So some exciting news, I am going to be putting an offer in on a house. It's perfect, and even though we were going to wait for J to come home from Afghanistan before finding a house, this one is too good to pass up. J has given me the job of doing this.
It's really overwhelming. I know this house is just right, but it's a lot of money and responsibility to have our own house. I'm just nervous at doing this for the first time, and essentially on my own.
Our credit scores have also improved again. So while this really doesn't have an affect on the VA loan we qualify for, it's a nice accomplishment for both of us.
So today will be my 11th no spend day. Still on track to meet 15.
And yesterday I went to the county fair with a group from my Tae Kwon Do school.
I also will receive my Bo Dan Belt (1 below black belt) which basically means I am 1st Dan eligible now.
Big accomplishment for me since I have so many injuries that cause a lot of pain, even just to train.
I hope this last work day goes by quickly, and I can have this weekend to just relax (except for that whole off thing! haha) Wish me luck!
Our Journey to becoming less haunted by debt. There will be good times, and I'm sure bad, but in the end we hope to bring our debt down and manage our financial lives responsibly.
Showing posts with label Credit Score. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Credit Score. Show all posts
August 19, 2011
August 11, 2011
Another Payday Another Paydown
Today is J's payday. It's funny, with me being on vacation, the last payday occurred when I was on my way up to Canada. It doesn't seem that long ago, but here we are, another two weeks have passed!
Today, I have made payments to J's Navy Federal Visa and Mastercard for $1000 each, and to my Navy Federal Visa and Mastercard for $500 each. For a total of $3000 paid down. It won't be long before these are long gone too!
I was going to make higher payments, but I'm waiting to see if there is something that I have forgotten. I guess because I wasn't spending the money in the account when I was in Canada I ended up having more in there than I normally would (groceries, gas, etc).
I will most likely make a deposit to my Canadian credit cards to pay what I used while I was up there. One benefit of having my Canadian CCs...I don't have to pay the conversion rate when I use them!
Tomorrow will be my pay day, but so far all that I need to pay from it is my MBNA CC which depending on the conversion rate from the bank, should be $950.
On the Credit Score update, my Equifax score changed when I was in Canada from 668 to 684! I beat J lol. Although when our reports update with the changes in utilization to his Navy Federal CCs (should be $5000 difference between the two) his Equifax will probably skyrocket....well that's what I'm hoping anyway :)
Tuesday and Wednesday were No Spends for me, today and tomorrow will be another. It's pretty bad that when I was on vacation I only had 3 No Spends out of the 12 days I was up there. That's ok, still have half of the month to make my goal of 15 or else Rafiki over at Upendilife will definitely let me have it! :)
Hope your week has been good, cannot wait for the weekend!
Today, I have made payments to J's Navy Federal Visa and Mastercard for $1000 each, and to my Navy Federal Visa and Mastercard for $500 each. For a total of $3000 paid down. It won't be long before these are long gone too!
I was going to make higher payments, but I'm waiting to see if there is something that I have forgotten. I guess because I wasn't spending the money in the account when I was in Canada I ended up having more in there than I normally would (groceries, gas, etc).
I will most likely make a deposit to my Canadian credit cards to pay what I used while I was up there. One benefit of having my Canadian CCs...I don't have to pay the conversion rate when I use them!
Tomorrow will be my pay day, but so far all that I need to pay from it is my MBNA CC which depending on the conversion rate from the bank, should be $950.
On the Credit Score update, my Equifax score changed when I was in Canada from 668 to 684! I beat J lol. Although when our reports update with the changes in utilization to his Navy Federal CCs (should be $5000 difference between the two) his Equifax will probably skyrocket....well that's what I'm hoping anyway :)
Tuesday and Wednesday were No Spends for me, today and tomorrow will be another. It's pretty bad that when I was on vacation I only had 3 No Spends out of the 12 days I was up there. That's ok, still have half of the month to make my goal of 15 or else Rafiki over at Upendilife will definitely let me have it! :)
Hope your week has been good, cannot wait for the weekend!
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July 25, 2011
Can't Shake That Feeling...
Have you ever woken up and just have that feeling that something isn't right? I don't know what it is, but I have that feeling today. I really don't like this feeling, almost like a panic attack, but not quite full blown (I've had those before). I hope it goes away....
It's probably due to the fact that I am nowhere near ready for my vacation, and that yesterday at work was HORRIBLE. There was a 5-6 minute wait in the phone queue which meant, people were impatient, and it was no stop call after call after call. It's stressful and demoralizing when it gets like that. I described it as trying to dig yourself out of a sand pit, you can dig and dig and dig, but the sand keeps pouring back in and you get nowhere.
Thankfully I'm only on the phone full time on Sundays and military pay days (1st and 15th) or if it gets really busy, and knowing my luck, I will lose my Admin time and have to go on the phones today, throwing my whole coaching schedule out the window. We'll see how it goes.
