August 2011 Monthly Review

Hey there.  Thanks for coming by.  This is the time of the month when I review my financial and health progress and share with  you all. To check out my yearly goals, see the tab at the top of the page.  Thanks!

Last month, I finally realized that I needed to add credit cards back into the review.  After the review, I paid it off.

Credit Card

Chase British Air Card $0 – I was able to pay this one completely off in the first week of august, and while there is a balance on it again, I’ll be able to easily pay it when the bill comes, leaving some left over for my student loan.

Student Loans

I made some progress here for the first time in a year.  The progess could be short lived though, as I may have to save up for my alaska trip with this months extra cash.

Direct Loan $1,657  ($396) – I was able to make a nice sized payment on this loan for this month.  Hopefully, there will be more to go around when I get paid again at the beginning of the month.  I should be able to put another couple hundred on it.

Great Lakes Loan $11,626 ($104)  Just sent my regular minimum payment to this loan. I’m working on this one as well, but it will probably be the last debt I pay off.

Truck Loan

Pretty self explanatory – the loan for my truck.  I got a huge boost on this loan this month from a hail storm we had in the area around mid july.  There was quite a bit of damage (many are getting new roofs) and there was over $6k of damage worth to my car.  When I got the check, the insurance rep said I could get the vehicle fixed or use the money to pay down the loan.  No brainer for me, and I wiped out 33% of the value of the loan.

Ford Credit: $10,359, (5,601): I have just been making minimum payments to this loan, but my truck got killed by a hailstorm in July.  The insurance company cut me a check on the spot, and told me I could get it fixed (and pay my 1,000 deductible) or I could send it to the loan.  Easy chose.

Health Goals

I’ve also decided to track my health goals for the year.  I went to 5-6 days per week, and I really was doing good at the first of the month but once the rodeo started, I totally fell off the wagon (though I do a lot of physical labor at the rodeo, i’m not counting it).

Week of July 31  27: 3 Days
Week of August 7:  4 Days (I’m counting rafting as a workout as well)
Week of August 14:  4 Days ( I had a tough hike that I’m counting as 2, and the Warrior dash this week)
Week of August 21:  4 Days

Goal Visits: 20
Total Visits: 15

Like July, this month was pretty crazy.  I wanted to enter my canning in the county fair, but missed the deadline.  I traveled to West Virginia (for fun), to Colorado to hike the Maroon Bells and for the Warrior Dash, and I’ll be traveling to Colorado again for a friends bbq on the last weekend of the month.  Interspersed in there, was quite a bit of planning for my Alaska trip (finally confirmed), more work for the Financial blogger conference, and lots of work to get my alexa rank for the site under 200k.  While it seems like months like this are usually rough on the financial side, I made tremendous progress this month, while my health goals took a back seat.  For next month, I’d really like to try and do well at both,  but it will be difficult, considering I’ll be traveling 17 days for the month of September.  Probably a personal record, but I’ve never felt the need to keep track of things like that.