Ditch My Debt

Refinancing Our Home

noreply@blogger.com (Andin) — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 20:33:00 +0000

My husband called to see what deals we could get to refinance our mortgage since he now works for the bank we have our current mortgage with, which we got while I was an employee there. After talking to the woman we decided to go for it.

Our current mortgage is a VA loan with an interest rate of 5.75%. The principal and interest is $707.06 a month. Plus we have our homeowner's insurance and property taxes escrowed for a total payment of $893.32 a month.

The new loan will also be a VA loan, but since we already have one with the bank we can get a streamline VA loan. This means no appraisal, no money down, minimal paperwork, etc. The funding fee is waived because I have at least 10% disability from the military.

Our interest rate was locked in at 4.375% fixed (4.369% APR) with a $134.75 credit. The principal and interest payment will be around $538.24 a month.

We're extending it back to a 30 year loan, but with the lower payments we can pay it off quicker than our current mortgage once all the other debts are paid off.

We will have to pay our escrows all over again because they cannot transfer them from the old mortgage to the new mortgage. They want to roll it into the loan amount, but I think I want to just pay it out of pocket and have the lower loan amount. The current escrows will be credited towards the loan to pay it down further.

The closing will be around September.

Financial Update -- May 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Andin) — Fri, 27 May 2011 16:28:00 +0000

A little financial update for everyone since I just got around to moving some money here and there.

Hubby got paid today (a bit early because of the holiday on Monday) so I decided to get the ball rolling on some transfers.

Some of the money I already had set aside and the rest was added with this paycheck.

Transferred $450.00 to our mortgage savings for 1/2 of the monthly mortgage payment (it's actually more than 1/2 our regular payment, but I like to have the account padded a little in case homeowner's insurance or property taxes go up)
Transferred $501.07 to our credit card
Transferred $240.82 to my college loan savings (loans not due until end of 2011/beginning of 2012, but starting to make "payments" to get a head start)
Transferred $501.08 to our emergency fund
Transferred $534.00 to our vacation savings (have to keep up with it if we want to go to Italy next year)
Transferred $50.00 into my IRA (automatically deducted every month)

All of our bills are paid until the middle of June. The emergency fund is almost back to the pre-layoff amount, which we'll finish next month.

Reward Points

noreply@blogger.com (Andin) — Mon, 23 May 2011 12:29:00 +0000

I have to say that I really love my credit union's reward points system. Even more now that they've changed it to show all the points as you acquire them for each card (debit and credit).

We get 1 point for every $1 on the credit card, and 1 point for every $5 on the debit card. Every month they have featured retailers that give more points per dollar.

Right now we have 25,154 points. Points can be redeemed for gift cards, products, activities, event tickets, or travel.

To give you an idea of how many points it takes to get things:

$25 gift cards are under 3,000 points
$50 gift cards are under 6,000 points
$100 gift cards are under $12,000 points
Apple iPod Touch with 64GB (latest generation) is 42,901 points
Wii games for 3,000-6,000 points, etc.

I haven't checked out how far our points will go on travel yet, but it's something to consider when we're ready to travel. We're thinking about taking a quick flight somewhere before going to Italy so the boys will be able to experience a flight before the long trip.

UGH!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Andin) — Wed, 18 May 2011 17:29:00 +0000

I can't believe I haven't posted since April 15th! I had been busy getting through my last college classes, then I got really sick, but I did start posting again at my other blog within the past week. I should have posted something here, too!

Anyway...just wanted to post the latest gas purchase. I paid $3.979 this afternoon. It cost me just over $40 to fill up my tank.

What are you paying for gas?

Old and New 401Ks

noreply@blogger.com (Andin) — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 17:03:00 +0000

We just got my husband's new 401K set up with his new job. And surprise, surprise! We found $2,753.34 already in it! I love finding money!

This is what happened:

He worked for "Company M" many years ago, which was bought out by "Company B", who he now works for, after he left "Company M". In between these two companies was "Company BC" and "Company O", both of whom laid him off, but that's not really important right now.

Confusing...I know. Just stick with me here!

