We decided not to buy the vehicle from family. After some serious consideration, we decided that if we were going to spend thousands of dollars on a new-to-us vehicle, it should be one that really meets our needs, not one that is just better than what we’re currently driving. The SUV we were going to buy would have a little bit more space, but the gas mileage wouldn’t be great and we would want to replace it with a van sometime in the near future.
Making that decision was actually a relief to both of us. We’re still making payments on Perry’s car and only had enough saved to pay for half of the cost of the SUV. We really didn’t want to owe his family money or have a second car payment.
Now we’re back to our original plan. We will pay off Perry’s car and save up for a van. In the meantime, I will keep driving my 10+ year old car and repairs will be made as needed. I’ve tracked down maintenance manuals for both of our vehicles in the hopes that we can learn how to do some basic repairs ourselves. Any skills we can acquire will mean money saved in the future! For repairs that are more involved than we can confidently handle, we've found a fantastic (and trustworthy!) auto shop within walking distance of our house.
Balance update!
We decided to consolidate two credit card balances that had 22.4% interest onto one with a 10% rate. The lower rate may not make a huge difference if we get it paid off as quickly as we hope to, but it is one less payment to send out each month and the minimum payment with the new rate is lower than the combined minimum of the two old cards. There was a long debate about whether or not moving our debt was a good idea, but in the end, we decided that we are still working hard to pay things off and have enough impulse control to keep the credit cards put away and just use cash or debit.
Credit Card 3 - $320/$5,150
Line of Credit 2 - $2,830/$5,000
Credit Consolidation – $7,100/$7,100
Student Loan 4 - $4,471/$6,048
Auto Loan 2 - $3,435/$10,000
Auto Loan 2 - $3,435/$10,000
401k Loan - $1,171/$2,400
Student Loan 3 - $2,552/$5,614
TOTAL REMAINING - $21,879/$56,094
We'll be paying off another credit card this month, then work on tackling the line of credit. We anticipate some extra income in the coming months from freelance jobs and bonuses, so that will add some snowflakes to our debt snowball. I've gotten seriously house hungry as of late, so we've been talking more in-depth about long-term financial goals. Once all debts are paid, we intend to save as aggressively as we have paid down our debt. We want to have enough cash saved for a healthy down payment. We also hope that the sale of our townhouse will bring a small profit to add to our down payment.
5 comments:
Are you paying your debts off in the order you have listed? If so looks like you will have one more to cross off soon! You have made great progress.
You're absolutely right, Theresa. I'm paying it off this Friday!
Very inspiring insights. It certainly gave me hope and encouragement that there is always a way to get out of a financial problem. Thank you! Positive articles, such as these, should become more rampant in order to dish out more good vibes. It really pushes you to do everything you can and not give up. You've come this far and you are very close to the finish line. This update is great and I am fond of taking note about this type of update. Popular updates like travel, relationships, car financing, buying a house and even online shopping are unfailingly helpful and I definitely recommend checking out this type of updates. Kudos!
I appreciate your decision that you guys don't want to buy a news car right now. I am in agreement with your words as you mentioned above in detail. It certainly gave me encouragement that there is always a way to get out of a financial problem. Thank you so much for this post.
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