Well, I was going through all of our bills and noticed that a couple of my credit cards rates went up AGAIN! There is no reason for this, but I'm kinda glad that they did this because they made me so mad that I shredded every single card I have, even though my inner BRAT was screaming "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO"! I then started reading my "The Complete Tightwad Gazette" again, and I went on a quest to look up frugality and getting out of debt.

The number one thing that I have read over and over again to do first is set up an emergency savings account of $1000. This is strictly for emergencies only, no a new tv or some new clothes do NOT count as an emergency, but a new fridge because yours just died, or unexpected medical bills, do. So I started a savings account at ING Direct tonight, with only $5, but it's more in a savings account than I had a few hours ago! I also set up weekly automatic payments to this account of $5. I always round up when I write a check or use the debit card, and I usually have around $20 per month from doing this, so I would like to graduate to $10 and even $15 in a few months once I quit spending and see what my unnecessisary spending was costing me.

The next thing I did was say to myself..... "I have a problem with debt. I got into this because I spent money I didn't have. But I believe that there's a way out, and I can do this. I can control my spending, make a plan, and slowly get out of debt.". This was BIG for me, but it was also a relief to finally admit that I had a serious problem and face up to it! It seemed like that inner brat just shut up right away!

The thing that put the fear of god back into me, and made my heart race, was when I went through and wrote down all of my debts and figured out that I was -$500 at least per month! I'm not sure how I have been getting by with what I have been doing!!! So I decided to just focus on 1. saying over and over that I can do this. 2. saving as much as I can 3. quit ALL unnecessisary spending as of right now! There are so many things that I can do to cut way back I know, and when I do my normal weekly budget it's way different then when I do a monthly one. But when I did the monthly one it was a real eye opener.

My next goal is to start a debt snowball. I read on Zenhabits.com to try and find $100 somewhere, which is usually easy when you quit spending, and put that towards the lowest bill you have, along with the minimum payment, then when it's paid you go to the next lowest bill, and so on. I want to do this, but I might start with the 2 credit cards that keep raising my rates so that they can go bye bye first! But the thought of actually paying some of the smaller bills off in a short amount of time makes more sense to me, no matter how mad I am at CHASE!

When I was doing all of this at the kitchen table my 13 year old walked in and asked what I was doing. I told him and he kinda looked at me like "Why did you rack up credit cards?" I told him one thing, and hope that he always remembers it, I said "What ever you do, NEVER have a credit card!" If you can't pay for it with cash, you don't need it! If you have a good savings account set up you will do just fine without one!"

So, wish me luck on this new found journey, hopefully I will be able to scream back at my inner brat that "NO WE DON"T NEED THAT MAGAZINE" & "NO, WE HAVE PLENTY OF CLOTHES AND SHOES!". She is not going to win at this fight! I have been reading "The power of now" and it has really shown me a lot about the mind, and why it does the things it does, like thinking of the past and the future, when you really need to be living in the now with a quiet mind. This has helped me so much in the past few days. Today was the first day that I wasn't putting myself down, calling myself stupid, for all of my past financial mistakes. They are mistakes that I am for sure learning from, and they are in the PAST! So I am now using the PRESENT to fix the PAST! You can't go back, so why worry and beat yourself up over it! Get a plan together and fix it! Check out the book, "The power of now" by Eckhart Tolle, from your library, it's definetly one that I feel everyone should read!

Will be trying to blog every day about my trails and triumph's when it comes to this new getting out of debt and no more digging myself into a deeper hole, lifestyle. So check back often, or please subscribe to my blog so that you can be updated when I post a new blog!