Exciting news today: for the first month since November 2007, I am not sending a $111 car loan payment to my credit union! The bill would normally be due today, but I don’t have to pay it. I’m thrilled.
In the beginning of this month, I looked at what we had left to pay on my Subaru ($311.87) and what we had available to pay down debt in June (including Ben’s monthly bonus), and realized that we could make that $312 payment that very first week (which means we still have $100 to put toward our debt paydown goals this month).
So, I scheduled the payment. (God, I love online banking.)
Ben’s response when I texted him from the coffee shop where I was working:
Me: I’m about to pay off the Subaru.
Ben: Nice! I’m just about to leave the house, I’ll let you know if it goes up in flames as I drive away 😉
Having scheduled the payment, I then immediately pulled up my budget spreadsheet and determined the best place to reallocate those funds.
This is our new budget, with the $111 from the car payment reallocated.
I ended up putting $55 into Savings each month, and rolling the remaining $50 into the pool to pay down debt (or in this case, build up our emergency fund before I go back to school). It’s not quite the Snowball method, but I feel happier having something going into general (non-Emergency Fund) savings.
The best bit? We got our title from the credit union in the mail last night. It’s really official; we own my car.
Now, I just have to decide if we want to keep the insurance on my car the same, or change the coverage because we aren’t required by the lender to have a certain level of coverage. Changing the coverage could potentially save us more money, but our insurance costs are pretty reasonable at the moment, so I don’t know. I think a call to our agent is in order.
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Congrats on paying off your car! I’m very excited for the day that I get to do the same. It’s still a long way away, though.
Thanks, Daisy. I didn’t think we’d ever get there myself. I mean, it’s been almost five years. But we did, so I know you can, too. Just keep on it.
Congratulations not only on paying off the car but on having a plan as to what to do with that money in the future.
Thanks! I’ve been thinking about how we would use the “extra” money after we paid off my car since the amount due was less than $1,000. I’m just excited that I finally get to implement those plans!
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