Financial Update -- May 2011

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.

Finally...

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.

Advanced Payments are GOOD!

Thank goodness for the truck loan being paid in advance!  My husband desperately needs new tires on his truck because he drives 570 miles a week and the tires the truck came with are crap!  

Anyway...

Since I haven't had the time to start saving up for Auto Maintenance, which this lovely issue brought to my attention, I am planning to use the money I would have used to make the 2 extra payments to the truck loan to buy the new tires.  Because honestly it makes no sense to use the money to pay down the truck early instead of buying new tires so hubby doesn't go out of control on the highway when a tire blows.  Plus I would probably have to pay for massive hospital bills, if not a funeral.  That would be bad!

The tires are actually going to cost $568.00 plus delivery, installation charges, taxes. I'm expecting it will cost quite a bit by the time this is all said and done.  But it is a necessary expense with how much he drives.

We've already researched the tires on tirerack.com and found some that have a very high rating.  His original ones are there, too, and confirmed how crappy they really are, though the dealership told him they were top of the line when they tried to sell them to him when he got his oil changed.  They had no idea we already researched the tires. Nice try, but no thank you.

So the plan now is:

• Use one, possibly two, months of extra truck loan payments to pay for tires for the truck.
• Use any extra money such as bonuses and tax refunds to "catch up" to where I wanted to be with these missed extra payments.

Hopefully that will all work out the way I would like it to, but if it doesn't that's alright. I still see the truck loan being paid off early even with skipping a couple of months.

Attempt to Get Back on Track...

...Or at least I'm going to try.  

I've updated everything on the sidebar now as well as NetWorthIQ.  It's not looking good, but I didn't expect it to what with the student loans being added to it all.

I made several payments to the truck loan.  We are now down to $7,131.24 left on it and I don't owe them another payment until January.  Of course, I'll continue to send them in because I want it gone!  My extra loan payment "savings" is up to $145.69 so I'll only need $87.07 to send in another extra payment along with my regular payment.

I received my homeowner's insurance statement.  The payment is due in December and is paid through my mortgage escrow account.  I would love to not have a mortgage escrow account, but they are required on VA loans.  As usual the policy covers some pretty stupid things like volcanic eruption, which may be needed if I lived in Hawaii, but I live in a flat state with barely a hill; and grave markers (is there something I don't know about?).  The good thing is that it looks like it will be going down $14.97 from last year's premium.  It's not much, but it'll still lower my monthly mortgage payment.  That's $1.25 a month that I can put towards something else.  

I have all my monthly bills paid for the rest of the month and we still have another payday to go this month!  The next bill is not due until the 7th of next month and it's the only one for the next two pay periods!  I've already made sure I did a big grocery shopping.  We are set for food other than refrigerated items we go through quickly.  I spent over $215 so it better last!  So I think this is a good time for auto maintenance.  I need an oil change and new battery and DH needs an oil change, some other routine maintenance yet to be determined, and a couple of new tires.  We'll have to do some pricing.  For tires we like to check them out on Tire Rack to get reviews and pricing.  We bought my new ones on there earlier this year.  We had them delivered to a local shop to be put on and we couldn't be happier with them.

I believe that may bring me up to date for now.  If I think of anything else, I'll add another post later.

Final Dentist Bill and Incoming Money

I received the last claim statement from the insurance company so on Wednesday I went into the dentist's office to settle up with them.  The final bill came up to $299.50 so my total out of pocket for all their dental work was $671.60.  I'm glad I took care of it and got it out of the way.

I'm now waiting for the remaining balance of my student loan to post to my account.  You may wonder why I take the full amount when I also get a grant.  The reason is that it still doesn't cover everything.  I only get $600 a term in grant money.  That is about the cost of my books in a fall or spring term, which I pay out of pocket and then reimburse myself with the loan.  My tuition is around $1,800.  Any left over goes towards paying down my credit card to prepare for the next term.  The remaining also covers my summer term costs, which I receive a small grant for but no student loans.  

