Giving to Charity October 31, 2009

My husband and I each got asked at our respective offices to sign up for a charitable campaign this month. Currently we give monthly to the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, and from time to time give one-time donations to other funds as the occasion arises.  I also donate a bag of used clothing/household items to the Disabled American Veterans or the Vietnam Veterans of America (depending on who sends me the bag) once every couple months.  I really try to donate every time they send a bag, mainly because it forces me to clean out our closets and drawers on a regular basis. 

I was compiling a budget analysis spreadsheet for our upcoming visit to the financial advisor and thinking about how much we should each donate to our “office” campaigns, when I realized that (not counting one-time donations) we regularly only give less than .5% of our income to charity each year.  I’m not sure what average families give, but that just seems really low to me.  As such, we are stepping it up.  We have decided to each contribute monthly to a fund through our work campaigns. I will donate  to the American Red Cross, and my husband will contribute to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  This will triple our annual contributions.

We also decided to be come members of our local chapter of National Public Radio via a one-time contribution.  We listen to NPR every day, and value their programming.  We have been members in the past, but with all the moving around (and with me being in between jobs so much these past couple years), we have neglected our membership.

Looking at our budget, I’m proud of all we have accomplished through reducing our debt, and now how ambitious we have become with regards to our planned retirement contributions for next year.  However, I feel that since we finally have our finances under control, we should be giving back to the community a little more.  In addition to the steps I have listed above, we are also looking into future contributions to our former academic institutions.

Do you currently donate to a charitable organization? If yes, where? I’d love to hear your stories.

October Debt Summary October 30, 2009

Debt at start of blog (July 2008): $51,497.33

Debt at end of September 2009: $14,459.25

Difference: $37,038.08 Current Breakdown:

Car loan (at 5.75%): $0.00

Grad School Loan (at 6.55%): $0.00

Undergrad Loan (at 2.125%): $14,360.84

I made an extra $30 payment to the Undergrad loan this month — Neilson Ratings is paying me to do a week-long TV survey. I’m pretty excited about it!  Hopefully if it works out they will ask me to do more paid research in the future. I have very strong opinions about the tv shows I watch, and am often bummed out because they always seem to get canceled far too early.

Otherwise, not a lot of “debt news” to report this month. Now that my debt is down to the undergrad loan, it’s not as high of a priority.  We are shifting our focus to building up retirement, giving more to charity, and saving for our next home.  More on this in future posts.

September Debt Summary October 4, 2009

Debt at start of blog (July 2008): $51,497.33

Debt at end of September 2009: $14,459.25

Difference: $37,038.08

Current Breakdown: Car loan (at 5.75%): $0.00

Grad School Loan (at 6.55%): $0.00

Undergrad Loan (at 2.125%): $14,459.25

C got a bonus for work this month, and we used 2320.56 of it to fully pay off my graduate school loan.  The debt I have been tracking has now been reduced to my undergraduate student loan, which, at a tax-deductable interest rate of 2.125% is not a huge priority.  We still have other debt of course, the mortgage, my car loan (0%), our washer and dryer (0% for 36 months).  I have decided that for October and November, I will use the extra money I would normally have put towards student loans to pay off the washer and dryer.  Though we have 0% interest for another 2 years, the credit line makes me nervous because if you miss a payment, or are late, or any of a thousand other conditions, the interest rate goes through the roof. I’d rather not have to worry about that, and since we only owe about $1800, I’d rather just pay it off at this point. 

After that, I’m not 100% what I will do about my debt. Now that the higher-interest rate stuff has been knocked out, I think we will shift the focus back to savings/retirement. I would like to max both of our 401k’s for the first time next year. To accomplish this, I will take a chunk of the extra payments we’ve been making to our debt and use it to increase my monthly 401k contribution. We will also start contributing to our emergency fund again.  More details to come in future posts!

In the mean time, I’d just like to take a moment and say, “WOW!” I think it is so amazing how much debt we managed to reduce in a year and 3 months.  I’m proud that we were able to tighten our belts, and find creative ways to make extra money to accomplish our goals. It is also important for me to acknowledge that none of this would be possible if my husband hadn’t made a tough career decision last year that led to him receiving some bonus money that helped substantially in the quest to eliminate our debt.   I only fear that without such a powerfully motivating force, we will struggle more to be as fiscally responsible in the future.  I guess we just have to come up with new, achievable goals that we feel strongly about.

Bonus time September 8, 2009

C is getting a substantial bonus for his job this month. Here’s how we’ve decided to allocate it:
1. Half will go into C’s 401k pre-tax ~$7500
2. The remaining after-tax amount will be used to:
      – pay off the rest of my grad school loan approx. ~ $2500
      - make an extra payment on the mortgage ~ $1500
      - the remainder will go into the savings ~ $1500

This will bring C’s 401k contributions to about $10,500 for the year.  The money in the savings account will help us pay for our upcoming trip to France. And I’m SUPER excited to be paying off my grad school loan!

August Debt Summary August 27, 2009

Debt at start of blog (July 2008): $51,497.33

Debt at end of August 2009: $18,238.09

Difference: $33,259.24

Current Breakdown:

Car loan (at 5.75%): $0.00

Grad School Loan (at 6.55%): $3,708.04

Undergrad Loan (at 2.125%): $14,530.05

I wasn’t able to make any additional payments to my loans this month. This is mainly because of a mix up with my  401k contributions that started in July.  When I filled out the paperwork, I thought I had signed up to have $500 taken out each MONTH for my 401k; however, it appears I misread the paperwork, because they’ve been taking $500 out of each PAYCHECK– causing me to contribute $1000 a month to my 401k instead.  Since an extra $500 was definitely NOT in my budget for July and August, this has had a bit of an impact.  I  updated my paperwork this week, and am hopeful that the correct amount will bet taken out in September. On the upside, at least my retirement got an unexpected boost this year due to my extra contributions.

