I can't believe it has been four months since I have posted anything. I am a bad bad blogger!!
What I decided about the car...
I am paying on the car as soon as I get the money. I found that it doesn't really matter when I pay it, the interest does not change, except that I pay a little less each time I pay on the car because the principle is going down. Also, this keeps me from saying... well, I guess I can tap into that cash in the car snowball fund. If I just go ahead and pay it toward the car it is gone and can't be spent on anything else... more about that at the bottom.
On summer school....
I DID teach it this summer and it was so awesome! I was expecting to teach English to younger kids, but ended up teacher Algebra to older kids and I LOVED it. I have never taught math to that age. I loved the subject matter and the kids were really cool and fun. Last year I had a group of hellions!!! The only problem came when I got paid... Over 1/3 of the money went to taxes, etc.!!!!!!!!!!! It honestly was NOT worth my time for the amount I got paid, but I learned some things about myself and will probably get it all back in a tax refund in January. Which by the way, WHERE is this year going??
Ok, so some other "info". My spending is OUT OF CONTROL. I guess it is not SO bad as I am not using credit. It is just that I am spending money that I should be using to pay off debt. And, I am not doing that. This is such a big deal to me for us to get out of debt so we can build up our big emergency fund and then buy a house, but I just can't seem to do it! Then I think maybe I am just beating myself up because there has not been a month that has passed since my last post that I have not paid $500 extra on my car. And most of the time it is MORE than that. All my summer school money went toward the car and after my next regular payment I will owe less than 1000 dollars on it. So, I am not sure what the deal is here.... On one hand, I am doing pretty well, but on the other hand it is getting to the point where things are REALLY tight at the end of the month. BUT, they are not getting put on credit and we somehow pull through every month.
Another decision I have made is that I am going to start saving a little each month starting now AND once the car is paid off I will add to that. Here are the reasons. I want to open an IRA at Vanguard which takes $3000 down. I have not been saving towards retirement since the baby was born due to the extra cost of daycare. But, now I see I have an extra $100 per month. So, my plan is to save up for the $3000 deposit then use $100 per month to pay toward retirment until my debt is gone in which case I will pay more into that. (Please remember I DO pay into manditory retirement every month so I am not doing NOTHING in that area.) Once my car is paid off I am going to put another $100 towards savings for a car replacement fund. It is eventually going to happen so I may as well start planning for it. Once my car is paid off we have two debts left both are under 5% interest so I feel okay doing this.
And finally, see when I don't post I have to do these long stupid ones, I am going to try to start posting monthly about my progress on everything. Hopefully this will help me be more accountable for my spending and financial decisions.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
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