Payoff: Month 16

March:

cc 1,2,3,4,5: 0


Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 5631.85
Loan 3: 8471.92

Debt: 14103.77
Paid: 758.34


April:

cc 1,2,3,4,5: 0

Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 5071.85
Loan 3: 8264.50


Debt: 13336.35
Paid: 767.42
Total Paid: 30571.53

Added to savings: -5000
Total savings: ~13600

YAY! for crossing $30,000 paid (Finally)!
A word on savings: We owed $3500 in federal taxes. My husband took out $5000 to cover the taxes. We should be able to repay the difference ($1500) plus what we would otherwise be putting in savings ($1600) and our state refund ($500) for a total reconciled (but not actual as of this moment) savings of $17200. I think we will hold off on this for now incase the little guy comes early. We anticipate hospital/doctor costs of around $1000 and a savings amount of $1600 in May. Total projection for May is $17800. Our debt at that point should be roughly $12,500, allowing us to pay it off with around $5000 left over.

Payoff: Month 13

December:

cc 1,2,3,4,5: 0

Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 7311.85
Loan 3: 9071.73

Debt: 16383.58
Paid: 753.08


January:

cc 1,2,3,4,5: 0

Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 6751.85
Loan 3: 8870.71

Debt: 15622.56
Paid: 761.02

Total Paid: 28285.32

Added to savings: 6400
Total Savings: ~15250

I realized

In doing our payoff for this month, I realized we have about as much in savings right now as we have in debt. This means that had our plans not changed, we would be out of debt in February. In part this is due to a substantial holiday money gift from my mom, which may or may not have been the case if we were not bearing her grandchild, so who really knows. But we are grateful and it feels good to know this.

I am itching to pay of debts. At least one? But I am not. We anticipate a $2000 or so tax bill coming up which we will have to pay. We have to pay the hospital still. Part of my leave will be unpaid, and I am still wavering on what to do about work. But, assuming all goes well, we should be able to have everything paid off between the baby being born and me going back to work.

Payoff: Month 12 & year end review

November:

cc 1,2,3,4,5: 0

Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 7871.85
Loan 3: 9264.81

Debt: 17136.66
Paid: 769.43

December:

cc 1,2,3,4,5: 0

Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 7311.85
Loan 3: 9071.73

Debt: 16383.58
Paid: 753.08


Total Paid: 27524.3

Added to savings: 1600
Total Savings: ~8850

We finish out the year with 62% of our debt paid off. We have almost $9000 saved now, which would have gone on our debt as well (proving we would have wiped out at least one more loan at this point). This is an average of just under $2300 in debt repayment per month (not including our additional savings). Under the current circumstances, I cannot quite predict a projection based on this information. We will not be able to put that much per month going ahead, and I am not sure how much of our savings will be used by the time I come off maternity leave. My soft goal is to have the debts paid off by this time next year at the latest, but that will move as other things become more clear. I am confident that if we had proceeded without pregnancy, we would have met or exceeded the April 2011 goal. I don't have the actual paperwork on this with me right now, but we have also paid off around $14400 in mortgage principal this year as well. I will try to remember to check on that and update it.

Payoff: Month 11

October:

cc 1,2,3,4,5: 0

Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 8431.85
Loan 3: 9474.24

Debt: 17906.09
Paid: 750.66


November:

cc 1,2,3,4,5: 0

Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 7871.85
Loan 3: 9264.81

Debt: 17136.66
Paid: 769.43

Total Paid: 26771.22

Added to savings: 1750
Total Savings: ~7250

As you can see from the last couple of posts, we have scaled back on our debt repayment. I am currently paying $560 to loan 2 and $250 to loan 3. Anything else which would go to these loans are going into savings. Our savings should start building quickly. I will have the OB paid in January, but I still don't know what the hospital will cost or how my maternity will work out. Once all that is taken care of, we will pay the debt again with whatever is left.

