Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Star Charts and DebtOMeters

star chart
David always talked about how much he exercised, when I was the one running every morning with Gerdy. I questioned his statements, so I decided to chart "our" progress with a Star Chart. It gives us gold stars for 20 minutes of cardio, green stars for 10 minutes of calesthetics, red stars for 20 minutes of calesthetics (never happens), and silver stars for long periods of cardio, like biking, that don't make us huff and puff like running a mile would. Wouldn't cha know, I think he's running a bit more, instead of saying "Oh, I'll do it tomorrow night." He comes in now after the run and says: "Did you put my star up?" Hehe.

debtometer
Jogging every morning is not so hard for me to do, because I have to take Gerdy out anyway, so might as well. But getting my debt down, now that's a problem! It's just not going anywhere. I've stopped charging major stuff, like fabric on a whim (wimper) and queen size mattresses (had to!), but an occasional year's supply of contacts will trump the monthly payment I just paid. This isn't a credit problem. I seem to have good credit because I pay everything. And my card is actually at 0% APR because I transfer when I get "0% APR on balance transfers for a year!" and just pay it, but don't use it. So I haven't paid credit card interest for maybe more than 2 years now. But lately, I've got an Amex card, and am happy with it, so when the 0% APR rate expires, I kind of want to keep the card (usually I brutally transfer and drag the now empty card along...). Also, if I go seeking a loan for katie-james.com, I'm not about to budget in debt into my monthly expenses. That's just depressing!

So I made the DebtOMeter. Every payment I make I will snip away from the red mercury tube. And then when it's gone, it will supernova into a giant gold star!! So excited for that day.

Tip: Mom says that you want to keep a low credit limit. The credit card companies like to "reward" you by increasing your credit limit. So keep that in mind as you balance everything out.

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

mom says only one or maybe two cards if one is for business only.

low credit limits on both.

and no other credit cards at stores.

mom says it sounds like you are now willing to change your frequent purchasing and do without sometimes so you have more to pay off debt faster. (scissors, shakra necklace, hat, dogbed fabric... etc.)

Anonymous said...

You and your adorable organizing get 5 red hot stars from me!!! :)

Unknown said...

Yeah well...when it comes to growing my business, these purchases are very hard not to make! But I did make them with actual cash. The Amex was cut off 2 years ago with the purchase of the entire Adobe Creative Suite (yikes!), but again, has improved my business 10fold, so devoting cash to these stale purchases on the cards will be tough!

Thank goodness I got over Banana Republic and closed that card. I got the Victoria Secret one for the "monthly deals," but I don't think they're that great, actually, and are redeemable only with a charge onto the card, which is a debt encouragement I resent!

Anonymous said...

hahah, i love how david asks "did you put my star up?"

Unknown said...

Yes, he totally does, and once we debated if my teck to Brooklyn counted as a silver star b/c I walked so much, but he wasn't so inclined to give it to me, stating that it was a typical day...