I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…

Tell All Tuesday – Where Did August Go Edition

I can’t believe it is September already!  I guess that old saying about how time flies when you are having fun is true after all.  We’re now settling into our fall routine, with my son back in school and my afternoons home with my daughter alone.

This is the interesting budgeting in-between time.  Since we are still living paycheck to paycheck (although we do now have some back-up funds in case of an emergency) when I pay things is mostly dependent on when my spouse gets paid.   On top of that, the debt target right now (my spouse’s student loan) has a lot more conditions and regulations about how to pay extra money towards it.  With our credit card, I just threw an extra payment onto it whenever I earned some extra money.  So there is this in-between time, in-between paychecks and in-between payments when things are somewhat on hold as far as progress goes.  I still earn extra money (about $300 right now waiting to be put towards the student loan) but it sits in our savings account designated for this purpose and waits for the next time I make a student loan payment.  Which won’t be until next week.  So the overall debt payment numbers are the same as the last time I reported them two weeks ago.  Since my spouse (and I) get paid this Friday, that will change this weekend, but not before.

A number of people have asked about the idea of moving the student loan to a credit card with a 0% transfer offer and then pay it off there.  It would make things simpler as far as making extra payments, and it would cut the interest considerably.  However, I haven’t seen a 0% balance transfer offer recently that didn’t have a 3% fee attached for the privilege of transferring the money.  And, we do get a tax break for the interest paid to our student loan, which gives us a little bit back.  Since I am hoping to have the student loan paid off in October (my spouse gets an extra paycheck then and I hoping it will put us over the edge) I am content to leave the loan at Sallie Mae I think.  I have pondered the idea with my own student loan, which is at 7% interest.  To transfer it all would have about $330 in fees (3% of $11,000) but it would probably be worth it as far as interest saved, as long as I can find the right offer.  There are pros and cons, most of them psychological, that I have to consider, but it is an idea that has more than crossed my mind.  The little things do add up, and for example, our overall paid off total has sat at JUST under $20,000 for two weeks now.  If I could pay more easily, I would have paid the extra $8 by now and boosted my morale a little bit.  And that $8 would not be earing interest right now.  There is something to be said for ease of payment.

As far as August as a whole, that went okay.  We overspent on our grocery budget by about $100 this month, and I am pretty sure that this is an increase that is here to stay.  After so much time studying our grocery spending (which I include toiletries, cleaning supplies, over the counter medicines, and other miscellaneous stuff like that) I think that I am going to have to admit some sort of defeat and raise the budget yet again from $80 to something closer to $100 per week.  Silly children who eat and prices that go up every single month.  Otherwise, however, we did stay in our budget by and large, and after carrying forward the money for irregular expenses I save each month, we ended up spending about $200 less than we earned.  So we’re still on target as far as the overall budget goes, and that $200 will be moved to our student loan payoff savings account and added to the payment I make next week.

On to September!  This month:  spouse student loan under $2000.  It shall happen.  And I shall rejoice.