Just found out today that I owe about $500 in taxes which everyone knows are due in about two weeks. I've heard that doing a payment plan is more expensive than paying with a credit card so it looks like I may have to pay a portion of it with my cc. I had no idea I was going to have to pay any in as I usually get a bit of a refund. I even tried to estimate what I would get back or owe using a tax estimator. Guess that was wrong! I guess it could be worse.

Well, a big emergency happened. I took my car in and got an estimate for work that needed to be done. I requested the exact amount from my trust fund and got the money the next day. I rented a car to get to work that day using my debit card, something I've never done. You have to fill out some extra paperwork and show two bills and proof of insurance. So I did all that so I wouldn't have to use my credit cards. So I'm at work and Firestone calls me and says when they took the radiator hoses off to replace them they saw that the radiator was eaten through and would have to be replaced. This would be an extra $400. I'd just gotten paid and knew that if I paid the extra 400 I would not have money left for my bills. So I split about $230 of it between two credit cards and paid for the rest. I feel really bad about it but didn't know what else to do. I didn't want to ask for anymore money from my trust fund since I'd already gotten out about $800. And I didn't want to get behind on my other credit card payments and bills.

It's been a while since I've written on here. I've had some ups and downs since then. I've managed to finally stop using my credit cards, even though it's only been about a week and a half. I have $112 in a savings account linked to my checking for small emergencies. It's thanks to Keep the Change, the program that Bank of America does. After a year you get so much of the money that you've saved back. It's pretty cool. All of this probably sounds kind of pathetic to some people, but for me it's a big deal. I sat down with my therapist and came up with a plan to pay down my credit cards. I admit I haven't started that yet because I wanted to build up a small cushion in my checking and/or savings account so that I won't start using my credit cards again. But I've figured out that with just $300 a month extra paid on my cards I could be out of debt in 3 years. That's without getting the interest rates down on some of my cards that are at 29%. I plan to do that soon. Also if I pay more I will get out of debt sooner. I also got a deferment on my student loans until July so that I could get caught up. The only major extra expenses on the horizon are taxes, a vet bill for one of my cats in APril, and a plane ticket home for Memorial Day weekend. I think I'll still be able to start my plan in spite of all that. I'm hopeful that this is all going to work out.