Keepin' the pace

Paying off debt is arduous. I tend to be a "grab life by the horns" kinda gal and once I make a decision to do something, I do it. That's not to say I'm impulsive, because I'm not. I'll run through a decision six ways to Tuesday before I finally reach a conclusion... but once the decision is reached my focus switches 100% to implementation.

I want to be debt free now. I made the decision years ago that I didn't want to live with consumer debt hanging over my head. So the credit cards were paid off. It wasn't easy, nor was it anywhere near as quick as I wanted it to be. The car loans followed. Although that was an aspect of consumer debt that I did realize would probably come back to bite me again, at least once... after all, I knew that no matter how hard I tried I wasn't going to be able to save enough to pay for a car in full before the cars we'd just paid off died.

But we are limping along Mike's GrandAm as long as we can before we end up in the land of two car payments again. My goal is to have my Saturn paid off early. It's a 48 month loan. There is no way the GA will last another 3.5 years... it probably won't even last three. But if we can get a full year of payments in on the Saturn, and keep setting aside $50 a month towards the downpayment for Mike's next car, we'll be in a better position than we have been in our past vehicle purchases. I'll never finance a car more than 48 months again. 4 years is a long time, but what I've realized is that we tend to drive a car into the dirt within 6 to 7 years. When it hits 200K miles, it starts getting more expensive to maintain than it does to pay a monthly car payment.

Back on topic.... I want to be debt free. Unfortunately, this is not instantaneous the way I'd like. So for now, I just keep reminding myself that I am keeping the pace... slow and steady will win this race against debt.

Been slacking...

I haven't had much to say lately. Nothing has really irked me enough to feel the need to castigate some unmentionable person or situation on this blog. I'm still out here, just treading water, keeping on with the bill paying and all that jazz.

Mike and I are actively trying to get pregnant. So far this has consisted of going off birth control, and making love more often (this part is kind of fun... who'd have figured?) Not too stressed about it. It will happen when it happens. That will set our financial life on its backside though, so I'm sure there will plenty to say about this when we do get the deed accomplished.

I had an interview for a part time job teaching as an adjunct at a local college. The pay isn't bad, although it could definitely be better. I'm sort of hoping I get the job. It would be an extra $825 before tax for each class. A class runs four weeks. They said they have problems keeping faculty because they can't guarantee them a class to teach each month... this is perfect for me. I can work a month, get the extra money, then take a month off. The plan if I get this job is to save 50% of the money for my maternity leave and put the remainder towards my student loans.... although if I get pregnant sooner rather than later, I'd probably put 100% towards maternity leave savings (after all, I'll still have to make the loan payments when I'm off work for 12 weeks in the future.)