I just rolled up the change that was in my coin jar. I don’t know exactly when the last time I did this was, just since I found some 2005 nickels at the bottom of the jar, I think that it’s probably only been a year and a half or so. I don’t know exactly how much I expected to get from it, but here’s the finally tally:

$30.50, plus some loose change that will go straight back into the jar for next time.

It seems high, although I did the math – if it has been a year and a half, then that’s about 550 days since I last emptied the jar, which means I put about 5 cents a day into the jar. Sounds about right.

Add this to the other rolls of change I have still lying around from last time, and I have $41.50 to take to the bank on Monday.

Score!

There are lots of theories about how to best eliminate your debt, but the best one I’ve seen is the Debt Snowball Theory (The Simple Dollar has a good explanation of it). In short, you list all of your debts, ranking them by interest rate. You pay the minimum payment on all of them each month, but you also put an additional amount into the one with the highest interest rate. You keep doing that, until that first debt is paid off. Then, you take the amount you were paying on that first debt (minimum payment plus the additional amount you could scrape up) and that’s your new additional amount, which you pay into the second debt, on top of its minimum payment. You continue doing this, snowballing the amount into each debt, until they’re all paid off.

If you do the math, it’s the fastest and cheapest way to pay off all of your debts. And once I have income, I’ll be implementing it into my own financial plan. But, as it is with every person, I have a special situation. While my credit card debt easily falls into the plan, my other two debts do not.

The first debt, my student loan payments, doesn’t quite fit into the equation because I’m not making any payments yet. Depending on when I go back to school, I might not be making payments on them for years to come. I want to figure them into my equation, but that might not be the best idea. I could put a certain amount of money each month into my high-yield savings account, designating that money as future student loan payments. However, I would lose money that way, since the interest rate on my credit card is far higher than the interest I would gain in the savings account.

My other debt, my car loan, doesn’t fit neatly either, because it has no interest rate. It’s just a flat monthly payment. For that loan, it would be much better to continue to pay monthly, and put any extra into my savings account, rather than try and pay it down quickly.

I suppose the Snowball Plan just isn’t for me. It’s likely that by the time I start making payments on my student loans, my credit card will be paid off. I guess this is actually a good thing, although I’m a little bit disappointed that I don’t get to make use of my new knowledge.

Fifth grade. My parents were in some kinda of financial crunch, as usual. Only this time, their crunch came right at back-to-school time. So, no back-to-school clothes for 9-year-old Stephanie! I didn’t care that much, really. My parents promised me that a few paychecks later, we’d go shopping. So I put on my favorite year-old outfit and went to school.

Only to be ridiculed for not having new clothes for the first day of school. It only took a few mean comments from the other 9 and 10-year-olds to make me very, very unhappy. It was the whole shebang – kids whispering to one another while glancing my way, and then finally shoving one girl forward to ask “Stephanie, didn’t you go back to school shopping?”

I have no idea what my response was. If I had to guess, I probably got indignant and said “NO!” I didn’t like that girl very much, anyways. She was snotty right up until high school graduation, and I haven’t seen her since, but I assume she’s still snotty.

But this stuff sticks with you. I can’t read a blog post about back-to-school shopping without thinking about the first day of fifth grade, where I got made fun of for wearing my favorite outfit, simply because it wasn’t “new.” Any thoughts on what that says about our society?

I’ve already mentioned my disgust for Wal-Mart and that I refuse to shop there. Of course, I’m not the only one. However, it was nice to see Punny Money back me up in this fight. On Punny’s list of the “Top Five Companies We’d Be Better Off Without,” Wal-Mart came in #4. And I happen to agree with the rest of the list on most counts, even though my mobile phone is powered by Verizon and I still trust Sony as the name in camcorders (from experience). Still, I would have put Wal-Mart at #1.

I’d say “I hope Wal-Mart reads this,” but if they did, they’d probably sue me for libel. Well, just in case they do: Don’t sue me. I don’t have any money… haven’t you been reading the rest of the blog?

Update: If you buy “Wal-Mart, The High Cost of Low Price” through this link, I get a kickback, and everyone wins… except Wal-Mart!

Sometimes, you do things, not thinking it will work. The pleasant surprise is, of course, when it does.

I stupidly incurred a late charge on my credit card last month. I simply forgot to pay the bill until the day it was due, and then instead of calling to pay by phone, or even trying their website directly, I tried using my Bank of America online bill pay, which caused a five day delay on the payment.

Doh!

Sheepishly, I took the late fee and ate it, and let a month go by. However, after reading up on all of (the many) financial blogs I read, I became more and more convinced that an email to Chase asking them to credit me for this first-ever late fee might not be a bad idea.

I was sure it wouldn’t work. I mean, come on, who gives your money back just because you ask?

Dear Stephanie,

As a valued customer, we have credited your account for the $39.00 late fee. You will see this adjustment on your next billing statement.

If you have any further questions, please reply using the Secure Message Center.

Thank you,

Josh Morales
Email Customer Service Advisor

Are you serious? And from an email, no less. I was sure they only did this type of thing when you called them. But from what I’ve been hearing, it seems you probably will get more of a reaction from an email – either they like to see your request in writing, or they themselves have trouble writing a “no,” which you could easily copy-paste to show how you’ve been treated.

Either way, I’ve learned my lesson about forgetting and paying late. Bad, Stephanie, bad!