Wow, I just scrounged up a draft of this post originally dated July 1. I guess I had admirable intentions of a timely update. I have been amazingly lazy about reluctant to post June’s numbers: Paying down debt just isn’t very exciting when you’re only making the regular payments.
I really can’t call this a snowball. At least, the snowball is currently resting on a plane. The reason we’re not currently snowballing our debt is, again, because our house is up for sale and every dollar of extra cash is going into a regular savings account in the event that we *gasp* have to bring some money to the closing table. You know, for when the house sells. Which it will. It will.
The Numbers
End of June 2010:
- First Mortgage: $170,249.14
- Second Mortgage: $31,342.63
- Rental Property: $108,270.38
Total Debt: $309,862.15
This is a difference of $591.35 in principle from the $310,453.50 owed in primary and rental mortgage debt at the end of May.
We paid down $30.79 more in principle in June than we did in May with our regular payments.
<<Woo-hoo!>>
Regular Payments Breakdown:
- First Mortgage: $1538.63
- Second Mortgage: $283.90
- Rental Property: $758.00
Total Monthly Payments: $2580.53
Less than $2000 went toward interest this month! Woo-hoo! ($1,988.65 toward interest, to be exact.)
Cash Has Been De-Throned.
At least for now. I mused back in January when I started a Cash Envelope System that I was hoping I would have my Cash Mo-Jo down by the time John got back from his deployment. That appears to not have been the case. Either that, or John’s return threw me off my mo-jo. I’m really not sure which one is to blame.
Most likely, any mo-jo I gained on my own became moot when my husband returned: Finances are a whole different ball game when two people are involved.
Not that he wasn’t spending money while he was gone, but we were communicating pretty well about what cash he was going to pull out for the month, etc., while he was away, and it was pretty simple. Coming home, his needs, and mine, have changed. Our grocery bill in June? And the money we spent eating out? Oh, lawdy. Don’t get me started. That’s another post. (I pinky promise.)
I’m not even sure if cash is the best way for us to go. I really like to categorize our spending (I use Mint — a free personal finance software program) and cash really muddled me all up: I was constantly raiding Peter to pay Paul and at the end of the month I really wasn’t sure how accurate the amounts in my cash envelopes even were.
I know, I know… This would work if I collected every receipt for each category in its respective envelope at the end of the day. But what about the receipts that included more than one category? It just gets very complicated and time-consuming. Maybe I’m just getting old. Or maybe I’m just grumpy, but I’m just not convinced all that complication is necessary.
Suffice to say, for now, Cash has been de-throned. I’m not sure if it will stay that way, or if it even should. But those are my thoughts for now.
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I have not tried a cash envelope system so not sure how I would get on with it!!!
What happened about your house, I must have missed something as I thought it was all sold and gone
…. Sorry to hear it did not go through.
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jolyn Reply:
July 27th, 2010 at 9:31 pm
Gee, Forest, where have you been? Off gallivanting around Sweden or somewhere?
Yea, the buyers for our house were also selling a house of their own. The financing for their buyers fell through so we released them from our contract.
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I know what you mean about the cash envelopes. It went well with me for a little while, then I got lazy on the tracking and separating. So now the only envelope I still keep is the gasoline one as even if we don’t eat, the car still needs to run. Sad. I know. Anyway, what I have been doing is that the minute I got my cash out of the bank, I hit the food market and stock up all the meats and staples for the month. The rest of the cash I keep for the weekly perishable and all the non-food items. I would only charge when I ran out of cash for the month. That way I will know how much extra I have spent and on what when the credit card statement comes (if I care to know, that is), so that I can be more realistic with my next month’s cash withdrawal. I think the cash envelope system would work if I have more of a “tracking” personality, but when all it did was creating more work and frustration for me, I knew it was time to find another way.
I have been doing the new way for a couple of months, I will let you know how it fans out by the end of this year.
btw, I attended the Homeschool convention and it was amazing. I came away refreshed, recharged and inspired for our next school year!
[Reply]
jolyn Reply:
July 24th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
Oh, I feel so much better now!
I so wish I could have gone to that convention! (Maybe next time!)
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Hey, even though you are only making the minimums (and believe me, I know how painful it is to do that!), looking at how much you paid down on your principal balance is very impressive nonetheless! When I started reading your post, i thought it was going to be less than what it was! I would say the month was pretty good overall, even with just the minimums paid. At least you can pay them!
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What you figure out is that the system you use needs to be one you’ll actually DO. Just be sure you have a system.
But no matter what you use – keeping track of your money/spending is very time consuming. And really somewhat boring, which causes me to procrastinate.
But don’t forget what a good job you’ve done! If you just hold even until you get moved, then you can regroup.
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I have faith that you will get back on track quickly. I have the same problem with envelopes & receipts. What if I go to Walmart and buy groceries and clothes? It seems like so much work. I guess the best solution (for us, at least) is a comprehensive notebook to coincide with the envelope system (a la, the Economides family.) Someday I’ll get it all together.
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