Debt Repayment Decision: Part 2

I finally got my tax return! After thinking long and hard, I finally decided to just go ahead and put my extra money towards my citi student loans. These loans have the highest interest rate so it just seems to make the most sense financially. I'm going to wait until the payment actually clears to motivate my debt reduction tickers in the sidebar. I've also come up with a new goal for myself and that is to get this particular loan to under $10,000, which would make it just over halfway payed off. I figure as long as I can stay on track with the payments I have set for myself, there is no reason why I should not be free of student loans in 2.5 years - maybe sooner if I can figure out some new ways to gather extra income. In that time I will only be 26 which would be perfect because I would love to be a homeowner then too. Okay, so maybe that is not totally realistic, but I can dream can't I?

Happy Birthday to Me!

So today was my birthday and although I went out to dinner and baked myself a birthday cake I was fortunate enough to not have to pay for any of it. Gotta love great friends and a great boyfriend. The night ended well and my boyfriend and I are seriously discussing moving in together so I am happy about that. It could potentially lower what I am currently paying in rent which would mean more money for debt repayment which would be an added perk!

Favorite Free or Cheap Activities

I am trying to be creative in not spending very much money while also taking advantage of ways to spend my time that are free or cheap. I realize that many of my ideas have been thought of before, so I am not taking any credit, but here are my favorites so far:

Library - I cannot get over how much you can take advantage here if you are lucky enough to live in an area that has a great library. Books, movies, music, Internet access that are all free for use - what more could you want?

Museum "free days" - Many times local museums offer free or reduced priced admission during certain times of the week or year. I enjoy taking advantage of the contemporary art museum in my city's free day every few months or so.

"Free" Shopping - I like collecting retail gift cards that I earn through different survey - type websites and then shop. If you really want to make the most of this, combine coupons with the cards to make the deal even better. I recently signed up for Kohl's email list which gave me a $5 off any purchase coupon which I used with a gift card I had received from my mom.

Movies are definitely a luxury, so I try not to go very often. I recently joined a "5 Buck" club though which allows me to see movies that have been out for a few weeks for only $5, which is way better than the $9.50 to $10 of a normal ticket to most theaters in my city.

Web sites like craigslist or Yahoo's freecycle that list free items. This is great if you need something like a home appliance and do not want to spend any money.

Also, thrift stores! How could I forget that one. I love going thrift-shopping and just looking around without even buying something. Who knows what you might find.

I am sure that there are many others out there so feel free to share yours!

Debt Repayment Decision

I recently got around to submitting my tax return last week and I have begun thinking about where that extra money should go. The most obvious choice would be my citi loans because they have the highest interest. However, in order to keep me motivated I was thinking about putting the money into my savings account and eventually paying my Perkins loan in full. Now why would I do this?

Pros:
- The satisfaction of having one of my student loans paid in full.
- One less payment a month.
- Motivation to pay off my other loans.

Cons:
- Paying more interest to citi.
- It will take a longer amount of time to pay off my citi loans in full.

Oh, decisions. I suppose I have until the money is direct desposited into my account before I have to decide. Any thoughts about this would be helpful. Thanks.

Mid month Jan. - mid month Feb. Actual Spending

Last post I put my ideal budget, but lets see how well that went.

rent 462.50
electric 100 (Still have to get reimbursed 1/2 by roommate.)
Heat 228.54 (Still have to get reimbursed for 1/2 by roommate.)
This may seem high, but we have had the thermostat set to 60 all month.

Cash Withdrawal from Savings 20

Chase Cash Plus Rewards (My goal is to use this primarily for gas, groceries, and drug store purchases since I get 5 points on the dollar.)
262.86
Everything I spent on this card falls under gas, groceries, and drugstore except for:
Gym 21
Comcast 63.19
Car Wash 8 (I debated on this, but my car was super dirty from the weather.)

Citi MTVu
(I am trying not to use this one at all, but it does get 5 points on the dollar back for purchases like restaurants, fast food, book/media stores, and movies.)
restaurant 23

Discover
(This is my newest cashback card that I said I would only use for the quarterly 5% cashback, but I am suppose to get $10 if I spend $100 in the 1st month)
restaurant 27.42
Sprint 127.55
(The Sprint bill should not be this high, but I took over this account from my boyfriend and he still owed some.)

Total Credit Card Spending: 440.83

Total Spending: 1251.87
-164.27 (1/2 utilities)- 20(still have cash in my wallet)
=1067.60

Total Debt paid: 787.80
Perkins 63.64
Direct Loans 24.16
Citi 700

Total Income: 1827.10
Paycheck 1: 882.84
Paycheck 2: 836.12
Part-time job Paycheck 1: 57.63
Part-time job Paycheck 2: 50.51

Income - Spending & Debt
-28.30 (Not really, since I have a couple of hundred stashed away in savings.)

I have realized that I am going to have to cut back in my spending even more this month in order to get my budget under $1,000. I also put more money towards student loans this month because my paychecks were a bit higher than usual due to holiday pay.

My Debt

I have now added debt calculation tickers in an attempt to motivate myself to be free of debt. Keep in mind that I only take home about $1600 a month plus whatever my part-time job gives me which is usually only about $80 - $100 extra. This means that my budget has to stay under $1000 which has been difficult, but doable. I must say that I am looking forward to my tax return which of course will go directly to paying down the loans.

Here is the general breakdown of what I pay each month:

Debt -

Perkins: 63.64
Direct Loans: 156.05
Citibank: 500 (or a bit more if I have any extra money)

Non-Debt -

rent: 462.50
utilities: 150 (winter months)
food: 100
Internet: 63 (I know this is a splurge, but it is high-speed.)
cell phone: 50 - 60
gas: 50
misc: 50

(This does not include any emergency expenses or biyearly expenses such as my car insurance.)

Traveling

I just got back from a nice little trip back to OH for 5 days and of course I spent more money than I had planned. The trip generally takes me about 61/2 hours each way and I spent about $80 in gas total. I was lucky to have my mom treat me to some things - like the movies! Somehow I still ended up paying $23 treating my sister to lunch at a fun Mexican restaurant and $27 celebrating my best friend's birthday at an upscale Italian restaurant. However, I feel all the money spent was well worth it since it allowed me to spend some quality time with friends and family.