by Matt Fildes
After 3 nights and many cable swaps later, I’ve finally got my computer working. The cost? $17.99 for a new video cable. Thankfully, it could have been worse.
Firstly, I want to thank everybody for their kind words and for sharing their stories on my previous post. There were some questions as to why me and my girlfriend split the costs like we do (so if you haven’t read why, go to the comments section on this post) and after a lengthy discussion between me and her, we decided to stay the course (paying bills based on a ratio of our pay) as she looks for a full time/higher paying job. Thanks again, it was extremely helpful to us.
After the past week, I have a lot to go over, so I just want to dive into it.
Here’s my new debt numbers (as of Tuesday):
| Loan Name | Interest Rate | Original Balance- May '09 | Current Balance | Total Paid Off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sallie Mae 01 | 5.25 | $27,837.24 | $24,462.48 | $3,374.76 |
| Sallie Mae 02 | 4.75 | $22,197.02 | $19,189.15 | $3,007.87 |
| Sallie Mae 03 | 7.75 | $20,692.10 | $655.99 | $20,036.11 |
| Sallie Mae 04 | 5.75 | $10,350.18 | $7,723.61 | $2,226.57 |
| Sallie Mae 05 | 5.25 | $6,096.03 | $5,356.99 | $739.04 |
| Sallie Mae 06 & 07 | 4.75 | $6,415.09 | $0.00 | $6,415.09 |
| Sallie Mae- DOE 01 | 5.25 | $5,000.00 | $0.00 | $5,000.00 |
| Sallie Mae- DOE 02 | 5.25 | $3,000.00 | $0.00 | $3,000.00 |
| AES | 6.8 | $9,000.00 | $0.00 | $9,000.00 |
| TOTALS | $110,587.66 | $57,338.22 | $53,249.44 |
I made some pretty good progress on the pay down. I made my normal payment (on the 21st) then put some extra on to the lowest one. I’m currently tracking having this one paid off by March.
Here’s what my January ’15 budget looks like (as of Wednesday)
Even though I made progress with my debt payoff, I also did a couple of things that are out of character of me since I started my debt free push- I made a couple of big ticket purchases that I otherwise wouldn’t have. First- I got sucked in the juicing craze after watching Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead (1 & 2) on Netflix during the weekend. Although the juicer makes some delicious juice, I definitely wasn’t worth the +$200 price tag. Not only that, but in order to juice, we need fresh veggies, and since I don’t do the grocery shopping, I (understandably) got a run down of why she (my GF) doesn’t have that in her own budget. I mean, you really need ALOT of veggies to make even a small cup of juice. Certainly not the wisest decision I ever made.
Secondly, I bought a plane ticket to Florida. My little sis, who lives in Orlando, just gave birth to my nephew (the first in our family). For the past 9 months, my feelings were I was going to wait to see my sis and her son once they came up to see us, whenever that happened to be. Well…we got the news Saturday night, first pictures starting rolling in and my feelings changed pretty quickly. The plane ticket ending up costing $262 and I leave this coming Wednesday. I’m going to be staying at their place, so I’ve budgeted $200 for the trip just in case.
Since I didn’t budget for either of these 2 items, I took the money out of my slush fund (I’m not calling it an emergency fund anymore since I hardly use it for emergencies). In order to hold myself accountable I’m going to my slush fund total every week along with Weekly Debt Update. After these 2 costs, I’m currently at:
Slush Fund= $2,570.55
Other than these costs, everything else has been normal. My parents did stay with us on Friday as planned, but they ended leaving early Saturday morning when they found out my sister was in labor. So, all in all, a pretty crazy week.
Great Job!! Your doing awesome. As far as juicing maybe try making smoothies instead. That’s what we do and you don’t need quite as many fruits and veggies. Just use the blender. We have one smoothie a day. I get a lot of fruit free or very cheap. Also shop the sales. Typical smoothie for us is kale, milk and 2 kinds of fruits then either flaxseed or chia seeds. Then just blend it up. We tried a juicer (someone gave us a used one) and we just didn’t really use it. I’m not a huge juice fan.
I think that’s what we’re going to do Jackie. The amount of money and effort it’s been taking us to make juice, just hasn’t been worth it. The smoothies sound like a much better plan.
They are so yummy too! Plus so many different flavor combinations you can do.
