Oh hey, debt. Almost forgot about you over the summer. We were lucky enough to travel across this vast country of ours for work and do fun summer things that made us feel like real people for a little while. But once the temps dipped below 60 we could feel you creeping up the back of our necks. We don't want to forget about you, debt. You are inside us. Like the eternal light of God or a chestburster from Alien.
Over the summer we focused all of our energy on Keri's last student loan. Unlike the credit cards the interest is way under 5,000%, so when our payments hit, they hit pretty hard. After some reassessing of our income (including a promotion and Dylan not buying every record he saw) we were able to come up with a new budget. Following the snowball we increased the student loan payment to $600/month and found an opportunity to throw down a big 1k onto the loan in July. We paid a total of $7,299 this summer toward debt. Fuuuuuuudge.
That $600/month wasn't easy to part with though. No matter how long we've been doing this it still doesn't feel like much is happening. It's not like every time a massive payment goes through we get something out of it. It just kind of goes into the ether, never to be seen again. We just have to keep telling ourselves that this is our life for now, and it will be worth it in the end - unless we die before we pay this off, which would be not unlike that Alanis Morrisette song.
This summer we also got with the times and started using something called The Internet to track our spending habits. Before last month we were living like cave people - entering our expenses and tracking our spending in an Excel spreadsheet. Can you imagine? We were thrilled to find that MINT could do all that work for us. It tracks our payments, loan balances, income and even alerts us when we have unusual spending. Like say for instance $300 at the vets office (Thanks Maggie.) We're just now getting into all that MINT can offer, but have to say it's been kind of a life saver. It's how we were able to find the extra money needed to hit our goals through August.
So that brings us to the Fall. What are we at now? Even though we had a pretty good Summer of debt crushing, sadly, we're not where we want to be. We still feel a punch to the nether region when we add up our total debt (currently $87,237). The number is painfully high, but it shows we've paid off over $35k from the start. Could we do more? Always. We could cut our internet, eat wish sandwiches, sell Maggie to the circus. Could we do less? Sure! We could eat out more often, buy nicer clothes, participate in society. We have become comfortable somewhere in the middle. Kind of living a full life while kind of acting like frugal a-holes who sell old dvd's for cash. Also, Maggie doesn't know any worthwhile circus tricks. Okay bye.
