or number 10 since the refinance.

The regular monthly payment posted on 8/3/20, bringing the principal balance down to $27,142.63.

Since the previous regularly scheduled payment, I managed to pay an extra $783.04.

The last payment date has moved up to 1/3/27; that is 6 years and 5 months to go if from this point forward I pay only the regular monthly payments.

My "5th Wheel Amortization" page has been updated, if you care to take a peak.

or number 9 since the refinance.

The regular monthly payment posted on 7/3/20, bringing the principal balance down to $28,225.67.

Since the previous regularly scheduled payment, I managed to pay an extra $745.61.

The last payment date has moved up to 4/3/27; that is 6 years and 9 months to go if from this point forward I pay only the regular monthly payments.

My "5th Wheel Amortization" page has been updated, if you care to take a peak.

or #8 since the refi.

Well, another regularly scheduled payment has been made. The new principal balance is $29,270.38. So glad to be under 30k!

Since the previous regularly scheduled payment, I managed to pay an extra $907.46.

The last payment date has moved up to 7/3/27; that is 7 years and 1 month to go if from this point forward I pay only the regular monthly payments.

My "5th Wheel Amortization" page has been updated, if you care to take a peak.

or #7 since the refi.

I haven't done one of these updates in 3 months, and some solid progress has been made in the interim. During the past 3 months, I managed to pay an extra $3,559.95.

The new principal balance is $30,468.52. I have now passed the 1/3 repaid point. Super glad about that!

The last payment date has moved up to 10/3/27; that is 7 years and 5 months to go, assuming no further extra principal payments.

My "5th Wheel Amortization" page has been updated, if you care to take a peak.

On Thursday my new dentist confirmed that a partial would work for me. So, that is the route I am going. I realize it will be an adjustment to get used to wearing it, but lots of people do it and I can do it too. The cost for a partial is about $1600 before insurance pays their portion. Currently, there is a balance of $2232.79 in my dental sinking fund. I will wait until all is done and paid for, then throw the remaining balance at debt.

Yesterday was payday and I was able to send $248.29 off to the 5th wheel loan, bringing the balance down to $34,351.95. It feels great to make a little progress.

We fly to Florida Tuesday morning and sail on Wednesday. We are not canceling our trip due to the current panic, which I personally feel is blown way out of proportion.

The cruise line sent an email stating that we can cancel for a 100% credit towards another sailing if we wish. We don't. Also, they are crediting us $200 per cabin as a thank you for not canceling.

Our ship is the Caribbean Princess. So I guess if you hear that the Caribbean Princess has been detained someplace, you'll know what is going on with me.

This entry is very overdue. Loan payment #9, or #4 since the refinance, has posted. The new principal balance is $34,868.16.

Since the previous regularly scheduled payment, I managed to pay an extra $1,668.98.

The last payment date has moved up to 10/3/28; that is 8 years and 8 months to go.



When I went for my dental cleaning, the hygienist asked if I had considered a partial. I am going to discuss it with the dentist when I go for my next filling.

My birth mom has been here visiting for the past 2 weeks, which included my birthday. She has recently given up her apartment and is, for now, completely nomadic. I am so jealous! I hope that she enjoys this next chapter of her life. She plans to be back this way in a few months, so we will see her again then.

Made another principal payment yesterday in the amount of $1,668.98. Balance is down to $35,183.28.

I also had a dental visit yesterday. The dentist I had been seeing left the practice some months ago. The new dentist has a new treatment plan. This new plan includes two crowns and prep to do implants, which I will need to have done elsewhere. My share of cost is $5,400 plus whatever the periodontist charges for the implants. So, we are talking about a large dental bill.

Background: I have ruined my teeth with vitamin C drops and cough drops by having one in my mouth constantly. I have used this method to cope with my constant persistent cough. (I switched to only sugarless cough drops with no citric acid, but the damage was already done.) In the past year, I have had 3 extractions and 8 fillings. I still need more fillings and a deep cleaning, below the gum line. Previous dentist recommended doing a little at a time, which I had been doing.

The dentist wants to begin right away. I made an appointment 2 weeks out, but may cancel. I am not certain I wish to proceed. I think I may try to find where the previous dentist went. SB said I should also consider Mexico.

Also, the extractions were all in the back of my mouth. Two on the lower left and one on the lower right. So I don't APPEAR to be missing any teeth.

I think I am going to stop my extra principal payments for now and save the money instead, until I have a plan of action for my teeth.

or payment #3 since the refinance.

