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.