Two steps forward, three steps way back

Unfortunately, looking over this month's current progress, it looks like we're taking a major step back in our debt progress.  Despite our payments, it looks like we will be adding on about $2,800 of credit card debt.  Several things have been going on this month:

$2,000 in computer hardware purchases.  Since Windows Vista was officially released (and available to MSDN Subscribers and beta testers), I decided to go ahead and upgrade my computer.  I wanted several things just done and out of the way.  My computer is my cash cow... I need it to make my living, and since I am on it all day, little annoyances can over time become major pains.  I decided to just take the dive and upgrade it, especially since we decided we weren't going to be buying a house right now.

$550 in car repairs, another $770 later this week for tires on my car, so around $1,300 in car expenses.  My wife had the oil leak in her car, and my car is in need of tires.  After driving through some heavy rain on our way to Thanksgiving at my parents, I realize it is certainly time to get them.  I could tell it was getting poor traction in the rain, and don't want to go into the rain season with them still on there.

There have been a couple of other little happenings.  First, end of last month, MBNA finally merged with Bank of America.  Due to some sort of quirk with the move, my payment for this month never went through.  Never withdrawn from my checking account, and never posted on the credit card.  I got them to reverse the lay fee and have another payment going through, so hopefully it is all taken care of now.  My main thing is not letting it get 30 days past due.  The other issue is I never got my new statement for November (normally have it by around the 15th).  Hopefully it was just lost in the mail or delivered to the wrong person.

Also, next month is when we need to start making payments on my wife's other student loan.  I knew it was coming, but now the day is finally here.  Another $130 in minimum payments to throw that way.

With making the computer purchases, I was going to be able to recoup most of the costs through selling other stuff.  Total, I am expecting to get about $1,500.  The problem?  I don't think I will be able to use it to pay the balance off the credit cards.  In January, we are going to be moving and renting a house, so I will be needed to make a security deposit.  Typically, this is about one months worth of rent, so I am expecting it to be about $1,500.  It is money that I will eventually get back (or most of it), but it is still cash I need my account, to hand over while we live there.

The thing that really bothers me is that our credit card debt will be the highest it has been all year, even though this year we'd payed of three accounts, and really close on another card.  While we are in a much better place now than we were a year ago, mentally, it can feel like a pretty major blow.

Though on the more positive side, there are a few things to be happy about.  For starters, I guess I am finally out of the ugly APR on my Citibank card.  I had regularly been late with payments before, never 30 days, but just a day or two here an there, causing my APR to jump.  Their period is pretty long, but now I am finally getting dropped down to the lower rate.  While it doesn't cut my debt, it does help with finance charges, so it is certainly not bad news.

Additionally, I do try to think of how much better of we are this year than last year at this time.  So while it is a set back, it is definitely one we'll recover from.  We just need to buckle down on some spending, evaluate things, and continue trucking forward.  With all of these expenses out of the way, going forward, we should be looking much better.