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Archive for January, 2013

On track to being debt free by the end of 2013

January 27th, 2013 at 08:39 pm

Except for the mortgage!

My car will be paid off in the middle of February.

We have been paying extra every month on DH's car, but, in February, will start sending $500 a month. This is more than double the actual payment required per month.

With my car being paid off, we are pondering what to do with the extra money every month.

Some idea's

More to savings
Extra to mortgage
Increase contributions to DH's 401K and/or my SEP IRA through work.

More than likely we will do a combo of these.

We will however, need to be thinking ahead about our vacation to Kauai at the end of July. We will put the vacation expenses on our Wells Fargo card to earn points towards principal mortgage rewards, but will definately want to pay the card off as we are booking hotel/condo, air, and car rental in the next few months.

Good news about DH's work & vacation planning

January 24th, 2013 at 02:30 am

Good news regarding DH's work shut down. Originally they were told 1 week in Jan and Feb...then told a couple of days each month...then told if they had projects to work on, they wouldn't have to take any time off. DH said he and his co-worker's in his department had plenty of things to work on..whew! Then he finds out today that it looks like for Jan, there is not going to be a shut down after all.

DH and I were also talking about vacation this year....we discussed many things (Alaska cruise, Carribean cruise, Cabo/Cancun, DC). For various reasons, none of these were working for us...so....we decided to go to Kauai! We have been to Maui and I have been to Ohau...DH thought it would be fun to go to an island we haven't been to.

We are in the early stages of planning it...air is high right now, but there is a possibility my parents might be giving us or selling us their air miles (for cheap). Trying to decided where to stay was so overwhelming, we decided to have our travel agent help us.

We will be going at the end of July....I can't go any earlier in the summer, as DD2 is graduating high school June 13th, and my co-worker (who does the same job as me), is going back to her home country for 4 weeks...she will be gone from 6/24 and coming back to work on 7/22, so I will be the only one in the billing department for that time period.

I think I will be more than ready to get away at that point!

Small raise & DH bonus

January 19th, 2013 at 03:49 am

Today I had my annual review. It went well. I was surprised to receive a raise....only 1%....I wasn't expecting anything, especially since they put a freeze on raises for everyone last year.

We had a lot of changes at the office last year, most of which was good, but are still feeling things out and I think they are just being careful. Dr felt bad he couldn't offer more and said it just didn't seem right (I've been there 14 years)...in this day and age, I am just happy to have a job...a job that I get to go to every day with NO drama what so ever and no backstabbing co-workers...I count myself blessed!

We did receive a bonus at Christmas (which we always do) and it was $200 more than 2011...that certainly helps a bit to make up for the small raise.

DH also received his $750 perfect attendance bonus. That went straight into savings for now.

1 more payment!

January 14th, 2013 at 03:05 am

And the SUV loan will be paid OFF!

I sent $500 to Ford on Saturday.

SO looking forward to mid February when I send the last $500 to them.

Since we have paid more on this loan, than was actually due, this means we paid this loan off in under 3 years (SUV was purchased May 2010)

Next up....hoping to pay DH's car loan off by the end of the year....that one would be paid off even quicker than mine. His car was purchased in March 2012.

Almost a no spend day....spent $1.00

January 8th, 2013 at 02:06 am

On a tip at my coffee drive through .I had filled my punch card up and was due a free drink, so I put a $1 into the tip jar.

Saving another $13 a month & good news on the Focus loan!

January 6th, 2013 at 10:18 pm

Well I feel silly! Don't know how we ever managed to not have AOL free...lol...anyway, as soon as DD2 gets her contacts switched over tonight, it is goodbye AOL. And it was actually $17.95 a month...so saving closer to $18 now.

When DH was switching our DISH billing from Capital One over to Wells Fargo (might as well get that 1% rebate), he noticed that he still had Starz at $13 a month. A while back, he really wanted it, but now that we have streaming Netflix, it seems a waste of money. He canceleld it yesterday. So all in all, we are now saving an additional $31 a month.

We also received our statement from the credit union for DH's car loan. Turns out, it was lower than expected. We are now at $5665. If we can send $475 a month, we can have this paid off at the end of the year! That would mean being debt free except for our mortgage.

Yipee!

Spendy Costco trip

January 5th, 2013 at 09:59 pm

We hit Costco today....we usually end up going there about every 6 weeks. They had a lot of good coupons (for once) so we took this opportunity to stock up on a few things....DH was paid on Friday and it was a full check with a few overtime hours. We will probably see the reduction on his next check from the time he had to take off at Christmas.

We used this opportunity to stock up on mainly cleaning supplies. I don't think I will have to buy these items for at least 3 months...hopefully more.

Sometimes you have to spend to save.

$11.50 and now saving $17/month

January 4th, 2013 at 10:46 pm

The $11.50 is the current "rebate" balance on our new Wells Fargo credit card. We only have one other credit card...Capital One of which we have no problems with. When we refinanced last year, Wells Fargo offered up their credit card. They give you 1% on every purchase and after you reach $25, it is credited to the principal balance of your mortgage. Since we don't do credit card rewards, this seemed ideal. We are moving back from Capital One and using the WF card when we charge something....why not, I say? Every bit helps! We are uncertain if we will keep Capital One. We don't carry credit card balance so I am not sure that we need 2. Just don't want our credit scores to take a hit if we cancel...currently we are around 850 for both of us. I wonder how much of a hit we would take? Any thoughts? The only reason I can think to keep it would be that the credit limit is a little over double what the WF card is.

Also, FINALLY getting rid of AOL to the tune of $17 a month...this has been on my list of things to do for far too long....DH finally got on me last night and asked me to switch to either yahoo or gmail. He will then cancel AOL saving us $17 a month. Should have done this sooner as there was really no reason not too other than the fact it seemed too daunting....in the end, it really wasn't. Again...every little bit helps!

And so it "might" begin

January 3rd, 2013 at 09:51 pm

I had a day off today as I needed to use 1 vacation day before 1/4/2013....we are allowed to carry over 40 hours of unused PTO to our anniversary date. Nice that it is not the new year instead. With the holidays and other co-workers schedules, today was the only day that worked....no big deal...I worked Monday, off Tuesday, worked Wednesday, off Thursday, and half day Friday...not a bad week Smile

DH called from work today....it is his second day back after his company shut down for the holidays. It looks like some kind of time off and/or furloughs are going to happen. At this point it is not exactly clear when....could happen at the end of the month. He said they are talking about a week off every month through possibly April...it could end up being a couple of days every month. Hopefully we will hear soon.

Spending will definately be watched! Luckily with the holiday's over, we really don't have any needs (material wise that is). It was actually hard to come up with what was wanted and needed for Christmas presents when asked anyway.

We still plan on paying off my car in February....no question about that. What we send (extra) to DH's car will be discussed as we hear further information about any time off.

No spend day

January 3rd, 2013 at 02:51 am

Can't remember the last time we had one of these! Yahoo!

2013 Goals

January 2nd, 2013 at 01:34 am

Financial:

Pay off SUV loan of $1000. Should be able to accomplish by mid February.

Pay off Ford Focus loan: $6000.00.

Savings to $30,000

Pay before we leave: A trip to Washington DC this summer (July or Aug)

Increase DH's contribution to his 401K from 12% to 15%

I think these are all attainable....we will have to see what the early months bring in terms of DH's work....since work has been closed since 12/24, DH goes back tomorrow....who knows if and when they might announce a slow down....you never know with this company...it may not even happen at all.

More on personal goals in a seperate post

Happy New Year everyone!