June was a very busy month around here, and it finally feels like H and I are starting to complete projects that we’ve been working on for a while. Those include renovations to the kitchen, bathroom, 2 upstairs bedrooms, wiring, and more. We’ve also been busy with wedding planning (though admittedly it’s gotten to the point where I’m just rubber stamping things and am expected to turn up in a suit and that’s about all). The wedding is just over 2 weeks away, and I cant wait – it should be a fun time, and I know I could use some time to sit around on the beach and lounge. We will also be doing some sightseeing, but it will just be nice to get away for a bit. We used credit card points to pay for our honeymoon – which allowed us to go somewhere we probably never could have otherwise.
Debt:
This has been up and down for a while, but now that we have closed on the house it’s going to shoot up – I’ve also got a bit more on my credit card than I usually do, which I’m hoping to get most back because of (another) tax mix up.
House
This is finalized, and I had meant to talk to H about whether or not she was comfortable sharing the number here, but I never got around to it. Our payment isnt that much more than our rent was, which is nice. I’m hoping that after the renovations are finished and the wedding stuff is done, we can come up with a plan of attack for this loan – we’ve talked about it briefly, but have nothing set in stone.
Student Loans
Great Lakes Loan $ 10,682 ($104) This loan sucks, and I have been pretty passive on this note since I entered repayment, but earlier this month, I saw something that really made my blood boil. I found a chart of my beginning balance, my total paid since I entered repayment, and the amount I have left to pay. I almost shit a brick when I saw it. Here’s what it said:
Total Paid$4,847.78
Principal Paid$2,835.08Interest Paid$2,012.70Late Fees Paid$0.00
Truck Loan
Ford Credit: $5,904 ($623): Not quite as much progress as last month, but I was able to make 1 extra payment this month. This is still going down, and it looks like it will be gone by december! That will make about 3 years to pay off everything
Total Debt: 16,586 This does not include the house but is still awesome. A long way down from where I was in at 56,500 in December, 2009.
Health Goals
There was absolutely no working out done this month, as basically all of my spare time (nights/weekends) were put into the house. I see the light at the end of the tunnel at this point, and feel like I’ll be ready to go when H and I get back from the honeymoon.
Goal Workouts: 20
Total Workouts: 0
Food Challenges:
This month, in an effort to save some money and start eating what food H and I have, I started a Meat Challenge and a Grocery Store Challenge. These two challenges have really picked up, as we’ve gotten our deliveries from the CSA and have started getting used to what comes with them (Grilled beets, anyone?), and we’ve done OK so far. What has made this really challenging is that we dont really have a kitchen set up yet, so we are kind of at the mercy of whatever we have. We’ve been eating a lot of spinach salads, and been trying to give away some of what we dont feel like we can eat before it goes bad. All is going well so far.
How was your june? Did you make any debt progress? Are you trying to complete anything else this year?
Good work! Especially in the big picture — your debt is nearly gone!
Do the snowball math when you apply the truck loan to the Great Lakes that might give you some extra motivation