Responsibility and Accountability

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This week’s credit card activity:

$1,489.38 starting balance
– $31.00 September minimum payment
– $9.40 Half.com earnings

= $1,448.98 current balance (8.8% paid)

I am seeing very little movement on this balance, but it will speed up! I should be able to make a snowball payment at the end of the month and I have a paycheck coming this week.

Last week I mentioned that I would be interested in knowing how much interest we’ll be saving by paying this credit card off in the next three months. I found this calculator, which says that we will pay $403 in interest if we only pay minimums. I believe that we should be paying about $60 in interest over the next three months and will thus save $343 by paying the credit card off early.

We actually have more than one credit card.
CC1 – $1,448.98
CC2 – $3,037.29
CC3 – $4,363.78
CC4 – $9,105.16

I refuse to calculate how much interest we’ll be paying with all four cards. It would be too depressing. However, when I found the calculator earlier this week, I couldn’t help but plug in the numbers for CC4. Ouch. I shouldn’t have looked. Our highest balance credit card is also the one with the highest interest.

$9,105.16 balance
$231.00 monthly payment
18.24% interest rate
61 months until pay off, if only paying minimums

You will pay $5,069 in interest plus your balance for a total of $14,174.16.

Depressing. Very, very depressing. That’s why I titled this post “Responsibility and Accountability.” We have to face the music and pay the penalty for making bad financial decisions. I wish the price wasn’t so high, but this is a permanent lesson. Never again will I waste my money like this! All these numbers don’t even include all the payments and interest I’ve made over the past several years. What a waste! We could have done so many positive things with the money, but instead, we’re lining the pockets of the banks. Never again. And the worst part of all of this? Hubby and I have no idea what we charged on the cards!

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Second schedule attempt

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I attempted another scheduled day. It is going fairly well… Before my schedule started this morning, I wrote my three Morning Pages, exercised, took a shower, ate breakfast, and had Bible study with hubby.

10:30-11:00 – Housework
11:00-11:30 – Research
11:30-12:00 – Housework
12:00-1:00 – Lunch/Free Time
1:00-1:30 – Update prices/add items for sale on Half.com
1:30-2:00 – Read blogs/Check email
2:00-2:30 – Housework
2:30-? – Play Scrabble with hubby 🙂

The only thing left on my schedule is some character building for my novel. I was doing really well with the schedule but hubby is home and he was very agreeable to playing a game of Scrabble with me so I decided to toss out the last hour of my schedule. I’ve accomplished everything on my to-do list for today.

Tomorrow will be a return to unscheduled days. I should have contract work tomorrow morning and that’s always a priority over everything else. My contract work is first come, first serve so I watch my email very closely and drop everything else when work is assigned. The faster I can finish the initial assignment, the more work I am assigned until everything has been completed for the day by all the contractors. I like having the ability to work more hours than the initial assignment but it makes planning hard as I’m at the beck and call of my emails!

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The first time she attempts a schedule…

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As I knew in advance that I would have no contract work today and that hubby would be gone for hours, I decided to create a strict schedule for the day. This was my first attempt at creating a schedule for homemaking duties. I think I did fairly well!

9:00-9:45 – Housework
9:45-10:00 – Reading
10:00-10:30 – Bible study
10:30-11:00 – Housework
11:00-11:30 – Work on my brother’s Christmas present
11:30-12:00 – Exercise
12:00-1:00 – Lunch/Free time
1:00-2:00 – Research
2:00-2:30 – Reading (I was trying to finish a book today. Success!)

I followed my schedule almost exactly. The only deviation was that hubby called at noon and said he was done early. I talked to him for a few minutes and then hung up and did research until 1:00, when he arrived home. We ate lunch together at 1:00 and then I had free time until 2:00.

My contract work boss emailed everyone and said there is no work again tomorrow. I think I’m going to rearrange today’s schedule a bit and try it again tomorrow. I’d like to exercise before breakfast instead of lunch and I want to have Bible reading earlier in the morning. I finished reading John this morning started in Acts.

All in all, my first attempt at a schedule was a great success! I feel very productive. I’m not sure what I’m going to do this afternoon, but I’ll find something. Maybe I’ll keep working on my brother’s Christmas present. That’s going to take hours of dedicated work, I’ve realized!

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Doubling recipes

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I double a lot of recipes. In doing so, I find myself dealing with conversions from teaspoons to tablespoons, from tablespoons to cups… Even though I double recipes frequently, I always forget the conversions. Thankfully, I found this calculator today. This will make those conversions so much easier.

