by Ashley
I pre-wrote and scheduled a couple of posts for today because I’ll be doing my campus interview all day (my itinerary is from 9am-7pm)!!! I probably won’t have a chance to respond to any comments until tonight or tomorrow so I just wanted to give you a heads up on that. Please send me some good vibes, positive thoughts/energy, prayers, good juju, whatever works for you! I am trying to come off as confident (but not cocky), enthusiastic and likable (but not desperate), professional, and articulate. Remember – I’ve kinda got all my eggs in one basket on this one, so it feels like a BIG day for me! Wish me luck!!!
The numbers are in and here’s how my debt has been shaping up this month…
| Place | Current Balance | APR | Last Payment Made | Last Payment Date (original debt, March 2014) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capital One CC | - | 17.9% | - | Paid off in March ($413) |
| Mattress Firm | - | 0% | - | Paid off in May ($1381) |
| Wells Fargo CC | - | 13.65% | - | Paid off in May ($7697) |
| BoA CC | - | 7.24% | - | Paid off in June ($2220) |
| License Fees | $2208 | 2.5% | 250 | January ($5808) |
| PenFed Car Loan | $15978 | 2.49% | 1000 | January ($24040) |
| Navient - Federal Student Loans | $4444 | 8.25% | 16 | January ($4687) |
| Navient - Dept of Ed | $72231 | 8.25-6.55% | 260 | January ($69191) |
| ACS Student Loans | $21040 | 7.24% | 77 | December ($21035) |
| Medical Bills | $6411 | 0% | 75 | January ($9000) |
| Totals | $122,312 (Last month = 123,667) | Total: $1,678 | Starting Debt = $145,472 | |
Maybe it’s just because we’ve reached the 10-month mark so some of the newness and excitement has started to rub off a bit, but I’m just not as enthusiastic about my progress as I was early on in the debt-repayment process.
On one hand, we put over $1,600 toward debt this month! That’s great, right?!
On the other hand, my student loan balances went up. Again. (my minimum payments don’t cover the interest, so the balance keeps slooooowly growing).
And my total debt ($122,000+) is still so out-of-control. I cannot WAIT for the day that I break the $100,000 barrier and dip into the $99,999s.
Hubs ended up making an extra debt payment toward his license fees at the end of last month. So if you were to compare the balance this month to the one from last month, that’s why there’s a discrepancy (the table says $250 was applied this month, which is true, but hubs had made a payment of just over $250 at the end of last month, too, so it’s gone down by $500 compared to last month’s beginning balance).
Can I make a little confession that will become pretty apparent anyway real soon (when we talk about how the budget went this month)???
I ended up going a bit over on a couple categories this month. I think some of the holiday-spending spilled over into January and I was just a little too loosey-goosey on my spending. Nothing crazy or extravagant. Mostly just up to my old tricks again….spending too much on groceries and crap that we don’t really need because its oh-so-easy for me to justify grocery purchases as a necessity, even if they aren’t.
Anyway, my plan at the beginning of the month was to pay extra toward my student loans (above the minimums) so I could pay the interest in full and not have a growing balance. *Sigh* Having gone over on my grocery budget (by a lot, I should add), I re-allocated those funds to cover my frivolous food expenses and, alas, the student loan balances continue to grow. Very discouraging.
I will do better next month!
Another confession, since we’re on that train now…
Hubs and I have fallen off the wagon with our monthly finance talks, too.
For long time readers, you’ll know that hubs and I have a unique financial relationship (I talked about it here when I first started blogging). Some of it is changing (e.g., we’re adding each other to all of our accounts this month), but one of the big things is that I’ve always been the one to sit down and actually pay the bills. When I first started blogging we started loosely following a Dave Ramsey-esque type program where hubs and I would have a monthly budget discussion to decide exactly how to allocate that months’ funds.
Over the holidays we’ve sort of slipped back into our old patterns where hubs has simply given me money and I’ve put it where I think it should go. To be clear, I really am doing what I believe to be best with the money (in terms of debt allocations, etc.), but I do think it’s important for hubs to actually be in on these decisions rather than simply letting me handle the funds how I see fit. Things seemed to be moving faster and progress seemed to be better when we were working together. So that’s coming back at the end of this month as we discuss our plans for February.
Hopefully in the coming months we’ll see some stronger progress!
How’ve you been doing with your debt payments? How do you and your significant other handle finances/bills/etc?
