Visa has received another $300, bringing the balance down to $6,423.39. I’ll need to see what next week brings, but I’m aiming to get it below $6K. Today I also paid September’s mortgage payment. Yesterday we received our electric bill, so I took care of that bill, too. Thankfully it was down by $30 from the previous month. I changed the settings on our dehumidifiers, which no doubt helped with the savings.
This morning I was talking with my neighbor, and the subject of money came up. She said that her husband (after hearing we got ours done) wants her to arrange to get their septic tank pumped. She said that with getting their furnace repaired, buying wood and propane and still needing to get their chimney cleaned, she doesn’t want to spend the money. Trust me; I get it, but it is also one of the evil necessities of having a septic field. Not doing so could end up costing far more than keeping it maintained. As the conversation went on, we discussed mortgages. She said she has no idea how they will ever get their house paid off. Sad, especially given that her husband is 66 and that they are only three years into a 30-year mortgage. Stories like hers make me want to push all the harder to get ALL of our debt paid off. Retiring with any amount of debt is not an option.
We’ve been having a heck of a time finding someone to clean out our chimney. My neighbor (the one I spoke about) called around and managed to get someone from the next state over. They are willing to come out for an extra $60 surcharge, which we can share. Considering we are two hours from the state line, I don’t think that is too bad. I’m not entirely sure on how much the bill will be, but we need it done! One would think that with as many homes around here that do burn wood, there would be more local chimney cleaning companies.
For the past two weeks, Hubs has been training a new employee. While the extra money helps ($100 extra per day), I’m not sure it would be something he’d want to do again. The last couple of days, the new guy has been getting on his nerves. His hunch is that this guy won’t last long as he comes across as super lazy and unmotivated. Hubs doesn’t get it. It’s one of the better companies to work for, with decent perks, benefits, and pay. Trainees start at a flat rate of $325/day while in training, so not bad for tagging along with someone else for 4+ weeks. Hubs has the guy for one more week before another trainer takes over for the final week. This guy will be missing out on a good opportunity if he ends up quitting or getting himself fired.
My wood delivery won’t be here until Monday. I’m eager to get it as once it is stacked, I’ll have a better idea of whether or not to order an additional load. Plus, as strange as it sounds, I find satisfaction in seeing the stacks of wood. Hubs often compares it to having money in the bank.
I’m back to doing more with M-Turks. I fell off the wagon a bit when my kids came to visit and was missing the extra money it brought in. I average about $25 a week. While it isn’t a lot, it helps out. I want that Visa paid off, and right now, every dime I can put towards it counts!
Kudos on the lower electric bill! Our went up 70.00 but its the first month that we had to have the A/C on pretty much all month and DH insists on watering the dead lawn 3 times a day using more electric with the well pump.
Still trying to have the 401K loan and the A/C loan paid off by end of the year… baby steps, right?
Had to laugh about your DH insisting on watering the dead lawn 3 times a day. If Hubs were around I know he’d be doing the same thing. Right now our lawn is the least of my priorities.
Keep plugging away at those loans. The baby steps do work, and the debt will get paid off! You got this!
Our electric bill is going to be ASTRONOMICAL….not only has it been in the 100’s regularly, but it has been a week since my surgery and for the first 4 days I was boiling – ALL. THE. TIME. Could not get cool so had 2 fans and the a/c cranking constantly. At least while you have fairly mild summers, we have mild winters and the bills will go way down in a couple of months so I just have to try to hang strong. Since DH has been off for the week he really cleaned out the a/c unit and replaced the filter and I do feel a difference….it is 106 today so it must have worked 🙁
I am with you on the NO DEBT before retirement – while you are just sitting and doing nothing (and I can’t leave the house for at least another week) you have plenty of time to “ponder” which for me is never a good thing, BUT it has given me a chance to work on the budget (now that I am lucid) and realize there is no way we can afford to do ANYTHING once DH retires if we have any debt and that is something neither of us wants. I have literally sat on this couch for a week now and it has proven one thing to me, I do NOT want to be doing that for the rest of my life so we can make smart choices NOW or suffer the consequences later.
that Visa of yours will be gone in no time!!! Our Chase is now going to be under $3,000 and I WILL have that sucker knocked out by the end of October if it KILLS me!!!! After that – look out Bank of America!!!!
I cannot even begin to imagine temperatures like that! We are averaging temps in the 70s, and that is plenty warm for me. But, while you pay for it now, we pay for it with heating costs.
I hope you are healing well and not getting too much cabin fever. A side benefit of surgery, you did have a lot of downtime to ponder where you see yourself in retirement. Far better to deal with it now than suffer the consequences of poor choices later. Congrats on getting your Chase below $3,00. I’m going to hound you down if it isn’t paid off by the end of October! Someday I hope you’ll share your story. I’m sure it will be motivating that getting out of debt (even later in life) can be done!
I can’t imagine being 66 and only 3 years into paying off a 30 year mortgage. That is really sad to me. Keep plugging away, Lucy, it is so worth it to not have a mortgage. We just got back from our dream vacation to Alaska, a 10 day land and cruise adventure. All paid for with cash. It was a great way to celebrate all of our hard work. Next year we will do a stay-cation again, like we did last year. I am filled with gratitude to God that we were able to go. Dave Ramsey is so right when he says if you will live like no one else, later you can live and give like no one else.
I know! Such a sad situation. All I can hope is that they have a huge retirement set aside. I am thrilled you were able to take your dream vacation! Paying for it in cash had to feel amazing! You worked hard and most certainly earned the trip! I also love hearing how you give gratitude to God. I keep Jeremiah 29:11 front and center. I can’t wait to get to the final step where we can live and give like no one else. Without a doubt, we will get there!
The trainee ridealong doesn’t sound too fun, but at least they do compensate him extra. That extra money will be worth it. I am still having a terrible time finding M-Turk hits. I am lucky if I can find $2-3 a day and I refresh searching all day. It’s messing up my $25/week plan!
That’s what I keep telling Hubs. I think part of it is also that he isn’t used to having someone with him all the time. Sorry to hear that you are struggling with M-Turks too. I thought my troubles were because you were getting all the good HITS. Lol Just kidding!
Ohhhh electric bills. Ours was relatively low this month, which was a huge win for us. There’ve been months when we’ve approached $300 – a huge sum considering that our house is relatively small. I think it is poorly insulated. We’ve been training ourselves to NOT use the A/C until we absolutely can’t stand it. Then we’ll blast it for a few minutes and turn it back off. It does make a big difference!
The $76K Project recently posted…Part-Time Lifestyle And Income Report #2 (Week Of August 12)
Yikes. That is a high electric bill. We don’t have a/c (although some days we really could use it) which also helps control costs. You are doing good to pay attention to keeping yours as low as possible.
I don’t know if you;ve ever mentioned this before, but have you included your mortgage on this site as total debt? If not, will you continue blogging after you’ve paid off your conusmer debt?
Yes, we do have mortgage debt (sigh), so I will continue to blog my way through that as well. We refinanced a year and a half ago. You can read about that HERE. We will also need to build a much larger emergency fund and also want to cash flow a significant home improvement. I guess all this to say…I’ll be blogging for quite some time!