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Sunday, July 15, 2007

We Only Do it Once a Month!! :(

I am the kind of person who likes to make things happen quickly. I have read a lot of articles recently about people needing more discipline or will power to get rid of their debt. And, I am not going to say this is not a key point. But, for someone like me, one of the biggest issues I have is that I am only able to do anything with my "bills" once a month. I am paid monthly obviously, so on the last day of each month (or sometimes a few days into the new month...eek) I sit down and figure everything up, see how much extra I can afford to pay on my debt and then I wait. I wait for another 30 days to do it over again. Don't get me wrong. I am glad that I CAN do this once a month and that my situation is not so bad that I have creditors ringing my phone off the hook. But, it can be so frustrating to see things happen so slowly.

The problem for me is not that it is taking so long to repay debt, I mean hey I did all the shopping! What I hate is that I can't do more. Like something every couple of weeks or so. And, honestly I am trying to do that by finding new ways to supplement my income.

So what is the problem? For me it is that the further I get away from my last payday the less I think about paying the debt and the more I start to think of all those things I want, want, want. And, to be honest, I get bored. That is a major reason for starting this blog. Even if I can't DO anything toward my debt at least I can get my frustrations out about it. I also find it comforting to read others' stories and hear the reassurances that eventually you do get it paid off and can start saving and investing more vigorously.

So, how do you deal with the fact that debt takes so long to repay, or that it is so long between paychecks? (For some of you it may not be) I would love to hear your ideas!!

*** Notice off to the side I have started a poll. Please vote! You don't have to enter any info to do so. I am hoping to use the information for an article somewhere down the road. Thanks!!

2 comments:

paidtwice said...

I sell stuff. Then I snowflake what I make to the credit card.

I've been selling my old textbooks, I have been listing things on craigslist, and I also am going to branch out into ebay.

Even though I only make small amounts of money at a time, it feels satisfying to snowflake little bits of money often as opposed to the one big payment once a month (I still make that one big once a month payment of course).

Jen said...

I really like that idea and I think I am going to start trying it. I get some money from books like you and also surveys I take online. I think instead of just waiting to the end of the month I will start putting the money toward things as it comes in. The only thing I have seen that makes me a bit leary of this is that on my credit report it always shows the last payment made. On one of my cards I had made the payment in two chunks so it only showed the smaller chunk which was at that time below the min. payment which was also listed. So it looked like I had not paid the full amount even though I had in two payments... confusing probably :) Thanks for that idea though!!