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Archive for July, 2010

Lucky Day! $20K Update

July 30th, 2010 at 01:55 am

We went to the casino and came home $850 ahead!! Whoo hoo! I'm still so excited, it was awesome!
Current Balance $7,800.00
-$400.00 Plane tickets for Vegas
+$55.00 To EF
+$300.00 Finish Laptop Account
+$250.00 Finish Matron of Honor Account
+$150.00 FINALLY starting New Car Fund
New Balance $8,155.00

Oh Bugger......

July 21st, 2010 at 09:46 pm

Well plumber finally came today to see what needed to be done for our bathroom remodel. I had called the same one twice and they never showed up, so I called a new one that came today. Apparently there is a lot more work that will need to be done. Basically my Dad and brother had put in new wall on one side of the shower, and now the plumber thinks that will not work and they will need to tear down the brand new wall that they built (and I paid for) plus the glassboard etc. I am super bummed out. My Dad is calling the plumber to see if there is any other way around it, so fingers crossed, but it is not looking good. And we need to get this done now so it is ready when they come to re-appraise the house for the refinance. Blah....

Midyear Update on 2010 Goals

July 18th, 2010 at 12:36 am

Wow I can't believe it is already July! Over 50% of the year is gone - here is how we are doing on 2010 Goals:
2010 Goals

Debt
-Continue to live debt free other then mortgage (So far so good)
-Pay mortgage down from $138K to $130K or less (Now at $131,850)

Savings
*Emergency Fund
-Go from $2775 to $5000 (Now at $200)
*Vacation Fund
-Go from $820 to $2600 (Now at $2200)
*Anniversary Cruise
-Go from $2000 to $3000 (Now at $2700)
*MN trip
-Go from $50 to $1000 (Goal Met $1000 - Spent)
*Checking Cushion
-$750 to $1300 (Now at $1020)
*HSA
-Go from $0 to $3000 (Contributions of $2500, most spent as we continue to have medical expenses, but balance is up $1000)

Retirement
*401K (3%)
-Go from $8200 to $9000 (Now at $10000)
*ROTH IRA (10%)
-Go from $1620 to $4000 (Now at $2770)
*403B (10%) ($2800 est)
-Not sure on amounts, but continue to contribute 10% of DH income

30 Day Workout Bet

July 18th, 2010 at 12:31 am

I bet my husband that I would work out 30 days in a row. That would put my 30th day right before we leave for Vegas. If I work out for 30 days in a row I get an extra $100 to play in Vegas. If I miss even one day then my husband gets $100 of MY money to play in Vegas. Today is day 6 and it is going awesome so far. Yesterday I ran for a full 30 minutes straight, so I am getting my stamina up quickly which makes me happy! Time for me to go to the gym to complete day 6, gonna go watch Cops! Smile

We are locked in! Yeehaw!

July 17th, 2010 at 12:39 am

We locked in at 3.75% today! We shopped around and were quoted $3100 in closing costs from another local bank, so we locked in for 15 years at 3.75%. We will also have to pay the prepaids (escrow and insurance, prob about $2K) but will get a check back from our current bank for about $2200 once we close and we will put that straight onto the new loan. My bank was back up to 4% today, so I am glad that I shopped around. Our payment will go from $1286 to $1316, so a $30 increase. The loan officer pulled our credit scores, 787 for me and 794 for my husband! Don't mind bragging about that cause we are very proud of them. So the ball is rolling on the whole thing and we have a meeting Wednesday. Should be all wrapped up in a nice little bow by 9/1/2010 at the latest. I feel sooooo happy and relieved that even if we were not able to make any additional payments (due to medical or kids or something) the longest we would be paying on our mortgage is until I am 41 and DH is 43. We hope to continue to pay extra every month, but you never know what the future will bring so I am glad to be locked in at a shorter term. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Running the numbers for the refinance

July 15th, 2010 at 03:30 am

OK so I crunched some numbers......I estimated the mortgage at $131,000.00 even though we are at $131,850.00 right now, I figured that would be easiest to estimate.

Scenario #1
-Paying off the current mortgage without any additional payments.
-Monthly payment $940
-19 years left on 20 year mortgage at 4.8%
-Payoff date 08/2029
-$68,936.29 paid in interest from now till payoff

Scenario #2
-Paying off the current mortgage and paying $200 extra per month
-Monthly payment $940 + $200
-19 years on 20 year mortgage would be paid off in 15
-Payoff date 07/2024
-$48,840.12 paid in interest from now till payoff

Scenario #3
-Refinance to 15 year mortgage at 3.75%, no extra payments
-Monthly payment of $952 (only increases $12!)
-15 years
-Payoff date 09/2025
-$40,479.18 paid in interest from now till payoff

Scenario #4
-Refinance to 15 yr and pay $200 extra per month
-Monthly payment of $952 + $200
-15 years would be paid off in 12 years
-Payoff date 04/2022
-$31,085.88 paid in interest from now till payoff

So the winner is Scenario #4!! The payment will only go up $12 and we would save $28K in interest if we compare the regular payment scenarios and $17K if we compare the extra payment scenarios plus the benefit of automatically taking 4 years off. I am going to apply to our bank online tomorrow and also fish around and see if I can find a similar rate for less closing costs too. I am not interested in going out of the local area so hopefully I can find something good. But I do really like the bank we are using, they always apply my principle payments correctly, have good internet bank, great customer service, and the BEST free cookies in their lobby! But even if the costs were about $5K we are still saving so much it would be a wash on the closing costs.

