My last loan payment took the full three business days to process, but did show up today:
Payment: 505.00
Interest: 13.19
Principal: 491.81
New balance: 12,091.07
At the current interest rate of 7.65%, I'll save 37.83 per year in interest on the amount of principal paid off so far.
While thinking of ways to speed up the repayment process (I'm not eligible to do more extra shifts for cash for a couple of months), I remembered an old, neglected bank account with some money in it from college. When I went away to school they didn't have any branches of my bank in the area, so I opened an account with a local bank for day to day spending and depositing paychecks from my part time job. When I moved again for grad school I went back to using my original bank and left the college account alone as an emergency backup fund. (For a person with an insane amount of debt, I'm actually something of a money hoarder- have always felt better knowing there were funds to tap in an unexpected emergency. This is unfortunately totally irrational, and I obviously should have forked over that money for grad school tuition and borrowed less.) I set up online access to the old college account today and will transfer $1484.02 to the GP loan.
I've been enjoying reading the updates from everyone doing Mrs. Frugalista's Pantry challenge- seeing what other people are cooking motivates me to change dinners up a little here!
In other minor money happenings, coffee at work is definitely one of my most consistent spending areas. I can bring coffee from home in the morning, but during long days I generally get coffee at least once to stay alert and ward off crankiness in the evening. Trying to cut down on this, but sometimes you just need to wake up to concentrate on what you are doing. Since my last travel mug broke, I bought a new one yesterday for $3.99. Not only is this better for the environment, but you get a discount if you use your own mug: $1.29 for a refill vs $1.99 for a regular coffee. Out of curiosity, I'm going to track those savings for a while to see if it adds up to anything significant (or at least how long it takes to pay for the mug!)
So far I've gotten refills yesterday and today, so $1.40 in coffee savings.
New balance, finding money
June 3rd, 2015 at 08:19 pm
June 3rd, 2015 at 09:56 pm 1433368563
June 4th, 2015 at 08:57 am 1433408269
June 4th, 2015 at 02:36 pm 1433428563
June 4th, 2015 at 03:36 pm 1433432209
June 5th, 2015 at 01:44 am 1433468666
Bringing my own coffee to make at work probably wouldn't be practical for me logistically, but it's a good idea!