Since he wasn't fully vested in his "Company M" 401K, we lost a large chunk of cash when we rolled it over into an IRA. But now that he works for "Company B" and it's been less than 7 years since working with "Company M", the amount he forfeited has been reinstated!

Make sense?

So we set up his "Company B" 401K to have the same 10% contributed every paycheck that we've been comfortable with. No reason to lower it now even if he is making $1,000 less a year than his last job. Besides you can make so much more in free savings by contributing to a 401K!

"Company B" matches 100% of the first 4% of our contribution. Plus with 401K contributions being a pre-tax deduction, we're really only "losing" half of what we're contributing from our paycheck due to tax savings (known thanks to their handy calculator). Lots of free money!!!!!

I still can't understand why people don't contribute at least up to the matched amount each pay period, but that discussion is for another time!

We also requested a rollover check made out to hubby's IRA from his "Company O" 401K. So that will be closed out and one less 401K to keep track of.

This is what we have to keep track of right now:

"Company BC" 401K -- We had this closed out and transferred to his IRA, but I guess they felt guilty for laying him off before Christmas and gave him a little extra. The amount vested is a bit small so we're leaving it in for now. "Company B" also does business with the same 401K management company so we'll see if there is a way to combine them later.
"Company B" 401K -- His first contribution should hopefully be coming out of his next paycheck.
Hubby's IRA -- We use this as a dumping ground for all old 401K accounts. "Company O" will be the third old 401K we've put funds in there from.
"Company B" Pension -- This is my pension from when I worked at "Company B" many, many, many years ago. Yes, it truly is a small world!
My IRA -- Also a dumping ground for old 401K accounts, but I've only put one in there so far and since I don't currently work, I have a small amount automatically contributed every month.

Overall, it's not too bad! The total assets in our investment accounts is currently at $75,353.76, which is pretty good considering I'm only in my late 30's and my husband is in his late 40's.

I'll be going back to work at some point and so contributing once again. Plus hubby will be contributing his 10% + company match. At some point in time when we retire we'll be left with the two IRA accounts.

How are you saving for retirement?

Finally!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Andin) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 13:25:00 +0000

We finally got hubby's March 31st paycheck last Thursday! Phew! Now I only hope his April 15th paycheck goes through the direct deposit correctly this time.

I've updated the sidebar now that I've actually been able to spend some money to pay off some debt and add to some savings.

I'm saving for our vacation to Italy in 2012 again. That's $534 per month. We may be able to get some discounts through my husband's old friend, but I'd rather not count on it. So I'm saving up as much as possible and if we get lucky enough to get some discounts, then we'll have extra money for later.

I took another look at my payoff plan and I may be able to cut 8-10 months off of my total debt payoff. I was only saving $190 a month to pay off the heloc, but realized that I may be able to take out $380 a month instead. That will take care of that debt much quicker! Crossing fingers that will be the case. I'd really like to get the heloc cut in half so that we'll be closer to what our home is worth right now.

We'll see how that all goes though. Right now we've just started getting paychecks again so it may take some time to sort everything out and get the perfect amount set aside for debts that we are comfortable with.

Paycheck Issue

noreply@blogger.com (Andin) — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 15:23:00 +0000

We had a big issue getting our second paycheck from hubby's workplace. It was the first time for direct deposit and for some reason it didn't go through.

Now I've been banking with this place for 15 years and never once have we had a problem getting direct deposit set up. But for some reason this time they've decided I need to have additional numbers in order for it to go through. UGH!

So we had to put a stop order on the deposit through his employer. The funds were sent back to them and they've cut us a check that should be here sometime early next week.

Hubby went into the payroll system to add the new digits so hopefully direct deposit will work for our April 15th check! *crossing fingers*

We'll have to be careful for the next few days not to spend too much since this was supposed to be our first full paycheck. On the plus side though we won't have to wait that much longer for our next paycheck once we receive this one!

Trip Expenses

noreply@blogger.com (Andin) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 14:16:00 +0000

It's taking me a bit longer to get back into the swing of things after our trip. Probably because the boys started spring break a couple of days after we got back.

Our expenses were not too bad considering we were gone for 4 days. And I got a hotel refund for one of us since I went along. The school's SAC and PTO paid for my portion of the hotel room!

