Women in Red Racers - Northeast Region

[rpprt]

North East REGIONAL STATE OF THE UNION:

This message was updated on Friday, April 29, 2011.
As a region, our active members have eliminated $593,403.19 in debt!!! ($34,688.42 since March 31, 2011!)
Our Active Members are starting the race with $2,271,494.90 in debt.
Counting our Inactive regional members and our Winners - the North East Region has paid off: $3,295,885.65.
The North East Region currrently has:

38 ACTIVE members

1 NEW member

29 WINNERS: AdrianBlack, Canadian in the USA, Cushion11, debt_dogma, debtbgone, Gin1984, heatherb1129, heidi66Independent, Heidi66Independent [2], idle_chatter, Inamaze, IOUnomore, IrishMaude, katlab58, LadyV_39, ladyV_39[2], merrythought, momtomimiandnoey, money maam, Mourning Cloak, MP Dunleavy, NewLease, Patchwork150, relax7598, ronnyanna, shlinds, silverkitty, thriftymom, tobinikui

2 members who have paid off more than $50,000: foxybrown77, justpayit

7 members who have paid off over $25,000: irishSOB, flat broke, sbvs4you, rpprt, mm4nodebt, wudnit, chiver78

12 members who have paid off over $10,000: Cushion21[2], Casey2525, onmywaynow, lark_1964, Maryland_Monroe, melting_debt, munjoyhill, oceanfire31, ravenhaired, sunshinegal1981, TPSReport, CLS328

3 members who have paid off over $5,000 in debt! BushTea28, GirlGreen, Wantanewjob

2 members in the $5500 Club: Casey2525, Cushion21[2]


1 New Member – constanz22

[onmywaynow]

rpprt - As always thanks for the totals. I love reading them!


UPDATE:
onmywaynow 4/28/11 $12,111.57 (12/31/09 $32,333.40 NEU9)

[kristin11]

Update:
Kristin11: 4/29/11 $12,869.30 (12/31/09 $16,567.73 NEU8)

1. Domestications - $0 – No Change
2. Kohls - $148.78 – No Change
3. Target Visa - $3,804.10 – No Change
4. Discover - $0 – No Change
5. Disney Visa - $1,263.83 – ($15.70) Decrease
6. Shell Fuel Card - $0 – No Change
7. Macys - $0 – No Change
8. Sisters Loan - $508.00 – ($8.00) Decrease
9. Bethpage FCU - $5,199.59 – ($159.35) Decrease
10. Aunts Loan - $1,945 – ($55.00) Decrease

Total change for the week was ($238.05) Decrease.

It is nice to see myself headed in the right direction again. After borrowing the money from my Aunt I had a slight increase last week but was able to bring it down overall this month once the rest of my payments went through. I am contemplating trying to deal with HSBC again on doing a balance transfer and see if an even smaller amount will go through. I was thinking about transferring my Disney balance to that HSBC card if I can at the 0% interest rate. Disney would then be at a $0 as well. It currently has a 17.24% BT rate but that’s much lower then the 22.9% I am paying to Target right now so then maybe I could transfer $1,000 onto the Disney from Target to bring that balance down even further. It is just a thought right now – I don’t know how comfortable I am doing all of these transfers and I am not sure what the fees would be for the Disney card plus I would need to have a serious talk with HSBC about why all of my past transfers were denied. Still sitting on $100 from the money my Aunt lent me. I think I am going to see how May goes because I have a lot of “unusual expenses” (a wedding, a christening) and just wait until then so I can see my budget actually works. I have really kicked up my cheaper apartment search and have even contemplated moving back in with my parents for the summer to pay off debt faster and save some money. May rent is already paid so I have some time to think about my options before I would have to make another rent payment. I am going to put another call into Target this weekend and try to discuss my interest rate with them again but I am not hoping for the best with that. I am hoping that after May’s update I will have $4,000 paid!

