We are still swimming!
I've been kind of dragging myself around with the fatigue back again. Still grateful that it's not as bad as last year.
I don't know if I mentioned, I had been saving for a car and wanted to pay cash for it but I did break down in late Jan and bought a 2016 Lincoln MKC with only 21,000 miles. With the little bit I drive, it will still last me 10+ years. Dh enjoys it more than I do, I think. lol
I "borrowed" $2000 from dh's slush fund to have some extra down payment. I paid that back in pretty quickly but then realized I had told ds18 we'd help him when he's ready to buy a car, which would be $4000 from dh, and $4000 from me, except I didn't think he'd be buying so soon and I put all of my car fund down on the car, instead of holding out $4k for him.
So while I tried to beef that fund up asap, ds of course found a car he loves. Well, every other week it was a different one he loved.
Long story short, dh had to kick in $2700 for me and we drove all the way to CT to get this car he loved. It really is neat and I can see why he loves it. It's a 2017 Mazda MX-5 Miata RF, the hardtop convertible.
It HAD to be a stick and HAD to be blue, hence the trek to CT. I'm really happy for him and though he is so young and with a car loan, he is determined to pay it off asap and build up his credit score. He really is good at socking away 90% of his check toward a car. He plans to continue doing that. I printed out a little budget for him that includes his insurance and he likes it. He's happy to have a plan to follow so that in the fall when our policy renews, he'll have the money ready and not be in a panic. This boy has matured so, so much in the past year; I'm elated for that.
He also is still working for me as my house cleaning service. This helps both of us: him with more income and me not having to clean.
Usually dh and I are not usually so much about "my money"/"his money" but most of his slush fund is the last of his inheritance from his parents and he is very reluctant to spend it, like he's hanging onto the last bit of them he can hold. That's fine. Once I finish paying him back in a few weeks for my part of ds's car, I'm going to attack my car loan. Even with putting $5k aside for Christmas like I do every July/August, I can still have my car paid off by mid-November.
Being realistic, it will probably be more like Christmas or NYD. I'll be diverting our snowball a few weeks for spending money for our Aruba trip in early April and lately we were invited to visit Universal with our BIL/SIL (dh's brother) and their kids. Our nephew is graduating from college not far from Orlando and they all decided to celebrate with a visit to Harry Potter. It's only 3 nts in late April and our flights are free with SW pts. Staying at Royal Pacific and the AP discount is so huge that the AP pays for itself and then some. Our kids will be working and are not joining us this time. Ds18 is really trying to not miss any work, even though it is offered every week by text notification. Some days, I wish my work would text me and tell me I can stay home. Sigh...
Once I pay off my car loan, I'll be paying back dh's slush fund for his half of the $8k we gave to ds18 for the car. That puts us around Feb/March next year. I know it sounds crazy but we gave ds22 $8k toward a car when he was a teen, so I feel it's only fair to do the same for both.
Then to start saving for new bedroom furniture.
What a year of car buying! No more! A post card arrived in the mail today from our local Chevy dealer offering Silverado at 0% for 72 months. I told him don't get any ideas! (He's had like 3 Silverados now.)
For now, no summer vacation plans. I think I'd like to spend a few nights at a B&B in Cape May. Mid-week after Labor Day is quiet and reasonably priced.
Sorry to ramble so much. I really need to post more often so it's not such a lengthy book.