My automatic payment of $407.58 has posted. The new principal balance is $36,806.23. I have now paid off more than 20% of the original balance.

Since the previous regularly scheduled payment, I managed to pay an extra $5,883.06.

The last payment date has moved up to 4/3/29; that is 9 years and 3 months to go.

Twice over the last few months I have had a vet bill to pay for Bella. I budget $0 for Bella's expenses. Obviously, she costs more than $0, so this has to change. However, I am loathe to increase my total sinking fund transfer.

Looking over my sinking funds and account balances, I decided to trim bi-weekly transfers as follows:

clothing - from $23.07 to $20.00
eGadgets - from $11.55 to $10.00
gifts/Xmas - from $38.46 to $28.46
hobbies - from $3.85 to $3.00

thereby freeing up $15.47 bi-weekly to set aside for Bella's expenses (excluding her food), while leaving my total bi-weekly transfer amount unchanged at $230. So we will see how this works out.

Additionally, I have decided to use the money in car replacement towards debt. Between us, we do have 4 vehicles, 1.5 of which are mine. While my daily driver is now 12 (!) years old, it has 140k ~ish on the odometer, is a Honda, and receives regular maintenance. I expect to be driving it for a good long while yet. However, I do want to beef up my car r&m fund to handle any large repairs, just in case. After the 5th wheel loan is paid in full, I can focus on saving up for my next car.

So, my plan is to transfer $1500 from car replacement into car r&m, leave $1 in car replacement, and apply the balance of $6,342.42 towards the 5th wheel loan.

My goal with the 5th wheel loan is to have the balance down to 23k by the end of 2020; paid in full by the end of 2021. I expect this last will require dipping into my emergency fund, possibly even wiping it out. I am willing to do so only if it pays the loan in full.

Have your heard about this new company Trademore?

I have just paid my car & 5th wheel insurance 6 month premium, so I thought this would be a good time to take a close look at my insurance and registration sinking fund.

Projecting the balance through all of next year, ignoring interest earned, it looks like I will have enough to cover both insurance premiums and both registrations next year, with the lowest balance at any point being $288.64. This is more than is needed. I intend to transfer $188.64 to checking and use it towards my next extra principal payment. That still leaves a cushion of $100 plus interest earned, which in my view is plenty.

Today is payday, so that means another extra principal payment. I was so excited about getting to pay it, I could hardly get to sleep last night!

It had been 10 days since my last payment and $53.87 of interest had accrued. I calculated I had $310.77 extra, which left $256.90 to reduce principal. The balance is down to $42,674.16.

Another month's payment has been eliminated; the last payment due date is now 2/3/31.

or payment #2 since refinance.

The regularly scheduled payment of $407.58 happened today, bringing the principal balance down to $42,931.06.

Since the previous regularly scheduled payment, I managed to pay an extra $1,039.96.

If I never pay another extra cent, the last payment will happen on 3/3/31. The total interest paid will be $13,735.76, a savings of $14,118.80 from the originally scheduled interest of $27,854.56.

I am including a snip of my spreadsheet here, since it is not showing up in "My Pages".

Today is payday and that means it is time for another principal payment. They never seem to be as large as I would like for them to be.

Today I calculated that I had $208.82 available to send off to principal. I logged on, scheduled the payment for today, and voila, I am somewhat less in debt.

The final payment moved up a month to 3/3/31.

I have now eliminated more than half of the originally scheduled interest. Mostly by refinancing, but still.

It snowed yesterday evening and more is expected. SB took our travel trailer and Bella and headed down to my mom's yesterday, to avoid pulling it in the snow. I will head that way too directly from work tonight. The snow should be gone before we go home, probably Sunday.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with your loved ones, SA friends!

Today is payday, and my paycheck is received via direct deposit. My checking account balance this morning after my cash withdrawal was $2,454.54. From this, I need to subtract my sinking funds transfer ($230) and my dentist bill ($393.40, charged to Citi double cash MC yesterday) and then leave 1k in checking. That means there is $831.14 available.

I logged on to my bank account and transferred $831.14 to my 5th wheel loan. I have calculated the interest due* and updated my spreadsheet and my sidebar. I will check in a few days to see if my calculation is correct or if I need to adjust.

*Bank of the West deducts accrued interest first from any payment, then applies the remainder to principal. This is not as advantageous as what I have previously experienced, that interest is paid only from the regular payment and any extra payment is applied 100% to principal.

My final payment date is now 4/3/31, 6 months ahead of schedule.