My brother wrote this in his blog this morning. I felt it was worth passing along. He is stationed somewhere in Afghanistan.


TGIF!
Thank God it’s Friday!

Or it was Friday? I get so lost over here that I lose track of the days. I did not know it was Friday until I looked down at the clock to see what time it was. It is ok because the days of the week do not matter much to me.

I hope you all have big plans for the weekend. If not, go out and have some fun! Enjoy your freedom! Remember that not every one in this world is free so take advantage of what you have but DO NOT take advantage of people. Get together with the people you love and do something special for no reason at all.

I want to hear stories come Monday of all the things you did this weekend. Remind me why I am over here fighting for your freedom.

Every body needs to take some time to enjoy life.

Be safe and have a wonderful weekend!

So I stepped up payments a bit and paid off the student loan my mom took out for me! My mom defaulted on this loan a few years ago. I took over and rehabbed it back to a positive status. Paying $100 per month would have had this paid off next February. I stepped it up to $200, then $250, then just made one final payment for $500 and change. I just got a shocked email from my mother. She gets email notifications of payments and didn't expect such a large payment. I'm not sure she really knew how much was left to pay on the loan. I explained to her that it made more sense to pay less on one of my 0% balance transfers this month and more on the student loan. The money I would have spent on the student loan next month will now go towards my balance transfer. Doing things this way saves me interest.

It feels good to pay something off!

Well, after putting ourselves on an "allowance" nearly a month ago, I am happy to say I am seeing some progress. I am thrilled most about DH taking some interest in the finances! He seems to care more about where his money goes and it setting goals for himself. He is also trying to come up with creative ways to bring more money in for his allowance. I have heard him on a couple occasions looking at the spreadsheet and saying "That's all I have left?" This is opening up his eyes quite a bit to how fast he was allowing money to disappear.

As for me: well I didn't realize I spent as much as I do. Good to know as far as I'm concerned. I never have been a big spender, but I'm even more conscious now about spending money on things I don't need. I also feel much more relaxed about DH spending money now, and that's a really good outcome from this as far as I'm concerned. He went out with his coworkers for a couple drinks one night. Well a "couple drinks" plus tip came up to $41.49 plus $10.00 he tossed in for a wedding gift. I don't care!! I feel like some financial pressure has been taken off of me. He is now responsible for staying within certain limits. I'm starting to feel free.

I think it will still take some time before I see a significant savings in spending, but I am thrilled with the progress so far.