I’m pretty happy right now. My husband is a huge Star Trek fan, so we’ve been subscribed to CBS All Access for a while now. However, the season Finale of Star Trek Discovery was last week. That means we won’t need the streaming service for a while. I was able to cancel it, and use the free month they gave me to try to get me to stay so he could finish watching this season. Now we’ll be saving $5.99 a month until his next show comes on. That’s an extra $5.99 a month that will go into our savings account! It doesn’t sound like much, but y’all know how those pennies make dollars.
I’ve decided that one of my financial goals is to pay our van off this year. Now, we purchased it used from Caravana (GREAT experience) to begin with, but I pushed really hitting that debt hard. At first it was because we had a lot of vacations planned for 2020- I know, I know…debt comes first. But also, sometimes it doesn’t. I wanted to prioritize getting to see friends in Canada (and having them meet Miss Bongo, who they have never had the opportunity to see in person). I wanted to prioritize the magic of Disneyland, which you saw me coupon to in the Couponing To Somewhere series. Then when 2020 struck and we were uncertain about finances, rising prices of groceries, the lack of coupons- you know what we were concerned about, you lived it too- we just hunkered down.
So. In 2021, my goal is pay that van off. That monthly payment will be rolled into paying on principal for our home so that sooner rather than later we can get that extra mortgage fee dropped. Don’t even get me started on how crappy it is that not only do you pay interest FIRST, but a chunk of our payment goes to private mortgage insurance ([PMI] which benefits the lender, in this case). That goes away when we pay 20% of our principal, but in my humble and very loud opinion, we should get that money BACK at some point, because clearly we’re paying!
Look y’all, you let me get started. Now I’m sitting here mad all over again at finances. Bah. Steering back on course: Alas- that’s not how it works, so my larger goal is after the van gets paid off to snowball that money into the mortgage! Once the monthly payment drops when we pay enough to principal that the PMI, I’ll continue to make the same payments we’re accustomed to, but with a larger chunk to principal. It’ll be a big win for us, and should something happen where we need to free up extra money in a hurry, we’ll have that car payment money that can help us out.
If you’re still awake through all that, let’s see how I earned!
So friends, I’ve been having decent luck with Mercari this month! In the past I grumped about the app, but I have sold several items, including a used (in great shape) Disney plush. Who knew?! So I’m happily decluttering and making a few extra bucks here and there. I’m giving some of these items only a month or so to get gone before they go into the donation box.
Goal: $5500
January 11th- January 17th
$25- Swagbucks
$20- Crafts
$15- ReceiptHog
$14.21- Mercari
$5- Crowdtap
$5- Kids Panel
Total earned this week: $84.21
Fund Total from last post: $4539.50
Current Fund Total: $4623.71
Still Needed: 876.29
I’m averaging $115.59 a week!