New Year's Resolutions

Well, I'm officially one of those bloggers that posts very, very sporadically and then pops up when you least expect it. Lame. But, this seems like a good place to record my New Year's Resolutions, so I'm back!

1. Finish our name changes! We both hyphenated our last names, but only got as far as Social Security and the DMV. I want to take care of it with the bank, work, insurance, etc, etc.

2. Save $10,000 in our E-Fund by August of this year (We need about $1,500 more to hit this goal, assuming I don't have to use it for anything).

3. Pay off the smaller unsubsidized loan before my husband finishes school in December (This is about $4,900). My plan is to use $1000 from our tax returns toward this, $1,000 from summer school for it, and to put about $275/month toward this goal. Speaking of summer school...

4. Work Summer School this summer, even if I really don't feel like it. The money is too good to pass up!

5. Hit 3,000 miles on my Fitbit by the end of 2014.

6. Go on some sort of trip with my husband, either for Spring Break or for our anniversary. I don't necessarily need to go somewhere elaborate, but somewhere we haven't been before would be great.

I have a few more ideas rolling around, but I want to look at them a little more...so I will probably add three more sometime later this month.

Some Good News!

The other day we got a letter from Aspire, the lender that handles 4/5 of my husband's student loans. The letter was informing us that his loans had gone into deferment because he is enrolled halftime in school. I didn't think much of it, figuring we were going to continue to pay the interest on three of the loans and put all extra funds into the one with the lowest balance.

But when I logged in yesterday, I noticed that all but one of his loans is subsidized. Meaning the government will pay the interest while he's in school.

Holla!!!

So, I have a strategy question.

The unsubsidized loan, which is still accumulating interest, is the second lowest balance. So, my first thought was to throw all extra funds at that loan first, to lower the interest rate, and hopefully get rid of it first. Ideally we could be done with it by the time he finishes his schooling (two and a half more semesters).

OR, I am wondering if I stick to the original plan and pay off the lowest balance first, while it collects no interest. I'd still pay the accumulating interest on the unsubsidized loan, but perhaps it makes more sense to put all of our extra funds toward a loan that isn't growing each day so that we can get rid of it and avoid paying future interest on it. Kind of the way you might pay off a zero interest for six month loan in that window so you never owe interest on it.

What do you think? I'd love a second opinion, as I am torn on which path to choose. Either way, I am thrilled that his loans aren't costing us $5 per day in interest (which is what I calculated last month. And then got depressed.)

Month One on One

...Income, that is.

We officially made it through our first full month of living on one income. And it's actually going really well. I get paid tomorrow, and I just checked all the numbers. We came in under on the budget, and while we did cut back this month didn't feel like too much of a sacrifice. We definitely ate out less. I didn't stop for coffee or food as much as I normally would. But you know what? It was a good month. It felt good to be frugal again.

And the even better news? We were able to reduce the student loans by over $600!

Also, my husband is signed up for a class to get his soccer reffing license to bring in a little extra cash soon. And he also passed the CBEST and will be applying to substitute teach in a few local districts. So, hopefully we can put even more extra cash towards the student loans when that happens. But it feels good to know we can live on one income and still make at least a small dent in our total loan balance.

More Frugal Things We've Been Doing

Here's what I did this weekend and how I made it frugal:

*Shared a burrito at dinner: we went to our favorite Mexican place on Friday night (one of our only times eating out together this month!). They have a "monster" burrito on the menu. It's ten bucks and we split it. It was plenty of food, and we saved money by not ordering our own separate dishes.

*Decorated for Fall: I put out the decorations I already had, for the most part. Over the years I've gotten several pumpkin-shaped candles (either as gifts or on clearance after the holidays are over), but I never burn them. This way I can put them out year after year. :) I have one pumpkin scented candle that I do light, so I still get that feel. I also made this centerpiece and only spent $1.59 on candy corn (the rest of the stuff I already had).

*Made meals at home: Today I almost went to Ralphs, but then pushed myself to cook at home. We ate here and ate quiet well, in fact! I made cornmeal pancakes (thanks, Pioneer Woman) and turkey bacon for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and for dinner we had garlic chicken, pasta, and brussel sprouts. :) After I made all that, I felt silly for wanting to go to the store for food. Plenty here!

*Dinner with my sister: This was on Thursday, but we went to dinner and I used a Groupon I bought a few months back. It covered both of our meals and dessert. She paid the tip, so this felt free! (Yes, I bought the Groupon, but it was so long ago it hardly seems to count.)

*Swagbucks: when I read blogs or went on Facebook I was sure to Swagbuck it, and I am building up to get another Amazon gift card. The last one I got just posted today. These will be handy to have for Christmas time!

So, what did you to do keep it frugal this weekend?

Frugalling

So, in the past few weeks I've been off the blog, I've been delving further into our loan debt, crunching numbers and looking at history, etc. And most of what I've realized actually makes me realize we have further to dig out than I thought. Meaning, it's not very positive. I will update on that at some point, but for today I need to focus on the positive! So, here are some ways I've gotten my frugal on in the past few weeks. Or, as I like to call it, how I've been frugalling. (It's a verb.)