Payoff: Month 10

September

cc 1,2,3,4,5: 0

Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 8991.85
Loan 3: 9664.90

Debt: 18656.75
Paid: 1995.93

October:

cc 1,2,3,4,5: 0

Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 8431.85
Loan 3: 9474.24

Debt: 17906.09
Paid: 750.66

Total Paid: 26001.79

Added to savings: 2000
Total Savings: ~5500

Payoff: Month 9

August:

cc 1,2,3,4,5: 0

Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 11100.83
Loan 3: 9551.85

Debt: 20652.68
Paid: 2592.48

September

cc 1,2,3,4,5: 0

Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 8991.85
Loan 3: 9664.90

Debt: 18656.75
Paid: 1995.93


Total Paid: 25251.13

I think I flipped what is loan "2" and "3" again. We paid less this month in order to bring up our waning bank balances. We also had an event over labor day weekend that I budgeted money for. We have crossed 25,000 paid ! We paid off the small loan! We have two loans and less than 20,000 left! This would all be very exciting, however, with the baby on the way we will not be seeing much movement in the debt in the coming months. I will start keeping a tally of our savings now. The goal before was to have all debts paid by April (my 35th bday). Now, we will save that money instead, and should be able to pay my dad off right after the baby is born, and pay the last loan by next December, depending on costs associated with having and daycareing the baby.

This changes everything.

Wondering where I've been?




Quite the surprise. This is me hoping no one I actually know reads this. It took three months. While they were happening, it was starting to feel long and tedious and like it was going to go on forever. I am sure helping that along was my belief that I was not going to be able to get pregnant on my own. It is really really early. I haven't even gotten in to a doctor yet. But the tests keep getting darker and darker, and there hasn't been any blood, so I am cautiously optimistic.

Even though we had been trying for a few months, this is really the first month I was comfortable with it happening, as we are past the halfway point and have only the two debts left. Each month it took meant more debt paid off. I've been recalculating and I think we can still be debt free by the end of 2011. That is really hard for me, since we were making such progress, and it is scary adding this new, expensive, person, so late in life, with no safety nets or fabulous retirement accounts. All I can do is hope that we know enough now to make good choices and let everyone else buy us the expensive stuff :) and give up our toys. Priorities change.

We are going to finish out the month on paper as it is (with a big payment to the student loan), but I am afraid after that the debt repayment is going to stagnante for a while. We will start building up our emergency and hospital fund instead. Hopefully after the baby comes, we can make a large lump sum payment to one of the loans.

No one knows. It is really hard keeping my mouth shut.

Payoff: Month 8

July

cc 1,2,3,4,5: 0

Loan 1: 1961.64
Loan 2: 10111.85
Loan 3: 11171.67

Debt:23245.16
Paid: 2399.61



August:

cc 1,2,3,4,5: 0

Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 11100.83
Loan 3: 9551.85

Debt: 20652.68
Paid: 2592.48

Total Paid: 23255.20

All credit cards are done. We paid off the small student loan. I readjusted the loan to my dad back to the full length payoff amount. Will readjust when we know better when it will be paid. Excited to start hitting the student loan hard. Passed the halfway mark!! Just shy of the $20,000 mark.

Payoff: Month 7

June:

cc 1,2,3,4: 0
cc5: 1702.95

Loan 1: 3960.03
Loan 2: 10413.44
Loan 3: 11271.30

Debt: 27347.72
Paid: 2941.27

July

cc 1,2,3,4,5: 0

Loan 1: 1961.64
Loan 2: 10111.85
Loan 3: 11171.67

Debt:23245.16
Paid: 2399.61

Total Paid: 20662.72

Yay no credit cards!! My husband made the comment when he got his statement that he didn't think he had ever seen a 0 interest amount on a statement. We also crossed the $20,000 debt paid mark and are a couple thousand from the halfway mark. On the one hand, that makes it feel much more doable, but it still seems really daunting. Is it possible that the first half is easier than the second half? Maybe because the two debts left are so large and we aren't going to see as fast results. The little loan will be paid off in a couple of weeks. I think I have recommitted to paying the student loan before my dad, which means we won't see another payoff til February, at the earliest. I also readjusted the amount due to my dad to reflect this change.

