Blogging Away Debt

First Step Taken to Reduce Grocery Spending – No Pop

Well, at least for me (not my husband). I’ve done it before where I’ve quit caffeine only to be drawn back by the sweet taste of Mountain Dew.

By my calculations, we will save about $25/month if I quit drinking my Dew. Instead I will drink water and the occasional flavored sugar-free / caffeine free drink. Not only will I be saving money, I will actually be drinking things that are better for my health.

My health is actually a little side project I have going on right now that I don’t write about much. Probably because I’m still working on my game plan with that. So my decision to cut the pop from my diet is actually a great one because it will help our checkbook and my health.

My last drink of pop was last night and I’ve gone almost 20 hours without caffeine now. So far, so good. I can do this…

UPDATE: I did it! 🙂

When Will I Ever Learn to Quit Running the Checkbook So Low?

by Tricia

Today my husband had to make a special trip to the bank to deposit paychecks. Normally, I just put them in the mail because the 39 cents for a stamp is cheaper than the gas it takes to drive to the bank (it’s a little ways away). If I mailed them, our checks wouldn’t hit the bank until Monday.

But I did it again, I ran the checking balance too low because I didn’t take into consideration our anniversary and the spending we both would do (doh!) and there are automatic payments due to come out of our account so we had to get the checks in the bank today.

I get upset at myself because I seem to do this too often now. While I am very thankful no checks have bounced if I don’t try to resolve this soon it could happen.

I seem to be more forgetful now. Right now I have my cable payment sitting waiting to get mailed. It’s already late. Luckily, they do not charge a late fee as long as you pay it by the next month. I think right now I have debt-tunnel-vision. I’ve been paying the debt payments fine and on time but everything else is going to the wayside.

I guess this brings about a good point. While it is good to be aggressive with paying off debt, there is the possibility of letting the process of becoming debt-free take over your life. So, as with many things in life, you have to find a healthy balance that is right for you.

For me, I think it will involve actually leaving some money in our account or maybe even a small savings account. I’m not sure yet, but as with any problem a solution needs to be found.

I’m going to sleep on it to think about it more.