[ravenhaired]

Ravenhaired: 4/30/11 $55,845.54 (12/23/09 $72,190.66)
Overall decrease $16,345.12
Pittsburgh, PA NE U4

**********
EXPENSES
**********

Bills	Dec 2009	Dec 2010	Jan – Mar 2011	April 15, 2011	April 30, 2011
Mortgage	52,585.13	48,777.29	47,961.76	47,957.63	47,681.35
LOC	11,280.70	9,825.83	7,099.83	6,294.20	6,294.20
SL	5,481.90	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
CC1	2,232.93	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
CC2	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
Fridge	610.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
Surgery-bill 1	0.00	0.00	360.00	320.00	300.00
Surgery-bill 2	0.00	0.00	801.01	801.10	765.00
Surgery-bill 3					?
Yoga Course	0.00	0.00	875.00	750.00	750.00
Washer	0.00	0.00	174.99	114.99	54.99
Totals	72,190.66	58,603.12	57,272.59	56,237.83	55,845.54
Change: B/(W)		13,587.54	1,330.53	1,034.76	392.29

**********
SAVINGS
**********

Savings	Dec 2009	Dec 2010	Jan - Mar 2011	Apr 15, 2011	Apr 30, 2011
EF	0.00	1,985.02	2,671.52	2,871.52	2871.52
Liquid Savings	0.00	0.00	0.00	54.85	54.85
Kansas visit (July)	190.20	0.00	292.84	392.84	392.84
Totals	190.20	1,985.02	2,964.36	3,319.21	3,319.21
Change: B/(W)		1,794.82	979.34	354.85	No change

This pay – debt down by $392.29, no change to savings
This month – debt down by $1,427.05, savings up by $354.85

Although I realize I am making healthy progress, sometimes (like today) I feel like the balances are not moving fast enough.





2011 Financial Goals
1 –Pay off LOC (In progress – Oct 2010?)
2 –Establish 10K EF (In progress – 2,871.52)
3 –Increase retirement contribution to 10% - currently 7%
4 –Increase retirement contribution back to 20%
5 –Pay off mortgage (approx 2018)
6 –Build wealth & give
7 –Leave corporate America - earn a living doing what I love


2011 Personal Goals

LIVING SITUATION
1 –Reduce/eliminate possessions: Limit purchases to necessity items only, sell/discard existing ones
2 –Reduce consumption
3 –Sell house & move

YOGA
1 –Complete lifestyle course – Nov 2011
2 –Maintain daily practice – ongoing
3 –Transition to vegan diet– ongoing
4 –Yogic teacher training program – (FALL 2012?)

[GirlGreen]

GirlGreen: 4/29/2011 $16,434.88 (1/27/10 $22,141.63 NEU75/334)

	Starting Balance	4/29/2011	Difference
Student Loan	$10341.63	$5529.65	$4811.98
Car Loan	$11800	$10905.23	$894.77
Total	$22141.63	$16434.88	$5706.75	25.77%

[foxybrown77]

rppt: Thanks for the shout out and smilley faces. It really helps me stay focused and motivated. I hope to be in the $5500 club next month. That's the plan. Here's hoping everything goes smoothly and Murphy doesn't mess with me! LOL

[speechchick71]

We have a new winner in the South! Go over and send some congrats to FORWARDWEGO!!!!!

[irishsob]

UPDATE

as of 5/16/07 (1st post) as of 3/31/11 as of 4/30/11

cc #1: $3,878.37 $0.00 $0.00

cc #2: $13,498.94 $0.00 $0.00

cc #3: $17,226.41 $21,395.65 $21,395.65

cc #4: $21,992.36 $5,382.72 $4,250.97

auto: $5,650.00 $0.00 $0.00

Total: $62,246.08 $26,778.37 $25,646.62


Monthly Change ~ -$1,131.75

Total Difference -$35,467.71 -$36,599.46

%-age Paid-to-Date ~ 58.80%

irishsob (N20): 4/30/11 $25,646.62 ($62,246.08 5/16/07)
All the best!
IrishSOB

[forwardwego]

Foxybrown77 Thanks for popping in...feels great to be rid of CC debt. i hope Murphy will keep his nose out of your business and you're in the 5500 club really soon ;D

[casey2525]

April Update

Debt

3/28/2011

[/b] [/td] [td] 4/28/2011 [/td] [/tr]
[tr]
[tr] [td] Star (CC # 1) [/td] [td] [/td] [td] 0 [/td] [td] 0 [/td] [/tr]
[tr]
[tr] [td] HSBS (CC # 2) [/td] [td] [/td] [td] 0 [/td] [td] 0 [/td] [/tr]
[tr]
[tr] [td] USAA (CC # 3) [/td] [td] [/td] [td] $1,397.87 [/td] [td] $810.33 [/td] [/tr]
[tr]
[tr] [td] Citibank (CC #4) [/td] [td] [/td] [td] 0 [/td] [td] 0 [/td] [/tr]
[tr]
[tr] [td] Totals [/td] [td] [/td] [td] $1,397.87 [/b] [/td] [td] $810.33 [/td] [/tr]
[tr]
[/table]

