Where we wound up

All the payments were made and all the money that had been sitting in the checking account has departed.  So this is where we wound up for January's debt snowball…

American Education Services:
$17, 231.47

Sallie Mae:
$27,137.48

Mortgage: 
$50,000 
I'm really glad that the pressure of reaching $50,000 this month is over but I'm also rather overwhelmed with the decrease in our take home pay.  I really don’t know how we’re going to stay on track with our mortgage payments for the next two years. 

The car started acting up yesterday so now we're waiting to find out how much the fix will cost us.  And our little pot of money that we had to carry over from this month to next month looks to be ear marked for this car repair and the marriage retreat we’re attending in two weeks.  The plan to send GJS to watch his sister compete in the Boston Marathon has now officially diminished and died. 

But all is not lost.  I will keep hoping that in April I might get a cost of living adjustment of .5%.  I also caught up on Week #1 of Financial Peace University and read the first two chapters in the companion book.  I’m feeling good that I’ll finally get all this great information ingrained in my long term memory and be able to answer questions from anyone interested in learning more about getting out of debt and creating a budget.

UPDATE:  Just got off the phone with the auto repair tech and it sounds like we just needed to replace our cam shaft position sensor.  $110 out the door.  It could have been worse.  I just hate it when my cam shaft position sensor goes, don’t you?