I booked the airline tickets today for our cruise in August. I arrive in Seattle about 4 hours before the hub does. That leaves at least a couple of hours to have coffee with SA friends in the area...hmmm.
My job posted the calculator function today for our rewards bonus. It is based on salary, goals and evaluation. I plugged in my best guess on my eval and was very pleasantly surprised to see the results. After taxes, and with all the other 'extra' end of the year money I have received, I will have about $4k to pay on debt at the beginning of Feb. Now that we have our emergency fund funded, I want to focus earnestly on this weight around our shoulders called consumer debt. I have disclosed before that the debt was made during time I had taken off work for two year...primarily with my sons business that failed and on home repairs on our older country home. It will take 3-4 years for us to pay it off, but there is light at the end of this very long tunnel.
I DO want to balance paying this debt off with enjoying this stage in our lives and traveling. The hub and I both want to explore a little now that the kids are raised...but I want to also be a good steward of our money and make sure debt is paid as much as possible along the way. My goal is to plan one bigger vacation and a few mini vacations each year. But extra money outside of the vacation budget, will go towards debt.
Tonight, I enjoyed the marinaded teriyaki chicken breast, onion and pineapple over rice. Uh, YUM. The chicken was left over...so the meal was pretty cheap. One way I can help with our budget is to live frugally while the hub is in Alaska- which I try to do. Thankfully, I have several QUICK meals that can be fixed, baked and on the plate in 30 minutes or so...which helps when youre tired- it just takes planning. I have leftovers for lunch and dinner tomorrow.
Tomorrow I find out what the hubs check will be. Also, it should be DD3s first payday this week. She had to borrow quite a bit to pay off her truck and get all her gear and get to her her job, so a portion of her checks will pay us back for a while. I always look forward to seeing what the check is...its budgeted up to a certain dollar amount, the rest is extra to put towards debt, or unexpected expenses. This week, we havent had any unexpected stuff, so it can all go towards the debt. My longer term goal is to retire in 8 years, so paying off the debt and maximizing savings is a priority now.
Coffee in Seattle in August...
January 10th, 2013 at 03:05 am
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