I Missed a Payment!

That Dave Ramsey guy I like to watch on TV often tells people they have to have “gazelle intensity” to get out of debt.  Well since November, I think I have been as focused as a gazelle running from a cheetah.  I schedule my online payments very early (usually) and I keep a spreadsheet showing what bills are due, when they are due, what amount I intend to pay and when I intend to pay it.

I went online last week to pay a credit payment only to see that it was due the day before!  I have not been late on a payment since I got focused on debt elimination in November.  One of the reasons I started blogging is to keep myself focused by writing about my journey.

It took me a week to decide to share this with those that read this blog, because I was more than a little embarrassed- actually angry is a better explanation.  I am very angry with myself!

This is an account that is almost paid off.  The minimum payment is only $20.00 a month and now I have to pay a $39.00 late fee.  I was also signed up for a program that required me to stay current with my payments for eight consecutive months and the reward would be a refund of 20% of the interest I paid during that eight month period.  I was real close to achieving that.

What makes me mad is that I had looked at the spreadsheet two or three days before.  I also have a spreadsheet where I track how much interest I pay on that account so I’ll know if they refund the correct amount to me.  I had just gone to their site a couple days before to look up some data to put in that spreadsheet.  Did I think I had already scheduled the payment?  Did I forget what the date was?  I have no idea!  I guess I have to plead temporary insanity.  It wasn’t like I didn’t have $20 to pay the bill!

I am almost as angry as I was in November when I decided I had to change my financial life, so maybe this will help me regain my focus.  I feel like a gazelle that just got a little flesh taken off his rear end by a cheetah’s claw, but it didn’t make me fall.  I’m still running and weaving.  I will get away!

I’m filing this under the category “Setbacks”.  That’s the only way I can describe it…