by Fig on January 25, 2012
It’s been tight this month trying to pay off as possible on my student loans, but I think it’s worth it to see this:
Woohoo! A ZERO balance! Sure it’s only on one loan, and the smallest one, but it’s gone! YAY! This is my first zero balance in the land of student loan debt repayment and it feels so good.
And the big one in this account is now just under $5k. With these totals my student loans are just over $15,700. that still seems like a crazy high number but at least it is dropping and I’m knocking out whole loans now.
I’m thinking I will tackle the big 2007 loan next. It’s $4,954.46 which means it will take longer but it’s currently got the highest interest rate at 6.8%. The other two are at 2.3% (I think) and the other loan with another lender is at 5%. So it makes sense to pay off the highest interest rate to save more money, even if it will take longer.
Happy day, good news! :)
by Fig on January 25, 2012
Now that I’m out of debt, I love me some cash back credit cards.
Seriously. I do.
Maybe it’s because I don’t like a lot of the other credit cards? Here are the cards I’ve had in the past and didn’t like:
Airline miles credit card. My first credit card was a credit card earned me 1 mile for every $2 spent. As an 18 year old with no credit and a crazy desire to travel I loved the card. I couldn’t wait to get a free flight! It took me forever to actually get a flight and then it was only one way. That was a failed experiment. Cards with miles per dollar or multiple miles per dollar would be better but overall I don’t like them because I don’t stick with just one airline anymore.
Store credit cards. I signed up for a store credit card once. To Sears, actually. It was a ridiculous idea but at the time I really did want the 10% off of the hundreds of dollars I was spending. Turns out I never used the card again because I don’t shop at that store.
I’ve looked at other cards with different rewards programs but haven’t really liked any of them enough to try.
What I do LOOOOOVE is cash back credit cards.
Right now I have two cards that I get cash back with, both from Chase. I have the Chase Freedom and the new Chase Sapphire card. I use both for different reasons and purposes but I like using the points that accumulate for cash back rewards. Plus I just got my $500 sign up cash back bonus from the Chase Sapphire card which went to pay for the last of the wedding expenses (photos). Cash back comes in handy at times.
I love the cash back thing because it makes sense to me. It’s a tangible reward that I’ve gotten regularly from the credit card company unlike the airline miles that didn’t translate into many tickets. I like the idea of getting money from the credit card companies instead of giving it to them like I used to!
by Fig on January 23, 2012
We went over our monthly allowance of internet this week which means we had to change our plan to add more at the cost of $40. That brings our total bill for home phone and internet to…. $170 (NZD) a month.
Sound like a ripoff? Yeah, I thought so too. But apparently here they charge for internet in a different way than I’m used to as an American. Which means we are paying over $100 a month more than what I used to pay for internet service.
Things like this and my taxes quote make me think everything here is a ripoff, but you still have to pay for it anyway because there aren’t any other options! Since services are limited and it’s a small market the price goes up to whatever anyone is willing to pay and as someone who needs internet – we just have to pay it.
But maybe I’m wrong and maybe it’s a fair price? Can I take a little poll of readers to get an idea of what you pay for internet service?
Leave me a comment and tell me how much you pay per month for internet (and home phone if it’s bundled together) and what country/state you live in.
