics, but the rules may need to be adjusted as I go along.
Today’s Successes:
- Paid Chase Visa minimum (close to it–forgot to adjust my BillPay, so it’s slightly over): $300.
- Earned: Day’s wage
- Billed: For a project completed on Friday: $10,250. Should receive it in two weeks.
- Food Consumption: Coffee (.25) Oatmeal with Vermont maple syrup (.55), egg salad (.65) on a Thomas’ English muffin (.42) with lettuce and dill (.12), penne (.25) with homemade marinara sauce (.30) and parmesan cheese (.10), 2 oz of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (.31) for dessert. Water. 2.95 for the day
- Other consumption: $0
