I'll show you mine...

...my pig bank, that is.  This is Gertrude Petunia (my childhood nickname from Mom).  I routinely empty her out and take the coins to the credit union, so when I did it this week I finally remembered to take her picture.  Isn't she pretty? 

I found her on clearance at Target this summer.  I'd been stalking her for awhile because she coordinates so well with my kitchen colors; but I refused to pay full price for a bank.    She only coughed up $15.50 this time, but it's been put into my savings account and will be a nice little snowflake at the end of the month.  I haven't decided which of my credit cards will get the extra, the balances are all within $50 of each other.  With the interest rates figured in it's pretty even on the progress no matter which one gets it. 

I just realized I've never talked about my debt, other than to claim I have it, or my budget.  I suppose I should.  I'm never going to be one of those bloggers who plan out exactly what I'm going to write about, so expect some rambling.

Here goes:  As of today I owe exactly $74,911 (rounded to the nearest dollar). 

Here's how it's broken down:

Home Depot: $241
Orchard Bank: $260
Kohls: $210

Car Loan: $4,876

Student Loan 1: $46,144
Student Loan 2: $23,180

A bit staggering, isn't it.  Especially when considering that the amount I owe is twice what I make in a year.  I still feel better off than at this point last year though when I couldn't even afford to pay all of my bills because my ex husband's addiction and entitlement issues ate every cent I made.  So it may take me the next 10 years to get this paid off, but I'm fine with that.  

And since it's been a judgement issue of some blogs this week let me just cop to the fact right now that even though I'm repaying debt, I'm still planning to taking some vacations this year and probably every year.  But I won't accrue new debt to do so, nor will my bills be going unpaid.   That said, I really do need to find a way to produce extra income. 

I've been on vacation

February was a brutal month at work, which cut into my blogging time.  It's always that way when I have vacation planned, no matter how much notice I give my Project Managers.  I'm the only one who does my specific job in our office, so they always need something at the last minute. 

I met up with my boyfriend in Orlando last week for a short vacation.  It might have been only 6 days, but we packed a ton of activities into the time we had together.   Disney wasn't on the agenda, but we did hit Universal, Sea World and the Kennedy Space Center.  Overall Sea World was my favorite, mostly because my honey surprised me with a behind the scenes Penguin Tour.   I got to pet the penguins.    Isn't that awesome? 

I'm being called to run an errand, so I'll try to post more later.