by Matt Fildes
Hey everybody,
I had quite an eventful weekend in which I didn’t spend much money other than gas. I spent $18 for a new cable to get my computer working (as I mentioned in my last post) and traveled to see my folks and to go to the Fleetwood Mac concert with my dad. The tickets were already bought and paid for back in November (my mother’s Christmas present to him) which was awesome. Whenever I go to see them, I always end up eating leftovers, in my attempt to save money, which works in everyone’s favor. I get to eat and they get rid of food that would probably have gotten thrown out.
So, really, other than the new cable and gas, I didn’t end up spending much.
Quick update on the juicer I bought last week- a couple of readers have mentioned that I return it. I’ve already used it now 3-4 times. I bought it from Bed, Bath and Beyond; do they except returns on used items? If they do, I’ll see if I can’t dig up the receipt and return it once I’m back from Florida.
Here’s my up to date debt totals. I added a new row at the bottom which shows the totals of each column (by bottom, I mean on the 2nd page. I guess these tables on the blog don’t like going more than 10 rows per page):
| Loan Name | Interest Rate | Original Balance- May '09 | Current Balance | Total Paid Off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sallie Mae 01 | 5.25 | $27,837.24 | $24,462.48 | $3,374.76 |
| Sallie Mae 02 | 4.75 | $22,197.02 | $19,189.15 | $3,007.87 |
| Sallie Mae 03 | 7.75 | $20,692.10 | $655.99 | $20,036.11 |
| Sallie Mae 04 | 5.75 | $10,350.18 | $7,723.61 | $2,226.57 |
| Sallie Mae 05 | 5.25 | $6,096.03 | $5,356.99 | $739.04 |
| Sallie Mae 06 & 07 | 4.75 | $6,415.09 | $0.00 | $6,415.09 |
| Sallie Mae- DOE 01 | 5.25 | $5,000.00 | $0.00 | $5,000.00 |
| Sallie Mae- DOE 02 | 5.25 | $3,000.00 | $0.00 | $3,000.00 |
| AES | 6.8 | $9,000.00 | $0.00 | $9,000.00 |
| TOTALS | $110,587.66 | $57,338.22 | $53,249.44 |
The last week of the month is my least favorite week. This is the week that I pay my mortgage (Current Balance: $70,036.16), car insurance and YMCA membership. So, after I make these payments, it leaves little to pay on my debt, but I still managed a small payment of $82.32 on the smallest one.
Here’s my ending January and starting February budgets:
A couple of changes happening here: 1.) my mortgage payment went down. I believe this is due to my estimated escrow being too high- Well’s Fargo has been adjusting it yearly since I bought my house 2.) Sallie Mae has decreased my monthly payment. They tend to do this bimonthly as I make additional payments. 3.) Time Warner increased my internet payment by $10. I’ll be calling them tonight to see if this can’t be lowered, seeing that I’ve been a customer for 4 years now.
Here’s my current slush fund balance:
Slush Fund= $2,577.57 (I added $6.15 since last update to zero out my account)
I want to touch briefly on a spreadsheet I’ve been keeping for a couple of years now:
These totals are the daily, monthly and yearly totals of the interest that I pay for each of loans. When I first started it, it was truly eye opening to see that I paid what amounted to 20% of my gross income for what’s essentially the luxury of owing somebody money. At my current pay ($60k/year) I have to work 45 min per day just to pay the accrued interest that day. And to think- it used to be 2 hrs! Insane. It’s not super accurate by any means, but it gives a pretty good picture of what interest costs in dollars. Looking at this continues to give me motivation everyday. It’s so crazy to think I could have an extra $5,300 in my pocket just by not having any debt! Does anyone else track interest payments like this? If not, what keeps, or kept you motivated while paying off debt?
BB&B have a fabulous return policy. If you have your receipt and original packaging you should be able to get your money back. If you don’t have your receipt they can probably look up the purchase (the website says going back 365 days.) They may only give a store credit but that’s OK, you’ll need sheets, towels or bedding at some point or you can use it to purchase gifts for people.
You have to clean the juicer up to sell on Craig’s List so try returning it first. Worst case, you still have to sell it on CL but aside from the time to go to the store, you aren’t out any more effort and will get more back.
I’m going to try my luck and return the juicer once I get back from Florida on Sunday. Getting a full refund or just even store credit would be amazing.
That interest balance sheet is scary! By scary, I mean I am thinking of my 120K of student loans and not wanting to add up how much we pay in interest every month. I just did, though – $650/month, every month, in interest.
I second the BB&B return policy. We bought a new George Foreman and didn’t like the way it worked, so returned it with no problem with a receipt. They can give your store credit as well if you don’t have receipt.
Yeah I’m going to return the juicer this weekend, so hopefully that goes off without a hitch, lol.
As far as the interest- it is scary! I remember being super shocked to see that I was paying nearly $9,000 a year in interest. I don’t miss those days.
What’s your next target to pay off? Loan #3 or #5? You are making such awesome progress….I can’t wait to see those both on your chart with $0 balances!
