Struggling to be debt free

$309 utilities $100 groceries $1730 student loan $33 alarm monitoring $200 spending $50 savings $100 gas I was able to make a nice payment to my student loan for this budget period and that made me pretty happy.  I was hoping to put (an additional) approximately $975 from my travel voucher reimbursement on the loan, but I ended up having to purchase 4 new tires that costly almost exactly $975. I swear, the money goblins know when money is coming your way and find a way to take it. 

I am narrowing in on getting the student loan debt down into the 4 figure range!! I made my mid- August payment and now I owe $13,036 (with interest calculated through August 31, 2015) on my student loan.  I should be able to make my goal of $12,500, easily, by the end of the month.  I should be able to get the balance below that if I am reimbursed for my May and June travel vouchers before the end of the month.  I have paid off over $10,000 so far this year! 

I can't help but dream about what my budget will look like when I am debt free (except for my mortgage).  I have done a mock up of what it will look like and I have to say I am not impressed. I have been dreaming of the day when I no longer have to put $2,300 a month to my student loans and what I will do with that extra cash.  Well, from my estimates not much. Here's where the extra money will go: $600 retirement $500 new car $150 investments $250 house $250 mom $100 vacation $128 extra mortgage payments The remainder will be split among extra grocery money, extra spending money, and taking over the cellular phone bill from my sister. I make over $80k a year now and it just seems like there is never enough money to go around.  I want to put an extra $500 a month on the mortgage and save $1000 a month for my car.  I am hopeful that I will receive another 5% raise next year, but that extra money will probably go to the mortgage. Sigh...

$1,480 mortgage $415 student loan $127 emergency fund $60 pet plan $90 groceries $200 spending $50 savings $100 gas There it is, short and sweet.  I had to use some money out of the emergency fund to replace the thermostat on the central a/c unit- so that money got replaced this month.  Otherwise, there is nothing interesting or unusual to report for this 2 week budgeting period. I just got the utility bill for July and oh my glory, it was expensive!! $303, and I usually pay a little extra on the bill so actually it was $310.  I'm trying to keep a closer eye of a/c use so that I don't have another $300 bill next month.  However, part of the increased bill was due to the broken thermostat. Argh!! Anyways, hopefully this 2 week budget period will fair better.

I was thinking the other day about the day when my student loan will be finally paid off. As you know from my previous posts I still have just under $15,000 to payoff. Let me tell you, paying off all of my debt (student loans, credit card debt, car loan, etc.) has been a major struggle for me.  I have been in debt up to my ears for the last 10 years.  However, I'm sure that the day that I announce to my friends and peers that I have finally paid off my student loans I will receive many comments about how "lucky" I am to have paid off my loans.  Already, in just speaking to friends and peers many have commented how lucky I will be to have my student loan paid off next year.   I have said numerous times to so many people how "lucky" they were when they had money to do something cool.  Wow, just thinking about that irritates me.  I don't feel lucky at all, I feel beat down and run over.  I have had to sacrifice so much just to be able to get as far...

I made my goal, my student loan is down to $14,824 as of July 31, 2015 (again, that with interest calculated through 8/14/15)!!!  I can't believe I actually got it paid down that far.  I'm so glad that I have been able to direct large amounts of money to this loan.  I can't believe that 10 years later I am still paying this thing off.  Anyways, my next goal is have it paid down to the $12,000s by the end of August.  My long term goal is to pay off as much as I can by the end of this year and then in January, pull the remainder out of savings and retire this pain in the ass student loan!!! For those of you who are interested, I have been somewhat tracking my student loan payoff this year. Here are the numbers by month:  December 2014 = $23,650 April 2015 =$19,408 May 2015 = $18,939 June 2015 = $16,632 July 2015 =$14,824 Whoop, whoop-I am kicking some student loan butt!!