Debt-free before 30. Can she do it???

I remember one year on vacation, I checked my ATM and I had -$90  in my back account. I was crying to my boyfriend, “I was supposed to have $30 in there!” I said.
 

“You shouldn’t be cutting it so close,” he said. Thirty was nothing, I thought. I knew all the ATMs that would give you tens instead of twenties, for those times when I only had $14 in the bank.

I did much better on the vacation from which I just returned. I was waiting for my commission day to see if I could go shopping or get a pedicure. Wouldn’t you know it – goose egg for this month. For once, I didn't put myself in a position where I needed the money.

I had taken the time to plan and set us up to not spend too much money. I knew that I wanted to just hang around with my family, and that’s what we did. I put the work into making a list and we all cooked together and ate dinner. I loved it.

While at my sister’s place, looking at her books, and I saw one called Debt Free Before 30. I knew it because I read it years ago and gave it to her. I remember how I thought I’d be debt free after Peace Corps, but that was the low point from which I’ve been digging myself out for the last two years.

My 30th birthday is in three paychecks, the last falling right on my birthday. I busted out an Excel spreadsheet, and as it turns out, I could be debt free by my birthday, if I go on a real-deal money strike. 

I get these ideas and I get kind of obsessed. I admit that is happening here. But, oh man, debt-free on my 30th? I just never really thought I’d accomplish that.

I calculate that besides food and gas, I have $15 a day to spend. In three days, I spent a total of $2. I went through all the cabinets, and listed the food we have. I've been defrosting long-ago frozen meals. 

I'm on a mission.

Link: Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed

This article says so much about why I've been spending so much money. I'm going to start following this blogger.

This sentence hit me: "There is a curious feeling of power you get when you drop a couple of twenties without a trace of critical thinking."

Monthly Month Check-in: June 2012

I was just feeling bad about not making as much progress as I'd hoped, when I decided to compare really calculate how far I've come in an Excel column called “Situation Improved By:” It compares my net worth now with my net worth when I started my money rehab in October 2011. The situation has officially improved by $8,055. 

That's an average of $1,000 a month I'm putting toward saving in my 401(k) or paying off debt. Damn. Go me. Ok, so I still can't keep four digits in my bank account, but I'm working around it, and I'm making progress. 

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Planning ahead is almost the most important thing. Convenience costs money. 

So I have two vacations back to back, and I was sensing a possible disaster. But on the first one I did pretty damn well. We went to a music festival, where I would normally buy every little trinket on sale, drink $9 beers, and eat their crappy $10 quesadillas.

But the boyfriend and I actually went to the grocery store. We actually got stuff for good sandwiches -- sopressata and sliced gouda and even napkins and paper plates. We spent about $100 and it fed us for the weekend. Our only sin was two ill-advised $14 margaritas that tasted like a kid puking up Kool-Aid. I wanted a sweatshirt but decided to wait on the purchase, then I ended up buying one the next night when I was freezing. I've been in the market for a new hoodie anyway. It’s nice to be able to solve the problems that can be solved by money, because you actually have some.

And, the leftovers provided almost a week of lunches.

The AllRecipe app is the shit.

Part of me has this resistance to planning ahead, because planning ahead sometimes means putting down a chunk of change. Like grocery shopping, you're going to spend $100, at least. And that seems like a lot, even though the smarter part of you knows that you'll spend more on a $15 lunch here and a $25 dinner there. Last night we actually went grocery shopping, using Allrecipe.com's shopping list and accompanying app, which worked like a charm. 

I also have this resistance to getting out the $150 for spending money for the week (that has not been going well, btw.)

It’s like I don’t want to take that chunk out of my bank account. Somehow it feels like I’ll spend less if I don’t get that money out, which is BS. 

Here are the graphs for the month. A slowing down of paying off debts, but still on the way up! (Grr that stupid dip in the middle!)

I'm into the -$50,000s. Woohoo!

One of my retirement accounts took a $600 hit, I noticed. I was hoping to have my boyfriend paid back by now but it hasn't happened. Slow and steady is what I'm going for!