A Milestone and the Celebration!

Milestone

Today I would like to report on a MASSIVE life milestone.  Rob and I paid off the huge student loan!  That's right, $20,000 is finished.  Done.  Paid off.  And considering that for the last couple years we were paying anywhere from $500 - $900 a MONTH on this loan, this is a huge relief to us.

We still have 4 other small ones to pay off, but I think we'll meet some other financial goals first.  Like buying a new vehicle.  And/or a new roof.

On top of that, Rob received a real raise.  I consider it our FIRST real raise.  It didn't come with working excessively longer hours, like his extra jobs do.  So it's like free money.  Combine that with how we just paid off that loan, and our financial life just got a whole lot easier.

We're super excited about it and would love if you were super excited for us, too!  :)

Celebration

Even though we still have a little ways to go in terms of debt repayment, we took a short break from the grind and everyone chose a lifestyle upgrade.  Here's what we all chose:

For the kids, we offered them a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to buy anything they wanted.  And we told them that meant ANYthing.  Yes, Miciah, you CAN get an iPod Touch.  Yes, Elijah, you CAN get a DSi.  And that toy you want, Tank, that I told you that you could beg for at Christmas time, it's yours.  Miciah and Tank thought about it for about an hour and both of them came up with their final answer:

Miciah -

Harry Potter Lego Hogwarts Castle.  She's been asking for it for years, but I've always balked at the price.  I have to admit that it's a pretty neat set.

Tank -

The JLX OverDrive.  It's All Terrain, which means it'll even go on water.  It does really cool tricks and is pretty much the awesomest remote control vehicle ever.  Also, he purchased OverDrive's baby cousin, the JLX MicroDrive, which is perfect for indoors.

Elijah, however, decided on a different toy about every 20 minutes.  He was upset when I then told him he'd have to wait a day until I purchased him anything.  He woke up saying, "Okay, I'll take a DSi, but can I change my mind when I'm at the store?"  I told him he could, but the trick was that once we purchased something, that was IT.

While we were at the store he changed his mind another 5 times, and tried to tell me he wanted a $30 toy.  This is probably the first time I ever have talked him up in price, and likely the last.  I told him that I would probably be willing to buy him a $30 toy in the future, but a $100 toy was much less likely, so go for bigger!  I went to go look at the DSi's and when we were in that section I looked around and said, "You can have a DSi or a 3DS or..." "Wait a second.  I can have a 3DS?"  "Yes!"  The kid was sold.  I don't know how he didn't realize that a 3DS was on the table.

So that's what he got.  A 3DS and several games, which ended up being a hefty purchase.  It was really sweet that afterwards he said, "Thanks, Mom.  You spent a lot of money on us today."  It was nice that he noticed.

We were happy to include the kids in the celebration, because they've sacrificed right along with us in this whole debt repayment thing (for a debt that isn't theirs, after all).  They don't complain, they don't ask for much, and they're really, really great about everything.  That's worth rewarding.

Tamra - I wanted new technology.  We went for a mid-range laptop so we could buy 2 to replace both the ancient home computer and Rob's ancient laptop.  I insisted on faster internet, which is a $5/month upgrade, and Caller ID and Call Waiting for our home phone.  (The side effect of having Caller ID is that my phone anxiety has dropped by degrees of magnitude.  I didn't realize how much I hated not knowing who was calling until my anxiety disappeared in less than 24 hours.)

I was toying with the idea of a tablet as well, but settled on the new laptop instead.  Rob really only wanted to purchase the 1 laptop, but I told him that if we bought 2, I'd drop the tablet idea.  The kids are thrilled that all those internet games that they want to play now actually work.

Rob - Rob wanted new shoes.  That's it.  A few days later, however, I insisted that he buy something that he really wants but would never purchase for himself.  I knew he would tell me he didn't need it, so I said, "Rob, I want to buy you something, so I need you to say yes before you start objecting."  He said, "No," and I said, "But I really, really want to buy it for you!  So say yes and then I'll tell you what it is."  He said "Yes," and then, when I told him what it was, he fought me for about an hour before finally hitting the Purchase button.

A way to play his music at work while he's running monotonous experiments.  Plus it's got apps, so he can upgrade his ancient Palm Pilot (I bet you didn't know that people still used those, huh?).  ...  It's basically a smart phone without the mandatory monthly data package.

Family - And lastly, a mid-range 32' flat screen TV.  We brought it home and the kids said, "Why didn't you buy a bigger one?"  Seriously?  It's like twice the size of our old TV!  We can now read the print in movies and see the scores while watching a game and see all 4 carts when the screen splits 4 ways in MarioKart Wii.

So we have now rocketed ourselves into the modern tech era.  We'd delayed so many tech purchases that we had a lot of money to spend to get us mostly current.  Not that technology brings happiness, but it does bring more ease and less frustration, and that's nice.

Hurray for paying off debt!