State of the Debt, Summer Begins ‘08

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dump the debt
Creative Commons License photo credit: Daveybot

Spring ends, summer begins, more debt goes to the great beyond. Isn’t it a wonderful thing? ;)

Yet another month of incremental debt killing. While I could have boosted the damage done to the final tally a bit by using returns from my expanding online marketing side business, right now I’m comfortable using the funds to reinvest in what’s been working. Maybe next month I’ll throw the excess at the debt, but for now having the ability to use the play I have in that side business’s cash flow to experiment has proven useful.

Likewise, I’m sure we could have trimmed more, but going over our spending versus the budget it looks like we did a little comfort spending in June. In the end, it is just money, and we needed a little cheering up more than we needed to knock a couple hundred more off the total, so c’est la vie. Speaking of, we are still waiting to hear on medical bills associated with our loss. Since we have a pretty substantial deductible, unless medical procedures have gotten cheap all of a sudden, the ol’ total is almost certainly going to suffer a brief reversal soon.

Anyway, for those into specifics, here ya’ go:

  May 31′08 Jun 30′08 Change
EVERYTHING We Owe
Credit Card Debts
Chase $18,643.04 $18,349.69 ($293.35)
Other Debts
Home Mortgage 38,612.33 38,563.50 (48.83)
Low Energy Loan 14,676.04 14,552.41 (123.63)
Line of Credit 23,912.89 23,493.91 (418.98)
TOTAL Liabilities $95,844.30 $94,959.51 ($884.79)

State of the Debt - When It Rains, It Pours Edition

Cycling through the rain
Creative Commons License photo credit: PhotoA.nl

Despite the ominous sounding headline I threw up there, the financial front of our little family ended the month making decent forward progress. Oh, sure, I would have loved to knock another few thousand a month off that total. And with our little stimulus payment (my apologies future generations!) coming in, I thought we might just have the chance to bite of a bigger chunk.

Some more good news: My little sis did manage to get herself hitched. To a guy I really like. And looked absolutely ecstatic the whole time. And while our gift spending was out of the ordinary monthly range, the wedding was no surprise and we had budgeted for that spending. So it made almost no dent finance-wise. And hey, it’s my little sister. I’m absolutely thrilled that she’s thrilled.

Looking good at knocking off that chunk so far! But alas, Murphy had other ideas. At least he had the good graces to wait to show up until we had a bit of extra coin around.

We’ve been working on growing our little family for several months without luck, until early last month when my wife shared a little good news with me one evening. Several visits to our wonderful doc later, and alas, it was not meant to be this time around. Whether at seven weeks or seven months, irregardless of how great anything else went, this type of loss makes for a rotten month.

Here’s to a better June!

  Apr 30′08 May 31′08 Change
EVERYTHING We Owe
Credit Card Debts
Chase $18,946.45 $18,643.04 ($303.41)
Other Debts
Home Mortgage 38,660.93 38,612.33 (48.60)
Low Energy Loan 14,799.15 14,676.04 (123.11)
Line of Credit 24,142.57 23,912.89 (229.68)
TOTAL Liabilities $96,549.10 $95,844.30 ($704.80)

State of the Debt, End of Tax Season 2008 Edition

Well, what do you know — made it through another tax season almost entirely intact! ;)

Macy's Display
Creative Commons License photo credit: ninanoelan

Looking at the final tally, it appears we had a bit of a slowdown this month. Which I’m going to blame entirely on my sister, of course. You see, she is getting married in a few weeks, so of course she needed a bridal shower and all that jazz. Which, being my little sister, I didn’t necessarily nudge the host — being my wife — to go cheap on the party favors and drinks and such. C’est la vie. It’s my little sister after all, and this will hopefully be the only wedding she ever has!

Which, of course, means that we’ll probably see a little more slowing this month. Have another gift to get, have to make myself presentable and such, etc. etc. At least I won’t be making a cross country flight or drive for this one!

Anyway, on to the raw numbers. Just a steady chipping away, though there has been some news on the property we’re trying to unload, but that’s a story for another day.

  Mar 31′08 Apr 30′08 Change
EVERYTHING We Owe
Credit Card Debts
Chase $19,248.77 $18,946.45 ($302.32)
Other Debts
Home Mortgage 38,709.30 38,660.93 (48.37)
Low Energy Loan 14,921.75 14,799.15 (122.60)
Line of Credit 24,462.69 24,142.57 (320.12)
TOTAL Liabilities $97,342.51 $96,549.10 ($793.41)