The week before last, I wrote about using my credit card to pay for a rather hefty veterinarian bill (one of my cats was suffering from some sort of allergic reaction, which, now that I am purchasing Very Expensive Food seems to have cleared up). These days, anything over $100 on my credit card bill bothers me, and I figured that at 9.99% interest, taking the money out of my emergency fund (which only gets 1.5% interest at the moment) would result in a savings of 8.49%.
Although I'm loathe to use the EF for something that really should have been expected (I plan to begin both a car maintenance savings account and a pet maintenance account in the future---after I'm finished with school, most likely), I'm even more hesitant to keep a large balance on my credit card.
So, I decided that the $330+ was going to come out of my emergency fund. End of story.
What I didn't factor in, though, is that May is one of those magical months that occurs just twice a year, in which I get not two but THREE paychecks from the night job!!! Woo hoo!!! What this means is that my first May paycheck went directly to the credit card. I still have a bit left to pay on this card due to some small indiscretions (items---like my McAfee Virus Protection program---for which I'll get a full rebate later) but it's less worrisome than it was.
Yay for the night job! I'm feeling very optimistic about my finances, in spite of that student loan debt looming over my head. I'm confident that if I can manage to decimate my credit card debt, control my spending, and increase my savings, I can---and WILL---conquer my other debt too!
Monday, May 11, 2009
Emergency Fund update. . . .
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3 comments:
I love those unexpected blessings.
don't you just love those months with 3 paydays? it's june for us!
Just found your blog and have subscribed via RSS.
Anyways, I wanted to mention that in the event the food you're buying for your cat is prescription, I've found that a site called National Pet Pharmacy (or their mirror site Pet Food Direct)often has the best deals on prescription food. My cat has been on prescription food for years due to constipation issues, and I can get the food from the sites above for about 40% less than what the vet would charge me, even after paying for shipping.
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