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Archive for September, 2015

CC debt gone

September 28th, 2015 at 06:38 pm

Seemingly out of no where (or so it felt like), we had enough to pay off both credit cards before interest accrued! Yay for no credit card debt!

Now to make sure we don't put too much on it so we can continue paying in full every month! Tempted to "lock" them up, but we use them for rewards on gas and online shopping. It shouldn't be too hard. We don't eat out much any more now that we have a stove, and that was our biggest variable expense (meaning anywhere from $30 to $toomuch). I did close one of my store cards I never use last week. So nice to have one less thing to manage. We are down to three credit cards (one personal each, and one joint) and two store cards (can't beat Target and Kohls for their card deals). I've always paid in full since something like 2009 when we finally got all our moving/wedding expenses paid off. It was causing me stress to think we weren't going to be able to do that this time.

This next weekend is the last push to get things done on the house before winter - roof, gutters, soffit, fix siding, caulk around windows, etc. All hands on deck style. Crossing fingers, toes, arms, and knees that it doesn't rain this weekend!

Denial

September 24th, 2015 at 10:14 pm

I've gone from having paid off a lot of debt (wedding, credit card from cross country moves, school loans, car loans) to being debt free for a few months to having lots of debt again.

I've been in a little bit of denial about it all. But it's been slowly coming to the forefront of my mind. Car loan, Mortgage, Student Loans, Home Improvement Loan, and carrying a credit card balance for the first time this month in YEARS. We are probably at $150k, including mortgage. OUCH. shivers. OUCH.

The house purchase and improvements were so worth it (I can't stress how worth it was for sanity and enjoyment of life), and I think we're almost done. I have to buy roofing materials, but that will be only around $3k (going on home improvement loan). Then we are done with purchases. !celebrate!

Overall plans for each of debts:
Car loan: at 0%, so this is lowest on priority. Around $30k.
Mortgage: already throwing an extra $40 some odd dollars at it a month on autopilot. Around $98k at 3.875%.
Student Loans: husband took out whatever he was offered just to ensure we had enough cash flow for the moment. He should get reimbursed around 75% (up to something) at end of the semester thru his work. I don't remember how much this will end up being. This will hopefully be the only semester we have to take a loan out for, depending on how quick his company is on turn around time.
Home Improvement Loan: This will end up being around $15k at 7.99% for 7 years. I plan to accelerate the pace only after my credit cards are paid in full and we have enough to pay for the rest of the tuition up front each semester. We ended up spending more than expected, but we did some major things that I wasn't thinking we were going to do right away. Good to get it done with now, I guess.
Credit Cards: Still juggling to see if I can pay off the one totally before due date and interest hits. The other will be carrying probably around $3k and we will "slowly" chip at it the next three months. In reality, we'll be throwing whatever we have at it.

Savings wise, we're still good. $3k EF, $1,200 Car fund (insurance, tires, oil changes, etc), plus another $1k in other various cash funds. HSA is starting to be replenished (will have next year's deductible by end of February already in it which is about when I expect to hit the deductible). I'm contributing $125/paycheck to my 401k and husband is contributing somewhere between 6 and 10% to his Roth 401k.

So really, we're actually doing ok. Not stellar, but ok. Just need to get through these next few months and then it'll start going down fast. Or at least it will in my dreams. But I've done it before (gotten out of debt that is), and I can do it again! Takes a few years, but it's totally doable!

Other random news: Speech is going so very well! It's so nice to find something that is finally clicking with him. Here to find out he has trouble blowing out and thrusting out his tongue. Lots to work on. Hopefully insurance will keep upping his speech therapy allotment, and I won't have to pay out of pocket. I'd go gladdy deep into debt for this therapy though because it's making him into a whole different child with being able to communicate better. It might even make our other developmental concerns mute, which would be phenomenal.