Debt Snowball Update

For those interested in our progress on becoming debt-free, I have an exciting update!  The refinance on our house went through, and we now have a 15-year, 3.25% interest loan.  We cut 13 years off our mortgage (should we stay in this house forever) and cut what feels like a bazillion dollars in interest payments and PMI.

Refinancing our home also helped us out a lot with our student loan payoff goals.  Because of the timing of the refinance, we don't have a mortgage payment this month or next month.  We also got a few hundred dollars back, which I realize just gets tacked on to the loan, but it sure did help boost our debt snowball this month...

With the extra money from the mortgage, plus our tax returns, we were able to do some huge things this month.  Instead of paying the next biggest loan - the $2,800 Gate student loan - we paid off a $5,200 private loan from Willamette, which also had the highest interest rate on it!  Woooooo!!  We paid it on Valentine's Day just before going to sleep.  We pressed the "Send Payment" button together, and it was the best Valentine's Day present we could have given to each other.

It also looks like summer school is happening, so I'll be able to count on a paycheck in July.  Which means... the money we've been putting aside to get us through the summer is going toward another loan this month....  which means....  we're also going to be able to pay the $2,800 Gate loan that we'd planned on for this month after all!!!  It will feel sooooooo good to erase those debts from the whiteboard and write PAID instead!!

That will leave us with one last Gate loan at $4,900, my student loans at about $10,500, and Bryann's whopper of a consolidated loan at about $23,000.

Whooo those are some big numbers.........  We still have a loooong road ahead of us, but we've made such amazing progress even in these last 4 months.  Our goal is to be done by Bryann's 29th birthday, and with our progress so far, I'm pretty sure we can do it!

So keep encouraging us not to spend money and to have zero fun.  :-P  Just kidding.  We still have fun, and we still splurge every once in awhile.  Case in point, Bryann just bought a board game, and I just bought a water proof rain jacket for Alaska.  Oh yeah, and we're going on a cruise to Alaska with our friends in June.  :-D

Valentine's Firsts

There's something special about firsts.  If I know a first is coming up, I try to do something memorable for it. It's become harder and harder to do traditionally memorable things with such a strict budget but we're getting pretty creative.  We're going to keep the budget strapped down for another year and half, and we have a lot more "firsts" in our first year of marriage!

This past weekend was Bryann and my first Valentine's weekend as a married couple.  Since Valentine's Day is on a Tuesday, and I have choir practice tonight, we decided to celebrate early.  And in the spirit of keeping our spending down, we headed out to Pacific Blue and spent the weekend frolicking on the beach.  We drove up to Cannon Beach on Saturday and found a neat spot at the edge of town where the river runs into the ocean, and played fetch with Sam there for awhile.  I'm sure the river was freezing, but he was so happy jumping in and swimming around for his bright orange ball.

We had lunch at our favorite Cannon Beach Brewery - Bill's Tavern - which serves a splendid Blackberry wheat, and where we teased each other about the beginnings of grey hairs and wrinkles, and talked about what Valentine's day might be like in 5 years or 10 years.  Then we went to the outlets in Seaside to get Bryann some more work shirts and did some more beach frolicking.  :-P  The weather cooperated beautifully.  It wasn't summer weather, but the sun came out a few times and it didn't rain on us at all.

Lots of Bingo cards to keep track of!  

Then Saturday night we decided to be adventurous and check out Bingo night at the Lion's Club.  What better way to celebrate being married than to act like old married people!  We spent a whopping $20, played over 3 hours of Bingo, and were lucky enough to win a round for a $4 total profit.  We even made friends with another old married couple who loaned us their Bingo Dabbers and taught us how to play.  (I know you think you know how to play Bingo, but this was a more intense Bingo than I'd ever dreamed!)

We plan on going back to play Bingo whenever we're in town.  It was soooooooo much fun!  Even if we hadn't won, it was a nice way to spend the evening - doing something new with my hubby and laughing all along the way in our usual fashion.

On Sunday, we left a bit early (after a walk and one more round of fetch on the beach with Sammy) and stopped at a few wineries on the way back up to Portland.  I'll write more about those on the Wine & Dine Portland blog in a few days, but we enjoyed the February countryside at Tualatin Estate and a wine and chocolate pairings at Appolini Vineyards.

The vineyards are still gorgeous even in February

Enjoying my first wine and chocolate pairing

I'm not sure what the next 5 or 10 or 20 or even 50 years hold for us, but I love adventuring out with Bryann.  Frequenting our favorite joints, and throwing in a new activity here and there.  Life is always interesting with Bryann, and I'm so grateful to have him in my life and to be able to say I'm still madly in love with him even after almost 8 years together.

My NEW Favorite Things

So I'm a super huge tea fanatic.  I love tea, as well as all tea-related paraphernalia.  I have a small collection of tea sets, and once in awhile, the girls get together for a good old fashion tea party.  And I'm pretty well prepared to host these parties.  I have tea cups and saucers enough for like 12 people.  I have several tea pots, and milk and sugar sets.  But I had to put my regular sized spoons out with each cup, and regular sized spoons are way too big and kind of overwhelm a tea saucer.  

No longer!!  I found these awesome teeny "appetizer spoons" and they fit PERFECTLY with my tea cup & saucer sets!  I'm hosting a Brittish-themed book club on Friday and I'm pretty excited to put these to use!  

A Case of the Thursdays

TGTF....

Thank Goodness Tomorrow's Friday!

This is usually my motto for Thursdays, but today more so than most.  I've had an epically long week and I'm ready for it to be over.  I'm ready for the end of this uninspiring week.  I need the relaxing weekend I have planned.  I need some extra sleep.  I need some couch time with my husband and my dog/cat.  I need these last few days of January to be over.

