We closed on our refinance on Friday evening. We had a 5/1 ARM at 4.75 that was due to adjust next february. We’re not going anywhere for the foreseeable future, so I know that getting into a 30 yr fixed was the right thing to do, but I still can’t shake the “did we do the right thing?” feeling. Plus, just the stress of getting it all DONE - sending paperwork to the credit union, calling and checking up on things, fax this, fax that.. I was wigging out! It’s done now. Yay!

We should be getting around $1600 back from escrow on the old mortgage. I am going to enter it as supplemental income, and then when the last paycheck of the month comes in, I will be entering that one as “primary”, which kind of makes us 1/4 on the way to Rule #1. It’s tempting to NOT do this, and just plug it into the debt, but I know that operating under rule #1 will be a big benefit to our family.

I scheduled only minimums to our credit cards this month, due to the closing and saving up for closing costs, however, I also put in a reimbursement claim for our dependent care FSA, which I decided early on in this “let’s get rid of all this debt” journey, that all FSA checks would go toward debt.

So $384 got sent to citibank. Nice :) Makes that escrow check not going toward debt a smidge better.

Can’t wait for bonus time. - after that, I should be able to enter 1 or 2 more paychecks as “primary” instead of “supplemental”.

Once again…. Just wondering if I’m talking in the dark here.. or if anyone is reading this?

So I’m a big fan of all the rules with YNAB. I feel like I knew many of them and was doing weird versions of them. For example, our 2 biggest outflows each month is our mortgage and our kids’ tuition (kindergarten for my son and all day care for both). Both are due at the beginning of the month, so I always put aside half of each payment with each of our paychecks the month before. I am paid twice a month, and my husband is paid every 2 weeks (which is usually 2x a month). Then, by the time the new month comes, those payments are sitting waiting to be paid.

What was really a pain in the ass though, was the semantics of it all. We had a savings account which our bank switched over to a checking, because I was making too many transfers in and out of it. I physically placed that earmarked money out of our checking into the “old savings” account in order for it to be “safe” for mortgage and school tuition.

I love that YNAB lets me earmark money for things and I don’t have to physically move that money anywhere. I was already *kind of* living on last month’s income, with this habit. Wahoo!