Well if I want to become a homeowner in the next year and a half; one thing I would like to do is reduce my debt while increasing my down payment amounts. I already have a decent credit score but it could always be better to have a lower mortgage rate.
So here it goes, you know it seems like it should be easy to post something like this but it is not.
I am going to leave some of my finances a secret and post money spent and track credit card debt, school loans, emergency fund and down payment savings.
So I have three credit cards that carry debt:
Credit Card #1 carries a balance of $3,377.94 @ 11.24% APR
Credit Card #2 carries a balance of $323.82 @ 10.9% APR
Credit Card #3 carries a balance of $2,095.01 @ 10.9% APR
I have school loan sitting at $10,081.37
Down payment fund is currently sitting at $2,207.34.
I set the goal at $10,000 but am not really sure what I need to be looking at towards this.
And I have an emergency fund of $1,000 fully funded. I really do think that it needs to be increased. What do you think?
So now I have laid it out. Any advice on the best way to tackle this?
I believe that I am going to start paying the minimum on all but credit card number one. I was paying more than the minimum on card number two but I just negotiated a lower APR so I think I should start paying the one with the highest again...
I was going to add tickers to this post that I could update.... But I ended up having some technical difficulties. Once I better figure out all of this blog stuff I will update with some visuals.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Why am I here...
Well to begin with I am finally working after 3 years. It is my first job out of college. I got hired on with my company as a biochemist in March 2011, giving me a week to relocate myself to San Diego. During this time of employment I have been trying to pay down on my debt while increasing my savings by $1000 a month (for a down payment on a house). I never thought that homeownership would be possible in Southern California at the age of 30, especially since I am 28 years old now. But after crunching the numbers and finding new real estate prices I realize that it is possible. I just need to buckle down and be more proactive on saving my money but not avoiding my debt.
Starting next semester I will be starting real estate classes, I believe that it is important to understand what you are doing before you invest your money and self into such a long term investment. I really wish I understood stocks better, if I did I might actually invest in it and making some money in it. I am only saying that because I had two good calls that I would be a well off girl if I actually bought. O well.
Basically I created this blog to track my spending and keep me honest. In a later post I will be laying out all the numbers I just have to put everything together.
I know that one of my major costs is food. I am a Sprouts Farmers Market junky. I know that I could eat for a lot cheaper but I also remember when I was buying from coupons and such I ended up eating junk that put my weight close to 250 lb. Now after a lot of work and the help of Weight Watchers I am at around 200 lbs and still losing.
I did end up getting the paper today (Sunday) and tried doing the ads and coupon thing. I have no clue how the extreme couponers do it. Maybe I just have not found a good method for comparing prices and coupons. But I will keep trying.
I am looking forward to hearing questions, insight and ideas on how everyone else seems to manage frugal life.
Starting next semester I will be starting real estate classes, I believe that it is important to understand what you are doing before you invest your money and self into such a long term investment. I really wish I understood stocks better, if I did I might actually invest in it and making some money in it. I am only saying that because I had two good calls that I would be a well off girl if I actually bought. O well.
Basically I created this blog to track my spending and keep me honest. In a later post I will be laying out all the numbers I just have to put everything together.
I know that one of my major costs is food. I am a Sprouts Farmers Market junky. I know that I could eat for a lot cheaper but I also remember when I was buying from coupons and such I ended up eating junk that put my weight close to 250 lb. Now after a lot of work and the help of Weight Watchers I am at around 200 lbs and still losing.
I did end up getting the paper today (Sunday) and tried doing the ads and coupon thing. I have no clue how the extreme couponers do it. Maybe I just have not found a good method for comparing prices and coupons. But I will keep trying.
I am looking forward to hearing questions, insight and ideas on how everyone else seems to manage frugal life.
Introduction
Well I figure that I should start off my new year and new blog with an introduction. Well first off my name is Angela as I am sure that the title of the blog has given away. For my New Years resolution I decided the typical ones, do what I love, lose weight and get more financially stable. Well how does those resolutions turn into a blog? Because these have been my resolutions for a number of years, with some success but not at the level that I know that I am capable of. So I started a blog for each of these goals so I can not only public track my progress with each but so I can also provide inspiration for others and I am also looking forward to learning from other peoples experiences, thoughts and inspirations. I will admit that I am new to the blogging world, so I will probably be updating the blogs look as I get more fluent in blogger.
So this is going to be a general introduction for all three blogs. I will be doing a more specialized one for each blog.
Angie Gets Crafty
http://angiegetscrafty.blogspot.com/
Angie Homeowner By 30
http://angiehomeownerby30.blogspot.com/
Angie Lives the Plan Weight Watcher 2012
http://angielivestheplan.blogspot.com/
I loved the name Angie gets Crafty and signed up for the email address awhile back ago when I first decided that I want to do a craft blog. But the creativity went down for there in the names... But I guess that sometimes straight forward names can be the ones that stick.
So this is going to be a general introduction for all three blogs. I will be doing a more specialized one for each blog.
Angie Gets Crafty
http://angiegetscrafty.blogspot.com/
Angie Homeowner By 30
http://angiehomeownerby30.blogspot.com/
Angie Lives the Plan Weight Watcher 2012
http://angielivestheplan.blogspot.com/
I loved the name Angie gets Crafty and signed up for the email address awhile back ago when I first decided that I want to do a craft blog. But the creativity went down for there in the names... But I guess that sometimes straight forward names can be the ones that stick.
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