Casey2525 4/30/2011 $810.33 (12/31/07 $18,824.55 NE23)

[raven64]

Update: Raven64: 5/1/11: $49,728.25 (1/19/10 $53,326.18 NEU60)

Credit Card	Rate	1/19/10	1/18/11	Difference
Barclay	18.24%	$8123.54	$7,885.21	$238.33
Discover	15.99%	$5236.61	$4,746.32	$490.29
Chase	13.99%	$5447.62	$4,639.21	$808.41
US Bank	9.24%	$8721.55	$8,140.30	$581.25
Barclay	8.99%	$7315.37	$7,246.58	$68.79
Citibank #1	7.24%	$6199.01	$5,748.22	$450.79
Citibank #2	7.24%	$12282.48	$11,322.41	$960.07
Total		$53,326.18	$49,728.25	$3597.93

Total % paid : 6.747%

Goals
Be under $45,000 by September 30
Increase EF to $2000

Sorry I'm a bit late on my update so I popped in quick to do it. My update isn't so great. Murphy made a big visit to my house. The last couple of weeks have been an emotional roller coaster. My Dad had a heart attack and had to have bypass surgery. The good news is he is okay and doing very well. The bad news is all the driving back and forth put a huge dent in my budget with gas, food and parking fees. I didn't make any progress but that's okay. I would rather still have my Dad in my life than worry about some stupid bills right now. So, tonight DH and I are going to sit down and figure out the damage and work out a plan to be back in place by the end of May. I hope everyone is doing well with their budgets. Happy Racing!!! ;D

[bankergurl]

$100K List has been updated as of 5/1/11!
notmsnmoney.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=wir&thread=2929&page=2

[raven64]

Just catching up on posts:

Lark & Delphinus - I'm so sorry about the possilbity of bankruptcy. You've both worked so hard on your races. I hope you can both find another solution.

GirlGreen - Congratulations!!!!

[wudnit]

UPDATE: WUDNIT 05/03/11 $140,390 (1/13/10 $172915 NEU46)

DEBT	1/1/10	5/1/11	CHANGE
Home Equity	38458	38188	-270
House Mortgage	42040	36356	-5684
Camp Mortgage	29392	10619	-18773
Apt. Mortgage	63025	55227	-7798
TOTALS	172915	140390	-32525

[idlecrush]

idlecrush: 5/4/11 $9,171.99 (3/3/2010 $11417.96 NEU129)
Start 1-May change

CC1 5956.43 5624.35 -341.08
CC2 1410.89 0 -1410.89
CC3 1947.06 1801.24 -145.82
CC4 2094.58 1746.40 -348.18
Total 11417.96 9171.99 -2245.97

I've lost my table template so sorry for the lines running together.

Turtling again this month. I'm trying to save every penny because my FT job is going down the toilet. Out of 19 people in the office, there are 5 left. All the rest put in their resignations and are gone. I don't see us being here very long. I should hopefully hear something about the state job I interviewed for this week or next (they said 3 weeks so this week is the third). I'm praying like crazy I get the job so I have somewhere to go!

I'm hoping things calm down soon and I can start putting money back towards my credit cards. I was trying to pay them off by October because that's when my student loan payments go up. Things will get a little tighter.

idlecrush

[lark1964]

The stress is starting to get to me. I can't sleep. I keep waking up. And I'm... calm... rational... but I feel like crying all the time.



Or maybe it's just menopause. *sigh*

[munjoyhill]

Update Munjoyhill 5/4/11 $144,183.06 ($155,240.30 6/18/09 NE629, NEU 301)

Debt	Starting Amt	5/4/2011	Difference
HELOC	$30,340.30	$20,481.73	$9,858.57
Mortgage	$125,000.00	$123,701.33	$1,298.67
Totals	$155,340.30	$144,183.06	$11,157.24

Just when I start to feel good about paying the $20 extra per week on my mortgage, I look at the overall debt, and feel a little frustrated that it's going down so slowly. My monthly mortgage payment is $642.16, and out of that around $180 is going to principal, and the rest to interest. Sigh. I don't want to take 30 years to pay off this mortgage, even though I took out a 30 year loan.

