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Ashley’s April 2015 Debt Update

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Happy Monday! Hope you all had a good weekend!

This weekend was our little camping trip I mentioned in a previous post (couldn’t find the link). Basically, the town where we live hosted an overnight camping thing. It cost $5  for a family of 4 to camp, and they provided star gazing (with giant telescopes), a big outdoor movie screen playing Wall-E, a bonfire with storyteller, and tons of other perks (e.g., playscapes for kids were on-site). Husband and I used to be avid campers but this was our first time to go since the girls were born. This was a perfect “get your toes wet” kind of experience because it was so short (just one night), and had lots of fun amenities for kids. We had a blast (minus my allergies and all), and I expect stuff like this will only become MORE fun as the girls get older! Who doesn’t love some good old fashioned cheap fun!?

Anyway…. let’s get to the heart of this post. It’s time for another debt update. But before we dive into the table let me explain what I’ve done here….

I’ve now added a new loan to the list titled Balance Transfer student loan. This loan amount includes the original balance from my Navient loan #1-01 of $5821 (I used the exact 10-day payoff amount) PLUS the 2% initiation fee, for a total balance of $5937 (if you’re catching up, I wrote more about the decision to do a balance transfer here).

For now, I’ve decided to leave the rest of my Department of Education loans grouped together. When I move onto focusing on a new one, I’ll probably do the same thing and separate just the one new focal loan. Otherwise, for continuity and ease, I’ve left them grouped together. The other thing to note, however, is that I’ve changed the amount in the “original debt” column for my Department of Education loans to reflect a lower amount (equal to subtracting the amount from loan 1-01, which is now separate). I’ve also changed the APR (it used to range from 6.55-8.25%, but I’ve now separated the only 8.25% loan – my balance transfer loan – so all the rest of my Department of Education loans are 6.55% APR.

So hopefully that should explain the changes. Everything else is pretty straight forward.

PlaceCurrent BalanceAPRLast Payment MadeLast Payment DateOriginal debt, March 2014
Capital One CC-17.9%-Paid off in March 2014$413
Mattress Firm-0%-Paid off in May 2014$1381
Wells Fargo CC-13.65%-Paid off in May 2014$7697
BoA CC-7.24%-Paid off in June 2014$2220
License Fees-2.5%$1119Paid off in April 2015$5808
PenFed Car Loan$154232.49%$100April$24040
Balance Transfer student loan (Former Navient 1-01)$59370% (through April 2016)$0(balance transfer initiated on 4/2/15)$5937
Navient - Federal Student Loan$40788.25%$116April$4687
Navient - Dept of Education student loans$665566.55%$260April$63254
ACS Student Loans$210407.24%$77March$21035
Medical Bills$61360%$124April$9000
Totals$119,170 (Last month = 120,610)$1796Starting Debt = $145,472

I guess I do have a couple more notes I want to make about my debts this month…

First, you’ll notice another really low car payment this month (last month I only paid $50, and this month only $100). That’s because I really wanted to knock out those two debts I’ve been battling (a medical bill and the license fees). Also, since I initiated my student loan balance transfer this month I didn’t actually make any payments on it yet.

Starting in May, I’ll be making payments of $500/month toward my balance transfer student loan, and will be increasing my car loan payment as well. I’ll continue making minimum payments on everything else, so the size of my car loan payment will fluctuate depending on how much money we have to put toward debt during the month, but my hope is to be able to put at least $1,000 (or more) toward it fairly regularly from here on out until its gone!

Exciting stuff!!!

What’s the most recent debt you paid off?

 


9 Comments

  • Reply Kayla @ Shoeaholicnomore |

    Looks great and you have a solid plan in place. I hope you guys can get your income back up so you can see some quick progress. That’s always makes you feel good when you can pay a lot extra toward debt each month. 🙂

  • Reply C@thesingledollar |

    As to the substance of the payoff, awesome! It’s so cool to see those totals dropping and to see the license fees gone forever. Go you!

    One more organization suggestion: what if you listed the debts in order of interest rates? I wonder if it might help you not to obsess about the car loan if it were at the bottom of the list rather than the top 🙂

    • Reply Ashley |

      I can certainly re-order them! Honestly, I think when I first did a debt spreadsheet I just typed them up according to due date (earliest debts due earlier in month), so there’s really no reason for them to be ordered like they are. I’ll re-order them for the future, as it definitely makes more sense to have them in some sort of order….though to be fully transparent, I don’t think the re-ordering will make me any less obsessed with the car payoff (just a personal satisfaction thing). Nevertheless, it’s not a bad idea to give it a bit more structure!

  • Reply kmcm |

    I’m a little confused at the table–is the Navigant loan for $4078 with 8.25% interest the one that you took out a loan for? Or is that part of the larger total that just has a higher interest rate?

    • Reply Ashley |

      No, the Navient federal loan has always been separate. The balance transfer loan was originally part of the Navient Department of Ed loans. You can compare by looking at my last debt update (from March) for clarification: https://www.bloggingawaydebt.com/2015/03/ashleys-march-debt-update/

  • Reply Anum @Current on Currency |

    Your plan looks great! I’m trying to pay off my tempurpedic mattress at the moment so I’m looking forward to that triumphant feeling once I’m done paying it off.

    • Reply Ashley |

      That’s awesome! When I first started blogging (March 2013) one of my first debts to pay off was a mattress! Granted, it wasn’t a tempurpedic – I know those can be pretty pricey – but it was still over a thousand dollars. Felt so good to know that our bed was finally our own! : )

  • Reply Den |

    Good plan – you are poised to make some more great progress this summer – great job! That car loan is going to be GONE soon – can’t wait!

So, what do you think ?