Groovy Mom

Today I was listening to the radio in the car. A commercial comes on, starts talking about saving money. Sounded interesting. Feed The Pig, the website was called. I thought of texting it to myself, but figured I should be able to remember a site name like that. I did. I checked it out.

I honestly don’t care how good the site might be. Thirty seconds of that pig with the slotted head, talking in his pink leisure suit gives me the heebie jeebies. I’ll pass.

We refinanced.

Not our house. That was done before. This time it was our other debt. Two of our debts. One was a credit card for… a sizable amount. It’s so embarrassing to even share this, because my ignorance shows. But, I share in hopes that someone else will make sense of it, and maybe it will help.

We had a credit card that I have been paying on for a good year. Combined balances, lured with a low introductory APR, that had passed and now bounced up to the regular rate. We made the commitment to not spend on the card and pay it down. First step. Sadly, it took that long year to realize that my payments were making a minimal dent in the debt. When I say minimal, I mean… oh, 10 bucks each month? Hardly enough to make the hundreds digit move, and not nearly enough for the thousands to rotate.

As I was paying it a couple months ago I had a gut check. A sick, sick feeling that something needed to be done. But, as far as finances go, I’m but an infant. I seriously think if I were in school and lengthy IEP would be issued for me, and it would be heartily welcomed and helpful. I do not jest. I’m a slow learner in some areas. There are things in life that swirl around my brain and never permeate it, and then, one day, they find an in and they squiggle in. This. This is one of them.

At any rate, I made a plan to visit my local credit union and finance at a lower rate. Before that plan, I made a plan to distribute my balance among multiple lower-APR cards. Option 2 was much more viable, but as I said I learn slow.

After accepting 2 card offers and realizing they weren’t really what would work best for me, I told myself I needed to bite the bullet and visit the credit union down the street. I’ve already got an account there (baby steps), setting up a small savings. I don’t know what kept me from visiting my always-friendly CU to see if they had any options for me. Pride, probably.

Yesterday we set aside all non-necessary deeds, and made ourselves a priority for once. Forget the things I needed to do to manage the two soccer teams I was managing, our own finances, our own lives needed to take priority. For once. Too long I’ve lived diving into volunteer work and other things that put me in a place of doing something very productive, but kept me from facing our own obligations.

That’s got to change.

To the bank we went, at the desk we sat, the conversation we finally had. The refinancing we accomplished.

Credit card shall be paid off in 3 years.

Car loan (refinanced at a lower rate – with a local bank) paid off in 4.

The light at the end of the tunnel is visible. The refinancing on the credit card alone will save us roughly 7 grandola. Yeah, I sad $7000.  It’s still debt, and we’re still giving someone money to borrow money, but it is less, and it has an end in sight.

I. Felt. Terrific. Frank was a little less ecstatic, only because he really isn’t involved in the finances (another thing that needs to change). Bless his heart for coming along, supporting me, and sharing a bit of joy in my relief

When you’re being intentional in one area of your finances, it really helps you to be more thoughtful in other areas.

Franks working overtime tonight. As much as I don’t like him to be gone, I do like the impact it makes on the paycheck. Years ago, when the kids were little, the difficulty of him being gone for 16 hours outweighed the fatter check. With the twins and a toddler, plus two more – my job as a SAHM was no cake walk. Some days, now, it is still difficult when he is gone for days on end. But I’m getting used to it. Bill-pay time is not as stressful when there’s a couple OTs on the check.

Right now we’re really working on getting our finances in better order. Big picture is overwhelming, but taking small bites of the debt pie here and there is manageable. One thing I need to do is renegotiate one of our credit cards, or refinance somewhere else. The card is $8000, and I don’t think the balance is even moving with the minimum payment each month. Craziness. For a long time life was so crazy (not just in Toddlerhood, but more recently) that we were in survival mode. The goal was to survive, attention was not given to these small details. This year, though, as my hours were cut from work, I used some of that time to do a better job of house management, and the benefits are overwhelming.

If anyone has any tips about paying down credit card debt, I’m all ears.