by Matt Fildes
Hey everyone, and Happy Tuesday!
To jump right into this post- last week I made an error. Not necessarily a bad error, but I feel like now, more than ever, I’m skating on thin ice. Every Wednesday (my pay day), I have my checking account withdrawn to pay off my student loans. I put make the payment request sometime before the payday (normally a week in advance) so that on payday, the money is gone and I don’t have it sitting in my bank account. Lucky for me- this month happens to be a 5 paycheck month and last Wednesday’s was the paycheck where I had nothing due, so I could put nearly the whole thing on my loans. I must have realized this earlier in the month because I somehow ended up making 2 payment requests of $705.00 to be withdrawn on the same day. I didn’t realize I did this until my account balances looked awfully low. I looked at my bank account, and sure enough, 2 payments were made. I say this isn’t necessarily a bad error because it isn’t like I went out an bought something unnecessary, but I had to move money from my EF to my checking to make up the difference. I’m down to $1000.00 in my EF, which has never been lower, hence why I feel I have a very shaky feeling about it. My plan right now is to finish paying off Sallie Mae 04 in 3 weeks and then build my EF back up before hitting the last two loans. If you look at the balances below, the $1,200 shouldn’t take too long to pay down.
On a separate note and a follow up from last week’s post, our anniversary weekend was amazing. Thanks to all those that shared your stories with me. Our trip to the ski resort was fantastic and it was a nice little day trip where we walked around their downtown (not the golf course, like I originally wanted) and got some appetizers at a local bar. When we got back home, GF made an amazing dinner and we exchanged little gifts. My gift for GF was, again, of the homemade variety. A couple of weeks ago, I was doing some research on homemade anniversary gifts and stumbled upon a Pinterest account that described homemade bath bombs/fizzies. Here’s the finished product below:
It piqued my interest and I found a simple recipe on Martha Stewart Living (the recipes are easily google-able- I clicked on the first link). Since I don’t have any hobby/crafting supplies at home, I had to buy everything I needed to put together what I was envisioning in my head, including the acrylic paint and paintbrush for the front little “card” I made, the ribbon, tissue paper and dye for the fizzies. As for the fizzies, of the 4 ingredients needed (corn starch, baking soda, citric acid and essential oil for scent- I chose peppermint) I didn’t have any of them at home, and the citric acid ended up being a specialty item I had to buy on Amazon. The total came to around $60 for eveything. It would have cost a whole lot less if I did crafting and/or baking on a more frequent basis and had the items already on hand. To put the whole thing together took about 4 hours, 3 hours was for the prep and set time of the fizzies. Needless to say though, GF LOVED them. I don’t think I’ve ever been so proud of a gift I’ve given someone. It was truly a wonderful weekend.
As for my balances, here they are:
| Loan Name | Interest Rate | Original Balance- May '09 | Current Balance | Total Paid Off | Paid Since Last Week |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sallie Mae 01 | 5.25 | $27,837.24 | $23,662.64 | $4,174.60 | $0.00 |
| Sallie Mae 02 | 4.75 | $22,197.02 | $18,556.32 | $3,640.70 | $0.00 |
| Sallie Mae 03 | 7.75 | $20,692.10 | $0.00 | $20,692.10 | $0.00 |
| Sallie Mae 04 | 5.75 | $10,350.18 | $1,221.75 | $9,128.43 | $1,409.92 |
| Sallie Mae 05 | 5.25 | $6,096.03 | $0.00 | $6,096.03 | $0.00 |
| Sallie Mae 06 and 07 | 4.75 | $6,415.09 | $0.00 | $6,415.09 | $0.00 |
| Sallie Mae- DOE 01 | 5.25 | $5,000.00 | $0.00 | $5,000.00 | $0.00 |
| Sallie Mae- DOE 02 | 5.25 | $3,000.00 | $0.00 | $3,000.00 | $0.00 |
| AES | 6.8 | $9,000.00 | $0.00 | $9,000.00 | $0.00 |
| TOTALS | $110,587.66 | $43,440.71 | $67,146.95 | $1,409.92 |
I hope everyone has a great week!
