Our automatic payment on the truck loan posted. We paid $35.45 in interest last month, but a whopping $293.68 to principal.

The new principal balance is $12,412.06. It looks like another two months before we will drop below the $12K mark.

I will actually look forward to the day the principal portion is over $300 each month. I should figure out when that might occur.

Less debt. Always feels good!

The regular monthly payment on the truck loan hit the account yesterday. We paid $37.48 in interest and $291.65 towards principal.

Our new balance is $12,705.74. I love less debt!

In other news, I did get a $100.39 check from my parents. See how my dad added $0.39 for my age. He's been doing that for a few years now. Kind of clever don't you think?

I have no immediate plans for the money. I will deposit it and keep track of it as birthday money. I might need new jeans soon, if I keep losing weight!

This 2 minute

A very inspiring list.

The couple referenced in

I mentioned last month that it would be nice to get the truck loan under $13K. With the regular payment we would be about $20 shy of meeting that mark. Today, I made a principal payment in the amount of $20. Our regular payment should post tomorrow. Until then our balance is:

$13,289.38

This is the first principal only payment I've made on this loan. It feels good, and I hope I can add more here and there in the coming months.

Stay tuned for the offical under $13K post...

Our regular payment to the truck loan hit yesterday. Our balance is lower!! Yipee.

Interest $39.21.
Principal $289.92
New Balance $13,309.38

Looks like it will take more than one more month to get below $13K. Unless I make an extra principal payment. Hmm...might just have to consider that!

Our truck loan payment posted yesterday. We pay $329.13 each month. This month $40.04 was interest, and $289.09 went to principal.

The new balance is $13,599.30.

The truck loan payment posted yesterday. Of the $329.13 payment, $289.57 went to pay down principal.

Our new balance is: $13,888.19

We are under $14K!!

It's one money thing that seems to be going right. I wish I could say that about our cash on hand. It seems to be flying out the window.

There is a season for everything, right?

I looked at our 2011 goal page on my sidebar. It seems we have accomplished just about everything listed. Savings for college and retirement are on auto pilot. We paid off the van and saved the $12K for the truck. We even paid for our Las Vegas trip in cash.

One of the goals was to pay for two vacations, but in light of my husband's move, we have decided to reevaluate. Right now, taking a vacation is not financially feasible, and the time available is very limited.

The other goal is to consider converting more money from my husband's Rollover IRA to his Roth. This amounts to just under $6,000. It seems this would be a good year to do this, with the lower income from deployment, but it could also be a good year to qualify for the Earned Income Tax credit and receive a nice refund. The extra cash is a bit tempting. I will probably wait until the last minute to decide.

Our truck payment posted yesterday. We paid our regular payment of $329.13. The interest portion was $41.70. The remaining $287.43 went to principal!!

Our new truck loan balanace is: $14,177.96

It looks like next month the loan will be under $14,000. This is one balance I like to see going down. It's those bank accounts with falling balances that are hard to watch!

Our first truck payment was made yesterday. We paid $311.29 to principal. The interest was $17.84, which is a partial month worth of interest. We bought the vehicle at the end of April.

Our new loan balance is $14,465.39.

I could complain that we are paying off debt again, but I won't. I'm completely aware that this was a choice and a purchase we feel very pleased and confident about.

I'm editing to add: I actually think we could call this the second truck payment. Wasn't the first the $12,000 we put down? Yes. I think so!!

I updated the sidebar to include our new loan for the truck. Our initial loan balance is $14,776.68. It is a four year loan with a monthly payment of $329.13. The first payment is due this Tuesday, so we will see the balance start to fall very soon.

I have left the truck savings ticker up since we were a little short on our $12,000 goal. We did put $12K down in cash and borrowed the amount we were short from savings. I will pay back the $78 at the end of this month.

Don't expect to see lots of extras going to pay down this debt right now. We are in status quo mode for at the least the next year since we expect extra expenses due to maintaining two households. We are still researching places for my husband to stay. I don't think we will know the impact this has to our finances until at least one or two months after he moves for school. Yep, I'm stressed about it to say the least!

I added some more money to the truck savings in the amount of $1,672. That brings the balance to $11,922!! Only $78 short. Wish I had won that in Vegas.