So we started the trip out with an $81.79 refund!

We ended up spending $64.22 for food for two people, and $35.24 for gas.

We also brought along our own drinks and a bunch of snack/breakfast foods so we wouldn't have to go out to eat all the time. Our schedule while there was pretty tight, too, so having the food in our rooms helped a lot!

4 Day Trip

noreply@blogger.com (Andin) — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 14:01:00 +0000

My oldest son and I are going on a trip for 4 days. He's competing for his school as an individual at the FPS (Future Problem Solvers) State Competition, and I am evaluating. I'll be writing a post about our expenses for the trip when we get back!

Project Savings/Payoff

noreply@blogger.com (Andin) — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 20:35:00 +0000

As I mentioned in my last post, I put together a spreadsheet listing our debts, a quickie budget, grocery expenses, and a debt payoff plan. It is in no way a done deal because I'm working on preliminary income figures.

Also, I used the minimum payoff amount available so the payoff dates may be better than the spreadsheet indicates. As a matter of fact, I've already knocked off 1 month from my entire savings/payoff plan!

We started out owing $177,273.30 (credit card, student loans, heloc, and mortgage) and we need to re-save $1,097.22 of our emergency fund. We are on track for the emergency fund and should have that completed by the middle of April. We had some extra money come in that we didn't need so I put it towards the credit card lowering our total owed to about $177,023.70 (it's actually less, but I rounded the credit card up for minor use).

My plan is to re-save the emergency fund first, then move on to the credit card. That should take us through October 2011. I'm starting out with $697.48 per month as the extra debt payoff.

My student loans do not become due until November so I'll be saving up the payment through the summer. By the time they are due, I should be able to pay off the smallest 2 of the 8 student loans. I'll consolidate the remaining 6 loans and that total should be paid off by July 2013 depending on the monthly payment. I calculated the payment to be about $240.82 per month, then added in the extra $697.48 for a total monthly payment of $938.30. The original monthly payment could be more or less and that could change how long it takes to pay it off.

The next item on my payoff plan is the heloc. That's where I've reduced the payoff time by one month with a complete payoff by July 2016. This may depend on some other things we could be doing with our house and mortgage so we'll have to see how that goes to determine how the heloc payoff will really go. But for now I will continue to pay an additional $190 a month, which reduces the amount by $5,510, then in July 2013 I will add the $938.30 extra I've been using towards the other debts to pay this one down for a total of $1128.30 per month.

The mortgage is part of the total balance, but is not on the payoff plan as yet. We have to wait and see how that will work out with our other plan that I'll talk about another day.

The other variables in this plan are my husband's income, any income I may make, the extra money showing in my budget, and other incidentals. Right now I'm working with what I think we will be getting from my husband's income. So far we've only received one 1/2 check with the w-4 showing single, zero. The next check will include a completed w-4, but no deductions other than taxes. By May we should have a normal check with insurance, 401K deductions, and taxes taken out. That will be when I can finalize things a bit more.

I may start substituting next school year, which could bring in some extra money to go towards our debt payoff. Since I don't know how many days I'll be working, or whether the school district will still be accepting new substitutes, I haven't included this into the payoff plan yet.

I also have $704.23 left over after my quickie budget plan. I've subtracted out bills, savings, groceries, and extra debt payoff. The rest is what we will use for all the other things we buy, need, want, use, etc. Any thing left over by the next month will go to pay down the debt even more. I don't want to say it's our spending money because I bet we usually won't use that much extra in a month. Only if we have some sort of extra expense. So I expect most of it will go towards debt.

Any number of things could happen to mess up my plan...or make it better! Those are my incidentals. Couldn't say what they'll be yet, but I can guarantee something will show up one way or another!

Facebook Page

noreply@blogger.com (Andin) — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 11:59:00 +0000

I've created a Facebook page for Ditch My Debt! It's still a work in progress, but come on by and like the page!

First Paycheck!

noreply@blogger.com (Andin) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 21:00:00 +0000

Hubby already got his first paycheck! How cool is that!?! We kind of knew it could happen, but figured we wouldn't expect a check so soon since he just started a week ago.

