So I have been made the interim manager at my job, which came with a 5% pay raise. I will begin interviewing soon (I hope) for the permanent job and will then negotiate my permenent salary. The job is a lot more work than before, but I am loving it because I was bored to tears before!
As for debt payoff, I had been focusing only on credit cards for now, but decided to add in my smallest student loan (a private one) and our pop up camper. I had been trying to pay off the highest interest rate first, but have found myself losing steam since I wasn't paying anything off as quickly as I'd like. So I've gone back to the Dave Ramsey way of smallest balance first. My student loan will be paid off in another 2 weeks, then the next smallest credit card about 3 months after that. I feel like doing it this way will give me the motivation to keep at it. It is nice to know that I will soon (most likely) have some extra money due to the new job to put towards everything.
We had an unexpected mini vacation last weekend... my in laws had a beach house in North Carolina for the week, so we decided to join them from Friday to Monday. My kids had never swam in the ocean (we've only gone to the beach in the winter for a Christmas event) and they had a blast playing in the ocean and hanging out with their grandparents, aunt, uncles, and little cousin. The house was right on the ocean, and they didn't let us pay for a thing, except one grocery trip that my husband made and then we paid for his parents at the aquarium. All in all, we spent about $300 for everything, including gas to get there, which isn't bad for a family of 4 on a 4 day vacation!
We certainly could have used that money to put towards debt, but my brother in law is leaving for Marine Corp boot camp this weekend and sometimes you can't put a price on family time (especially when the price is pretty modest!)
Placed my first Zaycon chicken order this week to be picked up in November! $1.88/lb for 40 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breasts. The quality is supposed to be much better than the cheap store brand chicken that I can get for $1.99/lb so I am excited to try it! I'll have to make my deep freezer is relatively empty to make room for all of that chicken. I will be spending some time planning what meals to make with all of it! I plan on leaving some whole, cutting some up for chicken nuggets or stir fry, and who knows what else.
Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer!
Updates on job, debt payoff, etc
July 9th, 2015 at 04:11 pm
July 9th, 2015 at 04:18 pm 1436458703
I think you will like paying off a couple debts fast to keep you motivated. It is hard work, but so worth it once out from under it.
July 9th, 2015 at 05:23 pm 1436462597
I wonder how you are managing income tax. Your increased salary will result in a higher tax deduction [and possibly other deductions] which often results in a large overpayment when you file in 2016. Can you have the figures reviewed to see if you can adjust the rate to benefit now, since interest is added monthly. If you are using the lowest balance snowball system, do you use the 0% interest card transfer process?
July 10th, 2015 at 02:20 pm 1436538042
July 11th, 2015 at 01:44 am 1436579070
July 11th, 2015 at 02:44 am 1436582661
I have a few credit card balances that are currently at promo rates, but unfortunately one of my cards is about $24K at 12.24%, but I don't have that kind of available balance on any cards to be able to transfer it. I'm hoping for more opportunities as I get things paid off though!