Just thinking about the next couple of months...

I was very glad yesterday when J reported that our car passed WOF inspection! Woohoo! We used plastic to pay for it because we forgot that it was due this pay period and I didn't budget for it, that's why. Seeing that we have a lot of wiggle room next period, I decided to pay it then. I was originally thinking of dipping into savings but I decided not to the last minute. We have to learn our lesson of noting down to-do things!

Debt payments

We have paid more than the minimums of all of the plastics. Our debt tracker tells us that we're down to ~$8,300. Yeah! Wasn't it just recently that I said we met our goal to reduce debt to $8,500? Here we are $200 less in a few days!

Plan to celebrate

As this month closes 2 hire purchases, I plan to celebrate that. I just don't know how to yet but J and I can definitely think of ideas. One of the 2 was paid aggressively by paying it 200% on a monthly basis. There were months in the beginning of the year that we couldn't do it and we deferred the extra 100% to allocate for additional expenses that come with the baby. Now that things are settling down gradually, on a pace that seems fast when you have good budgeting, things are great and will be even greater.

Extra money

When those 2 hire purchases are paid off, we'll have extra ~$200/month and those can only be added to the snowball to rapidly kill the stinking debt virus. I really feel confident that our plastic debt would disappear before our baby turns 1 (he's nearly 7 months old). That's 5 months away! Just a little bit more sacrifice, just a little bit more focus and we'll be in a better financial situation than we were in early this year.

Moving

If we get approved for the loan of the house we are keen to get, there would be additional expenses in some areas and less in others. We don't have our own washing machine so we'd need to get one. The dryer would have to wait, hence another sacrifice to air dry them and iron them but it will be spring and summer by then so that would only save us on electricity to some degree. We'd probably not get the same packages for our internet so that would be cheaper too. Oh, I just hope it would all be smooth and not too stressing given that we have plenty of opportunity to plan ahead.

Need your opinion

J tells me that it is much better to get a brand new washing machine, whereas I think it's wise to go the buying-used route. There are plenty of them on Trademe and I just think that we can still get a better deal. Plus, we don't have all that extra money to dispense anyway. I'm just trying to be frugal but I think J thinks it's being cheap by not getting something we are sure of the quality. Whatchathink?