I'm going to snowflake my bills away

I have 2 credit card bills that just won't seem to go away. Minimum payments are not helping even though the balances are pretty low. I've decided to just snowflake them away. Since I can make as many payments as I want to every month, I'll just send whatever extra money I get when I get it.

Usually I save between $5-20 dollars from my lunch money. If I bring my lunch every day and stick to my plan, I save the top amount. Random purchases, especially snacks, brings me closer to the lower amount. Whatever is left once the pay period is over will be evenly split between my savings account and my credit cards.

I would love to have these two paid off by July and get started on my larger bill. Unfortunately I have a lot of debt to snowflake away. But as long as I stick to my plans, I should be ok.

I want to switch my cell phone plan

My plan is over $150 per month. I have 2 phones because I pay for my niece to have a phone. We both have unlimited everything although our data gets throttled because we go over 2G of data per month. I barely go over 2G but my niece uses over 5G per month.

Now I want to switch to a value plan where you pay for the service but there is no subside for phones. Either you can pay full price for a phone from the company or bring your own phone. The problem is that they don't want to let me get the cheapest plan because of the data. I'm also getting the runaround on whether or not I get to keep my corporate discount.

I'll have to crunch the numbers before I commit and change anything.

Doing Work

Guest post from: Kent Lara

When I found out the price of electricity per kilowatt hour in my area I just about had a stroke – how could I be paying that much for energy? I did some shopping and found the cheapest provider and that sent me off on a tangent – I had to find a way to save where I could. Anyway, I’ve gotten my water bill down as well as my cable and I think I’m on my way to really streamlining my household bills. I think it’s important to know what you’re paying when and at the end of the day I want to be financially responsible, not beholden to anyone (or any bank) because I can’t afford what I’m buying each and every month. I’m even thinking of cancelling my credit card to avoid charging things I don’t need to – there’s no sense in living outside your means and I’m working hard to become the most frugal person on my block. That’s a title you can be proud of!

I can't wait for my cell phone contract to expire

Ugh I feel like they're gouging me. They have a new plan that I can't switch to because you don't get the equipment discount that I get now. Since I got a new phone last year and added my niece to my plan this year, also getting her a phone, I have to wait until next year before my contract is up. Technically it won't be up but if you're within 5 months of your contract ending, they don't hit you with a early termination fee.

Once my contract ends, I'm going with a plan that is a little cheaper than I pay now. I'll save about $35 per month if not more. As far as phones go, I can always grab a cheap phone from somewhere. I do love my phone but I can get by with anything similar, I don't need the newest model.

Hopefully these next few months will fly by and I'll have a newer, less expensive plan before I know it.

I need 1 more large paycheck

We've had overtime available for the past few months. I didn't jump on the bandwagon until late because I didn't want to start depending on the money. Instead I've been paying extra on a bill to get it paid off sooner and adding money to my savings account for my house purchase. I've also started saving 10% of my overtime money in a separate account just to add to my savings.

If we work at least 2 more weeks of overtime, I'll be in a very good position to pay my loan off earlier than expected. If not, I'll still be on track to pay it off but paying extra is the goal. Of course, anything over 2 additional weeks of overtime will just be gravy.

I didn't have a late fee

I'm really happy about that. Especially since the fee is $100. I couldn't be mad at the school if they would have charged it. I knew the payment was due and by waiting until the last minute, it totally slipped my mind.

I had better not make a habit of doing that because most companies will definitely charlge that fee.

I've been slacking on making money

I haven't made a lot of extra money in the last couple of months and that's a bad thing. Almost all of the extra money that I make helps pay for school. I was supposed to use that money in November and December to pay tuition and then in January use the money to pay down debt. Since I haven't made a lot it looks like those plans are out of the window.

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

I need to change my cell phone plan

I have a text messaging plan on my cell phone. I don't text nearly as much as I used to. The plan calls for unlimited texts but I don't even text 20 times per month now. That's only $1.00 or $2.00 instead of $10.00 per month.

It doesn't make sense to pay money for a service that I'm not using. I may as well put that money to better use.

Verizon wants all of your money

One of my coworkers wants DSL. We only have Verizon as an option here. She doesn't use their phone service though. So instead of getting the $19.99 rate, they're offering her $29.99 unless she switches phone service. Which also costs more since Verizon costs more than her existing home phone service.

I told her to keep shopping around. There's bound to be a better deal out there.

Just when you think you're getting ahead

I thought everything was going good. I got a new job with a raise in salary which will leave me with a little bit of extra money at the end of the month. I'm paid one month ahead on two of my loans and I have the money to pay for my summer class. So what went wrong? My stupid car!!!

