I started the last ornament and made some progress on it this week. Here it is:
You can start to see a teapot and teacup emerging.
The goal is to get it all stitched and maybe even sew the last 4 ornaments to complete the entire set of 12. We’ll see. I am in the middle of canning season so stitching may be a wonderful quiet time project.
That’s it for this update. Thank you Avis for organizing this group. We are all working on individual projects so please visit each one to see who is working on what.
These ornaments are so tedious with many small amounts per color. I have one more ornament after this one and I will be glad to move on to something else.
That’s it for this update. Thank you Avis for organizing this group. We are all working on individual projects so please visit each one to see who is working on what.
Week 3 was a tough week. I usually sit at the computer on Wednesday mornings and pay any bills that need to be paid for the week and I did not do that for the 8th. This caused a chain reaction and suffice it to say created a shortage the next week for the 15th. PLUS we had two repair bills, one for a pressure release valve in the basement and one to repair a broken axle on the riding lawnmower. Soooo today when I paid bills I was not able to pay anymore to our debt like I wanted. Bummer.
I am not going to dwell on it though. Everything I see for next week’s paychecks give me every indication that I will again be able to pay another $1000 towards the credit card debt.
I do have an interesting story to tell you though! When I was chatting with our plumber as he was repairing the pressure release valve on the water line he said his son had had his first birthday! Oh, how wonderful for you all I said! Being a baker, I know people tend to have a lot of people at first birthdays nowadays so I asked him, almost with a wince how many people they had at the party. He said well we invited 185 people….WHAT??! Then he said it was regrets only so about 120 people RSVP’d but only 80 something showed up but they had enough food for the 120 people.
I just shook my head at him. He said he asked his wife why they were doing this and she said because everyone does. That statement right there is why everyone is in debt. Let me repeat myself…people doing something because everyone else is doing it is one of the reasons debt occurs. A one year old, unless this child is a miracle baby, does not need a party for 185 people. I told our plumber he should have put the money they spent on that party into a college fund for him/her.
I could go on about the nonsense that is going on today with the overwhelming pressure others put on us to do something we can’t afford. I remember even 20 years ago thinking why am I doing this when it came to yearly school and sports photos for our son. I did greatly reduce the package I bought down to an 8×10 and 4 4×5’s and that was it. And do you know what? I never did anything with them. They are still in the package they came in because I was never a “display pictures on the wall” kind of mom.
I’ll end my thoughts right there before I get into trouble.
There are two methods of thought when it comes to paying off credit card debt. The “Snowball” method and the “Avalanche” method.
The snowball method is when you pay off the credit card with the lowest balance first regardless of the interest rate which would give the debtor quick satisfaction. Once that credit card is paid you would roll that payment into the next smallest balance.
The avalanche method is when you pay off the credit card with the highest interest rate first. Once that credit card is paid you would roll that payment into the next highest interest balance.
I have decided to create a third method which I would like to call the “Blizzard” method which incorporates a little of both of the other methods. I feel like nowadays we get some pretty decent forecasted warnings of impending blizzards so we can prepare for them. This is the same type of method I have taken with our credit card debt. I was bothered most by the highest balance credit card, it was keeping me up at night. Instead of paying off the lowest balance card which was $2600 I wanted to plow as much money into the highest balance card which at the time was $15,500. After doing a balance transfer and combining 2 cards, I had a year with zero percent interest. After the zero percent offer was done, I had paid about $6000 off on it bringing it down to about $9500. I went a couple of months with the interest rate at 23.99% and was drowning again so I called the credit card company, and they lowered the rate to 7.99% for 6 months! (It can really pay to ask for a reduction in interest rate) Now after a few shorts months I have that credit card balance down to $4200! So, if you can prepare yourself with getting the interest rate lowered and do a balance transfer to get yourself ready for the “Blizzard” you can then plow as much money into the highest balance card. (I love these snow references lol)
Now that the highest balance card is down to $4200 that means I have paid off $7454 of debt so far this year bringing me just $2500 left to reach my goal of paying off $10,000.
I still have three credit cards, but one card is $4200, one is $2600 and one is about $5800. And guess what? Because of my “Blizzard” method my credit score has soared to 805! Pretty amazing right?
I have resurrected this blog series because my only goal this year now that my mom is on the mend is to pay off $10,000 in debt.
We started off the year with $20,160.72 in credit card debt. As we stand right now at the end of June 6 months into the year, we are at $13,706.68 in credit card debt.
That is $6454.04 paid off!
My goal for July is to pay off another $3000 in debt, which will bring me about $500 away from my goal.
I love July for our paychecks because my husband gets 5 and I get 3 paychecks. Woohoo!
That’s what I got for now. I’ll update again next week.
On April 26th my mother had a brain hemorrhage. Luckily, her friend was coming to pick her up for brunch after church. Otherwise, we probably would not have found her in time. She was perfectly fine, just 45 minutes earlier, with me at church.
We have all learned a lot the last 2 months for which I will post about at a later date. My mother is doing well, but it has been a very exhausting and tiring road.
Suffice it to say my goals are just not my goals anymore after all of this.
Out of the list of goals I made for myself for 2026, the only goal I care about achieving is to pay off $10,000 in debt.
So, from this point forward, my paying off our debt posts will go back to being posted as Not Impressed With Our Debt. I prefer that way of posting anyways.
I have lots to update on this…my only goal this year. Seems weird to only have one goal but what a goal it is!
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The Professional Domestic 