Deciding where the money should go

This isn’t a finance blog but I do have some financial goals over there on my list. A couple weeks ago Mike and I had a “State of the Union” financial meeting, and made some big decisions.

First, we’re going to try living on one income, mine. We’ll take $500/month from Mike’s pay and use it to accelerate debt payoff. And the rest of his pay will go to savings.

We also upped our 401k contributions to get each of our company matches.

We decided to pay off my car loan. We’ll take that monthly payment, add it to the $500, and start a "debt snowball" (here’s a link to Dave Ramsey’s debt snowball explanation). First we’ll pay off Mike’s student loan, then mine. By the time we’re through with that we will be able to add an extra $1100 to the mortgage payment each month. In theory. The biggest point is that we’ll have all debt paid off except the mortgage in early 2009, instead of 2012.

Of course things will change and emergencies will crop up. But at least we are in charge of our money, not the other way around.

P.S. The "State of the Union" idea came from the blog Make Love, Not Debt

Finding change

Back in June I challenged my now-husband to a contest to see who could find the most change on the street.

He won that month but I continued to look for change and have recorded my takings.

Contest month: June 2007: Mike $2.12 Vicki: $1.68
July: $1.62
August: $1.02
September: $0.73
October:$2.55
November: $2.93 (dimes were everywhere!)
December:$0.70

Total change found: $11.23 (not including Mike's $2.12)

Total: $10.53