$4924.11 Paid To Date

Since I started this blog, I have paid off $4924.11 not counting husband’s car loan. I have completely paid off one credit card and have most of the money for the other one in savings. Next week I will pay off more and try and get details out of husband about his car loan. Also next week I will pay off one of my student loans and at least one of the husbands. I am so excited I can barely contain myself.

According to my trusty spreadsheet, we still owe: $30,943.42 – mostly to student loan companies.

Link to the the details.

Bed Bath and Beyond Accepts Expired Coupons

Today I really needed a garbage can with a lid. I thought to myself that I have about 10 coupons to Bed Bath and Beyond so I should just take one and go. The coupons I get in the mail for Bed Bath and Beyond are 20% off one item. Perfect! I only need one garbage can and those puppies can be pricey. When I looked around, the only coupons I could find expired 3 days ago.

The husband told me to call BB&B and ask if they’d accept the expired coupons. No way would they accept expired coupons but they told me they do! So I got 20% off my overpriced garbage can. Woo hoo!

Opening ING Direct Savings

After I deposited my tax refund, I opened an ING Direct savings account. Since I got a referral, they added $25 to my savings account for making an initial deposit of $250. I deposited $750 that will go toward paying off the WAMU credit card after the interest starts accruing in November. Until then I will be earning interest on the money. OK, very little interest given the current interest rates but still.

AMEX is Paid Off!

Hurrah for tax returns! I just sent off a payment to AMEX that brings our balance down to 0 and frees up $100 a month for our debt snowball. Dave Ramsey is right about how good it feels to pay off a debt and have one less payment each month.

Husband pays for the AMEX card out of his account so I will have him redirect the $100 per month to the car loan.

AMEX Lowers Our APR and Refunds 3 Months Interest

Husband called today to ask about the interest rate on his AMEX card. It has been pretty high for a while because he would pay late occasionally until he set up automatic bill pay for the minimum amount. After a minimal amount of nagging, husband called to ask them to lower the interest rate.

He calls and asks, “I want to find out my interest rate.” That is it. AMEX customer service goes into Defcon 1. The cs person looks at the interest rate, lowers it 10% and apologizes. Then he offers to refund the difference in interest rate for the last 3 months. The refund will be applied in 24 to 48 hours and then I will have a payoff amount for the card.

Doing a happy dance. *yay*

Decisions, decisions

The husband and I talked about how to spend our $5700 tax refund this morning. Here is what we came up with:

$2000 pays off AMEX
$400 pays off all 3 of husband’s student loans
$600 pays off smallest of my 8 student loans
$750 into an ING account to go toward WAMU 0% interest credit card when it starts in with interest
$2000 toward car loan

Then tonight when kid and I drove to the store, I got out of the car and went to get kid out and hear a hissing noise. Yes, my tire went flat again. There is something really wrong with this car. So now I am wondering if I should trade it in on another car and put more of the tax return toward another car. The car is still under warranty but I can’t have a car break down all the time, especially when kid is there.  I would like to be out from under all those debts (5!) but I need a dependable car. We should have stuck to our 12 year old Toyota.

Received $5700 tax refund today

Now the fun part. What do I spend it on? Or more accurately… Which debts do I pay off first?