Ok, one word: "Ouch"

That just about sums up my reaction to having paid what bills I could today after getting paid.  I also Went through my initial draft of my budget for the remainder of the year.  My biggest problem with my current status is that I’m strapped for money for the next 4-6 weeks, with a negative balance on my bank account in some weeks if I actually pay the bare minimum on everything.

Take a look at the budget page I put together and have a look for yourself.  I put the major problem points in bright red where my bank balance will dip below 0 if I pay everything.  Looks like we’re going to have to get a move on with our finding places to cut back while also finding a place where we can get some more income.

One thing I haven’t included in all of this is the bank account I use for my "web businesses" as I like to call them.  I really just run a few web sites that generate a little bit of residual income.  Enough where I may need to start using that money as an income stream instead of just letting the account build up.

Anyway, on with today’s progress…

Today’s Progress:

• Earned - $2133.39
• Spent - $973.17 (majority of this pay-period’s bills & dinner for the family)
• Debt Reduced - $430 (mostly medical)

So, on the bright side, it’s another payday come and gone with progress toward some of the debt.  Also, I’ve now got a written plan that I can share with my wife to easily let her realize what kind of situation we’ve gotten ourselves into…and how difficult it will be getting out of it.

We’ll see what we can do to figure ways of cutting costs the next few days.  I’ll let you know what we come up with.  Feel free to make any suggestions if you happen to take a peek at the budget as well!

Well, I didn’t get as much done as I wanted today, but it’s been a crazy day with a weird work schedule, so I guess it’s to be expected.

My wife had been given a $200 free day at the local spa. Did the entire makeover with major hair change an all, and we just had to front the tip. As much as that’s not really being super-frugal and on a total focus to reducing debt, it was one exception that was well worth taking advantage of.

Today’s Progress:

• Earned - $0
• Spent - $30 (Tips for free day at the spa)
• Debt Reduced - $0

As for progress on the to-do list, I managed to get about 1/2 way through the initial budget, so will likely get it posted tomorrow. At least I prepared all of the statements and receipts needed for my cafeteria plan (flex spending) reimbursement. It added up to over $320, but after going through the bills I found out that I have over $700 in outstanding medical bills. That was kind of a bummer, but such is life. We’ll just dig our feet in the sand and really lean on cleaning this mess up and getting more organized so we don’t have surprises like this as often.

Technorati Tags: daily journal , debt , getting organized

This is the very first entry in what I consider to be the daily journal of the site.  Eventually I’d like to separate these posts from the normal RSS feed for the entire site and make a separate one for it, but that’ll have to wait until a more ambitious day.  Today I needed to focus completely on getting organized!

Here’s something I’ll likely put into each of my journal entries:

Today’s Progress:

• Earned - $0
• Spent - $30.43  (prescriptions)
• Debt Reduced - $0

So, I’ve managed to to gather up all the bills in the house (yes, it’s so bad we have stacks of mail scattered in multiple places that haven’t even been opened for days or even weeks) and place them in a pile right here next to my computer.  Payday is in a few days and I’m going to have all the bills prepared in advance with corresponding entries in my budget.

In another pile, I’ve got a bunch of prescription receipts and medical benefit statements from our insurance company that I’ll use to request reimbursement from our cafeteria plan.  (i.e. flex spending account)  We could really use the money right now to help us get back on the right foot.  I don’t think I’m late on anything…but how scary is that?  I DON’T THINK I’m late!?!?!  Who wants to say something like that?  I need CONFIDENCE!  Screw the guessing game, this is my LIFE we’re talking about.  Dang.

Also, I’ve spent about half of my time updating the site’s theme, plug-ins and content.  I have a feeling I’m going to be spending more time on stuff like this the first few weeks until I get settled in.  Which is fine, because I know what I like and I’m patient enough to make slow, constant progress toward a smooth running site.  (A nice side effect of being a software engineer, and a father of six children…vision & patience.)

Welcome to the launch of the DebtBeater blog.  A blog focused on being a case study for a large family getting out of debt.  Yet another place where hopefully you can find something to relate to that can help you in your quest to beating down your debt as well.

I’m just getting things started around here, so please excuse the mess as I begin to populate pages and migrate from my local environment to the server.  Very soon I will be starting my daily journal for all to see, and begin my own quest toward debt freedom.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Mr. DebtBeater