Now it wasn't perfect. It was a check for only a week's worth of work after all! Hubby still hasn't changed the deductions so it's 0...yes zero, as in none. *Sigh* That's a lot of taxes being taken out that we could use right now. But we also don't have other things taken out right now either like insurance, 401K, life insurance, etc.

So even with the extra taken out in taxes, it's still a nice check!

I'm already initiating "project saving/payoff"! Lol! I've actually created a whole spreadsheet listing our debts, a mini budget, what I've spent each month on groceries, and a running plan to re-save our emergency fund and pay down our debt. That's a whole other post for another time so I can get into it further then. We have a few other changes in our plan as it pertains to our house, too. That's yet another post! So be on the look out for those...

Job Reimbursements

noreply@blogger.com (Andin) — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 16:22:00 +0000

Looks like we'll be reimbursed a bit for hubby working at home. He gets $1,000 a year to buy supplies, though that's not in actual cash...I guess he has an expense fund or something where he can buy from a specific site.

Also, he'll get $40 a month to reimburse internet costs! That works out great for us since we pay about $60 for internet and home phone together.

DH's New Job

noreply@blogger.com (Andin) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 14:00:00 +0000

Well DH started his new job Monday and so far so good. Though this seems to be the normal "getting acclimated" time period.

Right now we're spending money for the job as opposed to bringing in a paycheck. Even though it is meant to be a telecommuting job, his boss would like him to come in for the first week. So we're spending a boat load on gas, and he is spending more time away from home due to the hour drive to and from the work location. With gas prices the way they are right now, we estimate we'll be spending about $100 this week on gas alone...not including what we spent this past weekend filling up his truck.

We also have to set up a separate area for him to work in the house. We are already cramped in our current office with both our home office supplies, so we'll be setting it up in the corner of our bedroom. I had a desk there, but it won't work for all his equipment and the space he needs to work. While they give him a computer, phone, chair, printer, shredder, etc., they don't give him a desk. So I'm going to give that desk to my 9-yr-old to do his homework on and we are going to buy a more usable L-shaped desk to fit in the corner. That's going to cost us another $140.

Unfortunately, they gave us another problem that is going to cost us up front. The phone he was given has to be plugged into the router they gave him. It's a huge server router that needed to be plugged into our wireless router to work. The problem is the router is in our office and the phone needs to be in his work office in the bedroom and they only gave him a short cable. He had to pick up 75-ft. of network cable. That's about another $35. I'm not thrilled to have a cable running through 3 rooms, but we'll find a way to tack it out of the way.

The pay periods at this job will run on the 15th and last day of the month instead of the 8th and 22nd of every month. Not really that much difference so that's good. His boss thinks he'll be paid on the 15th, but we'll have to see how that pans out. If anything we should definitely be getting a check on the 31st.

The other financial matter relating to his new job deals with insurance. Firstly, we don't know what it is going to cost us yet because he still doesn't have access to the system that allows him to see it. Secondly, it won't be active until May 1st so we'll have to pay for any appointment out of pocket until then. On the other hand, we'll also be saving on the insurance premiums.

Yesterday's Gas Prices

noreply@blogger.com (Andin) — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 14:00:00 +0000

Thank goodness we won't be buying gas as much as we used to now that hubby is going to be telecommuting! He went out yesterday to fill up the gas tanks in both his truck and my small suv.

He took his truck out first and was able to fill up his tank for $47.30 or $3.579 per gallon.

Wondering if it would be cheaper elsewhere, he went to fill up my tank at another gas station. He was able to fill up my tank for $37.10 or $3.559 per gallon.

Not a lot cheaper, but still some savings. It would have been better if the vehicles were switched though since his truck is more expensive to fill up, though for $0.02 per gallon it probably doesn't make too much of a difference!

I'm Back Update

noreply@blogger.com (Andin) — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 17:25:00 +0000

Yay! I'm so happy to be back with this blog! Let's get everyone up to date though as to what has been happening since I stopped posting back in 2008.

The last time I was here with actual financial posts, I was trying to pay off my husband's truck, gas prices were below $3.00/gallon, I was just starting the Bachelor's portion of my college career, and hubby was working for a health insurance company.

