My EF is edging closer to my goal of $10,000. I am fairly sure that once it reaches $8,000 I will start to split my PT job money (that now goes 100% to EF) 50/50 between EF and my $11,000 loan. However, my DH now tells me that he thinks his car is "dying" and will need lots of work. Not what I want to hear right as I am so close to a fully-funded EF!!! If you recall this is exactly what happened last year when we got the $5,000 EF fully funded, and it is the same reason I decided to go for a more robust $10,000 EF this time around. *sigh*

Anyway, on with the good news. Since my last EF update I have put 2 PT checks into the EF plus some extra from the FT job, so my new EF balance is $6,851.

Today I received a big, fat booklet full of coupons from Proctor & Gamble. This is a booklet that was offered a little while ago through their website and their monthly newspaper insert - you had to buy $50 worth of P&G items *before coupons*, mail in the receipts with the items circled and they would send this booklet.

After coupons I paid basically nothing but tax for the products I purchased (mostly Duracell batteries that were on sale at CVS for $3/pack and I used $5/2 CVS coupon and $1/1 manufacturer coupon so paid nothing oop for them). It probably took 6 weeks from the time I mailed my forms but now it is here just in time for K-Mart super doubles this week! Hooray!

I put my paycheck from my PT job into the EF, so it is now just over $6,300. Once it reaches $8,000 I think I will split the PT job income 50/50 between EF and the new $11,000 personal loan. I'd like to have that loan paid off in 12 months if all goes well.

I went down to sign for my loan at the credit union today. I asked to see my credit score since I haven't pulled ours in a couple years, and my Experian score is 813 which is excellent. I expected it to be high 700s or low 800s so no surprises which is a good thing.

I just got done setting up the transfers to the 2 cards this loan will pay off. I sent a little extra to cover interest accrued so we'll see how close I was in figuring the payoff amounts. I can't wait to see zero balances on them both!

On the other hand, I am resetting my ticker to the new loan amount- $11,000 so no more "paid in full" on my debt ticker. Alas, soon it will read "paid in full" again so I am not going to be sad about it. I am just really happy to have a plan and some extra income to make the debt payoffs go faster & faster.

I am heading to the credit union right now to pay my loan in full. This payment will now be rolled into my next debt, but I am still not sure which debt it will be.

I am going to request another personal loan at the CU so that I can consolidate 2 CC's - CC#1 is $6800 at 12.99% and CC#2 is $4200 at 9.17%. (We will still have one CC with a largish balance that is a fixed promo rate of between 3-5% which I am just praying will not change.) The CU's best personal loan rate right now is 7% which I should qualify for with my credit score, so that is better than 9% and 13%, but I still wish it were lower. Then again, beggars can't be choosers, eh?

My DH and I both got "change in terms" letters from Capital One yesterday which made us think it would be wise to move most of our CC debt to a fixed loan. It certainly looks like CC companies plan on raising interest rates into the stratosphere over the next few years. I would think that we are both excellent customers in the eyes of the CCs - have kept a large revolving balance over a period of many years and have been paying slightly more than the minimum each month but I guess that's why we received these notices since they think they've got us pretty well stuck...fortunately they are wrong and we are paying off debt rapidly these days and we do have options.

Hubby's notice says that, as of January 2010, his rate will be jumping from 9.17% to prime plus 14.65% (which would be equal to 17.9% right now, so it basically DOUBLES the current interest rate) and my account (which is at a zero balance and I do not use) says it will be changing to the same terms as of April 2010. Given these drastic changes, it certainly looks like the perfect time to be moving these accounts to a fixed rate loan at the CU.

I am just really relieved that we are in a good financial position right now and are on our way to being CC debt-free.

Thanks to compounding interest (even if it is only 1.85% now) my EF is at $5,830 today.

I received a paycheck in the mail yesterday afternoon from the 1 day/week job that I no longer work at. Apparently my very last day was not accounted for on my previous paycheck from them and I never noticed. I was happy to have this extra money to deposit in the bank. I split it between EF and my personal loan that will be paid off with my FT paycheck on the 13th.

New EF balance: $5,822
Personal Loan: $230.10