Sunday, November 1, 2009

October Monthly Totals

Major Accomplishment - I am so stoked about this. A couple of years ago, my net worth was around negative $100,000. (I know) It was a combination of major student loan debt, credit card debt and a car loan. I was looking at this number the other day and am beyond amazed to see that now I'm down to (up to?) negative $50,000! I've cut that number in half! If you'd asked me if that would be possible a couple years back, I would have said absolutely not. I was so in the hole that I couldn't even see the light. In those couple years, I've completely paid off every friggin penny of credit card debt that I had and finished out my five year car loan. I've also made regular payments to my student loans ($500+ a month). And even though I'd like to be paying more towards one of my loans with a 7% interest rate, saving is just a higher priority right now. Through my contributions and matching contributions from my employer, I've been able to save almost $20,000 towards my retirement. I've also been able to chunk away a couple thousand dollars for a rainy day. Things are finally looking up and it feels beyond amazing to have some breathing room in my budget.

October Monthly Totals
  • Merchandise Total (before coupons): $1,115.80
  • Value of Coupons & Store Sales: $472.71
  • Rewards/Gift Cards/EB's Used: $405.30
  • Rewards/Gift Cards/EB's Earned: $508.63
  • Rebates: $110.68
  • Total Cost to me (after rewards earned and rebates): $59.47 (cash spent - $273.48)
  • Total Profit: $70.11
  • # of Items: 309, # of Free Items: 207

Random Money Stuff

  • Increased my pre-tax retirement contributions to 9% of my annual salary
  • Qualified for a $45 reward on my Discover card. I redeemed this for a $45 CVS gift card and got a $5 bonus. I love Discover!
Rebates Received:
  • $150 Bushnell Weather systems ($50 rebate x 3)
  • $22 September RA rebates
  • $20 Rite Aid Gift of Savings x 2 (my address & DBF's address) - good for in-store use
  • $20 Kraft SuperValu Back to School rebate x 2 (my address & DBF's address)
  • $5 Snapple rebate
  • $3.39 Goody Ouchless Barrette rebate x 2 (my address & parent's address, came from Rubbermaid, no mention of Goody but I knew it had to be this one b/c of the amount)
  • $2 September RA rebates DBF's name - woo-ee! Better not spend this one all in one place :)

2 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Congratulations! That's a major accomplishment!
We've just invested in a new $20,000 geothermal hvac system for our house and we somehow managed to save an extra and unanticipated $200 to put with our monthly $1300 towards paying it off. Small extra amount but yea us!

Tshanina said...

Way to go on paying down your debt!!! It's so freeing isn't it? You should be so proud of yourself.