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.

Updates and What's Going On

Well, Tropical Storm Fay has now completely left us.  We still had a few (very few) remaining storms come through yesterday, though we were able to get out of the house for the afternoon.  No damage so that's very good!  One down; ?? to go.

I still got the mail during the storm...yes, the poor mailwoman still had to deliver the mail!  I received a letter from my 401K plan saying that I have under the minimum $1000 and if I do not call by a certain date a check will be cut minus all the many fees and penalties they take away from you.  I know I received a check for all the funds to roll them over to my new Vanguard IRA.  Or at least that's what they told me!  So I took a look online and it's a whopping $3.13 for company stock!  $3.13!  It was probably some dividend or something that got applied after the check was cut.  So fine...cut me a check.  I'll probably get like $2.00 or something.  It's just not worth my time calling them to have it rolled over to my IRA.  Let the IRS get the 20% penalty or  $0.62...LOL.  I could always put $3.13 into my IRA and then get my $0.62 back at tax time.  Maybe.

I also received the explanation of benefits sheets you get from the insurance company for the boys' first visits to the new dentist.  I'll probably owe them in the $200 range.  Not bad considering they only charged me $50.70 for those appointments at the time.  We'll see what happens with that when the bill comes in.  

I've started updating the sidebar and progression bars.  It still needs some tweaking here and there.  My classes start tomorrow so my time will be limited until I get myself on a schedule.

I'm Anxiously Waiting...

...for this month to end so I can do all the updates.  I'm pretty sure it won't look that great, but that's ok.  I really just want to close out June and move onto July with three paychecks.

Yesterday was my birthday so we went out to eat for dinner.  Nothing extravagant...we spent $29.99 including tip for the 4 of us.

The blow money idea seems to be working out well so far.  My husband hasn't mentioned once how he doesn't have any money to spend on what he wants.  Yay!

Tomorrow should be a small spend day.  My husband will probably get lunch at work and that's it.  Interest should start showing up in the accounts tomorrow, too.

With the extra paycheck next month I'll be transferring $100 each pay period over to the auto insurance savings for our January payment.