Today I made a final payment of $2,102 (actual payoff figure) to the car loan. Even though I was paying at least $70 towards the principal each month, it didn't seem like I would get it paid off much earlier than February 2010 (end of contract)anyway.

So basically I've been thinking about doing this for a few weeks/months. Creditcardfree made a comment on one of my posts in regards to having enough money in my extra income fund to pay off the car loan. I believe I was swayed by that too

Since my extra income fund has been growing at a nice pace, I decided that I could use $ from that account for the car loan and still be able to attain my goal of $8,000 by the end of 2009. That is if I can manage to hang on to my Saturday job in the upcoming months. Since this extra income is the main reason my account grows so rapidly.

As of May I quit my one Saturday job to be able to work *every* Saturday at the better paying position. It seems like I have been ranging from $700-800/month since the change now, so hopefully this goal is still within my reach. We shall see how it goes...

I've updated the sidebar, so the new balance in the extra income account is $3,087.49.

Thanks creditcardfree for your advice!

At work in the hallway I found a penny today. More to the extra income fund!!

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Since my regular monthly car payment was applied to my account, I now owe less than $2100. With the additional principal payments of at least $70/month, I should easily have this paid off before the end of the year.

Last week I took a continuing education course one evening relating to my field. It was for 3 hours & cost $95. I paid for it several weeks ago, then this week my employer reimbursed me for it. Since I had already budgeted that amount out of my pay, I decided to mail a check for that amount to the car loan principal.

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In the mail today, I received a refund check for $14.95, which will get added to the extra income fund.

Have a great evening!

Yesterday I received $1 check from Survey Savvy. Also got $3 from Pinecone in my Paypal account...so $4 extra income money so far for this week.


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The remaining balance on my car loan is now less than $2,500.


Have a great evening!

The Greenfield online $1 was deposited into my Paypal account today, which I requested yesterday.

I also sent a $70 principal payment towards my car loan for April.

Have a nice Monday!

My last principal payment of $70 has been applied to my account on the car loan, so now I only owe $2847.99!!

I plan to get a few more refund offers ready to send out today, then I must go to work!!

Have a great day!!

Yesterday I sent another $70 towards the principal on my car loan.

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Today over my lunch hour at work I did a mystery shop at Sonic restaurant. I've never been there before. Actually I'm happy I'll be getting reimbursed for the food because I wasn't that impressed with the quality. Hmmmm...maybe it's just that I don't like fast food that much. I haven't had fast food in months!!

Have a great day!!

Yesterday was a NSD for me. Had a birthday party at work for a co-worker + no need to run any errands.

My balance on my car loan is now a bit over $3212, so I think it will be feasible to pay that off by the end of 2009!

Have a great day!

Yesterday, I sent another $110 to be applied towards the principal on my car loan. Lately I have been exceeding my goal of making at least $70/month payments on the principal. So I am happy about that!

Have a good day!

I sent another $50 to the principal on the car loan today. So I've sent $120 this month instead of the usual $70.

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I received a refund check in the mail for $12.99 to add to the extra income account.

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Also, I found a penny in the break room at work.

Have a great weekend!!

So far this week I got $12.87 in refund checks from various offers. That will get deposited into the extra income fund at the end of the week.

Also, I sent out the $70 principal payment for the car loan for February.

Nothing much new here. I will probably get started on my taxes either this week or next. I'm not sure if I'll get a refund this year. I had my federal withholding changed in 2008 since I got a refund for over $2,000 for the tax year 2007.

I didn't know if my full car payment amount would be debited from my checking account yesterday. Since I had paid earlier this month a separate check towards the principal, it caused great problems. Luckily, the correct amount was debited from the account. So everything is working out well there. I just have to mail my principal checks to a separate address now in the future to alleviate any additional issues/mix-ups for the financing company.

On another note, today was a NSD for me. Felt great not to part with any money today!

Yesterday I called the car finance company again in an effort to get this principal payment that I made applied correctly. According to the notes in the computer, the CSR stated that everything was in place, it just needed approved by a supervisor. Fine. She asked if I wanted a follow-up call when everything went through. Of course, that would be nice!

Now this morning I check online and everything was applied correctly; however, the automatic debit scheduled to come out of my checking account reflects the $70 I paid towards the principal, not the full amount! I'm beginning to wonder if this is even worth all the bother! What's so difficult about leaving the monthly payment amount the same as it has always been?!?? Ugh!!

About a week ago I sent $70 to the car financing company to be applied to the principal on my loan. So I go online to make sure that it was posted correctly to the principal and not as a partial payment. Well, of course, it was not! I wasn't too surprised because I've dealt with this before with various other financing companies. I sent a note with my payment precisely stating that it was to be applied to the principal plus I put it in the memo section on the check, along with my account number.

So on Friday I called and spoke with a CSR at the financing company, explaining the situation I just mentioned. Now since I have my monthly payment automatically debited from my checking account, this causes some issues. She told me that the $70 I sent was applied towards my monthly payment of $297, bringing the amount that will be debited on the 20th of this month to $227. She told me that she would take care of the problem and allocate the funds towards the principal. In the future she said that if I want to make payments towards the principal on the loan, I must sent them to a different address in a completely different state. Ugh! There is no way I would have known this because the only payment address on the statement, of course, is the one that I mailed the check to!

This morning I go online to check to make sure everything was updated like the CSR promised me, and lo and behold it is not. So I guess I will be making yet another call tomorrow in an attempt to get this resolved. I just get so discouraged that I have to continually follow-up on business like this in virtually every aspect of my finances because of employees giving less than average customer service...it frustrates me!!

Have a good Sunday!

Today I didn't spend any money or use any gas! I stayed home all day. It was relaxing...didn't do too much. In fact I wasn't feeling that well. I think it may have been from the shrimp we ate last night. No one else in the family got sick, but I was really nauseous.

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I'm sending $70 towards the principal on my car loan tomorrow, since that is the amount I am saving since refinancing my mortgage. I will continue to send that every month to help eliminate that debt a little quicker.

I have to review my expenses/income a little closer for the last few months. I think I may be able to save more money per month than I currently do. Lately, it seems like the only money I have saved is income from extra sources besides my full-time job income.

Besides it seems like I don't have any goals for 2009 other than eliminating CC #3 and my car loan. I will then most likely begin tackling my student loan, but I don't think I will be able to pay it off in '09 (the balance is over $12,000).

If I don't continue to save any extra income (from Saturday jobs, Ebay, surveys, etc.) and keep it separate from my regular income, I'm concerned that I may be tempted to spend it. I think I should have a savings for both types of income because then if I sign up for a 0% CC promotion offer again, I may not have such a difficult time accumulating the funds at the end of the offer.

I'm open to any ideas that anyone may have to send my way!

Have a great evening!