Zero Interest Balance Transfer

I use the Mint app on my phone for my finances. 

I think it's a helpful tool to get a quick snapshot as to where our finances stand. Occasionally Mint alerts you about suggestions as to how you can save money and they show you offers for credit cards and stuff. A recent offer was for the Chase Slate card. Chase was offering not only a zero interest balance transfer but there was no balance transfer fee (which can typically run 3-5%)! So I applied and was approved. I quickly transferred some of the balance from my highest interest card to this new one. I'm really looking forward to paying less interest on that card going forward!

It may be a baby step, but it's a step in the right direction... one day at a time! Hope you all have a cheap weekend planned ahead ;-)

24,000 Reasons to Stay at a Job You Don't Love!

I don't LOVE my job. 

Phhhhewww, it felt good to say that! Sure, when I took this job, it seemed like the right "next step" in my career and it made sense at the time. It pays well and I've learned a few new things, but I'm just not able to contribute at the level I want to. In this role, I'm one of many instead of the "go-to" one. I've realized that I want to be able to make more of a contribution.

I feel like Goldilocks, but I'm trying different sized companies to see what's the best fit for me, instead of trying different sized chairs. At this point, I believe a smaller company is my next step.

I've been contacted about another opportunity and I'm pretty far in the interview process. It would be a similar role to one that I had before. It would be at a start up company and I'd be the go-to person running the show. This is interesting to me. In this new role, I would also likely get a $6,000 pay increase, but they only offer a very small 401K match.

The thing that is mentally weighing me down is that if I stay at my current job, which has a nice 401K match, I'd be potentially leaving $24,000+ behind if I leave before I'm vested. Ouch! This is a large amount of money to walk away from. Given that our retirement accounts aren't where we'd like them to be, I kind of feel like I need to suck it up and stick it out with my current company.

What would you do in this situation?

I'm open to your thoughts on staying until after I've vested versus getting out now and going to the other job where I can contribute more and get a pay increase. Thanks!

Blog Makeover!

As I restart this journey to climb back out of debt, I felt that I needed to freshen up my blog and give it a makeover. I wanted to give it a clean, fresh look. During this process, I debated switching from Blogger to WordPress, as it offers way more creative options, but I figured that this has worked for me so far, so I'm going to stick with it for now. So, I hope you like the changes and if you can't find where something went, just let me know :)

Free San Diego Harbor Cruise!

This week my hubby and I were selected by a local radio station to be able to attend a free listener concert. Neither of us were too interested in the band playing, but I love live music and even more than that...

I love free stuff, 

so we decided to go! It also happened to be on a cruise that goes around the beautiful San Diego harbor at sunset. You can't beat that! Parking was free, so we only had to worry about dinner. We picked up some sushi and had that on the way there. It was great! I even brought my camera (something I'm trying to do more often) so I could share some pics from the night. Enjoy!

Radio Winnings - Update!

On Sunday, I posted that I had won a $125 gift certificate to a local nursery. The hubby and I went to check out the nursery but we didn't see anything we loved. I debated just holding on to the gift card and maybe getting a nice Christmas tree later this year but the more I thought about it, the more I realized I should just sell it and use the cash to pay down debt. 

This nursery tends to overprice their items so I'm sure a tree would cost us a bundle! I'm just as happy going to pick out a cheap one. Here's a picture of our cheap tree last year. I thought it looked pretty good :)

So, I'm off to post that the gift card is for sale. I'm hoping to get $100 out of it, but I'll let you guys know!

Radio Winnings!

I've been lucky over the years to win free stuff from time to time on the radio. The items have varied from CD's to concert tickets to amusement park tickets, but normally it's nothing too expensive. It's always a treat though to win something and hear myself on the radio.

Last week I won a $125.00 gift card to a local nursery!

We just moved into our condo and our place could use some plants or something but I wasn't about to spend money on that. Now that we have the free gift card, it feels like this may be a good way to spruce things up a bit without us having to pay for it ourselves.

On the other hand... I've been considering selling the gift card online for a discounted price ($100?) and using those funds to pay down our debt. I'm still on the fence about it. I think the hubby and I will go check out the nursery later today and if nothing jumps out at us, we'll do just that. No sense in buying something we don't really like just to spend the money.

So, there it is, if we don't fall in love with anything, we're going to sell the gift card and use the cash for debt repayment. I'll let you all know what we end up doing! Enjoy the rest of this sunny Sunday afternoon. It's a beautiful one :)