DebtMaven

A few housekeeping items to take care of. I added a new blog to the blogroll: Dog Ate My Finance. They’re a consistently fun read, and better yet, they don’t have ads. I guess I can understand the desire to HAVE ads to make extra income, but I kinda don’t like it. I don’t think I’ll ever have ads on this site; it goes hand in hand with my non-tv watching (like for over 10 years), alternative non-commercial radio, alternative lifestyle. It’s all about the journey, and I’m not going to care about a few extra dollars every month. Maybe if my readership was in the thousands per month, but it ain’t.

I’ve also increased my savings. In a week I’ll be up to 75% of my emergency fund total (I have a a $25 transfer scheduled monthly to keep my free checking account free). Right now I have $725, and on the 20th, it will be at $750. Not bad, and the whole process of saving it has been painless. I’m contributing $125 per month, and will have my total reached in April, as long as it doesn’t get used.

I’ve also contributed to my mini-funds, so the totals are rising.

Not that I expect to need it, but if some calamity was to befall me, I could easily raise $1,500 without using credit. It’s nice to know that that’s available if I ever needed it – between the EF, the mini-funds, and extra in my checking account.

I decided to remove the citibank credit card from my sidebar debt tally. I paid the remaining balance the first month I started the blog, and it was only a piddly amount (relatively speaking in comparison to my overall debt of $45K), $575, so I feel like it’s an inaccurate item to include; it’s not something I’ve been working to paid off, I just did it during month 1.

So as of this post, you will no longer see the citibank bar paid in full! Makes the remaining debt look more monumental, which it is. Oh well, back to the budget drawing board.