The worst thing I did financially was get a credit card before my junior year of college. I'd use it at the liquor store, or Walgreens, or for Chinese food, just about for everything other than the emergencies I told myself I'd use it for. They gave me a $2,500 credit limit, and I had it maxed out by graduation. Stupid, stupid, stupid...

I get to leave in 15 minutes, but I am officially Stopping Work now.

If we get the CC debt down to zero - and Pay off the car ( which is a 0% loan )my little baby paycheck will truely be gravy. Then we can aim for the magical number of 6 months savings in the bank.

My lofty goal (which I think is actually doable, with some serious discipline) is to get my CC and car paid off by the end of 2008. Then I want to build up a 6-month emergency fund, fully fund a Roth, max out my 401(k), and save so that I can pay cash for my next car.

I feel all adult just saying stuff like that.

Speaking of paychecks, the father of the girl I tutor once a week decided it would be a keen idea to send my check in with his incredibly scattered, disorganized daughter. I tutored her on Tuesday. Guess who hasn't been paid yet?

I was looking forward to going outside and not having to worry about frostbite

I was hoping that it would be a little warmer today, but this morning the snow was all squeaky and at lunch the windchill tried to burn my face off, and I'm shaking my fist at internet weather sites and hollering, "LIAAAAAAR."

Kathy - it's only 12 by the lake?

It's 16 here.

get my CC and car paid off by the end of 2008. Then I want to build up a 6-month emergency fund, fully fund a Roth, max out my 401(k), and save so that I can pay cash for my next car.

I think about doing that.

And then I pass the joint.

We are - to no one's surprise I am sure - dangerously paycheck-to-paycheck. Wasn't always thus. The move hit us hard and I don't see us being out of it (short of a lottery-win or summat) for at least another year. Joe not working permanently for seven months has killed us and the $10k drop in salary for me effed us hard.

I have lived paycheck-to-paycheck, and I know I'm not doing it now. When I refinanced my student loans on the 30-year plan to reduce the payment, and still didn't always have money in the bank to buy groceries with? That was paycheck-to-paycheck, and I'm still paying it off.

Yeah, the reason my budget is so tight is that (when I realized they automatically shifted me to a 30-year plan when I consolidated my school loans) I changed it back to 10. That means my minimum debt servicing per month is more than rent in most places, but there was no way I was going to pay all that extra interest if I didn't really have to.

Kathy - it's only 12 by the lake?

It looks like the Trib just updated the temp on their home page--it's 16 degrees, now. And, according to the radar, the precip is moving our way, so it'll be getting warmer before I get out of here.

See, I don't think I would be living this paycheck to paycheck if I hadn't lived off my credit cards for many years when doing theatre and making between 9,000 and 14,000 a year. And if I hadn't totally screwed my interest rates by getting depressed and not paying my bills ontime even when I had the money.

Now that I don't have either the expense of a car or the means to go shopping easily, I am hoping to pay off the credit cards in 2 years, and then be able to quit the theatre. However, my biggest fixable expense right now is eating at the cafeteria (I have gotten rid of cable and internet, I have no car, I have only a cell phone) and working at the theatre gives me no time to grocery shop or cook food, so it is hard to pack my lunch AND dinner.