We're on the tail end of the month, and the tail end of our budget.  We've done really well sticking to our budget goals this month.  We reduced our spending by about $200 to pay off a student loan, and we were still able to do some of the fun things we wanted.  We went to see West Side Story for my birthday, we saw some college buddies play at the Doug Fir for their CD release party, Bryann spent a weekend at the beach house with his buddies playing board games, while I went to a fun Wine & Dine party with a cool BYO favorites theme, and we went to a fantastic cook-off put on by some of our friends.  Now we have to make the last $30 stretch for the last 5 days... (I have a feeling my gas tank is going to eat it all, though)

I'm ready for January to be over.  I'm ready for the sun to start coming up before I get to work.  I'm ready to sit down with February's budget and plan it all out.  I'm ready to pay off the next loan.  I'm ready to celebrate the first Valentine's day with my husband.  I'm ready to sing in my first concert since college.

For now I'll have to settle for the week being almost over.  And I'm currently in my pajamas sipping on a tasty Apricot Ale, helping Bryann make dinner and enjoying a relaxing TGTF.

Refinancing is... Fun?

We're moving forward with refinancing our house to a 15 year mortgage.  Bryann has a buddy on his softball team who is a loan officer at Umpqua, so Bryann has been keeping close tabs on mortgage rates.  When they dropped to a record low 3.25% on a 15-year mortgage, Bryann and Dave filled out some paperwork and locked in the rate.  We're not sure how it's all going to play out over the next couple of weeks, but we're taking the next steps.

I've run the numbers for a couple scenarios, just to make sure we really want to do this.  A 15-year mortgage means a higher monthly payment, and since we're working on paying off our student loans, we could definitely use the extra money every month.  But we'll only be behind a month or so in our loan pay-off plan if we go this route.  And several factors just keep pulling me back to the 15-year loan.  Most of it though is that the money we're putting towards our mortgage will go farther for us.

First of all, we won't be paying pesky mortgage insurance anymore.  That's money I don't have to think about throwing down the drain.  Secondly, the percentage of our mortgage payment going towards interest (right now) will be lowered from 75% to 38%.  That's more money I don't have to think about throwing down the drain.  And over the life of the loan, we'll save almost $70,000!  Wooooooooooo!!!

Even short term, even if we consider selling the house at the end of our required stay (3 years from the purchase date), we'll have over $4,000 more equity in the home.

So next up is an appraisal on Tuesday, then deciding if the loan-to-value is really worth it.  Then signing a crap-ton of paperwork... again...  We're excited about where we're going, and all the good things we're doing for our financial future.

...Save the Deepening of the Spirit

And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.

And let your best be for your friend.

If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.

For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?

Seek him always with hours to live.

For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.

For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

 -Khalil Gibran

I've been reflecting a lot lately on the relationships in my life.  Tamara passed this along a few weeks ago - 20 New Year's Resolutions for 20-Somethings.  Hilarious as most of it is, #14 struck me.  " Cut one person out of your life who you truly do not like and add one person who you truly do. Note: not on Facebook, on Earth."  

As I was reading this, the instant part of my brain was thinking - easy enough, I'll delete a friend on Facebook - but then when I read the end, I was caught wondering if there was anyone in my life I didn't like.  That answer, I'm proud to say, is no.  I may actually be too young to say this, but I'm too old to deal with people I don't like!

Some of my favorite women at my bridal shower, April 2011

I know I've talked a lot before about my super awesome and amazing friends, but among those friends (and family) are some truly amazing women.  They are all strong, independent, wonderful women.  There are too many positive adjectives to describe them.  They are all the perfect examples of what friends should be.

We don't gossip about each other.  We don't cut each other down behind closed doors, or behind backs.  We throw compliments around, not insults.  We encourage each other.  We support each other.  We build each other up.  We cherish each other.  There is no other purpose to our friendships save the deepening of our spirits.  I'm so lucky to have them all in my life, and I strive to be as great a friend to them as they are to me.

The Bachelorette Crew, May 2011

Momentum

Things are getting exciting in the Turner household.  We're paying off another loan tomorrow!  This will be the third month in a row with a loan paid off, and I'm really excited about the momentum we've built!  Bryann is even in talks with a friend who's a loan officer at Umpqua Bank about refinancing our house into a 15-year mortgage.

I first brought up the idea of becoming debt free last October (2010) and we went about it halfheartedly through most of 2011, until in October Bryann realized we were way off track of our goals.  So he got serious, made a budget, made a blog (check him out at www.oregondebttrail.blogspot.com) to hold himself accountable, and recommitted our household to becoming debt free.  Since then, we've paid off a loan every month.

Next month is the last month with a relatively small loan attached.  We're gonna push to pay off a $2,800 student loan, and it's only the momentum that we've built up over the last several months that's going to allow us to do it.  We don't really have $2,800 left-over after we take out living expenses and the occasional dinner out.  In fact, even with the extra income of having a roommate live with us, we're still about $300 short...

So we're gonna try to decrease our frivolous expenses this month, and cut back on going out next month in order to get it done.  It's gonna be hard.   With all of the birthday celebrating to do next month, as well as Valentine's Day, we have a lot of good reasons to go out to eat, or grab some drinks with friends.  But we have an even better reason to cut back and say "Thanks for the invite, but we gotta sit this one out."  Thank goodness we have awesome friends who understand what we're trying to accomplish. 

I'm so excited about what we've been able to accomplish with a lot more focused intensity, and a lot of support from our friends and family.  We've been pretty lame for the last couple months.  We've had to say no to a lot of outings.  I didn't even get to go out to a fancy birthday dinner.  So I'm really thankful for all of the support and understanding we get from those around us.  I'm looking forward to seeing what kinds of crazy things this momentum will help us accomplish!