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Truck Payoff and Barn

July 9th, 2015 at 03:55 pm

I blogged yesterday about how my fuel oil budget plan bill was cut from $220 per month to $95 per month. First of all - snafu - we use #2 fuel oil, which is diesel fuel without the red dye that (at least in Michigan) means that its taxed. That is, our fuel oil is not dyed, and not taxed. Road diesel is dyed, and taxed, but otherwise it's the same stuff. Yes, #2 heating oil is expensive, but that was the furnace that was in our house when we moved into it. The cap price used to calculate my budget payment was $299/gal.

Anyway, that reduction in payment adds another $125 to my monthly cash flow. I'm going to use that money to pay off my truck early. To make a long story short, when we bought our van last December, rather than make a big down payment on the van, we made a substantial payment on my truck. The way my credit union does it, when you make a big payment, they extend the due date. So, when we bought the van, I owed something like $4,000 on the truck. We paid about $3,000 toward the truck (and some down on the van, too). So, the next month rather than having a payment due in January, the CU extended my due date to I think this next November.

I've been paying about $50 each month on the truck since then. My current balance on the truck is right around $250. Using the extra cash flow from the reduction in heating bill, I will pay the truck off in September, four months early. After that, I'll make bigger payments on the van, at least until the end of this heating fuel cycle.

Now, back to the barn. I've been talking about renovating the old hog barn. There is another barn on the property. That barn is where the cows were kept. The cow barn is in a great deal of disrepair, and has basically been abandoned. doingitallwrong left a link to a buyer of old barn wood in a comment on my blog a couple days ago. I checked the site out. The buyer is about 90 miles from my place. He requests an estimate of board feet, and sizes of boards, etc. plus my bid on price.

So, what I'm thinking is cannibalize the abandoned barn, and use those funds to improve the smaller barn.

One problem is that we don't own either barn. My dad does. When we took ownership of the property, we got the house plus one acre. Neither barn sits on that acre. I'm sure that my dad would be OK with us selling the barn wood, and using the funds to improve the other one, especially if I do all the leg work to sell the lumber. But, it is a decision that we will have to talk to him about.

4 Responses to “Truck Payoff and Barn”

  1. creditcardfree Says:
    1436454976

    I like your plans! I hope your Dad is okay with it all. It is sad to see old barns go, but financially it does make sense.

  2. laura Says:
    1436460353


    Agree with what ccf said!! Smile

  3. snafu Says:
    1436554096

    I'm so confused about the CU system of extending payment dates when making a lump sum payment or increasing regular payments. Can you insist the extra sum be applied to the principal? Does it mean CUs calculate the interest when the loan is initiated and front load it so that even if you paid off a 3 year debt in one year, you'd 1st pay 3 year's interest? Did paying down the truck loan by $ 4K reduce your interest cost in any way?

  4. snafu Says:
    1436554943

    http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=W_EPD2F_PRS_SMI_DPG&f=W.

    hope the link works to possibly help you project fuel costs.

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