When will I be debt free?

Cruising the PF blog world I found an awesome post by J. Money @ Budgets are Sexy about the Best Financial Calculators. Using the first link from CNN, I was able to check when I'll be debt free. I plugged in a $800 minimum to my CC debt, and rounded up my minimum payments a bit. Heres what it came up with:
Time to step up my payment on my Visa (which I already knew already..haha). July has been a crazy month as far as spending goes so I'm hoping to be able to devote more to that account soon. I'm also going to use it again once I get back to my regular schedule and am able to make pay more to my accounts...

Where the hell is my money?

As in a post I mentioned below, my lovely job messed up on my last paycheck. For whatever reason, they paid me a rate lower than my actual rate for a certain job I have. Funny thing is, I have been getting paid this rate for over 6 months so why or how it changed I'm not exactly sure?! I was told I would receive the rest of my paycheck on Monday. Monday rolls around and no sign of my money! I email the person in charge of cutting us our checks, and I get no response. Instead, I get my paycheck stub with a paydate of 7/9! WTF! I got paid on the 30th of June and its money I earned so I'm kind of pissed. Since I paid some bills and withdrew lots of cash for my daily spending, I only have about $19 in my bank account right now! More annoying is that I have a dentist appointment tomorrow and I will have to use my CC to pay for any fees I get charged there. UGH! My job annoys me so much, but I'll save that extremely long rant for another day...

Week Recap

Heres how I did for the first week of July:

+ I ran twice this past week on Friday and Sunday! Both were 3 mile runs, and on one I walked an additional mile home.
+ I got my textbooks, so I have gotten a few pages in.
+I also have been reading my book and should be on my way to finishing 1 fun read this month.
+I got $13.50 in surcharge rebates from the past month from using other bank's ATMs. This is technically my money but I'm counting it as extra income since I spent it last month.
- Spending was crazy this weekend! In preparation for my class on 4th of July and my boyfriend's BBQ, I spent a total of $91.25 that wasn't budgeted for!
-My lovely job messed up on my rate of pay for my paycheck, so they owe me $200 or so. Also because of this I had to use my cc for some of my weekend purchases, which I intend to pay back once I actually get my money!

Mondays aren't that fun, especially when you've had 3 days off! Hope everyone's hangin' in there!

Happy 4th of July!

Hope everyone has a safe and fun 4th of July weekend!

4th of July, I'm teaching my regularly scheduled classes. I'm throwing a party class, and going to wear my best red white and blue workout gear! Only thing I offered treats and party favors... for 50+! I'm going to check the dollar section at Target, the dollar store and Michael's for some stuff. After I'm going to be hanging out with my boyfriend and friends at a BBQ at his place. I offered to make Sangria and Pasta salad.

I hope I don't spend too much, so we'll see. Have fun everyone!

July Goals

It's hard to come up with PF goals when you haven't been doing any financial planning for the past year. So I decided to keep my goals simple for this month. Here they go...

PF GOALS

1. Make an extra $50 - doesn't sound like much, but since I haven't been doing so great on paying down my visa, I'd like to try to make an extra $50 to snowflake to this account. I'm going to try to do this by doing more surveys, picking up extra hours at my part time job, or selling things on eBay.
2. Call Discover and American Express and ask for a decrease in interest rates - these two cards have balances and interest rates are really high so I'd like to at least try to get them lowered.

PERSONAL GOALS

1. Start reading for class - My class starts on the 15th so I'd like to keep up or get ahead on reading
2. Finish 1 book - I'm currently reading a book, and I have a book on hold at the library. I'd like to finish 1 book this month.
3. Run 2x a week - I trained for a full marathon last summer and kinda fell off the running train. I'd like to do at least 2 short runs a week, in addition to my other workouts.

Wish me luck! What are your goals this month?

July Budget

It feels great to be getting back on track! I just got paid and withdrew cash for the first half of the month. It feels like my bank account is super bare but I have to remember that I'll be using cash for all my daily purchases, and paying off bills. Here is my proposed budget for July:
Yikes! I can't believe how much my payments to debt have increased since I last budgeted :( All I can do is live and learn! I will also be posting my PF and personal goals later.

High Debit Card Use = More Errors

I'm noticing a trend that when I use my debit card for the majority of my purchases, I end up with a lot more errors in my checkbook balancing. I'm assuming its because with my liberal use of my debit card, I also lose some receipts or forget about certain purchases I made. I just checked my bank account and I'm in the negative! I could have sworn I've been balancing my checkbook correctly but apparently I haven't been! Thank god tomorrow is payday, and I'm going back to a cash only/envelope system. I'm going to keep my cards at home (unless I know I'm going to need it for some reason) and just carry cash and checks. I think this will help me become more aware of my spending and hopefully clear up the fogginess in my spending! Does this happen to any of you?