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WWYD? Loan Payoff

December 16th, 2020 at 09:09 pm

Long story short I have $1,100 left on the 0% interest medical loan before I am debt free. (besides mortgage)

My stretch goal was to pay it off this year but it looks like I am going to be about $800 short. I have over $8,000 in savings to regrade our yard and install our new water heater. Cost estimate for that is $6,000ish, and I won't need to pull it for at least two more months, but I also know projects always seem to cost more than expected. I'm itching to borrow the $800 from there and pay off the loan this month. I would then use the next couple months to build back up my buffer. Any logical reason againist that or should I just pull the trigger? 

I am SUPER excited to be able to save money every month instead of putting a sizable chunk towards a loan payment!

I'm Back & Debt Payments

November 11th, 2019 at 02:35 pm

I'm back from a goat show with my mom. We won $800 but after expenses and splitting the net profit I made $100. It is mostly for fun and also promoting/improving our herd so any profit is just a bonus.


My web design income from last month came in. I paid $562.50 on the construction loan so it's down to $4,000 and I paid $165 on the CC so it's down to $3,500. That surpasses my minimum monthly goal, so that is good news. I love seeing those round numbers!

Husband has in fact been working 3 weeks straight, some days 12 hours. I'm sure that will give us a tidy sum to put towards debt next month even with my side income decrease.

Ebbs and Flows

November 6th, 2019 at 03:54 pm

Found out unexpectedly last week that I lost a very large client that I have been working with 6+ months. Bummer. I haven't been taking on anything else because it took up so much time. So I literally have no web design to currently work on. I do have a small project starting in December, and possibly another one before then. I have also been trying to get a mid sized job which I was hoping was going to be extra but now it looks like I really need it for next month's debt payments. Sigh. How frustrating. Just a reminder how fluid contract work is. Sometimes I'm slammed and sometimes I have nothing...

Oh well. Thankful I have my steady office job to meet most of my needs, and the side income is just for debt repayment.

Hopefully I will get my check from last month soon to pay towards the construction loan.

New Loans

October 21st, 2019 at 03:03 pm

I finally have the total for the two new 0% interest loans I had to open.

$4,562.50 & $2,109.65

I need to make payments of $438 a month in order to pay them off before the 0% interest periods are up.

I also have to continue paying $376 a month on the CC to pay it before the promo period expires.

That is a total of $814 and my average paid on the CC this year has been $800 a month. So if I can keep going at the same rate I should be fine. But unfortunately I am working less than the beginning of the year, and with the baby on the way I know it is going to continue to decrease. So we will have to start using some of husband's overtime money towards it in addition to my side income in order to keep on track.

Back from Vacation & Updates

October 4th, 2019 at 03:40 pm

Well I'm back from vacation and was sad to find that the website was hacked and everything since April was lost. I was able to go back through google and get my monthly check ins which were the most important. I have no idea what else I talked about between then and now... So aggravating. I will be looking into backing up my important posts and possibly switching to a new blogging area. This already happened once at getrichslowly and it is sad to loose all the years of data.

Vacation was good. We did go over budget but was able to cash flow the extras.

Husband got a $500 bonus (more like $300 after tax) and should get another $250 bonus soon + a raise. So we will be putting that towards the doula. We still owe $850 by January/February.

We have lots of large expenses coming up. I just started a payment plan with the hospital for the $2,160 I couldn't cash flow with the HSA. It's 0% for two years. That will give us some wiggle room in the short term and once the baby is born and cash is less tight we can just pay it off early.

Also signed for a 0% one year loan of $4,600ish for some necessary waterproofing on the house. I am also looking into refinancing our mortgage and adding on $5k for some dirt work. Been to two different banks and have to make a decision but either one should save us a few thousand a year in interest since the rate has dropped so much. I dread getting a new appraisal since our house still has lots of unfinished projects going on and I don't feel like working on them.


I am a little worried about taking on several new loans and still continuing to pay down my 0% CC before the deadline in 11 months. This next year is going to be really tight with the baby, but if we can get through we should be debt free again.

First Payment

January 30th, 2019 at 02:33 pm

The balance transfer to the new 0% credit card is finalized so I paid my first payment of $526. Bringing the total debt remaining to $10,803.

I can not wait to see that number fall to 4 digits!

Mortgage Payment

January 4th, 2019 at 02:37 pm

Paid my mortgage today bringing the balance to $114,564.53.

Escrow/EF savings is still automatic so our weekly $75 was deposited. I am thankful that even during tough times I can still continue to save something. Once we are back on track it would be nice to up that weekly deposit to $100. If this ordeal has shown me anything it is that we need a bigger emergency fund.

I found out that I did in fact get the large web design job I was hoping for. I will be paid $2,000 and I was planning on putting that towards animal savings but I'll wait and see how this month goes.

This is the month that I need apply for new 0% credit cards to transfer our balances to. I'll do that as soon as the statement balance hits next week. It would be really nice if I got one card with a high enough limit to put the entire amount on, but I'm guessing it will probably be two cards again. The current cards' promotional rate don't actually expire until March. So I may leave some on there that I am reasonably able pay off before March to avoid the balance transfer fee on as much as possible.

Web Design Checks

October 9th, 2018 at 02:33 pm

I received 3 web design checks this week. Allowing me to put $462 towards the biggest home credit card. That brings the total down to $7,683!

Most people suggest to pay off the smallest balance first but I would like to get both accounts under $6k so I can easily balance transfer them next year to new 0% interest cards. I am guessing it will take two more years to pay them off, but who knows. Anything can happen. Perhaps husband will get a ton of overtime allowing us to speed up the pay down.

