January Progress

So, it turns out January has been busy!  Or I keep forgetting to blog.  One or the other, you decide...

The important news of the month:  We paid off yet another DEBT!  Woohoo!  Which means, if you're playing along at home, we've paid off 3 loans in the last 3 months.  We just bowled a turkey!

I wish I could adequately describe how good it feels to be chewing through our debt.  In fact, with just a few more days to go in January we are sticking to our budget and will be on pace to pay off another loan in February.  We have like $30 bucks left for the rest of the month, but we have no needs, except possibly gas, until February, so we should be good to go.

February is going to be a tough month.  Fact: 34052 of our friends have birthdays that month, so the opportunity to spend money will be high, but our friends understand our goals and are very supportive in our quest.  So if we have to be lame and stay home or go out and have water instead of beers, I know they'll be fully supportive.  Besides, when we're done, after all the sacrifices we make, we'll have a giant party to celebrate.

In addition to paying off a loan this month, we also spoke with my friend Dave Lind about refinancing to a 15 year mortgage.  After some consideration, we decided to go for it.  Rates were, when we locked in our rate, just above the all time lows.  In fact, shortly after we locked in our rate, at 3.25%, rates went up.  We had an appraisal on Tuesday, and our loan will be going through soon.  In the end, we'll end up paying about $120 more a month, but we'll pay off our house 15 years earlier.  Sounds good to me.

Next month's loan is approximately $2800, which is going to push us to the edge of our finances.  We also have to pay for the cruise deposit, which is going to make February crazy tight.  Wish us luck!

New Years "Game Plans"

Every year around this time people declare they need to change.  This past year they've done to much of X and resolve to do more of Y.  For most people these are goals to work towards, or habits they wish to change, or even new rules for the way they wish to run their lives.

In the end though, these resolutions end up as empty words.  I know many have for me.  And the reason that these resolutions end up falling by the wayside is that for me they are simply something we do at this time of year.  There's no urgency, there's no real desire, there's no gameplan.  You've heard it said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and well that's what's going on here.  For years I've said I'm going to workout more or I'm going to spend more time doing this or that while spending less time doing that or this.

So this year I'm not making resolutions.  I'm sick and tired of saying one thing and then doing another. More importantly I'm sick and tired of failing at my "resolutions."  An idea without a plan of action is just an idea, but an idea with a plan of action becomes a goal which becomes inspiration.


1) Pay off Debt!
This is pretty obvious.  I mentioned in my last post that we're on pace to pay off 6 loans this year, which is wonderful, but those 6 require tight spending and sticking to The Plan.  To that I'm going to stick to the following gameplan:

• No fast food.  This will shore up a major area where we overspend on our budget: Recreation - which covers eating out and activities like movies.  I'm hopeful we can cut this budget down by 25% this year by simply not spending money on fast food.
• No purchases outside the budget:  Over the course of the last 6 months we've spent money that we didn't need to on various items for the house, for ourselves, for whatever.  The fact is that we could have been much better with our budget and purchases.  This year we'll include large purchases in the budget from the outset so we've planned for every dollar.  As a quick example we need to replace our refridgerator (or get it repaired).  We can add this to a budget and know exactly where the money is coming from.
• Weekly Budget Checkups:  We've also noticed that we're not as diligent at recording our expenses as we could be.  This means that we often find we've spent more money than we have accounted for or that we have more money than our budget says we should.  I believe if we talk about it and do a weekly count we'll be able stick to our budget better.  We also need to be more diligent about entering transactions into our budget app, EEBA.

2) No Uneccesary House Improvements
This doesn't really need detailed steps.  The fact is that both of us tend to spend money on things for the house, most of which is usually not needed.  So unless we need to replace a window, or like I said above, the fridge, we don't spend the money.  Easier said than done, but if we're committed we can make it happen.  This is the one I'm the worst at.  The other day I bought a new wireless router and modem (without consulting or informing Kristi) and it led to a fight because I tried to hide the purhase, and when confronted I lied about.  This is a big problem for me and something I need to work on.

2) Purchase Discussions
The aforementioned fight notwithstanding, this is something that I need to work on. Kristi is the natural saver and I'm the natural spender, which can cause some friction if we're not clear with each other. The fact is that I need to be more open about how I want to spend our budgeted money. The gameplan for this is simple: talk about our money before it gets spent and make sure we're each on board.

That's about it for the money gameplans. I'm thinking about my personal resolutions/gameplans still, and when I've settled on them I'll post them here.

Paid off the Truck!

A few weeks ago we paid off the truck!  I know I said I'd post after it happened, but my life has been busy the last few weeks and I haven't had time to sit down and post about it.

I'm very happy to be making progress towards our goal of being debt free.  Paying off the truck was a wonderful experience.  We drove down to Salem on Friday afternoon, October 30th.  The traffic was surprisingly light and we made good time.  We drove straight to Oregon Community Credit Union and plopped down the final $941 dollars left on the loan in cash.  The teller smiled and congratulated us on paying the loan off and wished us luck with the debt snowball.  There were cookies and candy in the lobby, too, so we helped ourselves to some while we waited in line.

The title to the truck arrived in the mail about a week later.  This is the first time I've ever had the title to a vehicle I bought myself.  It was a very gratifying experience.  I'm not sure I can adequately describe it, but I felt power and ownership over my life.  You might think that buying my house or some of the other things I own would have given me the same feeling, but this is really the first major purchase since I've had my new job and since we've been married, so it felt different.  I realize that we "bought" the truck last year before our marriage, but since we didn't actually own it (the bank did), paying off the loan felt like purchasing it and now I own it.  It's in my name.  It feels great.