Things have certainly changed since then!

The truck has been paid off and I was able to save even more money by lowering the insurance from full coverage. We now have 2 free and clear vehicles and are planning on another vehicle in the next couple of years. My oldest will be able to drive in another 3-4 years and I want him to use my car.

Gas prices are ridiculously high and probably going higher! But as I'll explain in a little bit, gas prices are not a big deal to us right now.

I'm almost done with my Bachelor's degree. I am taking my last classes now and will graduate May 6, 2011! Unfortunately, this also means that my student loans will become due six months later (November 2011), though I do plan to consolidate them at that time so I have only one payment.

My husband has been laid off twice since my last postings here, though his job situation has improved each time.

The first time was in October 2009 and lasted until April 2010. Strangely enough we ended up coming out ahead financially even though we weren't getting paid. It's amazing how little you can live on when you don't have a lot of money coming in! Thank goodness for the emergency fund and unemployment benefits!

A company contacted him saying they saw his resume online, he interviewed, and got the job making more than $20,000/year over what he was making at his last job! He still had to drive over 100 miles a day, which meant a lot of gas for his truck, but they had excellent benefits and we were able to re-fund the emergency fund and pay some things down.

Unfortunately, by Christmas 2010 they were having a contract dispute with another company, which required a stop order be put in place halting them from working. This is getting to be a Christmas tradition now! Sheesh! Essentially he was laid off again, with the possibility of going back to work the end of March 2011 though no guarantees.

He started looking for another job and wouldn't you know, but he was again contacted by a company asking him if he was interested in a job they had available! He interviewed and got it! And the best part is that though he'll be making a $1,000/year less than he was before, it's a telecommuting position so very little gas to fill up his truck each month (other than the few times he'll be required to go in person)! How awesome is all that!

I think the thing that has impressed me the most was how prepared we have been to be able to survive two layoffs within a year. I don't know many people that can do that, while still paying all their bills on time, keep a roof over their heads, buy food for the table, etc. There hasn't been a lot of extras, but we were able to splurge every now and then because of our planning.

There are also some other plans being made for the future that require us to pay off some debt and start saving more. One is a trip to Italy to visit my husband's family. That is being planned for the summer of 2012. While we may have a way to get some deep discounts thanks to a family friend that owns a travel agency, we still want to save the money needed in case any of that falls through. So far I've saved over $1,600. It would have been more if hubby didn't lose his job, but I can make up for it a bit over this year.

The second thing being planned is a home addition. We need more space not only for us, but also for the possibility of adopting another child. It's not something I want to do until we have a room for him or her so an addition will be necessary. While we're adding on we figure to get everything we want taken care of at once, so we may be adding 2 new offices, a laundry room, a half bath, and a new patio on the first floor, and a bedroom (for my oldest son), full bath, and game/music room on the second floor. I would love to have the new addition powered by solar, but we'll have to see what that does to the long-term cost because I know the initial cost is staggering! In the original house, my oldest son's bedroom would become a much needed dining room, and the laundry closet in the kitchen will become more pantry space. The current office will become the additional bedroom. And I would like to eventually add an in-ground pool for the family.

Again that's a lot of money to save! Obviously we'll only be saving some of it and financing the rest, but in order to do that I need to pay off some of our existing debt first! So that will be a huge priority!

I'll also be going back to work starting next August, though not on a permanent, full-time basis. My plan is to work as a substitute teacher and volunteer as a mentor to add to my resume, give us a little extra cash to pay down debt, and still allow me to be there for the boys.

So that's the update! I know it's a lot! I hope you all will stick around for future posts and remember to also check out my other blog, Mom's Many Projects, for the other, non-financial things going on.

Coming Back Soon

noreply@blogger.com (Andin) — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 15:59:00 +0000

I’ll be creating new posts here soon. I’m going to bring the Ditch My Debt blog back to handle financial related posts and leave Mom's Many Projects to talk about everything else.

Ditch My Debt will be about money, personal finances, great deals I got, paying down debt, et cetera.

Mom’s Many Projects will continue to be about my projects, such as genealogy, school, family, home projects, cooking, meal plans, et cetera.