On a good note, my Equifax credit score is starting to move up or maybe I should say, creep up. I have lowered my credit card utilization by 21% and all my credit score has to show for it is a 10pt increase. So I started at 658 on 05/20 and today it is 668. Not bad, but not where I want it to be. I'm hoping that by the end of August, early September I will be at or over 700.
I'll just keep plugging at it!
It's probably due to the fact that I am nowhere near ready for my vacation, and that yesterday at work was HORRIBLE. There was a 5-6 minute wait in the phone queue which meant, people were impatient, and it was no stop call after call after call. It's stressful and demoralizing when it gets like that. I described it as trying to dig yourself out of a sand pit, you can dig and dig and dig, but the sand keeps pouring back in and you get nowhere.
Thankfully I'm only on the phone full time on Sundays and military pay days (1st and 15th) or if it gets really busy, and knowing my luck, I will lose my Admin time and have to go on the phones today, throwing my whole coaching schedule out the window. We'll see how it goes.
On a good note, my Equifax credit score is starting to move up or maybe I should say, creep up. I have lowered my credit card utilization by 21% and all my credit score has to show for it is a 10pt increase. So I started at 658 on 05/20 and today it is 668. Not bad, but not where I want it to be. I'm hoping that by the end of August, early September I will be at or over 700.
I'll just keep plugging at it!
July 24, 2011
Let The Work Week Begin
It's Sunday, but to me, it's Monday. As some of you know, I work for Navy Federal in their contact center. We are open 24/7 and Sunday's used to be fun to work because they were slower and you didn't get as many calls. Now we tend to be just as busy on Sunday as any other day. And it's just like working any other day. Not so much fun. Today, I get to go to work. Only benefits are that I get night differencial (I work 4pm - 12:30am) and Sunday differencial. Code for more money.
The one good this about this week is I only have to work 4 days, because I am going on VACATION! yay! I haven't had a vacation in a long time. We've gone on short vacations, but this one will be 12 days. I am happy.
J won't be there, but I will be with my entire family, at a cottage, with a lake, beach, peace and quiet, and maybe I can get rid of this pasty white skin of mine and tan for once!
I will post from my parents house when we get paid this week, and do my updates for you all. I can't wait to see more $0 balances :)
On another good note, I found out that if you have a walmart credit card, you can obtain your TransUnion FICO credit score. So I took advantage and found out that mine is at 693! and J's is 694! YAY! When I get back from vacation, I will start looking at getting pre-approved for a mortgage. I am taking a break though.....however, it is so hard not to look and get excited about properties.
I'm hoping we can find something as soon as J gets home. Only 90 more days :)
Let the week begin!
The one good this about this week is I only have to work 4 days, because I am going on VACATION! yay! I haven't had a vacation in a long time. We've gone on short vacations, but this one will be 12 days. I am happy.
J won't be there, but I will be with my entire family, at a cottage, with a lake, beach, peace and quiet, and maybe I can get rid of this pasty white skin of mine and tan for once!
I will post from my parents house when we get paid this week, and do my updates for you all. I can't wait to see more $0 balances :)
On another good note, I found out that if you have a walmart credit card, you can obtain your TransUnion FICO credit score. So I took advantage and found out that mine is at 693! and J's is 694! YAY! When I get back from vacation, I will start looking at getting pre-approved for a mortgage. I am taking a break though.....however, it is so hard not to look and get excited about properties.
I'm hoping we can find something as soon as J gets home. Only 90 more days :)
Let the week begin!
July 21, 2011
Mid Week Update
This week has been interesting. I signed up for some overtime at work this week. I was going to do 4 days of 2 extra hours each for 8 total overtime hours. I cancelled today's OT though. Yesterday I went to Westminster, MD to spend some time with a friend who owns a vehicle restoration business. I got to help take out an engine, and see how to do some body work on a WWII Jeep.
If you don't know already, J and I do WWII reenacting. It's how we met actually and it's kind of our passion. Eventually we will have a WWII Jeep and learning how to fix and restore them is a great thing to have so that you don't have to pay someone to do it. Although, having a friend who owns his own business and would give me a good deal is always nice too haha.
Not much in the payoff department just yet. It all seems to happen when payday happens. Mostly I've been waiting for our credit reports to update. I had to actually call US Bank when they hadn't updated our equifax credit report showing a $0 balance. It hadn't updated since 05/2011 and it was paid off 06/16/2011. When I called, the representative was really rude, but I got her to update the reports, and as of yesterday, it is now showing $0 :)
Before, I had mentioned that my credit score had not updated when I thought it should. Well...turns out, the 658 score, is still the 658 score. I bit the bullet and paid for another report. Oh well, I'm hoping that with the updates here in the next couple of days when my Discover and USAA will show a $0 balance, or a $2500 reduction in debt will help and push that score up :)
J's score on the other hand. That's a different story. His score was 634 when we started on 05/20/2011. It then went to 641 on 06/13/2011 to 653 on 07/08/2011 to 672! on 07/18/2011! His score is better than mine! That's never happened. Oh, now it's on! lol If you knew me, you know how competitive I am lol.
