How I use a spreadsheet to track progress

That's where creating a spreadsheet comes in. You don't have to buy any software to create one. Google Drive and Open Office are both free. They are also good programs.

Google Drive is cloud based so you can keep up with your bills wherever you are. Open Office is downloaded to your computer. You can only access your progress from your computer but it's good for those who aren't always on the net.

Microsoft Excel is another program. This one isn't free. My job required me to use Microsoft so I'm using Excel to track my progress to get out of debt. The screenshot below shows I have the spreadsheet set up.

The colums show:
Bill name
Original balance
Payment amount
Amount paid
Remaining balance

Off to the right is a column that shows the date that payments began on the debt. A second section shows what my monthly bills are.

A third column that you can't see shows the income for the month and the sources.

All income sources are listed in a column that you can't see. This includes steady income like my husband's job and uncertain income from my writing sources.

I specifically cut the income off of the spreadsheet when showing it to you. I'm not trying to hide anything. It just seemed weird to do it. Also, I changed the names of the medical bills. Displaying those seemed weird too.

Older bills that were paid off last quarter are still being transferred over. That's why you don't see those. I hope to get those moved over soon. They will be in another column below the income and will be turned into light grey.

There are probably other ways to use a spreadsheet to track your debt reduction progress. This just happens to be the system that works for me. However; I'm open to ideas so if you have suggestions, by all means, leave a comment below.

Loan considerations for cash strapped folks

A lot of people are cash strapped during this time of year and that's understandable. Some people are looking for the fastest loans they can get to get them through the holiday season. The demand for gifts, covered dishes and extra expenses during the month of December is nonstop. All of that translates into extra expenses.

Some of the places where you can apply for loans include:

Cash stores
Banks
Credit Unions
Loan companies
Online lending companies
Mortgage company
Local or online cash advance companies

Pre-application Decisions

There are some decisions to be made before you fill out the loan application. Each decision is important even though each one may seem to be mundane. Some of the things to decide on include (but are not limited to) the following:

Writing online at Bubblews for extra money

I have been writing online at Bubblews for extra money for a few months now. It's proven to be a winner for me. As I come to terms with a pay cut for 2014, the site will probably become more important.

A big part of why I like the site (other than making money) is that it's a cross between social media and a blog. Not having to come up with a ton of deep articles on a daily basis is a big help. Plus, you only have to write 400 characters in a post.

On Bubblews, you earn for every post, page view, like, dislike and social media share. The minimum payout is $25 and they'll send the money by Pay Pal, check or other methods.

You can find out more about Bubblews at this link.

One warning. The rules are few and very easy to follow but if you break one, then you don't get your redemption. Some people fuss about this but I have been paid on time, every time and just submitted for my 17th redemption since about mid- June. I registered earlier with the site but didn't do anything with it for awhile.


Writing online doesn't work for everyone but it helps me. Don't worry. It doesn't cost anything to sign up. This is a revenue sharing site. You get half of what they get on your articles. It's legitimate and is helping me pay my bills. Want to try Bubblews? Maybe it will help you too?

By the way, if you sign up via one of these links, I do get a referral payment of  20 cents. That may not be enough to sneeze at but I wanted you to know about it. The system won't tell me if you've registered so be sure to connect with me there so I can help promote your work.