Mid month check in

Lots of things going on in my life, wrapped with crappy access to the web from work and little time for updates from home.

The first thing is that I got a small raise this week. This is exciting because I did not think I was eligible for a raise this year. However, the whopping $40 isn't going to make a huge life change like my husband's raise did. At this rate, I will be back to my teaching wage in 14 years.

Work is keeping us super busy. There have been a lot of layoffs, and as a precausionary measure, my boss has started giving us all extra work to do from other departments to make us more integrated, invaluable and necessary. I don't believe any of our positions were at risk in the first place, but I appreciate the concern. I love having work. The problem is we all feel overly swamped now. And all the new stuff seems to be WE NEED THIS DONE RIGHT NOW!!! So my normal duties seem to be shoved to the side. I am a couple months behind on some bank recs because I just haven't had time to look at them. I want to ask who was doing all this super important need it now stuff, but it seems the answer is nobody, and that is the problem.

Today they informed me that I am going to start doing payroll for some of the employees. Uh... isn't that HR? Don't get me wrong, I am actually excited to do this, it just seems really random to me. We have two HR people. People have been getting their paychecks. So why does HR suddenly need to move this off their sholders? I hadn't noticed them seeming that swamped til recently (but our number of employees is going down?) but like, I'm not. Well, as I have been here now for 9 months and still haven't had a 30 day review, I take all this as good signs, at least.

On the home front, my husband and I are offically TTC (trying to conceive, for the non-baby minded). This is our second month, and I am in the "I don't know one way or the other" part of the cycle. Being the control freak I am, I have taken a very scientific approach to it all. I am charting, temping, taking ovulation tests, and a lot of other stuff you don't want to know about. Getting pregnant is not as easy as young virgins are led to believe, it turns out. And, it isn't cheap either. I have bought: a miracle baby making lube which my husband turned out to be "allergic" to, ovulation kits, pregnancy tests, a fertility bracelet, a thermometer, a subscription to a charting website (it has a cool iphone app! There really IS an app for everything!), all kinds of vitamins and medications, I have also heard geritol or robitussin work, but haven't tried those yet. Yeah....

I also have 16 million spread sheets going based on when or if we get pregnant. I am really praying we can do this on our own. And trying not to worry about that part too much yet. I am giving it til January. So I am rethinking our payoff schedule. As we are paying off the little student loan in a month, I have to know now which of the two big loans we are going to attack first. Initially, it was going to be the student loan, because that was smaller. But the payoff to my dad is bigger, so that one is smaller now. Plus, I really wanted to have him paid off. However, if we do get pregnant, our debt repayment is going to grind to a halt. We are going to have to save up til the baby comes, and after it is here, most of that money will pay for daycare and baby expenses. (This is why I really wanted to be debt free first). I feel like I want to try to pay off the student loan in this case, because if we get in a bind or have a baby, my dad is going to be a lot more understanding and forgiving than Direct Loans.

May Income Statement

I really have to say, at this point, after doing this for a few months, that I really don't understand how we keep having such large net incomes. It isn't like we are gaining $2000 a month. I suppose it is from our bank balances, but even those aren't really that high. We each maintain about $350 in our accounts throughout the month. Maybe it is because we get paid at the end of the month, and haven't spent that money on bills yet when the statements are mailed? It does make sense that the end amount is $400 less than the beginning balances, because I think I got paid an extra $400 at the end of April, which we saved to pay for our hotel in May. I don't know... I just don't want to give the false impression that we are rolling in dough or that we aren't busting our budget every month, which we usually are.

Extra revenue: Birthday money

Expenses:
Yay low power! We over paid cable last month, so it is a little under this month. Termite due this month. I think netflix was double paid last month, or else I just missed it on my statement.