There may be some overlaps, but I’ll try to handle those by splitting up the posts. So you may find a meal plan post on Mom’s Many Projects and a financial post on how much I saved at the grocery store on Ditch My Debt.

This all came about because I was copying down my old posts from all my blogs (old and current) to save on my computer as sort of a diary of posts by year. As I was doing this I noticed a couple of things:

1) I really enjoyed Ditch My Debt and it seems the only reason I abandoned it was because I created too many blogs at once and wanted to consolidate them (I had three at the time). What I should have done was keep Ditch My Debt and consolidated the other two only into Mom’s Many Projects. Two blogs are easier to handle than three!

2) Mom’s Many Projects is losing its focus because I’m concentrating on too many big topics. Financial issues is a big enough topic on its own without adding in all kinds of other topics. So separating it out into its own blog makes more sense than trying to tie it into all the other topics.

3) I might as well give it a try and see what happens! I’ll be graduating from college soon which will give me more time to develop and play around with the two blogs until I see how it all works out. I really like the concept of each of them, though I know tweaking them will always be a constant!

I still have some work to do on them before I can totally bring them back. I’m hoping in the next couple of weeks I can fix up the Ditch My Debt blog to work well since it’s been abandoned for a couple of years. Mom’s Many Projects doesn’t need as much work, but does need some little fixes and a clearer path worked out.

New Blog Moved!

noreply@blogger.com (Andin) — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 21:51:00 +0000

I moved my new blog, Moms Many Projects to Wordpress in February 2010. I'm really enjoying my new site and I'm happy I moved it to Wordpress! Come see it for yourself at Moms Many Projects and don't forget to subscribe!

New Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Andin) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 05:21:00 +0000

My new consolidated blog, Mom's Many Projects, is now available. It can be found at http://momsmanyprojects.blogspot.com! This blog will still be available to view older posts.

Consolidation of Blogs

noreply@blogger.com (Andin) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 02:43:00 +0000

I am currently in the process of consolidating my blogs into one new blog. As much as I enjoy each of my blogs, I'm afraid I don't have as much time as I would like to keep up with all of them separately. Therefore, soon there will be a brand new blog that will encompass posts on my personal finance, genealogy, home and garden projects, and anything else I feel like posting. I feel that at this time it will allow me more flexibility to post in times when there is more subject matter to discuss in one area over another. I will post the website here as soon as I am ready to go live with it.

This blog has been extremely enjoyable for me to work on and I hope everyone that follows it will enjoy the new one!

InboxDollars

noreply@blogger.com (Andin) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:34:00 +0000

I finally got to the minimum amount to cash in on InboxDollars.com! It's about time! Now there's only a couple of problems.

First, they are not sending the check ($30.15 minus $3.00 processing fee = $27.15) until January 2, 2009.

Second, I have to remain an active user until the check is sent.

Bummer! That means I have to keep on clicking on their little email things and cannot cancel the account yet. I really wanted to get rid of it, too! *sigh* I suppose a little longer won't bother me too much. And I am still clicking away on the SendEarnings.com emails until I get enough to cash them out, too.

End of Month--October 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Andin) — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 14:14:00 +0000

Wow! Another month gone. The holidays are coming up so fast!

I am amazed with the current gas prices! Hubby stopped for gas the other day even though he wasn't totally empty yet because he saw it for $2.299! It cost him $36 to fill up! Let's hope the prices stay this low or lower. At least for a little while!

I've updated the sidebar. Not much to really update, but I did it. I also updated the NetWorthIQ for October.

We finally ordered the tires for my husband's truck. They were really needed. I saved and transferred the money to the credit card and then used it to pay for the tires. They should be here in a day or two, then we'll make an appointment to have them mounted. The total cost for four tires was $675! Ouch! But it is a worthwhile expense. His safety is more important than money. We researched the tires on tirerack.com and were very pleased with the reviews. These tires should last a lot longer than the ones that came with the truck.

Other typical end of month tasks:

I transferred $45.59 from my round up fund to my emergency fund
I transferred my VA benefit to my emergency fund
I added any interest given at the end of the month. We earned $9.22 this month in the emergency fund!