I know saving everything I can is the right thing to do at this point in case something happens with my job, I am just impatient to pay down the debt.

[rpprt]

idlecrush - crossing my fingers for you to hear some good news on the job front.
lark1964 - No further developments? That's the worst. Kind of caught in limbo. I'll continue to keep you in my thoughts.
munjoyhill - Don't get down on yourself. Just look at how much you've saved. If the job situation calms down, you can refinance for 10 or 15 years, put down a chunk of money, and maybe pay less than you are now! Just hang in there.
I don't know about the rest of you, but all of this rain does have a tendency to bring me down. Hang in there guys, hopefully soon we'll have more sunshine than rain.

[rpprt]

sbvs4you

[wantanewjob]

Hi all - I'm sorry it has been so long since my last post but I have a lot to update about! Although my former company closed very unexpectedly (about 45 days sooner than we were originally told and with very little notice), I was very fortunate in that I had been interviewing and had three job offers by the time of the closure. In fact I received the offer that I accepted on the day the company closed its doors! I started the following Monday and have been here a month already. It's a better job with better pay and just goes to show that everything happens for a reason!

The second big update is that I finished my race! I feel like a little bit of a cheater though because we were able to pay off the last of our huge credit card balance due to a very unexpected inheritance from a family member of my husband's who passed away a year ago. It could not have come at a better time, too, since we also owed over $5,000 in taxes!!

We still have a mortgage and plenty of student loan debt but it's a huge relief to get the consumer debt out of the way. I may eventually race our student loans but right now our focus is on savings and getting ready for a bigger house/starting a family. So here's my update. Thank you to all of you for motivating me to pay off the first $10,000 without any inheritance money


5/4/11 $0.00 (1/19/10 $19,492.75 NEU60/198)
Difference: -$19,492.75
Percentage pay off: 100%!!

Debt	Current 5/4/2011	Last 3/12/2011	First 01/19/2010
Citibank	$0.00	$9,715.70	$3,613.24
Chase	$0.00	$0.00	$15,214.53
Chase Dentist	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Banana Republic	$0.00	$77.76	$464.00
J. Crew	$0.00	$0.00	$119.24
Macys	$0.00	$0.00	$81.74
Total	$0.00	$9,793.46	$19,492.75

[/b]

[/table]
Progress

Difference	From Last Update	From First Post
Citibank	-$9,715.70	-$3,613.24
Chase	$0.00	-$15,214.53
Chase Dentist	$0.00	$0.00
Banana Republic	-$77.76	-$464.00
J. Crew	$0.00	-$119.24
Macys	$0.00	-$81.74
Total	-$9,549.35	-$19,492.75

[/b][/table]
Savings

Savings	$14,407.35
Emergency	$281.06
Insurance	$215.00

[rpprt]

wantanewjob Congrats on winning your race & on the new job! I couldn't let our newest winner have just one karma point, so........

[CarolinaKat]

Popping in from the South to say Congratulations to wantanewjob on winning her race!!!

[Minnesotagirl7]

Just dropping in from the Midwest to say a -felt congratulations to wantanewjob on your win!!!

[HappyCat]

Stopping by from the Midwest to say:
Congratulations to wantanewjob!! You are not a cheater by any means. There is no rule that says you can only win the race with earnings from a job. Enjoy your new found freedom and pat yourself on the back for a job well done!!
PS. Glad you founda new job so quickly!!

[poohbiscit1]

Congratulations Wantanewjob!!

[debtheaven]

Popping in from the International thread to say CONGRATULATIONS to wantanewjob ... TWICE! Once for your win, and once for your newjob!

[kristin11]

Congratulations wantanewjob!!!

[Maryland Monroe]

Congratulations, wantanewjob! You are definitely not a cheater. You paid those debts fair and square with money that came your way. Who cares where it came from...certainly not us!!

[foxybrown77]

Wantanewjob: Congrats on your win. Yay!

[el1504]

Popping in from international (Australia) to say CONGRATULATIONS wantanewjob