Category: Debt Free Journey

Week 16, 2020

This week we did make a couple of debt minimum payments but we are also getting close to finalizing our home refinance. The appraiser was out here this week. We also had pest control and air conditioner people out here this week and another trip to the vet. It was an expensive week with one more large expense coming tomorrow. According to our mortgage portal our closing should be happening mid/late May and then we’ll have most of our debt paid off.

Week 14, 2020

It’s the beginning of a new month. We went into debt more by $526.49 with all the dog expenses and vet visits BUT we were also able to get my student loans refinanced in March so our debt pay down should move quicker on the higher interest debts.

Week 13, 2020

Well, this hasn’t been a terribly expensive week.

Hubby had an issue with one of his tires but they were able to fix it under the protection plan.

New dog has worms so I did have to pay to have some testing done on her poop, so YUCK.

And daughter fell off the arm of the chair, which we had been telling her not to climb on for this very reason. She seems fine thankfully but, really mad time in the world right now to be getting injured.

Anyways, We are at the end of the month so pretty much all of the debt payments are made. I had a balance transfer offer show up on one of my credit cards that I took advantage of, it’s 15 months no interest so that will definitely be paid off on time I just wanted a little flexibility with everything going on in the country right now.

We are going to throw our focus onto the smallest debt right now so that we can free up the money we are currently sending there, then it will get thrown at the card I just transferred the balance to.

Paying off debt is hard. Especially right now when jobs are uncertain, pay coming in in uncertain. Hubby is a food delivery driver full time and luckily he has been getting much larger tips during this time. He has also been wearing a homemade mask while at work and washing his hands a bazillion times.

Life is crazy right now but we will be making an additional debt payment on Tuesday. We will be making some debt payments while giving ourselves a little cushion “just in case.”

I hope everyone is doing well and doing the best they can in their debt free journeys during this time.

Week 12, 2020

Well that escalated quickly.

I am sure everyone at this time knows about all of the stuff going on across the entire world. This pandemic is causing a lot of people to panic buy. We have not. We have only bought our normal groceries, or as normal as we can buy considering some of the things I eat on a normal basis have been out of stock.

It’s a very scary time for a lot of people. I myself find myself watching the news way more than I ever have. I have been keeping up with the number of cases in the county my husband works. Since I work from home, I rarely leave the house so not as concerned with the county we live in. I think this would even make a not anxious person a little anxious.

It’s a crazy time. While we have not panic bought anything, our debt snowflake for the month was eaten up with normal expenses and all of the dog purchasing. Next month should be better. Hubby is taking TONS of deliveries for work and people are being really nice and tipping more. Since medical masks are hard to come buy these days, I will be making a couple for us when we do have the leave the house. We will be doing our best to stay as safe as we can. Thank goodness for all those times I purchased sanitizer from Bath and Body Works!

On a really good note! My student loan refinance payoff for my government loans happened this week, still waiting on my private loan to receive/process that payment and all that will be taken care of, I’m not quite sure when the new payments will be due, my original paperwork said the 4th but on the loan itself it says the 24th. I guess I’ll see when it happens next month and go from there. I also think the payments are going to be slightly lower than it had originally told me.

Overall, taking all the crazy into consideration, it’s been a good week. We are still healthy and we are still working. We will continue to put into practice the CDC safe distancing and cleanliness procedures and hopefully get through this soon. Stay home and stay safe!

Week 11, 2020

This was an expensive week. Brother-in-law was in town so we ended up eating out and, we were waiting on him to do the work on our fence, which I had budgetted for so that came out and we finally got our dog so there were all the expenses associated with that.

We went to the shelter on Thursday and looked through all the dogs. Actually turns out they were doing a free adoption event for St. Patrick’s Day so we didn’t pay anything for her actual adoption BUT we had all the other expenses associated with a dog (collar, leash, kennel, food, treats, toys). The good thing is, we got that large check last week which helped fun a lot of what we needed for her. We were also able to get EVERYTHING we needed at once rather than having to budget out over a couple of months AND we were able to pay cash for it all.

We think the dog we got is somewhere between 8 and 12 months and we currently think she is a Border Collie/Lab mix. She was an owner surrender, they told the shelter they had had her for 8 months, lived primarily outside and she just wasn’t a good fit. She is super sweet and loves our family. We will start obedience training with her in a couple of weeks once she is a little more used to us.

That’s all we have for the week. It’s been an expensive week but it’s nice to have all these large expenses we knew were coming finally done.

Week 10, 2020

A couple of things happened this week. First I’ll start with a little back story.

At the end of 2019 I got a letter from a previous employer. It basically said that they were being sued for unfair wages or something like that. There was a period of time when they were hiring (including when I was hired) where any female’s or minorities *may* have been paid less than their white male counterparts. It basically said “hey, if you sign this and agree not to sue us we will pay you for the difference which will be a minimum of $400.” I went ahead and signed, this was a job I held over 7 years ago so I had no idea it didn’t really bother me to sign. The letter also said we would get a check sometime in 2020.

So Monday of this week I check the mail. I had an envelope from the settlement office, I opened it thinking it’s gonna be $400. Yeah. That check came in for $1,100!!!! So that’s getting added onto the snowball for this month.

Also, I got approval on the student loan refinance this week. They give you a couple of weeks to change your mind before they do the payouts so I have to pay my student loans this month before they get paid off and I start paying on the new one next month. The payments are going to save me around $150 each month so I will automatically adjust my focused debt payments to include this in the minimum payments I pay each month.

We have a few repairs that need to take place around the house and on the cars, hopefully minor things, before I will have a better idea of what my snowflake payment will be for the month. Since I don’t pay this until the very end of the month I have quite some time before I need an exact number.

Overall, it was a productive week!

Week 9, 2020

As it rolls into another month today, I have our February results. We actually took on a little more debt for the month. My car was due to get inspected and there were some repairs needed in order for the check engine light not to be on so it could pass inspection. It was not something we could avoid so we got it done. The good news is, we will be able to make serious progress for the next several months and we roll into summer.

Also, the being a month ahead really helped me in the last couple of months with knowing how much we had to pull from to get things done.

With YNAB and this extra expense I basically put the entire thing as an expense and rather than WAM to get the money I needed, I threw as much as I could at it at the end of the month which was of course not the entire amount or we would have just paid cash to start with.

This card is the one we will be throwing all our snowflake payments at until it’s paid off as it has the highest interest rate of any of our debts.

Also, we applied to refinance my student loans this last week, hopefully we find out this week if I was approved. This would increase our snowflake payment by about $100/month so we could get the higher interest things paid off faster. I’ll report back next week whether that was able to happen or not. Here’s to another month!

Debt increased by $647.12

Week 8, 2020

This is the last week of February. I have 2 more debt payments to go and on the 29th I will be making our snowflake payment for the month.

I cannot wait to see How we manage this year with YNAB and being a month ahead and everything that comes with it.

March should show us some good debt payoff numbers and hopefully it just increases from there!