Finally, we are under the $6K mark on our home equity loan! I made our regular payment and sent in additional funds.

Total Principal Payment: $339.17
New Balance: $5,923.19

It feels good. Last time we hit a big milestone like this was May of this year when we went under $7,000. I'm sad it has taken this long, but I know all the reasons why. You probably do, too!!

Here's to continued progress!

I called the orthodontist today to inquire about a discount for paying in full. They have one. It's 5% on the balance after the insurance makes their payment.

In our case, we would get 5% off $3,781. That's $189.05.

I can't decide what to do. I really wanted to focus on the home equity loan. It has an interest rate of 7.25%. My goal of finishing this by the end of the year is stressing me out. My plan puts us on a very tight budget, especially when I put payments to the orthodontist in the mix.

I can afford to pay the regular payments to the home equity loan and orthodontist with no problem. For that I am extremely grateful. It's when I start making a plan for paying them off early, even by the end of the year that I start getting very anxious.

I need to come up with a plan that will make me less anxious, but still bring progress to our goals.

It's payday. I feels like forever (just April) since I paid extra principal on our home equity loan. Our Disney World vacation was worth it, but I sure missed attacking this particular debt!

Today, I made a payment of $347.10 to bring the balance to an even $6,500.

Tomorrow, I will make our regular payment of $118.01. That should bring the balance to $6,421!

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Turns out my girls have decided to dance and tumble again this year. Two months ago, they were ready to be done. I think they were just tired out at the end of the school year. We missed early registration, but I can sign them up any time. I will pay all costs upfront and they will waive the $84 recital fee, which is basically a 10% discount. So, there goes another $750!!

As I have stated previously, the goal for this month was to get the home equity loan under $7,000.

We did it!!

I made our regular payment of $118.01, with $75.27 going to the principal balance.

Our new balance is $6,999.00!!

Did you notice how I got the balance to a nice round number? I really had to work on my algebra skills to figure out what principal balance I needed to be at before making this month's regular payment, so that it would turn into this nice round number. It looks like my math was correct.

Again...call me a nerd!!

Often I make the extra principal payments prior to the regular payment, but I realized I was then paying interest on the larger balance, rather than the lower balance that results from making extra payments! Silly me.

Side note: Balance updates on our home equity loan will be minimal while we use our extra cash to pay for our Disney World vacation this July.

I scheduled another extra principal payment to our home equity loan. It's a funny amount, but after our regular payment, it should be a nice round number.

Additional payment is $668.43

Loan Balance is $7,074.27.

We're getting closer!

Remember my original goal for 2009? I wanted to get this loan under $7,000 by the end of the year. Did you know it is only April? Wow! Even I'm amazed.

Only another $74.28 to go. This will be the principal portion of our regular payment that I will make in a couple of days. Of course, I'll tell you all about it when it happens!

Last night I made an principal payment toward our home equity loan in the amount of $100. This is the money my parents sent us for our anniversary.

The new balance is now: $7,742.70

Trust me...I will get this down under $7K just days from now. Payday is tomorrow!

It's okay. It's the good damage. I sent in an extra principal payment to the home equity loan today in the amount of $145. Our new balance is $7,842.70.

This will be a slow month on the payoff as things currently stand. I do expect to make another, more significant payment on the 15th of April.

My mission is to get the balance below $7,000 by the end of this month. Just another $842.71 to go!!

I'm hoping for ebay to be my friend this month! Or at least, receive some survey money. I have interest in our money market account, I could pull from there, if I get crazy desperate!! Hmmm...it does sound like something I would do.

I just finished paying bills. I scheduled an extra principal payment of $672 to our home equity loan to be paid tonight!!

New Balance = $7,987.70

That puts us under $8,000!! I can't believe how far we come in such a short period of time. A concentrated effort definitely pays off.

Our goal for 2009 is to pay off at least $7,000 to get us to a balance of $7,000. Therefore, it looks like we are only $987.70 away from meeting that goal! Yippee!!

I may have mentioned this previously, but we feel that we can actually get this loan paid off in full by the end of 2009. That's a day I look forward to. Stay tuned!

I made our regular payment to the home equity loan. The principal portion was $65.30. This is the first month that the principal amount was more than the interest!! That is a milestone to be celebrated right? Interest was $52.71.

New HEL Balance = $8,659.70

There will be more additional payments this month due to some craigslist and ebay sales, as well as extra funds from today's paycheck. Those amounts will be posted later. I'd love to get this loan below $8K this month.

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There will be a brief break in this blog, while we take a weekend trip! Have a good one.

I made a principal payment of $75 towards our home equity loan. I know...I just can't stop, can I? It's kind of addictive!!

The money is from selling used books, my two gold rings, ebay sales, a half.com sale and a Pinecone check. A little here and there adds up!!

New Balance = $8,725

I'd love to get this balance below $8,000 by the end of March. Think I can do it?

I used Turbo Lister yesterday to prepare 9 items for ebay listing. I will load them up this evening to start things off for March.

I found two spring dresses, two pairs of jeans, a windbreaker, a jean jacket, two spring sweaters and a pair of capris to sell. It's kind of nice that the kids grow, so that I can sell on ebay. Of course, I buy them newer clothes when this happens! It is just a cycle.

