Blogging Away Debt

Lots Going On – Travel, Decision Time and Almost There

I didn’t get an update in last week. We were traveling to see my grandmother and I neglected to deal with the “no internet” issue at her home. In the past, I always had a hot spot with my cell phone plan, but since I cut that last fall, well, I didn’t plan well. I went out for a few hours to get internet and get work done, but otherwise, spent the entirety of my time reveling with my family. It was truly an amazing trip, and I’m so glad I spent the money to go!

The total cost of the trip was less than $150 for two tanks of gas, and one meal out which I paid for. But the fun was priceless! Swimming, fishing and riding four wheelers at all my different extended families homes. The little kids did not want to leave, and frankly, I didn’t either. I was especially grateful to my cousins and uncles who spent a good deal of time with my little ones as I have been struggling with what I am calling the “fatherneed” especially for them.

2015-06-15 10.54.04 — Princess and Little Gymnast with their catch of their FIRST ever fishing experience, and then we all got to watch the fish get cleaned and then ate them…SO, SO YUMMY!

I’ve also got the big housing decision deadline coming up in the next 30 days and am still struggling with what to do there, but that’s a story all on it’s own and I’m sure I’ll write about it in the upcoming weeks. Needless to stay, it’s still taking up a bit of my time researching, thinking and praying about what the right move is on that front. (Our lease is up in September, but we have to give notice by July of what our plans are.)

And most importantly, we are speeding quickly toward our “no consumer debt” pay off debt which is just a week away. And I’m beginning to contemplate the next move on the financial front and more immediately a new budget since we’ve been on our super frugal budget now for almost four months.

Oh, and one big thing has happened. We bought a car! A family car, just in time for our Georgia trip. I just couldn’t stomach the thought of the cramped conditions for 8 hours each way and frankly, while the Accord is a good little around town car, I just didn’t trust it for such a long trip. So after much research and thought, I bought a car. I will give the details on that in the next week or so. The twins helped drive down to GA in it, and they too were glad to not have to drive the stick shift for so long.

Sea Cadet driving on the first leg of the trip to GA. It was his first time driving with the entire family in the car...boy, was it scary! — Sea Cadet driving on the first leg of the trip to GA. It was his first time driving with the entire family in the car…boy, was it scary!

Weekly Debt Update #19- Father’s Day Weekend and Disney Prep

by Matt Fildes

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day.

This past weekend was Father’s Day, of course, so for all you fathers out there- here’s to you. Since my dad was down in Orlando visiting my nephew all weekend, we did not do any celebrating. After talking with my mom and brother, we’re holding off celebrating with my dad until the weekend of the 4th, since we all have the weekend off. However, just like for mother’s day where I celebrated GF being the “mother” of our dogs, she did some amazingly wonderful things for me. First, she made me breakfast, and then I got to spend most of the day doing what I wanted (spent playing guitar) while she worried about taking care of the chores. She made the dinner of my choice (her awesome homemade chili and a Greek salad) and then took us for a drive to a little, but fairly famous, road side stand for root beer floats. On the way back, we stopped at a beach and relaxed in the park. Here’s me on a child’s swing, lol:

As for Disney prep- I appreciate all the amazing comments on last week’s post. We now have some ideas for what we are going to do for food on our way back. Chances are at this point, we’ll find a grocery store outside of Disney and grab some items to pack in our cooler on the way back. Like I said before, GF has begun picking up non-perishables for the ride down. The way she coupons and shops, I don’t see a problem having enough non-perishable foods for both the way down and the way back up. We also started doing a “hardcore” cleaning of our house. The house never gets really dirty, but we don’t clean into the nooks and crannies too often. GF and I agree that there’s no better feeling after vacation than coming home to a super clean house. This way we won’t have to worry about doing much in the ways of chores when we get back. If there’s one thing about Disney, with the amount of walking and the lack of sleep, you could use a vacation after, so to speak, lol. We started doing the cleaning last night and we’ll move room to room until we leave in a couple of weeks.

For the last week of debt payoff, here’s the numbers:

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	$23,838.59	$3,998.65	$57.94
Sallie Mae 02	4.75	$22,197.02	$18,702.35	$3,494.67	$48.15
Sallie Mae 03	7.75	$20,692.10	$0.00	$20,692.10	$0.00
Sallie Mae 04	5.75	$10,350.18	$5,925.89	$4,424.29	$345.74
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	$48,466.83	$62.120.83	$451.83