Debt:
Standard stuff here.

Variable:
Restaurant was high because we were out of town and had a couple of unplanned lunches. Most of our meals during the trip were covered by one relative or another. Supplies were high ... I have gotten into CVS ing. Unfortunately, some trips I get out of there for under $1, some are more like $20.

Additional expenses:
I spent almost $200 making my cousin's programs for her wedding, but my aunt offered later to reimburse me for that, which was great! That will show up in July, I think. The rest of the expenses for the wedding included our hotel, parking at the airport, and some last minute outfit additions.

Fund activity:
I have been struggling with how to handle planned expenses in the budget. I keep a separate spreadsheet with the tallies for our funds. Most things I just leave off altogether, like the boy who cuts our lawn, or our cleaning people (which my mom paid for as our Christmas gift). But I feel that I need to keep a true account of our expenses, and I also want to celebrate the fact that we actually were prepared for some things. The money isn't technically coming out of our monthly income, it is coming from our savings funds for that purpose. So, I have added "fund activity" at the bottom of the IS.

This month we took from two funds: I show the balance of the fund, the amount removed, and the new balance.

From repairs, we paid for our roof repair (YAY!) and also 2 new tires for my husband's car, since one was completely flat. From pet, we paid for my dog's boarding for our trip, which somehow tripled in planned amount, because he also had a checkup and some medicine added on.

July Budget

Happy 4th!

Income: Standard

Fixed Expenses:

My husband's life insurance is due this month. I think that is the only unusual item here.

Debt:

We have paid off all the credit cards at this point, though some bills are still being charged to the last credit card. For now, We will just continue to pay off that card, but not use it otherwise. We are now working on the little student loan, which should be paid off in August.

Variable:

The main change here is that I upped our discretionary spending. As I have said before, after months of no fun spending and not getting items we want I feel we can finally loosen up now that the credit cards are paid off. Unfortunately, because the high insurance bills are due this month, it meant some of the funds had to be lowered as well.

A note on the June cash jars:

We spent everything this month, and then some. We have very few receipts to show for it. I am not even going to bother with this this month. We had $1 left over, which I am just throwing in for this month. Every month I say we are going to be better about this, and then things get crazy, life happens and we just aren't, and I end up pulling my hair out at the end of the month.

Payoff: Month 6

May

cc 1,2,3,4: 0
cc5: 3514.67

Loan 1: 4454.32
Loan 2: 10972.64
Loan 3: 11347.35

Debt: 30288.99
Paid: 3197.36

June:

cc 1,2,3,4: 0
cc5: 1702.95 *

Loan 1: 3960.03
Loan 2: 10413.44
Loan 3: 11271.30

Debt: 27347.72
Paid: 2941.27



Total Paid: 16560.16


We have paid off more than 15,000 now and have our total debt under $30000.

*While our credit card is actually paid off at this point, we won't get the statement which says so until July. This was the payoff amount on the statement in June.

Hit our first goal

We paid off our last credit card this week after payday.

Tonight, we took my family out to dinner on us. We toased Dave Ramsey, and I wore my Dave Ramsey shirt.

I paid for everyone, and I paid in cash.

My parents pay for so many meals and trips for us, it felt good to make a token reciprocation, and it was nice to go out for a bit and have a good time.

Now back to the grind... Looking ahead, we will pay off the little student loan in August, and then the rest will be more gruelling.

The credit cards were the important part for me, though.

This is gonna be one of those posts...

I did something bad, and now I am panicking about it. It is gonna be ok. It isn't That bad. I am just beating myself up for it.

Several years ago, I was in an ebay bidding war for an OOAK doll. While I have seen many dolls by this artist (and later did get another one), this is the most beautiful one I have seen. Even though the artist usually sells her dolls for around $400, this one ended up going for around $90. I dropped out, but if I had upped my bid one more time, I would have won. I know this because as it turned out, I knew the woman who won her. She said she had also entered her last bid and walked away, as had I (I was going out) and hers was just a bit higher than mine. I have kicked myself over that for years, but took comfort in knowing where the doll ended up.

