My tax refunds showed up in my bank account yesterday, so I paid off all my credit cards in full (except for the 3.99% one that I'm treating as a bank loan). That leaves me with my mortgage (5.5%), my car loan (5.99%), the loan from the Bank of Mom and Dad, and that 3.99%-until-I-pay-it off credit card.
The plan is to transfer my credit card payments to my car loan and get that paid off a year and a half early. Then I can decide between putting the car loan payment amount towards the Bank of Mom and Dad, the mortgage or that last low-interest credit card.
But... I was feeling good from having paid those cards off and... (sigh) this is what got me in trouble in the first place. I started a new "I want" list. There's that tznius flannel nightgown I've been eyeing for ages. I also wanted some new pairs of stockings. And a pair of brown boots. I also want a new laptop and a digital camera. And to get my hair colored again.
Of course, my emergency fund is pathetically low, so I really need to start paying attention to that too. It's really not fair to keep going back to the Bank of Mom and Dad every time something breaks at the Lovely Lemon. (I keep telling myself that nothing else can possibly go wrong at the Lemon, but then a pipe bursts or the oven breaks or.... Come to think of it, I really should be saving up for a new oven.)
The nightgown just went on sale and I'm tired of making sure that my skirts are long enough to cover the holes in my stockings, so I treated myself to the nightgown and four pairs of cotton stockings. $500 of the remainder went into my emergency account. I deserve a little bit of reward for paying off those cards, don't I? And while I don't actually need a flannel nightgown, it would make me happy (and make me feel better about turning the thermostat down to 60 degrees at night). The new stockings should have been purchased months ago. I should get some new nylons, for those times when I don't want to look like a Bais Yaakov-wanna-be, but I hate the fact that they develop runs after only being worn once or twice. Stockings make much more sense.
The boots will be my bribe for next month... If I'm good (defined as not charging anything to the credit card that I can't pay off that same month and putting an extra $150 towards my car loan), then I can have the boots. After that, the "I wants" get a little more expensive. I can't exactly treat myself to a third of a digital camera as my monthly bribe. I'll have to figure something out.
I've also been toying with the idea of creating a tzedaka account to make it easier to keep track of my charitable contributions. I sent out a bunch of post-dated checks at the beginning of the year to each place, but I should probably start giving more since I'm having so much success paying things off.
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4 comments:
Use Mint.com for everything, and when you write out checks, you'll classify them as they are. It'll be easy to keep track of that way.
Hold off on buying those things you eye just a drop longer, when your debt is all gone. You'll feel that much better to have gotten over the hump.
Ezzie, I don't know that I can wait until my debt is *all* gone. I still have 15 years left on my mortgage, although I think I can pay off everything else in another two years, maybe less if I'm very careful. But you're right, I can put off the big things like the camera and laptop for another year or two. I don't think I can put new shoes off for two years, though!
I've started keeping track of my actual spending in Quicken, but I'm trying to figure out an easy way to remind me to give enough tzedaka. Every year I go to do my taxes and realize that I *should* have given much more than I actually did. I'm just not sure how to fix that beyond setting up an automatic transfer to a dedicated account or something. May I ask how you do it?
Honestly, we don't have money for tzedaka at the moment. When we used to, we'd take it out earlier. Some places do take automatic debits; if you're intent on giving, and know when your money comes in each month, just set it up for a couple of days after your money comes in.
I didn't mean the mortgage, but the car and certainly the credit cards.
Your expenses are *significantly* more than mine. I want to pay my fair share in to the community while I'm single and can afford it.
You're right. I'll try to stay frugal until the car and credit cards are paid off. It's just hard sometimes to see a large influx of money and know that I shouldn't be taking any of it for myself.
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