New Loan Balances

The payments for our loans cleared last night. Here are the updated numbers:

• Mobile Home Loan - $4,495
• Car Loan - $5,214
• Truck Loan - $8,578

I'll have an updated net worth post at the end of the month. Our cash position will probably come down some since we will be taking some money out of our Christmas savings for gifts.

Trying to Save on Energy Costs

I was up until around midnight last night replacing door seals, checking for drafts, putting plastic window kits on the windows, etc. I even closed off the vents to one of the rooms that we don't even use. Hopefully I'll be able to save a little bit on our energy costs this winter. Any of you with singlewides, you know how drafty they can be - not to mention how everything for a mobile home is a different size. I would like to be able to keep our power bill at or below $80 this winter.

Detailed About Me

Hmm....As you can gather by the title, my wife and I are recently married newlyweds. As a matter of fact, we just celebrated our 1 year annivesary last month. I'm 20 and my wife is 24. We never really were bad off financially, but in January of this year I read Dave Ramsey's - The Total Money Makeover. Talk about a life changing book...

After reading the book, I decided it was time for us to take hold of our financial lives. Here's a breakdown of where we stood:

• Credit Union Credit Card - $285
• HH Gregg Credit Card - $550
• Lowe's Credit Card - $1,050
• Personal Loan - $3,500
• Mobile Home Loan - $6,500
• Truck Loan - $11,000

Right before we got married, we purchased a somewhat run-down singlewide for $4,000. I figured we would need around $6k to move it and fix it up the way we wanted. The personal loan was for $3,500 and my parents put their car up for collateral for the other $6,500. We fell a little short on renovations, hence the Lowe's and HH Gregg credit cards.

We're just starting our "real" jobs - I work as a customer service rep for a high-end furniture manufacturer (scary in today's economy) - been there almost a year and a half. My wife just started 3 weeks ago as a customer service rep for a telecommunications company. Our total household income now is about $42,000. I still work part-time for a grocery store, and she works part-time at Wal-Mart. All of our extra money goes toward our debt.

Here's where we stand now:

• Credit cards - $0
• Personal Loan - $0
• Mobile Home Loan - $4,625
• Car Loan - $5,310
• Truck Loan - $8,787

My wife's car was in the process of dying, so we bought a 2003 Mustang from her aunt for $4000. We rolled the personal loan into the car loan since the car was valued at around $5,500 - plus we got a lower interest rate. All in all, we got rid of the personal, got a new car, and our monthly payments actually went down by $5 a month.

That's enough for now. If you read this far, you should know most of my financial life as newlywed. I look forward to blogging about our quest to be debt free, as well as hearing from everyone else!

Welcome Everyone

Hi everyone! This is my first attempt at blogging. I'll post my "About Me" section, as well as some revelant information about this blog.