But the real news is that we bought a new to us truck yesterday! We bought a 2007 Honda Ridgeline with just over 23,000 miles. It has the leather seats and a navigation system...which are much more than we were originally looking for. It is now sitting in our driveway!

Since our goal was to put $12K down, we went ahead and borrowed the extra $78 from other savings. We financed under $15K for 48 months at 3.39%. Some of the sales tax and registration fees were added to our finance amount. So yes. More debt. It was so fun to put down that much cash for a vehicle!! I highly expect we will pay off the truck early as we usually do, but that will likely wait as a goal until after we have moved.

We now have two Honda vehicles (both 2007) that we expect to have for quite a few more years to come. It would be nice to get the girls to college at least before we buy our next vehicles. Full cash would be awesome!

We bought the truck used from a BMW dealership. While we were waiting to do paperwork, the salesman took a few moments to talk to us about how affordable a BMW can be. Using a lease! Ugh. So not into those...the lease. I'd take a BMW if I could afford one.

DH and I talked yesterday about the truck money. We are going to stick to our plan and use it towards the purchase of the truck. The savings is only about half of the purchase price. The remainder will be taken out as a loan. We plan to keep our current van and this truck until our girls graduate college, which is at least 10 years away.

In the next year, we should be able to live on our current income even while maintaining two households. And we have our emergency fund we can dip into if needed. And hopefully it won't be needed. Once we move, we should be able to make new goals and progress towards those.

It feels good that we decided. I'm happy that we are sticking with our original plan.

Pay day is here. We were able to add $1627 to our truck savings. That brings the balance to $10,250!! We are getting very close to the goal.

I think near the beginning of May we can proceed to find a new to us truck. We are still trying to determine what to get and how much to actually finance. In truth, we may not put the full amount we have saved towards the truck. The only reason we won't is because of the high probability we will be running two households in the coming year. Cash will be key in keeping the additional debt down.

Do you think that is a good idea? Or should we take on less debt now and take on more debt if we need it in the next year? I don't know that we will need it, but I think I'm just trying feel some control in something that feels out of control.

We still have mortgage debt. We might have more vehicle debt in the future. I just wonder if there is more that we could do to really go extreme and save more money. Money that we could use towards debt payoff.

There are so many things we don't buy: hair coloring, cable tv, fast food, monthly haircuts (more every three months here), and more. It seems like there are more, but when you don't buy something it is hard to remember!

However, there are things we could cut back on. Netflix, newspaper, caller id, cell phone plan, wine, gym membership, pop, automatic car washes, lawn fertilizer, flowers, trips to the swimming pool, museum membership, long distance plan, internet (!), using our gas fireplace, vitamins and supplements, coffee, allowance for the kids, occassional meals out, new printer paper, craft items, gum, candy and so forth. I'm sure there are more here. Obviously, some of these would require lifestyle changes. Would they be worth it. How long would we have to do without?

I'm just thinking about it since our mortgage is over $130K, and I'm tired of paying it. I'd like to look at this question from both angles. If you are in debt, what extreme cost cutting measures are you taking to get out of debt? If you were in debt at one time, what did you do without to make the goal?

How extreme do you go?

Yep. We're done. I made the final payment today online in the amount of $1,649.79. This includes our regular payment and the balance of the loan.

Yipee!! Yipee!!

The next step: saving the most we can for a new to us truck that my husband will drive. Another loan may be in our future, but we want to minimize it as much as possible.

I received a $5 rebate in the mail.

And it's snowing here. Expecting about 6 inches.

Waiting for payday. Expecting a van loan payoff!

In two years we have paid off $40,856.39 worth of debt. It's amazing what can be accomplished when a plan is made and the eyes are focused on the goal!

We paid off our home equity loan and our van loan, as well as a little principal on our primary mortgage. The van loan will be gone and out of here next week! The debt remaining is the mortgage alone.

I'd like to say that the mortgage will remain our only debt, but there is a truck purchase on the horizon. We hope to pay at least half in cash and take out a two to three year loan on the remainder.

Do you have a plan for your debt payoff? What is your plan? Are you tracking it? Is someone keeping you accountable? This blog helps keep me focused. Why not start a blog with your debt journey? We'll cheer you on.