There is work that needs to be done with the transmission. A sensor needs to be replaced, there needs to be some updates done to the sensor and I need a fluid flush and fill. Also the last owner stuck a nail in the hose connecting the windshield washer fluid to the sprayer. Then they put something down in it so that needs to be totally replaced.

The damage? $650. That is money that I was not anticipating putting out right now. I do have some money in my car account, but it's not that much. That means I have to take the money out of my savings account. This is work that has to be done. It's not like I can put it off. So I guess I'll have to tighten my belt even further until I replace my savings.

The thing that angers me the most is that this car is only 2 1/2 years old. That means the previous owner didn't do any type of maintenance on this car. And we didn't catch it in the pre-sale inspection. I had already decided that in the future I will only buy new cars instead of used. This just solidifies that position.

It's time for my lease renewal

I rent my apartment and I have to renew my lease every year. It's that time. The renewal is due Thursday. I've already signed it but I'm mailing it on Wednesday with my rent check. The company is local so a one day window is fine.

The only thing I hate about renewing my lease is that my rent goes up every year. Usually it's $10 but this year it's $20. I can't really complain though because my rent is still less than $500.00 a month for a 1 bedroom apartment. I live in a very convenient location and I'm right on the busline. I have 2 or 3 grocery stores within a one mile radius. There are banks, smaller retail stores, places to eat etc.

I don't plan on moving out of this building until I leave Pittsburgh or buy a house. Whichever comes first. I really do like it here.

The downside of paying bills online

I can really only think of one downside and of course I'm living it right now. I can't log into my account to pay my bill. The first time I tried to log in, I couldn't remember my username or password. Then I got the password wrong two more times.

I got a try again later message. I don't know if they're having trouble with their system or if I'm locked out because I tried to log in so many times. Either way I can't pay my bill right now. I'll have to either call and pay over the phone or send in a check (Horror of horrors!). Of course the bill is past due but it's the cable bill and as long as it's not over a month late there are no late fees.

My mom and her credit card

I just found out that my mom got one of those awful high interest credit cards. To add insult to injury they have both an annual fee and a monthly maintenance fee. Ugh. I wish she would have talked to me first. There are some great Credit Cards out there, but this bank definitely does not offer one. Her bank specializes strictly in cards for people with bad credit.

I told her that that's no reason to get robbed blind by the credit card company. She can apply for a secured credit card. That's where your balance is determined by how much you have in their banks' savings account. Most legitimate companies will release your deposit after one year and give you a unsecured card.

Either way I think it's a great way to rebuild credit. After all, most people don't qualify for 0% or low interest rate cards. But that doesn't matter that people should be raked over the coals either.

Paying bills on line

Just a word of advise. Find out when your bank, credit union, or financial institution sends out the checks when you use on line bill pay. When I first signed up, my bank mailed the checks out 3 days before you said you wanted the bill paid.

Two months ago, they changed their tos (terms of service) to say that the check will be mailed out on the exact day that you want the bill paid. I still paid my bills the same way and last month, two of my bills were late. One charged a late fee (a credit card company of course), one did not. I am not mad at the bank at all. I should have read the up to date tos.

I just want to send a reminder/warning to everyone else to keep up to date with the tos of your bank and to find out exactly what day your checks are being sent out. Hopefully, your bills won't be late and you won't get slammed with late fees like I did.

Paying down my debt

I've paid down some debt recently, but I really need to pay more. I have a student loan, a credit card and a personal loan.

I'm trying to pay the credit card off first. Luckily it has a super low balance. The sole purpose for it is to help build my credit rating back up. I use it mostly for school and personal expenses. I don't pay my tuition with the card because the school charges a fee for every transaction. I use an e-check for that. The only school-related expenses are my books. Those suckers cost a fortune.

My personal expenses are put on the card because I don't always know my checking acct balance right off the top of my head so it's easier to put it on the credit card. I don't do that very often though. Usually just once or twice a month at Walmart or Target.

Hopefully I'll get a promotion or a raise soon and I can pay my debt faster.

Checks Came In The Mail

I was expecting some money to come through. Some of it finally did. I got a check and a paypal which I wasn't expecting until next week. Unfortunately, most of this money is already set aside to pay bills. I do get to pay for a hair cut. Big Whoop! My hair is a mess. My split ends have split ends. The rest of the money goes to bills. Sigh. Maybe one day I'll actually get to keep some of my money that I work so hard for!