*I've been back on Recyclebank and Swagbucks, and am well on my way to some $5 Amazon gift cards. I plan on using those either for Christmas gifts or for necessities down the line.
*I also used two Bath and Body Works coupons to get free travel-sized items that I will use as prizes in a baby shower I'm throwing next month.
*Speaking of the shower, I've made all the invitations and decorations myself, spending $5 on paper.
*We've gone on two dates at the Dollar Theater in our area. We brought in our own candy and drinks, of course. Each date cost us a total of about $8 with snacks.
*We've done the vast majority of our eating here at home. I haven't stopped for coffee or breakfast on the way to work once!
*I've made birthday cards using my Cricut, and have plans to make a friend some homemade caramel corn for her birthday gift. I'm going to make a cute tag and put them in a mason jar that I already have.
*I've been going onto The Freebie Blogger and have requested various free samples. I'll either use these as stocking stuffers, for travel, or to save on my grocery/toiletries bill.
*I'm also back to tracking our spending to the penny, and should be able to make our first extra payment on the student loans at the end of the month.
*My husband downgraded his texting plan and minutes on his phone, which will save us $27 per month.
*We also cancelled Hulu Plus and just kept streaming on Netflix. There are always coupon codes for Redbox rentals, so we're going to get by on that for newer releases.

So, even though we've got a long climb to go, I feel good about these changes. And most of them aren't too difficult. I sort of enjoy the challenge of being frugal. Just hope that feeling doesn't wear off too soon!

Car Bill Coming Down...

Well, I think it is a tad unrealistic to think that I won't need to take any money out of my savings to cover the cost of my car repair. But, I did double check my travel rewards credit card and saw that two of my purchase erasers hadn't gone through. I went in and fixed that, which should take $96 off of my credit card bill in the next couple of days! I still have enough rewards to get a free flight to Portland, which I plan to use sometime in the next few months to go see my friend Shelley again.

I listed a few more DVD's on Ebay this week, and sold a book on Amazon. A lot of what I have to sell isn't worth too much, but I will make a little more money on Monday when the auctions finish.

I have stuck with my $100 budget until payday. I got gas the other day, paid back my coworker, but have only spent $16 on groceries. If I can go without spending any more money until Thursday (which I'm really going to push myself to accomplish!) I will only need to take out $174 from my savings to cover the cost of the repairs. Considering it was a $630 bill, I feel good about that!

Ebay and Car Repairs

Now that I'm back into frugality, I decided to list some items on Ebay. I had four listings up and made a profit of $115! I sold a bridesmaids dress, a Cricut cartridge that I decided I didn't like after all, a purse, and Six Feet Under on DVD. I am VERY happy with these sales!

When I started out selling these items, I figured I would set the money aside for some things I'd been wanting to buy but didn't want to take out of the budget. In fact, I went ahead and ordered some blades and mats for my Cricut (which actually saves me money on cards, baby shower supplies, etc.). I also went and bought a new pair of black flats (since my last pair was purchased in 2010...it's time). They were having a BOGO sale, so I got a second pair of shoes for half off as well.

I still had some money left and felt good about having extra money laying around.

HA.

Well, today several of the warning lights went on in my dashboard. I took my car in and found out I need new brakes (apparently they were worn down to 1mm...oops) and a variety of other smaller things done. I work out with a few people who work at the dealership, so they were able to give me a discount (and the service guy's wife is a teacher in my district so he threw in a free oil change for me). BUT, it's still going to cost me a pretty penny to get all the repairs/maintenance done.

As in, around $670. $630! (The guy at the service desk's wife works in my district. And I have friends from the gym who work there, so he gave me a discount! Score!)

To be fair, I haven't had much done on the car in the last few years. And what's crazy is that I used to pay about $500/month in car payments on this car (BANANAS!). So, I know this is just part of owning a car. But I am still not thrilled about the cost of the repairs.

My new goal is to see if I can pay for these repairs without taking money from my emergency fund.

I know I'll need gas again before payday, and a small grocery trip or two for some ingredients to make dinners and lunches at home. I am also bringing snacks next Friday for my work, and I owe a co-worker $20 for snacks we use as student incentives. So, I am budgeting $100 for those items (which is keeping it pretty damn frugal, actually). That leaves me with about $330 $278 to put towards the bill.

I also have some of the Ebay money from those four items I mentioned about left in my Paypal account. I will transfer that over, which is only about $20 after the shoes and Cricut supplies.

I am going to go through my DVD's, books, and the rest of my apartment to see what else I can sell on Ebay. Hopefully, this can bring in some good money. I will probably also take in our recycling to put toward the cause.

Honestly, it will be tough to pull this one off. But I want to push myself to see if I can make it happen. I'd love to keep our E-fund as large as possible going into this next chapter of living on one income (though my husband is already signing up for subbing and looking into some other side/odd jobs to earn some money going forward).

So, think I can pull this off? Any advice for bringing in more money? :)