October 2012 Monthly Review

This here continued to slow down, and I’m finally starting to be able to use the kitchen.  I’m getting better at knowing where things are, and knowing where to look for some things.  I still cant find everything I need, which is super annoying, but when we get around to cleaning out the basement that should change.

I’ve been doing more and different workouts, but I’ve been finding it tough to get motivated because there’s not really a clearly defined goal that I’m working towards.  Sure, staying fit is a goal, but it’s one that wont pay off for quite a few years – I need something more immediate to get focused.

Finances have basically stayed the same, as we’ve been spending most of our free cash flow on house upgrades.  We are 90% done with quite a few things, and have shifted our main focus to finishing up the bathroom, which we can hopefully make some huge gains in the next few weeks.

Debt:

This is pretty high right now because of the house, but I’m alright with that.  I’m not 100% against debt like I used to be, but I still dont think it’s a great thing.  It’s a tool, like a lot of things – and you can hurt yourself with it just as much as you can help yourself.

House

Mortgage $ 120,140  ($531) –  This is going down super slowly which makes sad, it looks like about 50% of our payment goes towards interest every month.  H and I are still in the working stages of clearing out our other debts and/or making house upgrades right now, but are working out a plan to start making 2 payments per month starting in January 2012.  If we do that, we should be able to take a considerable amount of time off the loan.

Student Loans

Great Lakes Loan $ 10,200 ($122)  It’s nice to see this going down a bit faster after I increased the payment, but it’s still not going down as fast as I’d like.  This will be the next focus after the truck.

Truck Loan

Ford Credit: $4,993  ($308): Finally got below 5k on this note.  This is exciting, and I’m hoping to retire this by the end of the year, which is quickly coming up.  I’ve developed a plan to pay the vehicle off with a credit card for the points, then pay that bill as well.  It’s a huge point haul, and I wish I could set up my automatic payment to the credit card, but they will only let you do a 1 time.  No matter, I guess.

Total Debt: 135,333 (1,920)  This is kind of crazy, and really bothers me about debt in general.  Without making any extra payments on anything, we paid almost 2,000 to our debt!   Totally nuts!

Health Goals

This has finally turned around – though not exactly how I would have liked.  I’ve been working out 5 or 6 times per week, usually consisting of 2 trips to the gym to lift weights, 2 sessions of yoga in the morning.  Ive been liking it, but because of all of the bouncing around, it feels like i’m doing a few things: 1) avoiding a hard workout by doing something else instead and 2) not really being able to get into anything because I’m spread too thin and not really focusing in on anything specific.

I’m also thinking that I need to up my goal workouts – hitting 20 every month seems to be getting easier and easier, and I dont seem to be getting sore as often, so it could be time to ratchet up the frequency.

Goal Workouts: 20

Total Workouts: 24

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.  The meat challenge continued on for another successful month, and I can hardly remember the last time that we bought meat at the store.  It seems like the grocery bill is starting to inch up, but lots of that has been because we have been running out of staples that we typically buy in bulk, such as olive oil, rice, flour and things like that.  I went  hunting once this month, and got nothing.  I’ll be going at the beginning of november as well and hopefully my luck will turn.  I’ve been tossing around the idea of getting 1 more elk tag, but I’m not 100% set on it just yet

The Grocery Store Challenge has been harder to track than the meat challenge.  I just went to the store a few days ago, and didnt really do that well for this particular trip.  Most of what I had was dairy, but there were lots of veggies that we have not been getting from the farm share.

Fall is coming, and we are starting to get some stuff ready for winter.  I finally got my beer kit, and we made our first (and probably only) batch of homemade hard cider for the winter.  I’d like to try a pear cider or some other type next year, but the only cider I’ve been able to find is apple.  Total cost of the cider was $40 for the cider, 1.25 for the yeast, and 1.50 for the sugar.

How did everyone do in september?  Were you able to make lots of progress on your debt, or were you focusing on some other area of your life?

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7 thoughts on “October 2012 Monthly Review”

  1. Hey Jeff how much was you mortgage in the beginning? I would love to get a mortgage that is around $125-165k. Great job with the workouts and doubling up on mortgage is going to smash it like crazy.

  2. I think you’re doing pretty well. There are a lot of changes this year and I think a mortgage is OK. I’m sure once you guys are done with remodeling, you should be able to pay extra again. My October was not good. We had a big expense on our rental and that screwed up our cashflow.

  3. Keep it up, Jeff! Just continue working hard on your goals and you’ll be able to achieve them. Debts and mortgages are difficult to pay, and it’s really good that you are able to trim them down. Stay fit and healthy!

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