Pot of Possibilities - March 2021 (MILESTONE!!)

Time once again for the Pot of Possibilities progress report!

3/1 Paycheck $979.36

3/1 Extra funds $26.16

3/15 Paychek $971.95

3/15 Extra funds $172.29

USAA $3.08

US Bank $3.50

Found cash $20

Amex rewards $50

XRay refund ('18) $27.99

Stimulus $1400.00

NFCU Interest $72.15

FNBO Interest $14.68

March Total $3,714.16

YTD Total $10,203.14

POP Total $102,263.51

As predicted, we exceeded the $100K mark this month!! Last year our total contribution to the Pot was just over $20K, after three months we are halfway to meeting that same goal. A raise does help the finances. 

We did received $4,200 in stimulus money for myself, my husband and our college daughter. The $1,400 above is my portion. We saved $1,400 towards college tuition this fall. My husband contributed his portion to causes close to his heart. 

Two other unusual contributions are the $20 found cash and the x ray refund. I found a $20 bill in a Walmart parking lot. No one was around, it wasn't windy. Someone was just unfortunate and I was the lucky finder. I have never found paper money on the ground before! The x ray refund was a surprise. Apparently our insurance finally processed for an x ray my daughter had in the fall of 2018. We had paid the clinic and they refunded us the amount the insurance paid. 

I'm am proud that we underspent during each pay period this month. April has us traveling, helping our daughter move and some repairs to my van are expected. We will see if we can maintain that next month!  

For now, I'm celebrating our HUGE milestone of passing the $100,000 mark! Yippee!! Who hoo!! Happy Dancin'!! 

Paying off A Loan

We are cosigners on our daughter's car that we bought in May 2019. We paid about half in cash and took out a small loan for $5,700. If memory serves our daughter put about half of the cash down on the car. We honestly didn't have a great plan after that. We had some thought she would take over payments after graduating in May 2020. 

It took her about six months to secure a full time job and here we are two months later. The balance on the loan was under $3,500. We decided to pay it off in full. We know it will help her to not have a car payment, even though small at $133.50 per month. We knew that we had also received $3,600 from the Federal government this year. Money we really didn't need or want. We have always used windfalls to pay off/down debt, so that is what we have done again. 

If you pay close attention to my POP reports, yes, we did save the first stimulus cash ($2,400) towards our savings goal. We will not be reducing that number!

During the last four months of the year all federal employees were exempt from social security deductions. We saved all of these funds, which was eight payments of $258.06, amounting to $2,064.48. With the stimulus money we were pretty close to the payoff amount. There's always some extra cash in various places.

The main point is that we sent a check to pay off this car loan in full today for the amount of $3,497.81. One less payment for me or her to think about! Now we hope she can keep this car for a few years as she gets her financial life on track.