A few updates

Credit Cards:

Did you notice some minor changes to our CC totals???  We completed a balance transfer offer that took $5,000 from CC1 (at 19.24%) and put it on CC4 (at 5.99% for 12 months, and 9.24% after). We decided against trying to open a new card and get 0% for a few months.  Ultimately, we were concerned about dinging our credit.  We are thinking about applying for a peer to peer lending to pay off CC1 and CC3, and trying to get the best rate possible....so dings won't help our cause there.

The totals will be updated later this week after I pay the bills for the week.

Snowball #1 - Hospital:

Part of G-man's and my big talk the other day was this bill.  I budgeted to have it paid by the end of August (the kids' birthday).  This is the last of the bills related to their birth, and Bossy's subsequent surgeries and hospital stays.  We have been paying this bill for 8 years.  Yes, EIGHT years, and I need it gone.  So, in a bold move....we decided to pay it off in July.  Taking the $410 that I budgeted, plus $200 from our savings account, and $200 from our "extra" emergency fund (Dave Ramsey says to have $1000....we have almost $1450, so we will still be above the $1000).  Throw in an extra $5, and it is GONE.  Emotionally, this is a huge victory for us.

The next bill we will snowball is Student Loan 2, which should be gone in about 3 months.  This bill is the last of my student loans that are in both my and my father's name.  I was 17 when I went to college, so legally all the bills were listed as me as the co-borrower, even though my parents didn't pay the bill.  My dad did a lousy job on my loans, and because of the way he did the loans, I was unable to consolidate them or do anything, with them.  One loan had an interest rate of over 10%!  So this bill just needs to go....c'mon, I graduated in 1996!!  The Student Loan 1 is my Master's Degree.

There after, we decided to veer from Dave and go in interest order.  Currently that would be CC1, CC3, CC2, CC4, Car, Student Loan 1  We decided to leave the Dentist out of it.  If we do a peer lending, this is subject to change a bit.

July Challenge - No eating out

Today is the 11th, and except for a minor slip up on G-man where he bought a soda (he forgot about the challenge), we have not had any take out, coffee, water, soda, or fast food.  Grocery budget is still doing ok and meal planning is really helping.  I will be heading to the store later to restock for the week.

Blogging Realizations:

When I added the progress bars, I realized that when I update totals, I just write over the previous total.  I keep forgetting to make note of the starting balance!  While I have the balance of our debt when I started this blog (my blog-anniversary is just a few weeks away!), I have lost track of a few things.  Like the hospital bill....I couldn't tell you what the balance was a year ago, or even when we started snowballing it. I could probably figure it out, but that would be more work than it is worth.  So now, I will make an effort to note the starting balance of the snowball.