I need to pay $962 more this year to meet my 2018 debt goal. Or $481 for the next two months. Web design has really slowed up right now, so I am a bit doubtful that I will be able to make it... Although it looks like I might have two goats sold, so if I chose to apply some of that income towards the debt I could make it work. I will just have to wait and see how the rest of the year goes.

I am having a horrible time figuring out switching husband's old 401K to his new one. They are both at Vanguard, but the old employer is going to have to write a check from vanguard back to vanguard? I don't get it. Seems stupid.

Down into the $43ks

January 31st, 2018 at 03:10 pm

Paid our mortgage today which pushed it down to $43,909.35!

Our federal tax return came in. That was fast! I will send a check to the HVAC bill as soon as my other paycheck comes in a couple days.

Into the $44ks

July 5th, 2017 at 09:17 pm

Mortgage payment was sent today, bringing our balance down to $44,986.18!

Have to enjoy these last few months of a small mortgage before our LOC is rolled into it and the balance more than doubles. :/

Sold a goat so I was able to add $350 to the animal fund. Happy to see at least one goal making progress.

Gutters were installed today.

Done and DONE!

February 10th, 2015 at 03:05 pm

Line of Credit is paid in full!!! Debt free again except for mortgage!

How cool is that to have our hardest goal done before the middle of February! Also sent $1,000 to the EF!

The other goals are going to fly by, EF will be done by the end of the month, and the others will follow soon after. 2015 has been a great year so far!

A New Record

February 2nd, 2015 at 08:26 pm

I just want to dance and shout and sing!

I was checking our taxes one last time before submitting, and I realized that I mixed up a 3 and a 7 on our state income tax. When I fixed the error I got an additional $400 back on our refund! We are getting a total of $2,100 which is the most we've ever gotten. Taxes filed.

Also, the lady who had me hold the car got her refund back today unexpectedly early, so she is picking up the car and paying tonight when she gets off work!!!

So that means, today I just made over $6,000! Whoot!

$1,000 will be going to the EF. We are paying OFF the line of credit, and the remaining $350 we are saving for our summer vacation.

After all the payments clear, I will be debt free again except for the mortgage! How exciting.

Car Paid Off!!!!

October 8th, 2014 at 04:10 pm

*flaps arms wildly and runs around screaming*

I just wrote the check for the final car payment. That baby is paid in full!

So eager to move onto new goals. Emergency Fund, I'm looking at you.

Well I Guess That's Decided...

September 10th, 2014 at 02:58 pm

I couldn't make up my mind if I wanted to go ahead and pay my car off today since I have checks in the mail coming to me or if I should wait until they actually come in. Well I finally decided to do it....

Then I stopped in this morning to pay my car insurance, which I was going to put on my credit card because it wouldn't be due until November. I could just pay it off at my leisure.

Well something was wrong with the system, and they couldn't take credit, only check. So I had to use every penny of my car money, and $250 of my cushion to float the difference. Frown

So the good news is, I don't owe anything on my credit card. The bad news is, it's going to take me a while to build back up my cushion and save another $500 for the car payment.

Oh well. I'm hoping after my checks come in, I will be able to still pay it off in September. And it does feel good not to have the car insurance money hanging on the credit card. Baby steps.

Stressful Days

March 12th, 2014 at 03:03 pm

I am about to the end of my mental and financial rope.

Car is broken. Timing chain major problem Father-in-Law thinks. Car is parked and not able to be driven in my work parking lot. Called the mechanic... $800 to fix it. Frown

So I had to scramble to get insurance and plates on the Neon so I could drive it to work the next day.

I had to pay $611 for 6 months of insurance up front. I could have paid for only a month + a fee, but it was over $100 difference not counting the fee.

Of course I didnt have that much money on me, so I had to borrow $500 from my mother.

Then I have to get it titled and plated, and that cost $240. Frown

I had put the propane bill on my credit card, and had the cash in the checking account to pay for it. But I had to use that money to pay for the plates. So now,

I have over $500 on the credit card.
I owe my mother $500.
I had to take $100 out of my EF.
I owe my grandpa $3,000.
My car is broken down in a parking lot and has to be fixed to the tune of $800.
I have to put $250 in my IRA before April 15th.

This is the most debt I have ever had. It is really stressing me out. I went from $0 debt to close to $5,000 in just a week or two.

Father in law is throwing around the idea of taking on the timing chain himself. It would only cost $200 for the parts. I am a little weary to let him do it.

Praying everything with work out, and I will be able to catch back up quickly.

Savings or Credit Card?

January 3rd, 2014 at 05:10 pm

This week I have spent more than I should.

My best friend came home and we went out, twice.

Yesterday I took a couple ladies to visit another friend that lives a couple hours away to see her new apartment. At the last minute they asked me to drive because I had a smaller car (to save on gas). It cost over $25 in gas to get there. They did not offer to help pay, and I did not bring it up. So of course it saved them on gas! lol. I hate to be nit picky about small stuff like that, but all I can think about is the $25 that wont be going to my EF this week.

Now comes my dilemma. I need to put $75 a week into my EF.

I have about $150 on my credit card right now. Not due until middle of Feb. I will be adding probably $50 more this week to it for normal expenses such as gas.

I like to pay off my credit card every week or at least down as low as I can, just to stay on top of it. I dont want a huge bill due at the end of the month.

After bills this week I will have around $160 left.

Should I put $75 in my EF, and just pay down $85 on the credit card?

Should I put $50 in my EF, and pay down $110 on my credit card?

Should I pay off my credit card asap and put only $10 in EF?

Option 2 sounds better because I hate having a balance on my credit card. But if I want to keep up with my saving goals, every time I cut back the amount I deposit, I will have to catch it up another week and that is hard!

So I think savings should come first.

What do you do? How do you chose between savings, and delaying debt payment for a little while longer? Do you pay your credit card in full every paycheck and just put your extra in savings? Or does saving come first?