My contract work is still on hold and I have the day off tomorrow as well because of lack of work. Hubby will be working at client sites all day tomorrow and I am determined to maximize my productivity! I have much that I wish to accomplish – Bible study, vacuuming, a load of laundry, ironing, progress on my brother’s Christmas present, and some research for the novel I’m going to attempt writing in November.

During the day, I will be listening to classical music. I have a new found love for some of the old composers, especially Sergei Rachmaninoff.

My favorite, Rachmaninoff playing his Piano Concerto No. 2:

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31 Days to Clean – Day 17

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My husband is on call today so I decided I would progress with the 31 Day Challenge. Today’s task is to clean the laundry room.

I have a tiny laundry room that I access by stepping onto our patio. It contains a stackable 3/4 size washer and dryer, the hot water heater, and a tiny trashcan where I throw all of the lint from the dryer. It didn’t take too long to wipe everything down but it really needed it! I can’t believe how much dirt and grime had accumulated on my washer. Now I don’t have to worry about letting my clothes touch the machine as I transfer them to the dryer. Ick.

My contract work is nonexistent today. I was hoping for a couple hours but that’s ok. I’ve been catching up on all our laundry and reading a library book. Hubby and I also walked over to Walgreen’s to pick up a Redbox movie. Even in September, it’s not a good idea to take a half hour walk in the middle of the day! I felt faint when we returned to the apartment. I can’t wait for cooler weather!

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This week’s step toward freedom

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$1,521.38 starting balance
– $30.00 contract paycheck
– $2.00 online survey reward

= $1,489.38 current balance

According to bankrate, we’re now down to 57 months until payoff. We eliminated a month from our payoff in one week and have paid off 6.3% of our initial balance. We’re making progress, though I can’t really see how we’re going to pay off this balance by November 30th. Thankfully I have some bigger paychecks coming, starting the 15th of this month.

I love statistics. I should figure out how to calculate the amount of interest we’re saving by paying early and often. Interest over a period of 57 months is huge, even when your APR is only 10.24%!

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31 Days to Clean – Day 16

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“I believe you should live each day as if it is your last, which is why I don’t have any clean laundry, because, come on, who wants to wash clothes on the last day of their life?”
Source unknown

Day 16 of the cleaning challenge is all about fighting laundry piles. I have to admit, the above quote is pretty accurate! If I only do things that are fun, laundry would never be complete. Thankfully, my husband needs clean clothes to wear to work each day and thus my dirty laundry pile stays fairly tamed.

In an effort to lower our electricity bill, I’ve started line drying some of our clothes. Our apartment complex doesn’t allow clotheslines on the patios so I am forced to be creative. Instead, I hang all of our shirts on hangers and leave them hanging on the shower curtain bar. This has been working really well, as long as I remember to fold or iron the clothes after they are dry. Our electric bill went down $16 last month!

This month, I am going to attempt to hang all of our laundry and eliminate the need for the dryer. I’m going to visit the dollar store to see if they carry clothes pins. If not, I’ll check Walmart. I’m going to try pinning the clothes to regular hangers and leaving them in the bathroom to dry. I’m not sure if the clothes pins will fit around the hangers but I believe that’s my only option for hanging work pants and jeans. If I’m lucky, our electric bill will drop again this month.

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Work, work, and … cookies

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Today has been all about work. I had intentions of getting my ironing caught up but ended up with five hours of contract work instead. Praise the Lord! I’m hoping for another great paycheck this month.

I baked peanut butter cookies this afternoon, though I’m not sure I want to recommend the recipe. I didn’t realize until I started mixing the ingredients just how fattening this particular recipe is! All that margarine, sugar, and peanut butter. I don’t even want to know the fat and calorie content of a single cookie. I haven’t tried the cookies yet; I’m waiting until hubby returns home from work before tasting them.

Speaking of cookies, this is the first recipe that I’ve managed to bake as many cookies as the recipe claims it yields. Usually, a recipe says it will bake 24 cookies but I’m lucky if I end up with 18. I guess I make each cookie too big, though it seems like they are normal sized. Oh well!

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Vegan Pumpkin Pancakes

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I found and adapted a great recipe for pumpkin pancakes. It’s almost the season for pumpkin but I was impatient and couldn’t wait until October.

Ingredients

2 cups flour
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups soy milk (will probably work with rice milk)
1 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 cup applesauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix the soy milk, pumpkin, applesauce, oil, and vanilla until smooth.

2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, and salt.

3. Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin and stir well. Batter will be very thick; do not thin with additional milk.

4. Let the bowl sit for 5 minutes. Do not stir.

5. Spray a frying pan with olive oil and heat to medium low. Use almost 1/2 cup batter for each pancake. Spread batter on pan with a spoon, but don’t spread too thin.

6. Cook both sides until brown and serve.

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