This is what this term cost:

Tuition--$1,831.28 minus $600 Grant = $1,231.28 minus $2,722.50 = ($1,491.22) remaining.

Books/DVD's--$582.18 minus $1,491.22 = ($909.04) remaining.

That remaining $909.04 needs to be "saved" for the summer term's tuition, books, and supplies, as well as any additional supplies needed for this term.  I'll add whatever is extra from the spring term to the fall term's remaining balance, too.

Doctor/Dentist Bills, Red Cross, End of Month

I received a bill from one of my doctor's for an appointment I went to in December.  I've actually had 2 other appointments since that appointment, but for some reason they messed this one all up by putting in the claim 3 times!  Pretty unorganized of them!  So now I have to fit in a payment of $125.32 to them.  I'll take care of that this weekend and get it out in the mail on Tuesday.

I've also received some more of the claim forms for my boys' dentist appointments.  So far it looks like I'll owe them $209.30 at least until I get the last claim form.  I underpaid on a couple of appointments and overpaid on one.  This is not as big as a deal because I was pretty much expecting it.  Plus the dentist office has not sent me a bill as yet either.  So we'll wait and see on that one, but I'll probably go in as soon as I've received the last claim form and settle up with them.

On the sidebar you'll notice a banner for the American Red Cross.  They are one of the few organizations that I support and believe in.  I do not in any way receive money or endorsement from the Red Cross for placing the banner on my blog.  

Since today is the last day of the month I'll probably be closing everything out.  It looks like I'll have $38.17 to transfer over to my emergency fund (other than the normal $117) from my round up fund from the checking account.

These are the final month end numbers:

Groceries: $379.07

Dining Out: $249.53

Gas: $540.41

DH's Work Lunches: $108.06

I'm not sure if I've missed anything.  The progression bars will be updated in a week or so when the mortgage, truck payments, and emergency savings are shown to be updated in their systems so I can get exact numbers.  Though I believe the emergency fund will be above $3,000 and the truck loan will maybe be close to $7,000.

It's Payday Again!

Another payday and thank goodness for this one since I had totally misjudged what I needed for the last two weeks as mentioned in another post.  I am so glad that is over!

My "Loan Payoff Savings" has lowered to $9.69, but the reason for that is because I was able to make another extra payment on the truck.  I just made payments for November (regular, but early, payment) and December (extra payment)!  I only have 34 payments to go and on my way to making the goal!

Again it's slow because I really do not have any other bills to pay until the next payday.

Payoff Date Goals

Things have been kind of busy here dealing with storms, college classes, the boys going back to school, and their activities starting back up.  But at the same time the finances have been kind of slow going.  There just hasn't been anything much to talk about.  So I was looking over my posts here and realized that I never gave any dates of when I'd like to get everything paid off.  

I guess I do have something to talk about now!

1. Pay off truck loan early: My goal on this is to completely pay it off by December 2009.  The original maturity date is October 2011.  Once it is paid off, then I'll also be downgrading the insurance coverage so I'll be saving some money there, too.

 

2. Start paying down Heloc until student loans come due: This will be done from January 2010 through June 2011, which is when I should have to start paying on my student loans.

3. Pay off student loans as quickly as possible:  I do not have an actual payoff goal on this as yet until I see the final damage.  I'll have a better idea around the summer/fall of 2010.  But know it will be paid off early.

4. Finish paying off Heloc:  This will also depend on other factors like how much I paid off prior to student loans coming due and what my work situation is like once I start paying it off again.

5. Work on paying off mortgage early:  The original maturity date on our mortgage was January 2034, but we knocked it down to August 2032 with an employee loan through the bank as I worked with them at the time we bought the home.  We paid that loan off a long time ago!  My ultimate goal would be to pay off the mortgage somewhere between 2020 and 2022 or sooner.  Again it will all depend on paying off the other debt, my employment situation, and any other things that happen to pop up.

Answer to Comment Questions

I received this comment and thought I should answer it in a post:

dedicated said...

