Wow, vacation sure went by fast, but don’t they always? We all had a great time. It was fun having both our kids along with their spouses, and all the grandchildren gathered in one place. One nice thing about living on a lake is that we didn’t need much for outside activities to keep everyone entertained. We did take the time to go for a hike and see some local waterfalls. For the rest, it was mostly enjoying biking, swimming, fishing, kayaking, and going for a couple of boat rides.
One surprise activity I had for the adults was a game I called “Amazon Price is Right.” It consisted of about $800 worth of freebies I had collected from doing Amazon reviews. I had the couples compete against each other, and whoever came closest to the retail price without going over won the item. Both couples won some things they could actually use, and then there were items they said they would be regifting. Let’s just say that Christmas will be interesting this year. Now both my daughter and daughter-in-law have signed up for this freebies group.
Our son-in-law replaced our non-working toilet, which was a good thing with having ten extra people in the house. He also changed out two kitchen lights for us. These were freebies I got for writing a review.
One unplanned expense we had this past week was for our septic tank. We had never had it pumped and since we’ve lived here for four years, felt it probably would be a good thing to do. Based on how full it was, I’m glad we did it. We also had them replace the riser to the tank lid. The bill came to $620, $300 of which was for the pumping — money well spent to keep the system operating properly.
Hubs flew out yesterday afternoon, and I spent the rest of my day getting the house back in shape. I still have floors to mop and a few loads of laundry, but other than that, you’d never know we had so much company. It was a bit sad though, cleaning the little fingerprints off the windows. Noisy as all the kids are, I miss having them around.
Today it was back to work for me. I was talking to the kiddos grandma, and she mentioned they would very likely need me for at least another full year if not longer. As long as he has a feeding tube, they prefer to have a nurse care for him. This conversation stemmed from talking about the kiddo’s sister starting preschool. I guess the other sitter isn’t happy about losing hours, but hey, kids do grow up. There will come a time when they won’t need me either. Until then, I’ll work as many hours as they offer me. Although I don’t earn a lot, it has made a difference with helping to get our finances back on track.
As for our finances, July ended up being a great month as we paid off the furnace. Our baby step 2 debt is now down to our Visa. The balance remaining on that is $7,123.99. I plan to start throwing snowballs at that debt next week. They might not be huge as we have two other expenses yet this month. We still need to get our two 1,000 gallon propane tanks filled for the winter and also get wood delivered. Can you tell I still suck at sinking funds?! Once the Visa is paid off, or perhaps sooner if the spirit moves me, I’ll revisit that topic.
Another thing with our finances is in regards to Hub’s 401K. We had both agreed that once we paid off the furnace, we would increase it by 1%. His company automatically increases the contribution by 1% in July, so we really went up by 2%. While I know this isn’t what Dave Ramsey teaches (he says to stop all contributions while paying off baby step 2 debt), we feel it is right for us. I guess that is what makes personal finances just that – personal.
It makes sense to keep making those 401k contributions, even if miniscule, to me since I did that too while paying off heaps of debt. It gave me such a mental boost to know I had SOME assets during the payoff slog, no matter how little. And also the power of investing is in the compound interest. Can’t take advantage of that if you’re not in the game at all!
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I agree. The thought of doing nothing for our retirement made us uneasy. It also makes us feel good seeing the number increase. Cannot wait until we can increase it even more.
When we were paying off our debt, we broke that rule too. We always put in our 401K to the match. I wasn’t passing up free money. It maybe added 3 extra months to our debt payoff so we were OK with that. You have to do what is best for you.
Admittedly, we are over the match amount of 3%, but I also don’t think it has added a lot to our timeline. My goal was always to have our debt eliminated by the end of 2019 and I do see that happening!
Your Amazon game sounds fun. What a great way to give away those items and have fun at the same time. I agree, if your dh’s company has matching 401k, you shouldn’t give up free money. Glad you had a great time with your family. That’s great they could all come and visit at the same time.
We had a blast, and the game couldn’t have been more perfect! Makes me realize that we don’t get together as a family near as much as we should.
Sometimes we all need that extra positive mental boost to keep ourselves motivated to pay off those debts. If the matching program, free money, and a little extra bump in your overall assets is what does it for you, then I say go for it. You’ve clearly thought about it and only you know what’s best for your family’s personal finance journey.
Loving the Amazon game. How did you mange to rack up so many freebies?
Elise
The boost to our retirement has helped us mentally. I guess we need to see that we are heading in the right direction in all areas of our finances.
As for the freebies, I am part of a group on Facebook where I order items from various sellers on Amazon and then write a review. Once an item is ordered (or shortly thereafter) the seller refunds the purchase price and I can keep the item. It has been a lot of fun and cost me next to nothing. Sometimes I even make a little bit.
Glad to hear that you had a lovely vacation with the family and it sounds like everyone had a good time. Good luck with that remaining debt! I’m sure you’ll pay it off as soon as you can.
Couldn’t have asked for a better time! The debt…yes, it will be gone in no time! Sure has been a journey!
So glad you had such a great time with the kids!!! We are also not following Dave’s rule – we are too old right now to even consider not putting money into our retirement. We will have these credit cards paid off, maybe a little longer than it would have taken if we had stopped all contributions but I would not be comfortable with that at ALL. Maybe if we were in our 30’s or 40’s, but we are already behind the eight ball, I don’t want to get any further back!!!! I’m right there with you!!!
I have my knee replacement surgery next week so that is $300 out of the budget (but I’m aware it could be SOOOO much more without good insurance) so things are a little tight this payday….we will definitely be eating out of the pantry and freezers and luckily (????????) I won’t be leaving the house for awhile 🙂
Being older is one reason I feel we can’t wait. I agree with most of Dave’s advice, but not when it comes to (at the very least) taking the company match. We are too old to put off taking advantage of free money. As it is, I worry that we still won’t have enough.
I pray all goes well with your knee replacement. What a blessing to have such good insurance. Wish I lived closer and could give you a hand. Behave yourself and stay off shopping sites! Lol
I liked your tip to get your septic tank pumped regularly. My parents just moved to a more rural part of their county and have a septic tank system for the first time. I’ll be sure to let them know that they need to get it pumped just to be sure there aren’t any problems down the road.
Far better to keep it maintained than have a huge repair or possible replacement later.