... since I last posted! My gosh, time flies!

I got moved into my apartment a month ago, and I LOVE IT! Moving was the best thing I have done for myself and my kids in a long long time. We purged big-time, and got rid of years worth of JUNK. (I gave a LOT of stuff away at the end just to get rid of it!) The apartment is so much nicer than the house we were renting (which seemed to be falling down around us) -- it's light, bright, and CLEAN, and it's amazing how much lighter I actually feel!! I am really happy to have the move over and done -- it was a HUGE hurdle for me.

Even though I haven't posted in awhile, I did update my sidebar and my debt payoff pie chart at the end of March. My savings have taken a hit (don't people always have to buy some new things when they move?) ... but I've got transfers set up so that money moves from my checking account into three different savings accounts (ING, Venture, and Smarty Pig) every month, so I think I'll build those back up again fairly quickly (barring any visits from Murphy). Now that the move is out of the way, I have returned my focus to finances!

On the credit card debt front, my higher-limit Capital One card sent me a 0% balance transfer deal up to my credit limit, which enabled me to transfer the entire balance (close to $700) of a card with an APR of 27.24% ... so, while my total amount of CC debt won't change much at first with that consolidation, I will be able to pay down the principal on the transferred amount much quicker! (Capital One is the card that's lowered my APR from 24.4% to 12.9% over the past few months.)

I saw Suze Orman on Oprah recently, and she said she's now advising people who think there is a possibility they could lose their jobs to make minimum payments on credit cards and save all they possibly can. I really think my job is stable ... of course, I could be wrong ... but I wonder if I should follow that advice. Actually, I can't nail down my "new" budget yet, since I haven't gotten an electric bill or a water bill in my apartment so I have no idea what those expenses will run. I am really going to miss having my electricity on an averaging plan like I had in my house! (I do plan to get that established once I build up the history required.) I am a bit nervous about how much my monthly bills will run here, especially the electricity (since my apartment is upstairs and the temps climb into the 100s here during the summer months)!

It feels good to post again!

If you missed Dawn last week, tune in! I bet it will run once or twice tonight!!

Update: First show, right off the bat! A couple of things I missed the first time I saw it: (1) they have TWO flat-screen TVs OUTSIDE in the patio/pool area, and (2) their MINIMUM credit card payments every month total $6,000!!! Unbelievable. I really hope Suze airs an update with Dawn sometime in the future; and hopefully she will be on the right track.

Did any of you see Suze Orman tonight? I'm still watching it here in Texas, but the segment they just had on BLEW MY MIND. This woman named Dawn in California was on, talking to Suze, asking for help and suggestions as to what she and her husband can do about their $230,000 in credit card debt. BESIDES that debt, their big beautiful dream home is mortgaged to the hilt. Bottom line is that between the two of them they bring home $9,000 a month ... but their monthly expenses are $19,000!!! (Suze actually said this is probably the worst case she's ever had on her show.) Dawn kept smiling and making jokes while Suze was trying to drive home to her the gravity of her situation; AND, when Suze told Dawn that she and her husband need to (a) put their home AND everything in it on the market immediately and pray that they can sell it for enough to pay what they owe on it, (b) get second jobs TOMORROW, and (c) move into an apartment and stay there until their credit cards are paid and they have money SAVED ... Dawn said "That's not going to happen." She said she cannot and will not give up her home and her lifestyle!! She said her husband wants to file bankruptcy but she doesn't want to, and Suze told her they probably make too much money to file bankruptcy so it's really not an option. It was really something else to see ... talk about a woman in denial!! It was really quite sad, but SO frustrating at the same time. It just makes me wonder what sort of miracle solution Dawn thought Suze could come up with. I mean, she didn't even consider one piece of advice Suze gave her! She freely admitted that she's addicted to diamonds, and that just last night she was upset because a ring she's been wanting had been sold to someone else! I'm flabbergasted, absolutely stunned. She was something else.