Over the years, this woman seems to have lost interest in dolls. I don't know what the deal is exactly, but she fell out of the American Girl community, and sold off a lot of that collection. She got big into Ellowyne (which is what these dolls are) and worked so much with this Ellowyne artist that she even helped to design a line of clothing with her for them. She has become close friends with her. But, she slowly over the years sold off her Ellowynes as well. She got heavy into BJDs for a while, and sold those off too. I don't understand the part where you invest heavily in these collections, lose interest, and sell. I have a very hard time selling my collections.

Anyway, she had three Ellowynes left, and the doll I had wanted was one of them. She posted them all for sale a couple weeks ago. I inquired, and she remembered that I had been bidding on this doll. She wanted $200!! I had hoped that since she got a deal on the doll, she wouldn't be pricing her so high! I told her I couldn't afford that, and she told me she would let me know if she didn't sell.

Tonight, she emailed me to tell me she was about to list her on Ebay for $150 and would I like her for $140 (+shipping, it turns out)? I have $60 in my personal spending account. But of course, there are several things I want to buy. Including clearance Ellowyne things from the company. I went back and forth on it. I can't believe she didn't sell (The other two did) and I feel like she is meant to be mine. I told her I would take her. I guess I have to start rooting around for things to sell now too.

It is very very hard living on so tight a budget. This is exactly why I planned to give us another "raise" next month. It's like dieting. You can't completely deprive yourself for such long periods of time. We don't go out, we can't buy fun things... and every little thing we have to do is a stress about the cost and the budget. It's been 6 months of this. I believe you need to let up on the reigns from time to time. It is just hard to do when I want so badly to achieve my big goal. And when things like this happen which are once-in-a-lifetime, it is hard to pass up. It is not the end of the world, or even the end of the money. It just isn't wise use of money, and it means putting off other things I was planning to get. Again. And so I beat myself up.

We will be paying off the last credit card in 10 days. We are really psyched about that. I spent some time today "what-if"ing a best case scenerio on a baby, and it really throws off everything. It is shocking how much a baby (specifically daycare) is going to slow us down. I don't know how poor people do it. But - all fodder for a different post. The point is, things happen, life happens, and I guess you have to roll with it. I feel like if we aren't going to be debt free by April, the credit cards are the important part to me, and does it really matter beyond that?

I guess even in the face of accomplishing my first goal, I am having a rough time right now. I need to feel some success at something. I am scared. Of every possible outcome.

June's Budget

HAHA! Look at that! The budget up on the first day of the month! I do want to point out that I have the budgets done ... usually two months ahead of time *blush* they get tweaked a bit as time gets closer. So, its not that I am not doing them... It is that I am not getting them posted in a timely manner. Part of it is that a lot is going on at home. I have been working out after work so I get home late, and pretty much eat dinner and go to bed. The weekends have been crazy. Work no longer allows me to access blogs of any kind. And, as we got closer to the wedding, the less time I had for blogging. I am committed both to doing and posting, so it will get done. I just wish I could still do blogs from work.

Revenue

No surprises.

Fixed

My insurance installment is due again already. That surprised me. I thought I had til July. So, that took some reworking to fit that in. Power is going down, and I am really trying not to blast the AC til it gets brutally hot. Our trash may or may not be due. It normally would, so I put it in the budget, but they are saying they are going to change the trash system in our county so that it comes out of our property taxes. The bonus, though, is that there will be a ton more curbside recycling which will be amazing. So. I am hoping that is the case. But then I am not sure what, if anything, the trash bill will look like this month.

Debt

WE WILL PAY OFF THE LAST CREDIT CARD THIS MONTH!!!!!!!!!
That was my first and most important goal. I am so excited. And the first student loan should fall two months later in August, so this is really going to be an exciting few months coming up.