Online shopping amnesia August 1, 2009

I am a tall woman. As such, I have large feet (size 11) and I usually need longer-length pants. Shopping online has been a godsend for solving this issue, because if they don’t have it in the store, they usually have it available online. Many stores don’t even carry size 11 shoes in most styles, but they are often findable through shoes.com or shoebuy.com or zappos, etc.

A danger I have noticed about shopping online; however, is that it’s so easy, it doesn’t really feel like I spent any money. If I go to a store, and spend some time looking around, get out my wallet, and carry the bags home, I know I shopped and that I had to pay for it.  However, if I buy it on line with already saved credit card info or paypal, it’s so quick and easy that it’s not very memorable, and I often find myself surprised later by the credit card statement. “What? I didn’t go to GAP this month! Oh wait, I did go to GAP.com . . .”

On the plus side, I usually can find better deals online.  For example, I’ve been needing a pair of light gray dress pants all summer. I haven’t been able to find my size or length in store. Yesterday, I found a pair at  theLimited.com, for half off!  I also googled to see if there were any online discount codes, and found one for 10% off! (This basically covered the shipping).  Also, I ‘ve been looking for these black dress shoes, but Macy’s only carries up to size 10.  I found them in 11’s online yesterday.  At Macy’s they are $68, but I found them at shoebuyfor $58, and I got an additional 10% off and free shipping!  Another incentive to shop online is Upromise. Generally most stores won’t give you a % back for shopping in-store, but they will do it for online.  I got 4% back toward my student loan from my Limited purchase and 10% back from my Shoebuy purchase.

I guess to sum things up, shopping online is a great way to find what you need, and very convenient.  Just be sure to note your shopping in the budget right away so that you don’t get any nasty credit card surprises later.  What have your online shopping experiences been like?  Do you also have online-shopping amnesia?  I’d love to hear your stories.

Happy Anniversary, Blog! July 31, 2009

Wow, it has now been over a year since I started this blog!

Though I haven’t been as vigilant about posting as I’d like to be, I have been very vigilant about paying down our debt. In the past year, we have eliminated $32, 132.09 in debt. That’s unbelievable! We have been lucky this year, my husband got a substantial bonus last fall, a large majority of which went towards the debt. Also, we got the $7500 tax credit for buying a new home (all of which went toward the debt).

In light of these accomplishments, we will probably back off of our debt-reduction strategy and start focusing on retirement. We have already begun this strategy to some degree, but we will continue to stay fairly aggressive towards the debt until the grad loan is eliminated.

What’s ahead as we move into year 2 of the blog? Some goals and events I foresee in the near future:

1. Pay off graduate loan in full – $4,773.53

2. Pay off washer and dryer – $1,954.96 (we did 0% financing, but the financial penalties for missing a payment are huge enough that I’d rather not have to worry about it).

3. Maybe a baby? C and I are currently discussing starting a family in the near future.

4. Beefing up retirement.  C and I have each begun putting $500 a month toward our respective 401k plans. This is in addition to maxing our Roth IRAs.  C will get another (smaller) bonus this fall, and we’d like to dedicate half of it to his 401k.

5. Making an extra mortgage payment on the house for 2009 – $1513.79

6. Increasing retirement contributions even more once we’ve paid off the grad loan/laundry.

7. Home improvement — we’d like to do some painting inside the house, there are a few small repairs that need to be made, and we really should get our annual termite inspection out of the way.

July Debt Summary July 30, 2009

Debt at start of blog (July 2008): $51,497.33

Debt at end of July 2009: $19,382.78

Difference: $32,114.55

Current Breakdown:

Car loan (at 5.75%): $0.00

Grad School Loan (at 6.55%): $4,782.07

Undergrad Loan (at 2.125%): $14,600.71

We  made an additional payment of $34.67 to the graduate loan this month. This was composed of money leftover in the monthly budget. We also started contributing an extra $25 a month to the debt this month, because my husband canceled his portion of our YMCA membership. (He discovered he can work out at his office gym for free).

My new anti-snack strategy July 8, 2009

I have a terrible habit of snacking while bored.  Even if I’m not hungry, I still want to snack.  I’ve tried to combat this by snacking on veggies or drinking more water/diet soda/crystal light, but it just hasn’t been working. If I’m at work, and either bored or stressed, I want something to chew on and generally I want it to be sweet or salty.

My latest strategy? Crystal light sugar free hard candies.  I’ve been keeping them in my desk the past couple weeks and it’s been going really well!   Just the act of “eating” something seems to curb my need to go to the fridge/vending machine, etc.  It’s also been cutting down on my biggest weakness — the need to buy “gummy” sweet snacks (like skittles, starburst, mike n’ ikes etc.) so I’m hoping this reduction in sugar will cut down on the dental bills as well. We’ll see.

June Debt Summary June 27, 2009

Debt at start of blog (July 2008): $51,497.33

Debt at end of June 2009: $20,558.13

Difference: $30,939.20

Current Breakdown:

Car loan (at 5.75%): $0.00

Grad School Loan (at 6.55%): $5,886.03

Undergrad Loan (at 2.125%): $14,672.10

We  made an additional payment of $94.65 to the graduate loan this month.  79.95 came from selling a book on Amazon, $10 was from a check I got from MySurvey, and 4.70 was leftover in the semi-monthly budget.

Upromise also put an extra $48.20 toward my undergraduate loan this month.  (Upromise credits my undergraduate loan once a quarter as long as I have a balance of $25+).