Refinance.......Again???

July 14th, 2010 at 05:06 am

Refinance.....Again? - We bought our house in 2007, $160K purchase price (Appraised at $160K), put $10K down (Original loan was $151K), 5.75% 30 year fixed loan. We refinanced in 2009, $140K was the balance on the loan and the house was appraised at $164K, 4.80%, 20 year loan. We paid the closing costs for the refinance out of our savings account. Now it has only been a year since we refinanced and interest has gone down a lot again and we are thinking of refinancing again. Looking at my banks website it looks like we could get a 15 year loan at 3.75%, so we would be going down another full point in interest which is huge. Our loan balance is currently at $131,850.00. We could easily afford the slightly higher payment since we are already paying extra every month and with the drop in interest the actual amount of the payment would not change very much. The only part I am struggling with is the $4K - $5K we would have to pay in fees. We only have about $7K in savings right now, so we would not want to take that money out of savings. We would need to add the closing costs to the loan or possible borrow the money from my Mom, I know she would be cool with giving us a 0% loan for a year or 2 if that is what we really wanted to do. Hmmmm....any thoughts or suggestions????

$20K Update

July 9th, 2010 at 02:35 am

Current Balance $7,680.00
-$112.00 Transfer to Roth IRA
+$32.00 Even Out Deposit
+$50.00 To EF from Paycheck
+$50.00 To Vacation from Paycheck
+$100.00 Retirement hold account
New Balance $7,800.00

Treading water here.........

Flight for Vegas booked

July 9th, 2010 at 02:29 am

We got our flight for Vegas booked yesterday. Got $59.99 each way, which I am happy with, it had been $119.99 and $99.99 the last few weeks. Crappy thing is Allegiant Air hits you hard with fees. $40 in fees each way. Frown DH got a lot of fees taken off of the bill...ground transportation, seat selection fee, and we will share one suitcase to take $60 bag checking fee down to $30. The day after we booked I heard that you can save about $13 a piece by going out to the airport and buying the tickets instead of buying online (convenience fee), did not know that before, but now that we know we will definitely go do that next year as the airport is only 5 min from our house. So flight costs came out to $400 total and hotel was free.....I am happy with a $400 5 day trip to Vegas! Yeah! Now I am sooo antsy to go!! Counting the days!

Thriftstore!

July 9th, 2010 at 02:18 am

DH had worn his khaki shorts out, one pair he got bleach on (have no idea how he did that!) and one pair he has got holes in the butt pockets. He suggested that we go to a thriftstore to look for some new ones. I was surprised at this as I never normally go to thrift store unless I need stuff for Halloween costumes....but thought it would be fun to go check it out. We have a brand new Goodwill store near our house so we went to check it out and I was really surprised at how nice, clean and organized it was, it was really more like Plato's Closet then a thrift store. Everything was sized and color coordinated! DH found 2 pairs that he liked, tried them on, and was happy! They were $3.50 per pair, so I was totally happy to pay $7.00 for 2 prs of shorts for him. But when we were paying the cashier told us the one pair was on sale for $1 and the other was on sale for $2! So 2 prs of shorts = $3!!! Soooo excited! Usually when we go to get clother for DH we go to Target or JCPenneys and it would probably be about $30 for a pair of shorts so I was psyched about the savings. We went to 3 other thriftstores in town, but they were all kind of dingy/dirty and too hard to find anything worth buying. But we were tickled with our initial finds and I will definitely be checking them out for future purchases!

Also that day we went to Coldstone for ice cream and the girl made too much for DH so he got an entire extra ice cream cup for free!

Go hubby!

$20K Challenge - Rummage Sale Monies

July 2nd, 2010 at 11:27 pm

Our total for the rummage sale came out to $47, so I transferred $50 to ING. Also had interest from ING.

Current Balance $7,575.00
+$30.00 Random Deposit
+$3.45 ING Interest Frown
+$50.00 Rummage Sale
+$21.55 Even Out Amount
New Balance $7,680.00

All stocked up again!

July 1st, 2010 at 11:58 pm

Happy to report we made it all the way through June without turning on the air! It's been rough since it has been extremely humid here and in the mid 90's. Yesterday was horrible as it was 97 degrees and we had softball! So I was dying at night from heatstroke. But since we met our goal of making it through June I did turn it on today and it is over 95 again so I am holed up with the air on!
FIL is in town to visit and brought DH 8 bars of soap, 2 cans shaving gel, pack of 52 disposable razors, 3 tubes toothpaste, laundry detergent, new tennis shoes, pack of socks, toilet paper, paper towels, shampoo, dishwashing soap, mayo and salsa. He takes such good care of us! Tonight he is taking us to Red Lobster and Saturday we are taking a little trip to the casino!