Finally!!!!

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.

Project Savings/Payoff

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!

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.

September Update

I finally got around to taking care of end of month activities.  Phew!  This year is just flying by!

I've updated my sidebar including NetWorth IQ.  Did you notice the truck payment?  I'm now under $7,000!  My last two payments have posted and the remaining balance is at $6,697.32!  I AM SO EXCITED!!!!  Sorry for screaming, but I just cannot contain myself.

My emergency fund is trickling along, but at least it's moving up.  It's now at $3,273.04 and I earned a whopping $8.65 in interest last month!  This is the most I've ever made in interest.

I earned a measly $0.29 interest in my checking account, which I promptly put in my round up fund, and $0.71 interest in my "mortgage" savings account.

I've already paid most of my bills for this month.  The credit card, cell phones, water/sewer/garbage, and the electric bill (which was horribly high for us at $153 and some change) have now been paid.  I only have two bills left for the month--other than the mortgage, which is automatically taken out in a couple of days.

I seriously need to go through our food and set up a menu plan so I can use all the food we have efficiently.  I know I'll be running out of a few items soon, but for the most part we have a lot of food to eat if I would only start writing it down!  That will help me save money on running out for food I don't really need yet.

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.

Ebates and storm

I received my first check from Ebates a couple of days ago.  It was for $16.42 so when I deposit it I will place it in my Loan Payoff Savings.  I believe I'll be able to send out an additional check with that.  Also for those interested though not yet signed up with Ebates, you can join now and earn $10 for using them.  If you go through my referral in the sidebar, I'll also receive $10, which will help towards paying down that truck loan!  This current offer expires September 12, 2008.

I haven't been posting much due to Tropical Storm Fay.  It has sort of taken over everything here in Florida.  We still have power, but it is basically stalled over us right now.  We are currently in the center of the eye waiting for it to crawl over us so we can get the east side of the storm over with.

I'll post again when things calm down and return back to normal.

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.

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.