Happy New Year!!

Here is how our year played out in numbers:

Retirement contributions: $15,002.68
Retirement accounts increased: $31,560.27

Retirement accounts still exceed $100K. I can see why once you reach $100K and have good or even average investment returns that the money starts to increase rapidly. Fun!!

Debt paid off: $23,845.18
Total debt remaining: $132,414.32
This includes the mortgage and the van loan.

Emergency fund increased: $7000

Net worth increased: $62,405
This does not include any increase in the value of our home.

It was a great year financially, thanks to diligence in paying off debt and increased income due to deployment. Of course, I would have rather had my husband home, but I will take the positives of deployment, too.

Payday came early because of the end of the year holidays. I couldn't help but make another principal payment on our van loan in the amount of $1356.

New Van Balance: $1,643

As you might imagine, we should have this paid off in about 2 weeks! I'm really looking forward to that.

Our regular van payment posted today bringing our loan balance below $3K. It seems like a great place to end the year. My original plan was to pay it off by the end of the year, but I'd say we got pretty close.

New Balance: $2,999

I'm having computer issues, so may not be connected for awhile. Just thought some of you would want to know. Of course, I'll be working like crazy to get working right very soon. It is my primary connection to DH!!

Payday is tomorrow. The paycheck is pending in our bank account. I went online today and authorized an extra principal payment to the van loan for $952!!

This brings our balance to: $3,478!!

I believe once our regular payment hits we will be below $3K. Wow! If you really want to see how much extra we've put towards this loan since July of this year, click on my sidebar.

I'm looking forward to DH's payday. And it is not because there is no money. I actually have $45 that could be spent, but I don't think I need anything!

Payday means we finish up that emergency fund. It also means we make our regular van payment and an additional van loan payment. I love to see those balances change.

Payday is just two days away! Do you have big plans for your next payday?

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On a side note: I posted three items on craigslist tonight. I'm keeping them up for one week. If they don't sell, we are donating them. They have all been up on craigslist before with no luck. Fingers crossed this time!

I made a principal payment on our van loan today. Just a little payment of $1100. I know! Not so little really.

New Balance: $4,430

Oh, this is starting to feel really good!! More updates to come on this later in December.

The regular payment for our van hit the account yesterday. A principal payment of $469 was applied, bringing our balance now to $5,530.

Yipee! Yipee!

We started this year with a balance of over $18K. I'm thrilled we've made it this far. And there is still one more month left in the year.

We hit another milestone on the van. We are under $6k!! Yipee.

We could technically pay off the van with cash on hand, still have an emergency fund and be debt free, except the mortgage. But we'll just keep on paying a little bit each month and hope to be done by February 2010 at the latest.

Specifically, we paid $741 to the loan, bringing our new balance to $5,999.

This post is just some of my thoughts about next years goals. Things are iffy since we could be moving. The income will stay the same. The expenses could change.

We will continue to save at least 15% towards retirement.
We will contribute to our daughters college funds.
We will pay off the van very early in 2011!!
We will pay a large percentage in cash for a new to us truck.
Then...we pay off the small loan on the truck. If there is one.
And we will go on a couple's vacation and a family vacation with cash!
I will also look into converting some more rollover money to Roth Ira's.
I need to consider more to the emergency fund.
If we don't move, I need to look into refinancing or at least pay extra on the mortgage.

I'll round out all those goals out later with numbers.

I made a large principal payment of $1450 towards our van loan today. The new balance is now below $7K!!

New Balance: $6740

It feels really good to be getting the balance down this low. I must admit I'm a little bit behind based on my planning, but life gets in the way sometimes. I'll take what we have been able to accomplish because it is still fantastic!!

Are you staying focused on your goals even despite setbacks? Only two more months of 2010! What can you accomplish?

As I mentioned in my previous post, the regular payment on our van loan was deducted from our checking account but not showing on the lenders site. But I checked again this evening and the payment is now official.

The principal portion of the payment was $462.09. Therefore, the new balance is $8,190. Plus or minus a few cents!

If only I could get the balance down faster, I'd be even happier. I am happy. But I'd be happy-er!