The graph above shows our regular payment of $24.76 + $100 bonus payment for the month. Of course, some of it went to interest, but the rest was applied directly to the principal. The table shows our previous month's balance for our loans and our new current balances. The total progress for the month is only $302.57, which amounts to only 0.4% of our total debt. Since it was such a small number, I didn't even bother to update the percentage graph for our total debt paid off, and even if I did, you wouldn't be able to see it at all. Anyways, our total debt for the month dropped from $70757.78 to $70455.21.
This month also marks the first month that our AES payment jumped from $155 to $230 a month. The $155/month payment was on an interest only repayment plan, which meant that our loan was staying even but not going down at all. Even with our higher payment of $230 we still have a little bit of interest to pay off before any of our payment will start to be applied to the principal. I think it is about $380 of interest that needs to be paid. So, since our bill went up by $75, it will be about 5 months before we see a difference in our principal on that loan. I'm not terribly happy about this, but for a while we had to do everything we could to reduce our payments just to get by, and since the AES loan will never go on full deferment, interest-only was the only option that we had. Right now we also have the choice to pay off the $380 instantly so that we can begin seeing a difference in the principal right away, but that would mean cutting $380 out of our budget from somewhere else, and I haven't quite figured out how to make that happen just yet. Apply our $100 bonus payment to that amount for the next couple of months until it is gone, and then go back to paying off the smallest loan? I think that would make me lose my focus. Hmmm... something to investigate further.
I also managed to pay off a significant portion of our $300 credit card balance this month, and the remaining $150 of savings will be put aside tomorrow when my paycheck shows up. Yay for completing my monthly goal for savings and a bonus debt payment!!!! On the downside, our excess spending is all out of whack for the month because we are getting ready to move and have put a significant amount of money into getting the house ready to be lived in. Cleaning supplies and tools to fix things have cost us a huge chunk of change. Luckily, we did get a bit of a refund on our federal grants for this semester, so it hasn't made a huge impact on the rest of our budget yet. I would love to keep it that way!!! Also on the downside is that both Jason and my phones are broken. We are due for a free upgrade, but even with the free phone upgrade there is an upgrade fee for the account and we have to pay shipping for the new phones. $25/each, but seriously none of the buttons on our phones work anymore. :(
Ooooh! Another positive just came to mind. We are changing internet services when we move, which is frustrating, but will also drop our internet bill from $72/month down to $36/month for the next 6 months! Woohoo!
Have you made any progress on your loans yet?!
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