August Tracking Adventure Week 2

Woop. The second week of my August Tracking Adventure has come to a close and here are the results:


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Circle K		$21.01		Gas
Pharmacy		$30.00		Pharmacy
Subway		$9.00		Food
OnCue		$8.30		Food
Louie's		$36.00		Food
Target		$10.83		Miscellaneous
Aldi		$47.93		Groceries (joint account)
Crest		$53.67		Groceries (joint account)

Groceries $101.60- This is more than I planned on spending... Groceries come out of our joint account so the boyfriend and I are both paying for them. Now, I do meal planning and I take a list to the store so how is my grocery spending so high? Because I take the boyfriend with me and let's just say he doesn't understand the concept of sticking to a list. (*side note-boyfriend does appreciate my budgeting and attempting to save money here and there, he even fist bumped me when I found black beans for 0.61 instead of the 0.99 I thought I was going to spend)

Food $53.30- So I think I did pretty close to the same as last week... I went out with a couple of friends on Saturday and spent more than I would have liked to but I did have leftovers for my boyfriend afterward so really I got 2 meals out of it.

Pharmacy $30- I spent $30 on my birth control, sounds high but I actually get 3 months at a time.

Gas $21.01- I filled up the tank this week, the pump stopped at 20.89 but I was shooting for a nice whole number... #fail

Miscellaneous $10.83- I bought a dry erase board to go on my fridge to write out what we are having for dinner each night. Even though this was for the house it wasn't a necessity so I paid for it myself instead of taking it from our joint account. 

Total spending for Week 2: $216.74

I spent more than Week 1 but I'm not too upset about it. I'm really proud of myself for sticking to this tracking thing for 2 weeks. My meal plan is set for next week and I don't have any plans that will involve money spending so I'm thinking Week 3 is going to be a hit!

(PS I originally included the dates on the spreadsheet above but when I pasted it into Blogger it caused funky things to happen so I deleted the dates.)

"The One Where Eddie Won't Go..."

Anyone else here a HUGE fan of the TV show Friends?

If you’re not then we probably can’t be friends. (See what I did there?)

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It started airing when I was 4 so I didn’t really start watching it until middle school but I have watched all the seasons multiple times at this point in my life. When I was younger I didn’t understand all the jokes or the situations but now that I’m a “grown up,” and I use that term loosely, a lot of the episodes really make me think!

The most recent episode that really hit home with me was the episode, “The One Where Eddie Won’t Go.” Joey had moved out of the apartment that he lived in with Chandler and spent gobs of money decorating it in a way that the other friends thought was tacky (PS I am a huge fan of 90% of Joey’s décor, it was definitely my style). After he was fired from his acting job as Dr. Drake Ramoray on “Days of Our Lives,” Joey came to the realization that he was going to have a hard time paying for everything in his apartment which of course he bought on a credit card. He receives a Visa bill that is so big it has to come in two envelopes! In the end he has some guys come to his apartment to pick up all of his animal statues and other furnishings to take them back to the store, I’m assuming for full credit back to his Visa.

Now as I was watching this episode it was probably around 10 pm one night, and because I live the life of an old lady, I was in bed. And during the whole thing I just couldn’t help but think “I wish I could return everything I bought on credit…” Which lead me to think “WHAT IN THE HELL DID I BUY?? WHERE IS IT ALL??” Looking around my house, I do have a lot of stuff but for as much credit card debt as I have you would think that I would have the nicest stuff that money could buy! There were times that I would put my groceries on my card, or gas or things like that which were necessary purchases but most of the time I would spend money on nights out with my friends (who were also living beyond their means) or on clothes that don’t even fit me anymore. I wish I could go back in time and tell myself to watch that particular scene in that episode of Friends and tell my old self that one day I would be in a similar position to Joey (although I’ve never had a credit card bill that was delivered as ‘envelope 1 of 2’) having credit card debt that I couldn’t really afford.

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The worst feeling, in my opinion, is knowing that you have all this credit card debt and it seems like nothing to show for it. I used to say that I didn't regret any of the choices I've made in the past because they got me to where I am today but my credit card is definitely a regret. But I'm working on it now and I'm dedicated to paying it off. 

Although, I wish this was TV and I could return all my purchases like Joey did because I would do it in a heart beat.

Pleased to meet you...

Hi, I’m Joley, and I have credit card debt (Hi, Joley!). 

[Let me go ahead and preface this post by saying, I am not the best writer… There will be grammatical errors in my posts 😊]

I am a 27 year old, living in the Oklahoma City area with my boyfriend and our precious fur baby. We just spent a week (in the miserable Oklahoma heat) moving into a house that has much more room than our tiny apartment had. On top of the more room there is also a nice size backyard where our dog can run around and wear herself out.

I work at a local bank as a teller supervisor, and I can honestly say that for the first time in a long time, I love my job. I have been in banking for 6 years and I wouldn’t want to work in any other field, partially out of comfort (after 6 years, this is all I know!) and partially because I love what I do. 

Why am I writing this blog? Because I’m in debt. 

When I was about 21, I opened my first credit card… It was all downhill from there. Fast forward to today and I am in some serious debt. I say its serious debt but to some people it might not be quite as serious, but for me when I think about it, I want to puke. Luckily I have a super supportive family and group of friends to give me a barf bag or an emotional boost when I’m feeling really bad about it all. 

This is actually my second attempt at blogging my way thru my debt (points if you can figure out what my last blog was called) but this time I’m hoping to be more successful in both paying off the debt, and continuing to blog.  

*All opinions are my own and are in no way the opinions of my employer… (I have to say that.)