I also figured out that I should be at $5,000 in my emergency fund in 9 months or less. If you remember that was the original amount I wanted to save, then I upped it to $10,000. I'll just be happy to make it to the halfway point because that's where we were before my husband was out of work for 2 1/2 months last year. It will make me a lot more comfortable knowing we have that money to pay the bills just in case.

I also paid two bills for next month in advance. Well, I used billpay and set the date for after the next pay period. At least I don't have to worry about paying them. The first was a $65 cell phone bill (2 cell phones--family plan) and the second was our electric bill of $159, which just keeps going up no matter how many times I turn things off. I think it may be because we are on the budget plan though.

How does your electric bill compare? Do you find it always going up? Or have you found a way to keep your electric costs low? I cannot wait until we are debt free so we can afford to put in a solar system! It is one of the first things I want to do!

Finally...

noreply@blogger.com (Andin) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:58:00 +0000

I have never been so happy to see a pay period get here! OK...that's not exactly true because all pay periods are good...more money always helps! But this time with DH's mistake I was really looking forward to this one.

And there are NO BILLS due for these next 2 weeks! I can really put some money aside for DH's tires and hopefully he'll be able to get them really soon! I've already replaced all the money I've "borrowed" from the other accounts. Plus the normal transfer of $442.60 into the savings account for our mortgage payment.

Getting into the routine of transferring 1/2 the mortgage payment every two weeks into the savings account it automatically gets pulled from was a great idea! The mortgage is the first thing I "pay" every pay period. I have never made a late payment or missed a payment! And I know the money is always in the account when it's time for it to come out.

I don't expect to have any problems paying my bills, but if I did I would pay my mortgage and heloc first because I would never want to lose my home. Second, I would make the truck payment because DH needs to get to and from work (though if we were really that bad off we would probably sell the truck and get a cheap, reliable vehicle--unless it was already paid off). Lastly, I would pay the credit card. Of course mixed in all that would be buying food, prescriptions, and paying for utilities. Those would also be before the credit card.

Of course all of this really doesn't matter if you plan well. That's why we have an emergency fund. If DH loses his job we don't have to make decisions on what to pay and what to not pay.

And someday our plan is to not ever worry about it at all! Our plan to payoff all our debt including our mortgage is a long term one for now, but once I can go back to work that will turn into a short term plan.

Everything I make will go towards debt!
Anything over what we've been currently living on from DH's paycheck will go towards savings.

Right now it's just send whatever we can to pay down or off our debt. Living below our means definitely helps though we don't deny ourselves either. I have 2 more years (Spring, Summer, and Fall terms) of college to complete my B.S. degree along with my double minor and 3 certificates. Once that is done I'll volunteer for a few years to get my foot in the door of my new career and still be available for my youngest son, who will still be in elementary school. I'll be able to get a job again when he gets into middle school (my oldest will be in high school by then).

I can't wait to see how fast the debt disappears once I'm working again! I almost want to see about getting a job sooner because of it, but I know I have to concentrate on my schooling and children first. Though if the right opportunity came along that still allowed me to do all the things I do with my boys, then I would consider it.

Woohoo!

noreply@blogger.com (Andin) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 02:08:00 +0000

DH paid $2.799/gallon for gas this morning and I paid the same at a different station this afternoon! Usually we've been paying up to $65.00 to fill up DH's truck and about $40.00 to fill up my car. But today it was $44.50 and $27.02! I am so happy! I know it would be better if it went even lower, but for now this is exciting to me!

On another note...DH made a mistake and bought something using the debit card instead of using the credit card that I told him to use to replace a piece of important computer equipment that died on us. It totally threw off my entire budget for these two weeks. Especially since things were already tight because it was a 2-week period where it seems all the bills decided to be due. In the next 2-week period coming up there are absolutely no bills due! So I've had to borrow from our blow money "accounts" and will replace it when we get paid later this week.

Cheaper Gas

noreply@blogger.com (Andin) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:16:00 +0000

I actually paid $3.459 for gas this morning! It was 20¢ cheaper than the last time I filled up. If it could go down just a little bit more now I'll be happy!