My New Stimulus Plan

I finally got my husband to agree to let me start paying off all of our bills early! I spent most of my day yesterday planning a budget and actually writing down 3 scenarios of how we can pay off our debts early.

We have 5 financed accounts (Mortgage, signature loan, 2 cars, and a student loan that I co-signed for someone on) that we pay on in addition to regular household bills (utilities, insurance, phone, etc). Thankfully, none of this is credit card debt! But, that's a ton to be paying on! Don't get me wrong, we don't have a problem paying our bills and we most certainly have not taken on more than we can handle (even if I were to quit my 2nd job) but we both have jobs that are not so much, economy proof. So I feel that the less we are actually obligated to the better off we would be if, God forbid, something should ever happen.

The first option I came up with is to pay a couple hundred dollars in addition to the obligated amount for each account. That would permit us to pay off everything slowly at one time, with the last payment being made in June of 2011.

The second option is to pay at least $1,000 in addition to the obligated payment on 1 account until it is paid off while maintaining the regular payments on the other 4 accounts. In this scenario, 4 out of the 5 accounts would be paid by November 2010 and the 5th account paid off in 2011.

The third option is to keep putting money in a savings account until the balance in the account is high enough to pay off one of the accounts. Then, build it back up again and start over. The appeal to this is that if one of us does loose a job during the course of this, then we would have the money to live on.

We ultimately opted for option #2, as option #1 is too hard to keep up with and option #3 is not far off from what we are doing now and we have not been successful. It is too easy to build that savings account up and use the money for a new TV or a new deck, etc. I plan to continue to save 100% of my income from my second job. Being that my husband is on commission, I based his income on the smallest check I have ever seen him bring home. Anything he brings home over that amount we can either save or use as 'fun money.'

Things are going to be tight until about November of this year which is when our first bill will be paid. When that particular bill is paid off we will have an additional $250 to toward our everyday living. A lot of people would say that I should take the $250 and put it towards one of the other accounts, but I am being realistic here. We spend a lot of money! And, while I am trying to do better, I know that if we don't give ourselves some leeway this will never work. We are in this for the long haul!

Wish us luck on our little journey! If we don't make it in the exact time frame I will be okay with that. Just making headway will be good for me!

By the way, for my research I used Bankrate.com and mint.com (although mint.com required too much information and work on my part so I quickly abandoned it!). Both are great sights.

If anyone has ever done this or has used any of these methods, please let me know how it was. Or, if you have any suggestions or advice I am all ears!

Update

The past few days I have been a little anxious. We are going on vacation Sunday (Whoo hoo!) and I feel like I don't have anything done. I went to buy some clothes yesterday during lunch, but didn't really find anything. I bought a shirt, which I think I will be taking back. I have gained back so much weight and I am so disappointed in myself. Because of the weight I am self conscious in clothes again. I have consumed and enjoyed every brownie, chocolate chip cookie, Reese peanut butter cup, and any other form of chocolate that has been put in front of my face, therefore, I have only myself to blame, But, dang it has been good!

If I can't get myself back on track soon then I will quit talking and trying all together. Only because I know how annoying it is to listen to someone whine about not working out or eating too much. There is nothing to it but to do it. One day I will get back to it and in the meantime I don't want to be 'that' person. With the weather warming up maybe I will have better luck.

To visit the Vegas thing again... I am so nervous about going. I know that I am going to forget something. We don't have a direct flight, so I am worried about not making the connection for some reason and then there is the whole thing about being in a city I don't know. I think I would feel better if there was a big group of us going, which is what usually happens when I go on vacation. Not that I don't have confidence in my husband and myself to make it, but it is a bit overwhelming.

I just have to keep telling myself that if we miss our flight and get lost or something bad happens then we will be together. After all that is what this vacation is all about!

Past, Present, Future

When I was in 8th grade my English teacher made us write a time capsule letter about all the things that were going on in our lives at that time and who we were or were not friends with and anything we felt that was important. She said that in 5 years she would mail the letter to whatever specified address we thought we would be at in 5 years and the thought was that we could see that most of the things that happen in 8th grade are irrelevant and also as a funny reminder of how much you grow up (or not) during that time.

I left the 8th grade several years ago but I have thought about this letter from time to time. At the time, I gave my parents' address for Ms. Stitle to mail my time capsule letter to, but - something I would not have guessed in 8th grade - I moved out of mom and dad's house (before 5 years had past) and shortly after that the house was foreclosed on so mom and dad were not there to check the mail. Therefore, I never got my letter. Whoever lived in that house probably got a kick out of my 8th grade letter, if it ever made it!

Dove has their Real Beauty Campaign and they have done a similar project. One of their journalists has written a letter, present day, to herself when she was 14 years old. I thought I might take a stab at it. I wrote a letter to myself when I was 14 and I also wrote a letter to myself in ten years, when I am 37.

I won't post the letters here because they really are irrelevant as they were in 8th grade. The general public doesn't want to hear about my teenage insecurities or about my fears for the future! But, I challenge you to write a letter to yourself, either in present or past tense. You might be surprised at what comes out on canvas.

Blogs of Note

One of the blogs that I follow is bakerella and she was nominated in one of the categories for this year's Bloggies. I have never heard of Bloggies before, but I went to the page to vote for my dear bakerella because I love cake and she does excellent things with cake. There were several categories with nominees, so in order to make an informed decision, I spent the better part of my day (when I was supposed to be working!) checking out blogs. These are probably some of the best blogs out there for them to have been nominated. Some I liked and some, not so much. But, as you can see, over there to the right are several new blogs on my linklist. I am going to leave them there and see how many prove to be worthy on a long term basis. I must admit that for me to go through the trouble of adding them to the list, I think they are pretty awesome so it looks like I will be spending a lot of my time reading. But, reading is what I have always done so no biggie.

Voting for the Bloggies is over (I think) and they will announce the winners in March. Hopefully, Bakerella or one of the others will let us know who wins which categories. I wish everyone luck and if I never hear the winners, at least I have some new awesome-ness to follow.

Gesh, I really need to start working more while I am at work!


On another note - my running partner told me today that she is pregnant. probably won't be much running going on with her now. What did she have to go and get knocked up!? Just something else for me to use as an excuse! I am going to get my butt in gear really soon. I promise. Again.