We received an ironic notice from EDD yesterday

For those of you who don’t know, California “upgraded” its EDD payment processing system on September 1. It didn’t work any better than the Obamacare exchange, consequently, all Californian’s on unemployment did not get a benefits check until about September 23. By October 15, 20% still had not seen a benefits check since August 23 (we were in that group.) By October 23, they had ‘caught everyone up’ through benefits to the end of September. BTW, we have exhausted our state unemployment with that Oct 23 payout. Fun times.

Here’s the ironic miracle. Federal unemployment was impacted by the sequestration. If you started Tier 1 between April 23 and September 22, your unemployment drops 17.69%. If you start Tier 1 September 23 or after, you are at normal (what you got from State.)

Due to the start/stop of DH working for that company 3 weeks, and the CA software brouhaha, guess when we are counted as starting Tier 1? September 29th. So we still get the same amount as when we were on state, rather than nearly a $90 a week drop. $360 a month would have been a lot to try and make up. So I am grateful for small miracles.

So here’s my question. My odds and ends are keeping us afloat bill payment wise (particularly since DH’s unemployment which covers most of rent has kicked back in.) My O&E money doesn’t quite jive with when cc bills are due, example, I missed the WalMart due date by 1 day, so it got skipped this month. (I’m going to get the $25 late fee tacked on anyway, so I might as well let that payment go towards not being late somewhere else.)

It got me thinking. After 4 walls and car stuff (payment, insurance), should I just start saving up and paying things off? I have a few CCs whose balances are like in the $200-400 range. Rather than make minimums, am I better off skipping a month and just paying 1 off entirely? I know I would rack up, say, $100 in late fees in a month (6 cc x $20ish), but by the time I got to month 4 or so, that would be negligible, and I would be almost entirely out of debt except for 1 CC and the car loan.

Thoughts?