Great Progress

I have been doing overtime and babysitting like crazy for the past fortnight!

I worked a 9 day week, worked an extra shift a day after, then on Friday/Saturday/Monday worked 4 babysitting "shifts" that rounded to about 22hrs. Then after a day and a half I'm right back on a 7 day work week. Needless to say, I'm a bit exhausted (and unfortunately it's emotional as well as physical, but that's a post for another day).

So with that completely insane work schedule, I've managed to cut my credit card debt to $837.79, a 60.7% decrease from where it was exactly two weeks ago. I can't believe it! Combining all four extra avenues of income has really paid off.

It hasn't been easy though. My plan doesn't give me much leeway for other things, and I'm struggling to adjust to a strict budget. So far in my life I've been decent on saving money and not spending frivolously, but I didn't crunch the numbers well enough. While I calculated the immediate expenses to see how much I'd have left over for other things, I neglected to keep proper records. I knew how much I should have to spend but then I never compared it to what I was actually spending, hence the credit card debt.

My debt is certainly smaller than most out there I'm sure, but I still have regrets. Had I been this serious just a year ago, I most likely wouldn't have any credit card debt, be budgeting a month ahead, and making some decent headway on my emergency fund and student loans.

What about when I was starting college, or even before that while I earned money babysitting? It physically pains me to think of how financially secure I would be at this point in my life. My loans would be significantly smaller, no doubt about that.

But it's no use dwelling on the past like that. There's nothing I can do to change it. All that's left to do is turn that regret into motivation to prevent it from happening ever again. I'll also use that experience to teach my sisters so they can start young when I wish I did.