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DH and I will measure our living room window today so we can order faux wood blinds. They are on sale at justblinds dot com. The bamboo blinds that came with the house just don't work for me. They will be sold at our garage sale in the spring. The blinds will cost about $150 because it is a large window!! I have set aside money this month for this purpose.

I made a principal payment to our home equity loan today in the amount of $615! This is extra money we have available this pay period to apply to the loan.

The new balance of the loan is now under $9,000!!

New Balance = $8,800

My original goal was to get this loan under $7,000. I think we will actually get it paid off at the rate we are going. That makes me soooo happy!!

Next week, I will send in my ebay challenge money!

We spent $66.67 on groceries this week. That is really good. That is for all four of us, too! We had several things in the cupboards and freezer that we can make for dinner.

I made the girls friendship bread from a starter I had in the freezer. This is a replacement for prepackaged preservative laden sweets. They will take a slice in their lunch each day this week.

Only 5 more days until payday! We have about $60 left. I will need to use a bit of it for a haircut! It just can't be put off any longer.

I'm going to use the rest of the week to start looking ahead to March. We have a birthday, school spring break, and a small out of town trip planned. I may also be purchasing some living room blinds since they are now on sale. These things will effect how much I send in to the home equity loan at the beginning of March. I'm sure I can get the balance under $9K!!!

I was talking to my sister today about how I budget and pay bills and find money to send towards our home equity loan.

We get two paychecks a month on the 1st and the 15th. They are virtually equal.

I first pay all bills and investments that are due during that time frame. Many of these are automatic, but I record them all in the checkbook.

Second, I mentally pull $700 from the remaining checkbook balance. This $700 is for auto fuel and groceries. We use it to pay clothing, kids lunches...whatever comes up during that pay period. Sometimes this isn't enough. I'll explain that later.

Finally, the remaining amount after bills, investments and our $700 is the amount I should have available to send in to our home equity loan.

This is the basic plan each pay period. We have a second checking account that holds our escrow funds (see my page on the right about that) and a small cushion of cash. This small cushion is not more than $500. Right now it is actually $250!

So, if the $700 runs out we attempt to curb spending or dip into the cushion in our 2nd checking account. We also can dip further into our emergency fund for large car repairs, ect. If we do borrow from the EF it gets paid back with the extra funds we get the following pay period, or as many pay periods as it takes.

If we know of expenses in the future, we simply put the cash aside ahead of time. For example, I expect to purchase a new sink for our kitchen at some point. When the time comes I will reduce the extra principal payment to the home equity loan by the amount I need for the sink.

So, clear as mud? Does that make sense? I hope it helps someone out there. It works for us. I already have a handle on most of our spending so that helps keeps things working smoothly.

Feel free to ask questions!

to the home equity loan. I sent in $504.27 today! I think that will be it for February.

New HEL Balance = $9,415.00

Total Principal Paid in February = $3,437

What a month!

I expect things to slow done a little for the next few months. There's a birthday, and spring projects that will take a bite out of our extra income. But there will still be progress!

How are the rest of you doing on your extra mortgage payments?

I've sold a book on half.com!

Okay, the book was only a dollar, so we don't need to get too excited. Since they give a shipping credit, I will receive a total of $3.92. The shipping cost will be $2.23. My net is $1.69. I will add it to my ebay challenge total.

February Total To Date $22.94
January Total $4.95

I will be listing two pairs of girls jeans to ebay this week. I think I have a few more items for half.com, too.

Our regular home equity payment posted yesterday. The principal portion of the $118.01 was $57.73! Last month the pricipal amount was only $37. So, we are making progress in the interest department.

Old Balance = $9977.00
New Balance = $9919.27

I expect to make one more extra principal payment for the month of February.

Oh, and we have nearly paid $3K toward the principal this month. Amazing!! Most of this was due to our tax returns totalling nearly $2K.

Yep, I did it. I made ANOTHER payment to our home equity loan!!

The payment was $610, which was the amount of our federal tax return. All the money went to principal reduction.

Old Balance = $10,587
New Balance = $9,977

Did you notice we now owe less than $10K? That's only four figures of debt rather than 5!!!

We are making quite a bit of progress on our home equity loan this month. I just made a payment of $915 to shave the principal balance down a bit! This money comes from extra funds in our checking account this pay period.

Previous Balance = $11,502
New Balance = $10,587

So far, in February, we have made extra principal payments totalling $2,265!! This is fun! And there's more to come next week...stay tuned!

I sent our state refund of $1350 to our home equity loan!! That is a huge one time payment. Kind of scary to send it out, but I did it.

The new home equity loan balance is now under $12K, in the amount of $11,502. And guess what? I'm not done yet. There will be more money sent in this month!

This is fun!!

I sold my first item for 2009 on ebay today!! A pair of girls jeans for $4.95! This could be my total for January. I have one other item that could sell early. Out of the four items left, two are being watched.

The other challenge? Mooshocker has started at 2009 Mortgage Payment Challenge to see who can pay the most towards principal. I'm in. We are paying extra on our home equity loan already. The minimum we will pay off is $7,000. But we just might pay the whole thing off. Wouldn't that be cool!!

I will track the extra principal paid each month on the sidebar. Good luck everyone