Also, do you have a guesstimate of when you expect to have these all paid off?
It sounds like you are living very frugally while paying these off – what’s been the hardest thing to give up during your debt payoff and what are you looking forward to when these debts are gone? Anything you plan to splurge on?
#5- I’m going to move from lowest to highest balances. The reason I paid off #4 was I didn’t like the interest rate so much. Now I’m figuring that since the interests rates are nearly the same for each, I’ll go lowest to highest balances.
My goal was to be debt free in 22 months from this January, which would have put me at November of ’16. It’s lofty, but attainable if I can maintain my lifestyle.
I don’t know if anything has been really difficult to give up on since I’ve been living pretty frugally now for the past 8 years, starting in college, but I would say going out to eat when I felt like not making dinner, or meeting friends out if they asked me too. What I am looking forward to is traveling some and buying a bunch of guitar equipment. I’ve had my eye on a new amp (~$1,500) for too long.
Why don’t you pay off #3 first? It’s got the lowest balance (and highest interest rate) and you can probably get rid of it in 2 months….then concentrate on #5…or maybe I misunderstood you?
Sorry..lol. I think I misunderstood you. I’m currently focusing on paying #3. I thought you meant after I’m done with that, which debt I’m going to focus on. So yeah, it’s going to be #3, #5, #4, #2, #1.
That’s what I thought – makes perfect sense! Can’t wait to see them drop off one by one…
Did you look at your TW bill? The ‘rent’ on my internet modem is going up this month. I purchased a modem so this will be the push to get me to replace the TW modem & send it back to them.
I called them and I guess a promotion dropped off. Got my bill back tot he normal monthly payment of $61.34. How much did the modem cost?
I got it awhile back through Amazon, so I don’t remember the exact cost. But I do remember that it will pay for itself in less than a year, and probably even faster now that the rental fee is going up. I think there’s a list on the TW website of what modems are acceptable. The forums I’ve read say that it’s an easy process to switch out the TW one with your own.
Thanks, I’ll have to check it out.
Matt, I saw your comment last week on the juicer but didn’t get a chance to comment. Personally, I don’t care for the juicers (too much sugar from juicing all of that fruit and they are a nightmare to clean). Instead, I have green smoothies; much healthier than juicing since you are using more vegetables. I’d recommend that you return your juicer and purchase a Blendtec using your 20% off coupon. I make a ton of stuff in there but mainly a lot of green smoothies. It has a counter built in that shows how many times you have used it and in the three years I’ve owned it, I’ve used it over 7000 times; it also has a great warranty. With regards to green smoothies, there are some good tips on this website (click on www.rawfamily.com and then Victoria’s Green Smoothie Blog). A standard green smoothie recipe for me is 4 cups spinach (you can use kale or romaine lettuce as well), 1 frozen banana, frozen berries (1/2 cup or so) 2 tbsp. of ground flaxseed and 1-1.5 cups of water. I try to use all organic fruits/vegetables and I usually keep my fruits on the small side to keep the sugar content down. (I also use a lot of seasonal fruits and vegetables in the summer for variety.) Hit the smoothie button and that’s it. It’s a breeze to clean. Anyway, her blog has some great tips for beginners of green smoothies. If you are a newbie to smoothies, as a general rule, stick to spinach or kale in the beginning and away from the more bitter greens, and keep your smoothie fairly simple. Once you figure out taste wise what you like, you can be more creative from there. Good luck.
BB&B will take it back with no problem! Even without a receipt, they can scan your credit/debit card and look it up that way. Also, not to pry – but where do you live that your mortgage is that low??
I live in Erie, PA. Born and raised in Buffalo, NY but moved down here when I went to college. Very cheap housing here. Bought my house (1,300SF) for $73,000 in 2013. Don’t get me wrong, you can find housing here that’s pretty expensive, but I intentionally sought out a house that was going to leave me with a mortgage payment in the $600 range. I used to watch HGTV and it was just crazy watching people on there buy similar sized houses as mine for 10x the cost! We have some terrible winters here but the affordable housing definitely makes it more appealing.
I live in the Buffalo,NY suburbs! :). Small world!
No kidding! I grew up in West Seneca and moved down to Erie in 2006. My folks actually just sold their house and moved to the Elmwood Village.
I live in the Northtowns :). Erie and Buffalo are very similar, so not surprised you settled there.
When you put the numbers on paper you experience a very eye opening moment. Once I charted my finances I knew that I had to make changes.
I currently keep a spreadsheet that one column that calculates where I’d be if I made the minimum payments, and another column with where I am with my extra payments, and calculate the interest on each. Instead of focusing on how much I’m spending on interest, I try to focus on how much I’m saving each month by throwing extra at my debt. Each month, the difference grows, and the total I’ve saved increases.
I actually do the same thing. I do all my spreadsheets on Google Drive and they’re so big I can only take a snippet of the spreadsheet to display on the blog. What you don’t see is I have the totals savings on the bottom of the chart that goes up as the interest goes down. I love watching those numbers fall.
I love the last spreadsheet you shared! Seeing that interest amount must be very motivating. 🙂