Tonight I finally zeroed all my credit cards.. wooooo!!
What a feeling.. of remorse 🙂 However, it’s nice to turn a corner and be faced with the possibility of maybe, just maybe, being able to retain some of that hard earned paycheck the next month..
It’s been a funny year, financially. Two overseas trips early in the year (Feb and April) drove up the credit cards, despite best planning. Funny story…
In January, I resigned from Readify and officially left the project I was on at Microsoft in February (2nd or thereabouts). I figured I’d earned a trip overseas for some R & R and seeing that the NFL Pro Bowl was on in Hawaii around about the time of my depature I figured I was due.
Here’s the thing: I had planned out all the costs – we were going to have everything fully paid in advance (a new Sanders family policy) and it had worked for us in Hong Kong last year (our second honeymoon, officially). However, I got this call from my wife in mid-January which went something along the lines of this:
Wife: "Just got a call from the real estate, have we been paying rent?"
Me: "ah, I think so.. it’s set up to auto debit"
Wife: "You’d better check…"
.. a few mouse clicks later ..
Me: "Aww, #$@%$"
So, it turns out that when we renewed our lease, I forgot to extend the auto payment. We hadn’t paid rent in six weeks.
So, out of the "holiday funds" (which was obviously inflated due to all that rent not being paid) comes the back payment, and *then* payment for a month in advance – leaving us a little high and dry.
Then, the second trip in April with the added expense of a new projector mushroomed the cards into a new level of personal debt.
Today, I rejoice, because I’m back to square one. Oh, and the rent auto payments are extended well into 2008… 🙂
Never again.. (I’ve heard that before)…
Share your story! Add a comment……
