Ok.  So, here's the deal:

I paid off my credit cards at the end of April. It was frikkin' AWESOME.

But then I moved at the end of May.  That was an expensive prospect.  I had to pay the broker and put down a deposit and buy new furniture.  I also went on a couple of shopping sprees to make my life more comfortable.

So, here's where things stand right now according to Mint.com.

Cash: + 2,886.36

Credit Cards: -$8,429.10
Student Loans: –$24,261.29
Mortgage:  –$90,205.50
Line of Credit: –$25,171.30

My primary concern is the credit card dept above. The student loans are cheap debt and the real estate debt helps me on my taxes.  So, my primary focus is paying off those credit cards.

That $8K, let's just call it $9K because I just bought myself a couple of appliances for my kitchen for my birthday, is not small to me.  You'll recall it took me roughly four months to pay off $6K in credit card debt at the beginning of the year.

Well, I'd like to pay this off before the end of the year and I only have four months left: September, October, November, and December.

In the middle of that, I have a trip to Aruba.  And there's a trip to the Bahamas in March 2010 that I'd like to go on.  And I am anticipating BIG changes in May 2010.  (Those are yet to be decided, so we don't talk about them.)

In four months.

That means I have to pay more than $2K on my credit card debt each month.  How is that even possible?!?

I get paid about $1,700 every two weeks.  My rent is $1,500 a month.  Cable and internet are $131 a month.  My gas and electricity vary, but are about $75 a month.  So, that's $225 a month in utilities because I'm bad at math.  TOTAL, that's $1,725 in basic expenses.

Ok.  Now I'm starting to wonder what I'm doing with that left over $1,500 a month.  (Remember: I am bad at math.)

I do tend to spend about $150 a week on groceries, but that still leaves $900 for other junk.

If we assume that I can automatically pay $900 on my credit cards -- barring paying for ANYTHING else like eating out, going to Aruba, painting my apartment, or anything else -- I really need to find $1,100 a month to pay them off in the time frame I've chosen arbitrarily.

That means two things: cutting costs & increasing income.

Cutting Costs
I can EASILY cut my grocery costs down to under $125 a month.  EASILY! That will leave me to find $1,000 a month in extra income.

Increasing income
This is a challenge.  There are ways I could make my career more profitable, but right now I'm really looking for something that will keep me where I am and completely sane.  This means I need something relatively mindless because I absolutely do NOT want to think about whatever my second job is while I'm at home.  I also need to be able to maintain some semblance of sanity in my private life.  (Private life being the parts I blog about.)

My best friend, Johndavidov, used to clean houses in Georgia, so I am looking into that.  Not only is it very profitable, but I have a certain marketing advantage in that I am not a Latina.

In Georgia, Johndavidov used to charge $30 an hour for his services.  I could charge at LEAST that much.  Since I need $1,000 a month and I estimate that each apartment will take a minimum of three hours AND I would not like to maintain more than three clients a week, I'd need to charge some $38 an hour. 

3 clients a week * 3 hours * $38 an hour = $1,368

That's more than enough to meet my goal.

Now I have to line up my clients!!!

Posted by: Flibbertigibbet at 09:55 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Category: Money, Money, Money!
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