I made a quick projection of one scenario of what a CC debt payoff projection may look like. It assumes around $520 per month paid toward CC debt principal. It could get paid faster or slower than that, but this projection shows all CC debt paid off September 2013. That's 16 months from now.

We started getting very serious about CC debt reduction 20 months ago. That means we're on the downward slope (I hope anyway). Here's my projection:

Date CC Debt
2012 Jun $7,346
2012 Jul $6,826
2012 Aug $6,305
2012 Sep $5,783
2012 Oct $5,259
2012 Nov $4,740
2012 Dec $4,219
2013 Jan $3,695
2013 Feb $3,194
2013 Mar $2,689
2013 Apr $2,180
2013 May $1,659
2013 Jun $1,142
2013 Jul $625
2013 Aug $108
2013 Sep $-

I'm fairly certain the debt will get attacked faster than that. And, of course, each month more money goes toward principal, and less toward interest. But, I wanted to have some sort of end date in mind, without spending too much time over analyzing things.

I'm late this month (almost a month late) because I've been busy with work. But here are the numbers:

May 2012 Debt
Mort 1 $102,970
Mort 2 $69,160
CC1 $3,059
CC2 $1,925
CC3 $961
CC4 $2,408
Van Loan $5,413

Debt reduced by $1,181.

I wasn't as aggressive this month on debt repayment, mostly because I was busy with work, and couldn't spend the time figuring out what I should pay, so I winged it a bit. Our checking account shows it, too. Our end of month balance is about $1,100.

Nice to see CC3 down to triple digits, and CC2 below the 2K mark. As things quiet down at work, I can spend a bit more time allocating payments toward debt.

Hopefully I can post my June debt update in a week or so.

Hope everyone is enjoying their spring. It sure was hot over Memorial Day.

I posted a while back about my aunt and uncle gifting me a car. They delivered the car a couple of weeks ago. They ended up selling the car to me for one dollar. I guess to properly transfer the title, and remove the car from their insurance, it needed to be sold.

When I took the title into the Secretary of State office, I had to state fair market value, so the state could get their share of sales tax. I had no idea what FMV was, so I said $2,000? The guy behind the desk was nice enough to tell me that was probably a bit high for a 1997 Mazda with 200,000+ miles. We settled on $1,500. I just checked kbb.com, and it turns out that that car may be worth as much as $2,036. It's in good condition. Turns out I was closer than the guy behind the desk, and he saved me $30 in sales tax.

So the car is legal now. Have I mentioned the it has an automatic transmission? Learned to drive on a stick shift, so not a problem with me. DW, however didn't know how to drive a stick. Until yesterday. She needed to drive the car, and I needed to teach her. If you were Facebook friends with both me and DW, you could see our respective sides of the story of me teaching her to drive the stick. Let's just say it was entertaining.

I'm keeping my old car. It's a 1993 Chevy Lumina with 140,000+ miles. If the Mazda craps out, I'll have a back-up. Plus my sister drives a POS, so she can have the Lumina if she needs it.

I got a text message from our renter yesterday. She asked about our asking price and taxes and insurance. No offer, and it doesn't matter until there is an offer, but it is a step.

My grandfather built a chicken coop in the late 1940's. At the time, it was a state of the art building. In fact, the coop was visited by a poultry specialist from Michigan State College named John Hannah. Dr. Hannah went on to become president of the small agricultural college as it transformed into Michigan State University.

As a child I occasionally helped my grandparents by feeding and watering the chickens and collecting eggs. When my family moved to the farmstead nearly three years ago, DW and I (briefly) considered restoring the chicken coop ourselves so we could raise chickens. When we realized the restoration would include at minimum a new roof, we quickly decided against the idea.

Fast forward to two weeks ago. The farmers to whom my dad rents the farm land hired a bulldozer to clear out some fence rows behind the farmstead. I asked if the man on the bulldozer could knock down the chicken coop. This action would serve two purposes. First, it would remove what had become an eyesore. Second, it would allow the farmers to square up the field directly behind the chicken coop, making it easier to farm, and giving them a bit more tillable acreage. So the chicken coop went down.

Part of clearing this land included picking up pieces of iron from old fences and ancient equipment. We found an old harrow and an old packer. In total, we found 1,460 pounds of iron. Some of it came from other iron abandoned from other parts of the farm, but the majority was from immediately around the chicken coop. I took it over to the salvage yard, and was paid $126 for the iron.

We burned the old lumber from the coop last night. It was a big fire. The pile of stones and concrete remain. We'll have to wait for the bulldozer guy to return with his back hoe to bury it.