I checked NT's student account this weekend and the balance for his fall semester was in there. It won't be due until next month, but I'd planned to pay part this month and part next, and I was itching to send this month's portion.
Technically I shouldn't have until our paychecks hit on the 15th, but we have so much float money in the bank from my "escrow" line items that there really is plenty in the bank. And no doubt that I'm getting paid Thursday. So I paid $2500 today! There's about $1200 left to pay, which I'll do next month.
When the payment hits our checking, we'll still have about $1300 of float. And when the CapOne 360 money comes back into our account (I closed the account that I opened only for a bonus once the 30 days were up) in the next day or two, that'll take our balance back up to $1800 or so. So I won't even be cutting it close, but I checked my budget a half dozen times to make sure I wasn't forgetting any big expenses expected to hit before payday.
Anyway, I had only $790 left of "estimated future debt" in my household debt total, so this wipes that confusing category out for good. I'll be cashflowing the rest of NT's education and it will count toward big-picture progress but not debt reduction. After I finish paying for fall, I only have three semesters to pay for next year: spring, summer and fall. Then he'll have graduated. Woo hoo!
So our August debt repayment is $1543 down, $207 to go, and our big-picture progress is at $25,473.06!
Other frugal/money-saving happenings:
- Our switch to weekly vs. semimonthly grocery budgeting seems to be working well so far; we're cutting it close this week but should be able to stay within budget.
- Took a survey that will get us a free tub of the delicious (but expensive) vegan margarine we love.
- On our diaper guy's advice, decided to go off cloth diapers and onto compostables. Since we have to use those for daycare and nightttime anyway, overall our fee will be smaller than it is now. I'll use the savings to snowflake toward medical debt until that's paid off, then add it into the general budget surplus.
- I get to take my one supervisee out to lunch this Thursday on the company dime, so free lunch for me too!
Big-picture progress!
August 12th, 2013 at 10:14 pm
August 12th, 2013 at 10:22 pm 1376346126
August 13th, 2013 at 03:10 pm 1376406617
Having been out of the European market for several year, My project over the next few weeks is to look at Vanguard's VGK, EZU & FEZ's exchange traded funds instruments. I'd be interested in your views since you might find the holdings as familiar names.
What topics of focus for ordinarysavers.com in September?
August 13th, 2013 at 03:53 pm 1376409183
I've been having tons of ideas for my blog but no motivation to write it! My tooth loss has been very distracting. I was thinking about encouraging readers to engage in some small habit change to see if it led to bigger changes, a la "The Power of Habit" (this book I've been obsessed with lately). Also, the recent in-person "League" meeting focused on retirement planning, so I thought I'd revisit that soon. Have some other ideas jotted down somewhere too! Hopefully I'll get one or two posts written this week. Thanks for reminding me.