Friday, January 16, 2009

Covering My December Short-Fall

I've been racking my brain trying to figure out how to make up the $98.27 shortfall in my December budget without tapping my EF.

Good News #1:
As I previously reported, I bought TurboTax from Costco in mid-December so that I can estimate my tax bill and start saving ASAP, if needed, for April. As luck would have it, Costco issued a $10 off coupon AFTER my purchase.

I was sufficiently miffed that I went to Costco yesterday to see if they will refund me $10. No dice.

But the kind customer service representative said, “Just buy another TurboTax with the coupon and return it using your original receipt.” Brilliant!

So now I'm now only short $88. Now where can I find $88 in the next 10 days?

Good News #2
As readers of this blog know, I gave Chase the boot and transferred my credit card balance to Bank of America's 0% offer.

My monthly budget to pay my credit card is $265. I paid Chase $30 immediately to cover the interest that accrued to date. With this, hopefully, Chase is out of my life for good.

The best news is that BofA's bills won't come due until 2/15. I'll use part of the remaining $235 of my January Chase budget to pay for the $88 shortfall immediately. I'll now have some extra time to come up with the extra $88 to cover December's shortfall.

The bad news, though, is with the 3% transfer fee, I've incurred an additional $358.17 on to my credit card debt. Blech.

But not to worry folks! I've got a plan to eliminate my credit card bills before the 0% offer expires in October.

Funny Pictures

Stay tuned... I'll unveil my plan on Friday the 13th in February!!

3 comments:

Miss M said...

Costco rules! I bought turbo tax last weekend and I'm going to play around with it this weekend. I'm praying for a refund, I want a laptop but it's not in the budget.

I finally realized what my budget shortfall was, a charge I never disputed cause I was working with the company to get my refund. I think they went belly up, I need to call to see if I can still dispute it. $60 for a birthday cake for my dad, they cancelled the order on me on his birthday! Then they never refunded me the money, nice.

Sharon S said...

Hi there-very well done, you've a plan of action for the dreaded credit card bills, can't wait to see!

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