Personal (Finance) Day: Frugal Chick's Current Financials

Ah Monday – the perfect time to take a personal day. Of course, I would prefer a personal day as in a day off, but you’ll have to settle for TMI about me instead. I mentioned the debt-to-income ratio before so I figured I would share my own. Take a look.
(Note: my retirement savings come out of my net pay automatically and I have an IRA account as well so that much is not reflected in this calculator. Also, it only asks for a minimum monthly payment on the credit card. I never make only the minimum payment. You will never pay off your debt that way. In fact, it's best to pay the balance every month, a rule I stuck to religiously once upon a time.)

Imagine my shock.

It’s odd because the only debt I have is my mortgage and one credit card. Although, when I purchased my condo, my mortgage payment was a bit lower (eventhough my loan is fixed - go figure) while my condo fees were substantially lower. It’s not like I’m a big spender at all. In fact, I go months without shopping but my take-home pay is pretty much decimated thanks to ever-increasing condo fees, gas prices, and utility costs. Then there’s my cell and land-line phones, pet insurance, and cable – which I could let go of. That’s pretty much it. I would say one area I tend to go overboard with is food. I have a big appetite and, as I mentioned before, I prefer to eat organic food (which costs more, for now) and I love to eat out (I’m a foodie yet hardly a gourmet chef). When I look at my credit card bill, most of the charges are gas, food, and incidentals (like the recent car repair and a visit to the animal ER when my dog was attacked by another dog.) There isn’t much you can do about utility costs and emergencies, but I can definitely cut back on eating out and remember to use coupons for grocery shopping religiously. As far as gas prices are concerned, I do live close enough to my job to walk so I could also do that at least a few days a week.

Now that I’ve considered ways to cut back on my spending, my biggest task at hand is paying off my credit card. For the first time in my life, I’m carrying a balance on my credit card that makes me nervous. I have a certain much-needed vacation to thank for that. Still, I don't regret it. (It was my 30th birthday afterall.) I’m confident I will be able to pay it off and cut up the card (my goal being not to use credit cards unless absolutely necessary anymore) in 5 months.

One strategy I use for paying down credit card debt is transferring my existing balance to a credit card with zero balance for a year. Of course the catch is A) if you have bad credit (which I don’t) or have accrued too much debt on your existing credit card, you won’t receive very many zero balance offers and B) you must pay the balance off in the allotted time. If it’s zero balance for a year, pay it off IN A YEAR. Otherwise, the usually ridiculously high interest rate will kick in and you will wind up in more trouble than when you began. Oh yes and C) Zero interest cards will charge you a certain percentage on balance transfers. Always read the fine print.

Anyway, check your spending habits and evaluate your debt with some of these tools:

What Will it Take to Pay Off Your Credit Card?

Do You Have a Spending Problem?

Debt Evaluation Calculator


...and now a Completely Random Quiz About Me
(I actually agree with the comments in bold. The rest is rather suspect.)

The True You

You want your boyfriend to be together with you always, no matter when or where. With respect to money, you spend as little as possible. You think good luck doesn't exist - reality is built on practicalities. The hidden side of your personality tends to be satisfied to care for things with a minimal amount of effort. You are tend to think about others' feelings a lot, perhaps because you are so eager to be liked. When it comes to finding a romantic partner, you will search and search until you find your perfect match.

Who's The True You?