Sunday, March 1, 2009

March Budget & February Net Worth +$2,240

We're FREE from Credit Card Debt!!!

Just had to start off this status update post with that. We still have a few more debts and months to go before we'll be consumer debt free (everything but student loans and mortgage). Onto the details:

March Expenses:

200 Food
200 Car Gas
214 Car Insurance (6 month premimum)
275 HELOC
55 Cell Phone (LAST ONE!)
95 Life Insurance (story in itself, will discuss more soon)
50 Water (estimate)
120 Electric (estimate)
69 My Student Loan
380 Train Ride

March Paid Items:

1073 Mortgage
203 Mrs Student Loans
40 Natural Gas
51 House Phone
11 Cable
40 Daughter's Health Insurance

We have removed Netflix from the monthly budget, as we have been using the cable more than Netflix and have run out of stuff on DVD we want to watch. We no longer have a cell phone and are awaiting the final bill in the mail to pay it off. Our car insurance for 2 cars is due this month (though they haven't sent us a letter, so we'll be calling them this week). The train ride is a 2 week visit to my in-laws in Colorado with my wife and daughter. I'll be working part-time remotely when I'm out there. The March paid items list are items we already paid that were due in March. My father has given/lent us $2K to keep safe for him until the end of the year, which we used to prepay items (I know, not the best thing to do).

February Net Worth:

Did I let you know we paid off our last credit card? That was a large chunk of our net worth increase this month. We also paid down on our mortgage, student loans, and HELOC. We're continuing to put $128/mo into a SIMPLE IRA at my work. Next month's net worth increase will not be much unless we get 2 rooms filled with renters.

Renter Update

Since the renters affect our ability to get rid of our debts, here is another update:

- 1 renter/roommate still with us, she is current and is working on this month to get herself ahead in case of problems in the future

- 1 renter/roommate finished up his work project and left early February

- 1 renter/roommate moved out at the beginning of Feb due to not being able to pay her rent. She had been with us over 2 years, it was a little hard to see her go but it is done.

- We had somone lined up for the beginning of Feb, but she got in an accident, car junked and had her license revoked.

- We had someone stay with us for a week as charity so they could get out of a bad situation, but they lied to us almost every day in regards to their son (was told originally the son was with his father, then "new" details were given about his whereabouts and his criminal past). They no longer are with us.

So right now we have 2 rooms available for rent, we've brought the price down to $375/mo the past week to see if we could get them filled quicker, which did not happen. The price includes all utilities, washer/dryer, & wireless Internet. I'm moving the price down to $350/mo this week to see about getting the rooms filled ASAP.