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Saturday, April 18, 2009

Decisions

Ugh, I have quite a few decisions to make soon. I am not exactly sure what I should do on the first one. The second decision is kind of a no brainer, but I still have options so I guess I have to decide what is most important... money vs. sanity!

Anyway, the first thing is snowballing my car payment. I will have my car paid off this year one way or another. I have a $366 snowball to add to my regular payment monthly now that my last debt has been paid off. However, I get part of the money about mid-month and the other half right when the payment is due. If I pay my extra money on the day my payment is due it all goes right to the principle. If I pay it half way through the month some of it goes to interest. My problem is, I don't really know how this works. I am not sure if I am better off paying one payment mid month and another on the due date, or doing it all at once. If I was making a huge payment then I could see doing it as soon as possible because it would lower the principle amount such that I would not owe as much interest. But, with only a small payment, I don't know which is the best option. If anyone has any experience with this, I would appreciate some info!

My other decision is whether or not to teach summer school this year. I have done so for the past few years because it seemed like a good deal to me... 4 hour days, $100 a day, for 20 days. I take home an extra $2000 for a little work during the summer.

However, this year they have made a few changes. It will be 35 days, 5 hours a day at $125 per day. Now, that is obviously more money, but it is also pretty much my entire summer. I was miserable last year, the kids are horrible, but how can I pass up that kind of money? With those rates I would take home an extra $4375! That would leave my car paid off and would probably go toward paying off my next loan as well. Obviously this is a decision no one can help me with, but I will probably still do it. It is really hard to pass up that kind of money. I don't care how miserable I am!!! We will see though, the 5 hours is not set in stone yet, and if it were only 4 hours a day, I would definitely do it. The problem with that extra hour added in is that I would not be able to get things done in the afternoon before picking my kids up from daycare. I am sure I will update on the situation as more info is available.

Also, if anyone has any info on the interest thing please comment!!

2 comments:

rebecca lynn said...

Great blog, lotta great info! On the working during summer thing, have you considered just staying home with the kids? Then you wouldn't have to work and you wouldn't have to pay for daycare. i guess that wouldn't work if you do daycare anyway. I work from home when my son is out of school, but I do send him to daycare once a week just to have a break from the noise, you know how that can drive a mom crazy! Thanx

Jen said...

Well, there are some people who do that at our daycare, however they have been known to lose their spots!! I keep mine in for the summer to make sure they don't lose their place when the school year starts up again. At this time I can't afford not to work so keeping the daycare going all year is something I have to do. I WISH we had one where you could just go once a week, but at the ones around here you have to pay for the whole week whether your child goes or not. Even when THEY take vacation we still have to pay for the whole week. It is a really good daycare and I have used them for over 10 years so I am okay with it.