Oh I understand both expenses. My husband and I bought a $400 juicer and tons of produce. A month later we both had gained weight, and I was so sick of drinking vegetables it was ridiculous. That stupid juicer sits in my kitchen glaring at me.
Having just had my own baby, go! The visit will be so appreciated and you’ll never regret it.
LOL! After a week of having the thing, we’re about at the same point. I guess the lesson’s been learned.
As for my trip- I leave on Wednesday at 6 after work and I’m getting more excited by the day!
Where did you get the juicer? Anyway you can return it as being unsatisfied? Some places are really good and lenient with return policies and some aren’t. It might be worth a thought. Since you’ve only had it for a week I don’t think it would be immoral. Because really you weren’t satisfied with what you needed to make it. Now if it had been months later that is a different story.
Bed, Bath and Beyond. If anyone knows whether their OK of the returns, let me know. Given the fact that it’s been used 3 or 4 times at this point, I would doubt any store would be willing to take it back. Thoughts?
Glad to hear you bought plane tickets to visit your sister. It would be kind of selfish to expect her to travel to see you with a new baby. As I’m pretty sure that would be the last thing she wanted to do! (From the perspective of someone with no kids but always cringes at babies/toddlers on planes!)
You’re not the first person to tell me that Angie. My folks have been telling me I’ve was thinking selfishly for months now, and looking back, they’re (and you) absolutely right. I know my sis can definitely use a hand right now.
Spending to see your new nephew is money well spent!!! As for the juicer, I like the idea of re-purposing it to make smoothies, so I wouldn’t beat yourself up too much over it.
Haha, I’m trying not to. I guess we all make some terrible purchases once in a while. I think I’m going to try and get rid of it on Craigslist and see if I can’t make some of my money back. We have a blender already at home for smoothies and the juicer only makes juice, so unfortunately I don’t see re-purposing it being a realistic option.
To mitigate another “juicer” type purchase in the future, think about keeping a ‘wants’ list. Anything that catches your fancy to purchase but is not 100% a need, add to the wants list. Go through the list every week and delete things that are no longer as appealing as they once were.
Set yourself a time frame is allow yourself a purchase off of the list. Maybe it’s after a payoff milestone. Maybe you’ll set yourself a budget for when you visit your sister. If you beat the budget, you’ll allow yourself a wants list purchase. Maybe if you sell three things on Craigslist, you’ll use the proceeds to purchase a want list.
What generally happens with me is that my old wants are never as appealing as my new wants and at the end of the day, I save myself from buying a lot of stuff I’ll only use twice.
Wow, you always seem to have great ideas, lol. I’ll have to try. I kinda keep a mental list of sorts like you’re saying, so I’ll write things down and update weekly and see if that helps.
I just want to say I really like the layout of your debt totals. It’s easy to read and allows for a quick snapshot of your progress.
Thanks Katie!
Congrats! The uncle gig is awesome, enjoy!
Thanks! I leave on Wednesday, after work, and it can’t come fast enough, lol.
Coming back to this post again at the end of the day, it struck me that these two expenditures (the juicer and the trip) nicely illustrate two types of things we all spend money on: objects and experiences. We’ve decided to try to focus on the latter (e.g. travel, seeing family, activities) instead of the former (hence my 8 year old TV, 16 year old car, etc.).
I’m not passing judgment on the juicer or on spending money on objects in general (I certainly have my share of gadgets). And certainly the juicer could have worked out differently and been great for health and a completely worthwhile purchase.
But ultimately, generally speaking, the objects seem to come and go, while we still talk all the time about our trip to Italy 5 years ago as if it was yesterday!
You’re right! When ever my family gets together, it seems that the topics that come up the most are things we DID as family, weddings, vacations, that sort of thing. I don’t think we ever talked about objects we bought once, unless it was a major, major purchase- cars, houses, etc…
Go to Orlando and don’t feel guilty. Your sis needs the help and your nephew will only be this little once. You don’t want to miss it! I guarantee it is worth $262.
Thanks! The plane ticket was $262 and I budgeted $200 for 3 days I’ll be there. My sis has already planned a day for us to go to Disney (her and her boyfriend work there, so everything is paid for but the food) so I’m going to try my hardest to stay within budget. It will certainly make for an interesting post when I come back on Sunday.
Matt – great job on paying down your debt – amazing progress!
Thanks for the update!
Thanks for reading Den 🙂