Variable

Expenses:

I have set aside extra money for an outing to celebrate being credit card debt free. I feel like everyone carries me a lot - We always get our dinners and stuff paid for by my family, because they know we can't/won't be able to participate in family events otherwise. It may just be a token, but I want to take them all out for dinner and drinks on me at my favorite restaurant when we pay off the credit cards. I believe we deserve a paid for in cash celebration! And it is important to me to make an effort to pay them back and a display of how responsible we are getting and turning our life around.

Funds:

Our lawn boy upped his rates this summer, and we have already burned through all the money we had saved up for him! So, I have to cash flow him. I lowered the travel and repairs funds to help cover some of the other higher expenses this month.

Don't worry too much about the notes on the side. For the most part, my fund jars were all off. I had too much in some, and not enough in others, and the bank accounts were running low because we were just paying with the debit card instead of with the cash we had set aside. So, I resorted all the money in the jars to match what should be in them, and didn't pull that money from the bank accounts in order to repay them what they were owed. Sort of. They are still going to be low, but not as.

April Income Statement

April Income Statement

Revenue:

I got an extra week's paycheck at the end of the month, which was actually brought forward to pay for the hotel in May. My inlaws paid my husband back for his expenses to travel there.

Fixed Expenses:

Power is finally going down a little bit. We couldn't find the cable bill, and even though we pay the same amount every month, my husband overpaid on purpose. Insurance is super high because we got charged 3 installments on our auto insurance and my husband and I both got life insurance. I had thought we would be charged monthly for that, but we were charged quarterly.

Debt:

We paid the planned $2000 to the last credit card, as well as the $800 for the travel expenses which were put on the card.

Variable:

We were able to include a travel fund again. The pet amount includes the $150 for the fund as well as $200 spent at the vet on the dog for his shots and grooming. We forgot to take cash. I sorted all the funds out in May. I keep a separate spreadsheet with their ins and outs and actual totals. Supplies was high this month. We did some work on our basement, which required some supplies and I needed some supplies for other projects. Bank fee was the finance charge on the credit card. My husband's discretionary was super high. He got his WOW renewed for 6 months. He also cancelled a subscription, but in the process had to pay for several issues at once. Or something.

Savings:

Not surprisingly, we had nothing for the sinking fund this month. $900 in the bank account was earmarked for repairs.

April special circumstances:

A couple of my husband's charges from his parents carried over onto the April statement. We owed $2000 to the federal taxes. We moved money out of savings to pay for that. Then we got $874 back from the state. I want to pay back the $2000 to savings, but as of yet we have not. I have really just been holding my breath to get through May, but now will look at that.

May Budget

...better late than never? I am glad this month is over, that's all I can say.

Revenue: Includes my husband's raise, and my extra week paycheck for this quarter.

Fixed: Termite bill due.

Debt repay: Typical amounts all around.

Variable: I have split this section up into the categories we are actually spending each month and the categories we are funding, and may or may not actually be spending. It makes it easier for me to read, plan, and analyze.

We gave ourselves a small raise in our discretionary spending. This is financed by my husband's raise, but also well deserved after a full quarter of really having no spending money, and making good debt progress. As I have started to work out more, I had wanted to buy new sneakers, but that money ended up buying mother's day flowers :/ The rest of the expenses are the same as any month.

For the funds, my husband's raise allowed us to add a car fund category. My hope is that this will build toward a new car when needed, but may end up going to car repairs if necessary. All of my extra paycheck this month was earmarked for our wedding expenses, including our stay and parking.

Payoff: Month 5

April

cc 1,2,3,4: 0
cc5: 6105.14

Loan 1: 4542.19
Loan 2: 11437.74
Loan 3: 11401.28

Debt: 33486.35


May

cc 1,2,3,4: 0
cc5: 3514.67

Loan 1: 4454.32
Loan 2: 10972.64
Loan 3: 11347.35

Debt: 30288.99
Paid: 3197.36

Total Paid: 13618.89