I'm happy though too. He's never had a score that high. I'm hoping when all is said and done we will both be over 700. That's the goal anyway.
I did some number crunching the other day, and have reevaluated our payoff date. Before it was the 09/22/2011 paycheck that would have all of the credit card debt paid off. Now it will be one paycheck earlier, which is 09/08/2011.
I can't wait until then, and I can't wait until J comes home from his deployment in Afghanistan, 93 days. Not that I'm counting down or anything ;)
On the home searching front, I really really love the first house I looked at. But I don't feel it's right to make that decision on my own. So, I may end up sacrificing the home so that J and I can do this together. Plus, I'm going home to Canada here soon, so I don't want to be making any decisions and then not be able to get in contact with my realtor if something should come up.
I believe it will all work out in the end.
I've only had 1 No Spend day this week, which brings me to 9. The rest of this week should be no spends (today and tomorrow) which will make the total 11, only 1 away from my goal :)
Hope you all have been having a great week.
If you don't know already, J and I do WWII reenacting. It's how we met actually and it's kind of our passion. Eventually we will have a WWII Jeep and learning how to fix and restore them is a great thing to have so that you don't have to pay someone to do it. Although, having a friend who owns his own business and would give me a good deal is always nice too haha.
Not much in the payoff department just yet. It all seems to happen when payday happens. Mostly I've been waiting for our credit reports to update. I had to actually call US Bank when they hadn't updated our equifax credit report showing a $0 balance. It hadn't updated since 05/2011 and it was paid off 06/16/2011. When I called, the representative was really rude, but I got her to update the reports, and as of yesterday, it is now showing $0 :)
Before, I had mentioned that my credit score had not updated when I thought it should. Well...turns out, the 658 score, is still the 658 score. I bit the bullet and paid for another report. Oh well, I'm hoping that with the updates here in the next couple of days when my Discover and USAA will show a $0 balance, or a $2500 reduction in debt will help and push that score up :)
J's score on the other hand. That's a different story. His score was 634 when we started on 05/20/2011. It then went to 641 on 06/13/2011 to 653 on 07/08/2011 to 672! on 07/18/2011! His score is better than mine! That's never happened. Oh, now it's on! lol If you knew me, you know how competitive I am lol.
I'm happy though too. He's never had a score that high. I'm hoping when all is said and done we will both be over 700. That's the goal anyway.
I did some number crunching the other day, and have reevaluated our payoff date. Before it was the 09/22/2011 paycheck that would have all of the credit card debt paid off. Now it will be one paycheck earlier, which is 09/08/2011.
I can't wait until then, and I can't wait until J comes home from his deployment in Afghanistan, 93 days. Not that I'm counting down or anything ;)
On the home searching front, I really really love the first house I looked at. But I don't feel it's right to make that decision on my own. So, I may end up sacrificing the home so that J and I can do this together. Plus, I'm going home to Canada here soon, so I don't want to be making any decisions and then not be able to get in contact with my realtor if something should come up.
I believe it will all work out in the end.
I've only had 1 No Spend day this week, which brings me to 9. The rest of this week should be no spends (today and tomorrow) which will make the total 11, only 1 away from my goal :)
Hope you all have been having a great week.
July 9, 2011
Weekend Update
9 days into July and I have 6 No Spend Days! Half way to my goal already! I am so going to demolish this one :)
J and I signed up for Equifax Score Watch a couple of months ago, since we are looking to buy a home here soon, and I don't want to apply for anything until we have an idea of what our credit scores will be. Better scores mean a better interest rate.
When we started Score Watch (which we get a discount through Navy Federal) J's score was 634 and mine was 658. Not great.
We have paid off $10500 in credit card debt, but it is not all showing up on the report just yet. My score hasn't updated at all. This has to be a glitch with the program, because J's score has gone up to 653! I've emailed equifax to see what is going on. I'm curious to see what my real score is.
Hope you are all having a great weekend! I'm off to the Manassas Battlefield tomorrow :)
J and I signed up for Equifax Score Watch a couple of months ago, since we are looking to buy a home here soon, and I don't want to apply for anything until we have an idea of what our credit scores will be. Better scores mean a better interest rate.
When we started Score Watch (which we get a discount through Navy Federal) J's score was 634 and mine was 658. Not great.
We have paid off $10500 in credit card debt, but it is not all showing up on the report just yet. My score hasn't updated at all. This has to be a glitch with the program, because J's score has gone up to 653! I've emailed equifax to see what is going on. I'm curious to see what my real score is.
Hope you are all having a great weekend! I'm off to the Manassas Battlefield tomorrow :)
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