Stupid Question - Does the loan company require that you make your regular payment amount? Or do you do this for ease and record keeping? Do they have a limit on how many payments you can make a month?

Or maybe you are just trying to show in your minds eye the car is being paid off, by the shrinking payment book coupons?

Just curious. Not that it matters since you will be 4 months ahead on payoff it is all good.

Firstly, I don't think they are stupid questions at all.  I would probably have the same questions.  And if you don't ask, then how do you know?

I'm not really sure if the credit union we got the truck loan with would take partial payments, though I don't see why not.  

Yep, I do this for ease and record keeping.  I know it seems like a waste to write out separate checks when I'm mailing them all out in the same envelope, but 1) I don't use checks all that much anyway so I've got to use them for something--LOL; and 2) it helps me keep track of them better.

I don't know if they have a limit on how many payments can be sent in at once.  So far the most I've tested it with is 3 payments at once.  I would think they would just be happy to get their money.

Oh yes it is definitely nice to see the coupon book start to get smaller and smaller.  Our maturity date is supposed to be October 5, 2011.  My goal is to have it totally paid off by December 2009 or sooner.  I can do this by making at least 2 payments a month with some extra payments thrown in during the two months with extra paychecks.

Thanks for the great questions!  I hope that has cleared it up, but if not feel free to ask me some more questions.

2-Week Pay Period: August 14, 2008

Yesterday was the end of the last 2-week pay period so I did all the normal things.  I had $6.00 left over so I transferred that over to the Loan Payoff Savings.  Plus I transferred over the $125 that usually went towards the Heloc payment.  I now have $226.03 in there--$6.73 more to go before I can make another extra payment to the truck loan, which should be December's payment.

Been kind of lax...

...with everything!

Good thing I have all my bills paid right now.  I guess it's because I'm on "vacation" until school starts back up.  I need a regular schedule even if it is only at home.  

Luckily there haven't been any major expenses these past couple of days. *knocks on wood*

I'm waiting for the end of this 2-week pay period, which ends this Thursday night.  I'm hoping to see that I've stayed on budget.  We're cutting it kind of close this 2-week pay period.  I've already "paid" all my bills for the next 2-week pay period through bill pay -- well I've scheduled them anyway.  I decided to only pay the interest on the Heloc this month (plus extra just to round it up to the next dollar) and try paying by bill pay this time (usually I send a check).  We'll see how it goes.  I'll be putting the extra money towards paying off the truck loan.  I really want that truck loan gone!  Technically my next payment isn't due until November, but I'll be continuing to make payments anyway.

So here is my plan:

• Pay off truck loan early
• Start paying down Heloc until student loans come due
• Pay off student loans as quickly as possible
• Finish paying off Heloc
• Work on paying off mortgage early

The last two should be easier because I should be working again by then.  The student loan payoff will take a while at the beginning since I won't be working right away, but should take off once I'm ready to get a job.

Freebies, Grades, Textbooks, and Things to Sell

Today was a day of more stuff in the mailbox.  Both were for my husband though.  

First was a gift card I ordered for him through MyPoints.  I use it almost exclusively to help pay for his work lunches.  He really enjoys going to Subway so I got him a $10 gift card.  I have enough to order another one, but I have to wait for the pending points to go through first.

The second was the Gillette Shampoo for Men sample from Walmart.  And they even enclosed a $1.00 off coupon, too.  I more than likely will never use it.  If anyone wants it, just let me know (use the e-mail in the sidebar, leave me where to send it, and I'll mail it to you).  It says it's for "$1.00 off on any one (1) Gillette Shampoo or Conditioner (Excludes Trial Size)."  It expires on 10/31/2008.

