So, with this said, even I make mistakes.

My husband knew he was getting a bonus on his upcoming paycheck. He even knew the exact amount of it. But, he had budgeted for overtime that he did not receive, so our paycheck was actually $14.00 lower than it should have been!

Yes, it’s not a mind blowing mistake, but it’s still a mistake none the less. You should always under budget your income. Make your income lower then what you really think it will be until you actually know for a fact how much the exact sum will be. Do this, and then over budget on your bills and categories. This ensures that in the worst case scenario, you will still be protected!

My credit score is 647! Just a few points away from my goal of 650! That’s wonderful and made me really happy!

Though, I do want to say that when I was looking over all of my accounts I noticed something odd. It was reporting that my capital one credit line is $750. But, it’s not, it’s actually $500. Perplexed, I went to the capital one website and actually looked at my credit line. I always look at the balances and not the credit line since I don’t use my credit cards anymore.

But, surprise! Capital One raised my credit line to $750! What a nice surprise!

If your like me, you love it for one reason, you need your budget to fit you. You need it to be fully customized but you also need to alter it whenever possible. You could also be living paycheck to paycheck, which most budgeting softwares look down on.

Meet YNAB Pro 3!

I downloaded the 7 day trial of it. But by the second day I knew I needed this program. Its perfect in every-way!! I did purchase the software. I saved up diligently for it as my budget only allows me $20 every two weeks. But, luckily, it went on sale and I got it much cheaper then the $69.95 price tag.

This program lives on four rules that you need to abide by, all of them good. I won’t go into all of them, except for one.

The rule that states you should live on the money you made from a month ago.

I LOVE this idea! When I heard it, it just hit me like a ton of bricks how stupid I was for not doing this sooner! Think about it, you save up a months worth of money to use, then you live off of that money for a month, during that month you are still earning money. When the month is over, you start living on your paycheck from one month ago. Its genius!

Imagine never timing your bills ever again! You won’t have to, cause you already have the money to pay it! No more guessing how much your paychecks are going to be, cause you will already have the money so you can budget it right then and there.

Its wonderful! So, I am going to save up my emergency fund back to $1,000 ( We just had an emergency and needed to use it. ) and after that I will be saving up $1,200 to live off of for one month so us too, can be one month behind.

My car Tag was due, $90! Wow! I had no idea Alabama’s car tags were so much! It was way more then I had budgeted for. To make up for the cost I took it out of my personal entertainment money. Sad, but it had to be done!

Everybody make sure you account for more then you actually need in your budgets!

Yesterday, I assumed someone else was going to pay for me to eat. I assumed this because they kept insisting on taking me out to eat. So, I assumed. Luckily it was only fast food but when it came to pay I didn’t have the money and neither did she.

So, to avoid any embarrassing situations always make sure you have the money, even if you think someone else is paying!

Our old mattress was as hard as a rock. Its old and cheap so you can only except it to be that way. She head that neither one of us has been getting any sleep on it so she bought it for us as a wedding present.

Its very sweet and very appreciated!

So, until we can agree on something I have transferred this sum of money into a sub account in my ING account. I figured maybe if I see something I really like, I can just transfer a small sum out and get it whenever I want, or if I decide to use it on a bill I can do that too.

I like ING, I really do! In fact, I have been playing with the idea for the last 6 months or so if I should open a checking account with them. The only thing holding me back is I would hate for them to check my credit. I really don’t want anything touching it right now.

But atlas! Maybe one day I can suck it up and open a checking account. I would really love it if I could!

Now that I have paid that debt off, I can take the $30 a month I was paying to it and use it to pay off Dillards. This now brings Dillards snowball payment to $54 a month. That is wonderful! Slowly getting there.

So, I guess I am one of the only people you will see that is half way happy to have experienced debt. Now that I have, I will enjoy how much better it is to be debt free, and when it concerns going back into debt you will see me question it not three times, four times or even five times! You will see me question it more then that and finally the answer will most likely be no.

My debt broken down.

Maurices $0.00
Zales $481.22
Capital One $484.42
Dillards $317.00
Orchard $312.12
Best Buy $1,227.57
Car Loan $4,710.00

We will start off by explaining each and every single credit here.

I got the Maurices credit card when I was moving in with my husband. He lived in a different state and I knew I needed a whole new wardrobe. I adored Maurcies clothes and I had the money in my pocket to purchase all the clothes, but I thought it would help my credit to just charge it. I was surprised to find that for my second credit card ever that they would give me a $1,000 credit line.

So, I charged it and kept the debt for about two-three months and then paid it off. This credit card has only been used once or twice since.

The next credit card is Zales. I married into a very poor family, coming from a poor family myself made it virtually impossible for us to have a wedding. Let me take one thing back, all the people I like in his family are poor. His father is rich. And I hate him so much. He didn’t give us even a penny for our wedding.

We couldn’t afford rings, couldn’t afford a wedding. So I got credit at Zales so I could at least give my new husband a good wedding ring. I spent $600 on two rings. He got a beautifully engraved ring that was perfect for him in every way. And sadly I had to settle for a gemstone ring with no diamonds on it.
We had a courthouse wedding, something we didn’t want and we did get married in t-shirts and jeans. But I am still happy to this day that we got married.

Just recently, his mother gave us $400 as a wedding present. I will be taking that and adding some money with it to pay off Zales.

Capital One is the card we use day to day. This card is paid off every payday. The only reason why it has a high balance on it is because I sold both of our iphones and bought two Droid X’s with it instead. I have the money, I just havn’t paid it off yet.

Dillards was my first credit card! I love Dillards! I love their shoes, make-up and clothes. I don’t use this card often. Sadly only one thing is charged on this card, shoes.

Orchard was charged to get both of our hair done. My hair has highlights so its very expensive. I did this the day before I had to go see his father in hopes he wouldn’t look down on me as much. He still did.

Best buy has my TiVo and computer on it.

We had to get a car loan because my husband had an accident in our old car. It was rendered totaled. We did not have full coverage insurance because it was a very old car. We would have only gotten $100.

This month my husband got a bonus at work and an extra payday. I will be taking all of this extra money plus the $400 from his mum to put towards debt.

So, that’s my story!