It seems as though I’ve fallen off the planet. Not only has my tendency to write about finance matters dwindled, so has my own personal finance motivation.

Let’s face it, this stuff isn’t glamorous. You don’t get home at the end of a long day and think to yourself “I can’t wait to check my checking account and see what bills are due”. No, you put it off, or do it while killing time at work. There are bits and pieces here and there. A bill in your bag, and a pay stub in your lunch sack. It is mundane, and while you know it is important, you find every rationalization to put it off, or ignore it all together.

This is the situation I faced, and decided to do something a little different.

For a while, I tried Mint.com. It’s a great resource to keep track of everything money related, if it works with your bank. Unfortunately, Citizens bank doesn’t play nice with Mint, and since this is where I do most of my banking, I gave up with Mint. I have not deleted my account in the hopes that it will one day work with Citizens. It also sends me reminders about certain things, like finance charges. You can tweak the settings however you like, the finance charge reminder is my personal kick in the pants to get me fired up about my war on debt.

So I get a monthly reminder about how much interest I’m paying to my credit card. This number makes me sick. I can’t deduct this number on my taxes like with mortgage interest. Finance charges are helping my credit card company get richer while I get poorer, no fair! Now I need a better way to keep track of how much I owe, and something to keep me on track with my debt pay down plan. I whipped myself up a spreadsheet, because that’s what I do. I printed it out and taped it right in front of my desk. No more do I wonder how much I owe, or where to put that little extra income from doing friend’s taxes. All of my consumer debt is over $14,000, my goal is to get that number under $10,000 by the end of the year. My goal and my progress are staring me in the face every time I sit at my desk, I can’t forget or ignore it anymore!

The other trick I’m trying is putting all my bills on my calendar. When the bill comes in, I physically write the amount on the day it is due. For some reason lately, I just haven’t had a good gasp on when bills are due and how much they are. Late fees are my nemesis, and this tactic seems to be helping me have a better handle on the household bills.