I finally received my final grades in for the summer term, which ended August 1st.  For those of you who are new here, I went back to college a couple of years ago to finish up my degrees.  I completed my A.A. in Social and Behavioral Sciences in December 2007.  I'm now working on my B.S. in Criminal Justice with a minor in Psychology (I keep on meaning to add a second minor in Sociology) and 3 certificates: Behavioral Forensics, Criminal Profiling, and Victim Advocacy.  My plan is to finish up by the end of December 2010.  To do this I need to take some classes during the summer, though not as many as during the spring and fall terms because I have the boys home with me, too.  I just finished 6 credit hours--Basic Learning Processes and Personality Theories--and I got A's in both classes!  So far all my grades since transferring to the University have been A's, including the classes they transferred to completed my B.S.  It's a lot of hard work, but it'll be worth it.  Now let's see if I can keep up with it!  The fall term starts in 2 weeks and I'll be taking 13 credit hours:

• Statistical Methods in Psychology--4 cr.
• Police and Society--3 cr.
• Cultural Diversity in Criminal Justice--3 cr.
• Prosecution and Adjudication--3 cr.

The textbooks for these classes as usual were outrageous!  Unfortunately, buying them from the school book store was easier for me this term instead of searching out for the better price.  Two were in bundles and another was a new edition (so no used available).  I was able to get the last two books as used, but couldn't find the right editions elsewhere.  So needless to say I ended up paying $506.79 in total.  I am unable to drive to the campus bookstore to pick up my books so I had to have them shipped, which added $14.75, plus $33.19 for tax, and $458.85 for the books.  The federal loans along with the grants will help reimburse me for now--at least until I have to start paying them back.

On another note, I'm starting to get some furniture ready to be put on Craigslist.  I have a nice mirror on a stand, two computer desks, and a bunch of other stuff that I really would love to get rid of now instead of waiting until I get up off my butt and have a yard sale.  My garage and living room are getting a little crowded.  I'm also thinking about putting some more books and stuff on Half.com.  I've sold on there before and feel kind of comfortable with them.  I would love to get rid of the rest on eBay, but I'm not sure if I'm comfortable enough yet or not.  I've heard of so many seller problems and I just don't know if I want the hassle.  Maybe I'll check out the eBay store.  I won't make as much, but I also won't have to wonder how much to charge, handle the shipping, etc.  I'll have to look into that.  The important thing right now is to try to make something off of my old useless stuff and get rid of it.

2-Week Pay Period: July 31, 2008 and End of Month

It isn't often that both the end of a 2-week pay period and the end of the month coincide.  This was also the end of a 3-check month.

End of 2-Week:

• The first thing I decided to do is to redirect my extra 1/2 mortgage payment transfer amount of $442.60 to my new extra loan payoff savings.  I just don't really need it for the mortgage so I figure it'll do me more good paying off some debt.  So along with some additional funds I managed to move over there, I was able to make two additional payments on the truck loan.  So this month I've made payments for August, September, and October.  And I still have $90.03 left in the extra loan payoff savings.  When it reaches another payment, then I'll send it in as an additional payment.
  

• I paid $100 for my August credit card payment.  I only owed $19.00, but I'm used to paying extra.  Besides I've had to use it more often lately because of the boys' dentist appointments.  
  

• I scheduled our cell phone bill for August in the amount of $63.75 (that's for two phones).
  

• I paid $99.91 on a doctor's bill for what was left after copay and insurance.
• I transferred the blow money for my husband and me; and the allowance for the boys.
  

End of Month:

• Groceries: $213.59
• Dining out: $184.31
• Husband's Work Lunches: $138.10 (can you tell bringing his lunch to work isn't working?)
• Gas: $570.21 (it's going down!)
• Prescriptions: $8.20
• Dental: $313.70

All our bills are now paid through the next pay period due on August 14th.  I may still need to update some of the numbers in the sidebar later because:

1. the mortgage payment hasn't gone through yet and I like to see the exact loan amount remaining after the payment.
2. interest in the savings accounts are not showing yet.
3. I always check the truck loan after the checks have cleared as the total amount due is usually lower (I tend to overestimate the interest and underestimate the principal).

I believe that about covers this last 2-weeks and last month.  Let's hope August is a good one!

