Let's Get Started

I get to check meet with a financial planner off of my list.

I called up one of my old high school friends, who is doing phenomenal with his business and I asked him if he could help me. He more than obliged. I had to put my embarrassment aside, as he asked me to do a couple of times, so we could devise a plan and get me some money. This was on a Thursday evening about a month ago now. All I did through the course of the weekend was try to get my bills lower. Seriously. And what could I eliminate? Well, I'm going to tell you because this last month has been pretty amazing.
1) I paid off my Macy's card that I opened for Christmas to get the extra 15% off discount on my purchase. I also closed the account.
2) One of the big things I had to do was try and consolidate my credit cards with a personal loan; I'll just say the total balance owed is under $10,000. (It's still way too much!) I went to my bank who I was with for 12 years and they wouldn't help me. I went to a credit union and they wouldn't help me without a co-signer. Not gonna do that. Went to a third bank in my hometown and also needed a co-signer. Okay, so I have been advised that this debt needs to be paid off in 3 years. Swallowing my pride, I asked my parents if they would co-sign and low and behold, they said yes. Okay, so the personal loan, which is actually credit card (that got mailed to parents), has a 7.5% rate and that doesn't change. My previous bank was charging me 15% and the credit union couldn't believe that. What ended up happening is I closed all of my accounts at the bank that wouldn't help me and now have everything with the credit union. It was such a positive experience and they were and are willing to work with me. (I closed my previous bank credit card as well). There are two I'm keeping open because I've had them for so long. But...I don't even have the cards; everything was cut up after the consolidation.
3) Dropped my cell phone bill down to the lowest amount of minutes I could go, along with the texts. This took $20.00 off my bill. Plus work pays for half of my bill. Bonus!
4) Directv-What a rip. I dropped this down to the basic package. I wouldn't care so much about this except the channels I love the most are the sports channels and they're gone. But doing this added $15.00 extra dollars to my pocket. It was actually $10.00 but I asked if they had any promotions going and I got a $5.00 credit.
5) Progressive: Love them! I already have every discount under the sun with them but I decided to give the Snapshot Discount a whirl. This is the coolest thing ever. I never realized what a bad driver I was until I got this. It tracks your hard stops and I have to say I'm doing better than I thought I would. I could get up to 30% more off of my bill.
6) I started my emergency fund and it has the amount that was requested I put in, thanks to my tax refund. What a great feeling! I have never had an emergency fund in my life.
7) As another form of income, I am currently donating plasma. I can make $200.00 a month on this. I am looking for part-time jobs as well but I can't really start working 2 jobs until after my thesis is finished in May.
8)  My lease is up in late spring so I am looking for a smaller place. That being said, I put some stuff on Craigslist to sell.
9) I was also able to put back into my 401K. That's a relief because they do a full match.

I've had some good cashflow this week: sold my table and chairs, got both tax refunds back, sold my textbooks back to the website I bought them from and got that check in the mail this week too.

So, I'm off to a good start.