Sidebar Figures

I see that today is going to be one of those days that I make multiple posts.  Either I've saved them all up or I'm stalling so I don't have to do my school work.  You decide which! ;-)

You may notice some changes in the sidebar.  I've added some progression bars for debt that I would like to pay off and I've removed my NCN Network thingamabob.

The debt I wish to pay off is my mortgage, heloc, truck loan, and student loans. 

The mortgage should go down gradually at first because it will be the last thing to pay off.  

The heloc is next and will probably cease to go down because of what I spoke about in my last post of putting the extra towards the truck loan.  

The truck loan is already at over 30% paid.  I'm really looking to see that get to 100% fast.  

The student loans are showing 0% paid and will continue to show 0% paid for the next several years.  It will also be increasing in size as I'm still going to college.

I've removed the NCN Network debt tracker thing because it just won't work right as long as I'm still racking up the student loan debt.

The one thing you will not notice on here is my one credit card.  That is constantly used.  I use it, I pay it down, I pay it off, I use it again.  I don't expect I'll ever get rid of it as we are not irresponsible with it.  I know a lot of people say the only way to be totally debt free is to get rid of all your debt and cut up your credit cards never to be used again, but I'm not one of them.  I believe that debt is bad, but I also believe that using a credit card is essential in certain circumstances as long as you know how to use them properly and don't go overboard.  With only a $5000 credit limit, I seriously doubt we would go very far into debt with it especially once we pay everything else off and have the extra cash every month.  Right now my credit card bill is around $59, but I always pay much more than that and have paid it off several times.  I do hope to get to the point of being able to pay it off every month, but right now getting the other debt paid off first is my big priority.  It's not what most people would do, but it works for us.

OK...so hopefully this is the last post for today.  :-)

Stimulus Refund

We got our stimulus refund direct deposited tonight and within 20 minutes it was gone.  See that's what I call good planning.  :-)

We got $1800, which was the original $1200 plus $300 for each of our children.  

• On Quicken and my checkbook register I transferred $800 to our new auto insurance fund to ensure we have the money available for our auto insurance payment in July.  I did not actually transfer this money with my credit union because I will need it readily available to either transfer online or write a check when the bill becomes due.  We never really saved for the payment before, but I've decided it will take a lot of stress away knowing it is available if I started saving for it little by little instead of waiting until a month with 3 pay periods.
  
• I then transferred online with my credit union $767 to my credit card.  I had planned on paying $873.15 in total, but that included some left over college grant money after summer tuition that I haven't received yet (will be used to pay off the textbooks I bought on the credit card).  So when I receive that money I'll pay an additional $106.15 on the credit card.
• Finally, I wrote out a $232.76 check for the July truck payment.  I made double payments at the end of April for the May and June payments.  At the end of this month I'll make a double payment for the August and September payments.  Anyway, the July payment check is ready to go out in the mail tomorrow.  I then rounded up the amount as I usually would when making a payment.  That puts an additional $0.24 going towards savings at the end of the month.

Tax Stimulus Refund balance: $0.00

Grades

As I mentioned in my introduction post, I'm also a college student.  I received my A.A. degree in Behavioral and Social Sciences in December 2007.  In January, I transferred to UCF (University of Central Florida) to continue my Bachelor's.  I'm going for a B.S. in Criminal Justice, a Psychology minor, and 3 certificates: Behavioral Forensics, Victim Advocacy, and Criminal Profiling.

My grades for the Spring term are now in and I got: Criminal Justice System--A; Crime in America--A; Research Methods in Criminal Justice--A.

On May 12th I start my 2 Summer term classes: Basic Learning Processes and Personality Theory, which end August 1st.  On August 25th I start my 4 Fall term classes: Prosecution and Adjudication; Police and Society; Cultural Diversity in Criminal Justice; and Statistical Methods in Psychology.

Unfortunately, I'll have some student loans to pay off when I'm all finished, but luckily I have been getting some grants, too.  So that helps a bit.