I Guess I'm A Grown Up

I got my first full time paycheck last week. It was large. Larger than it will normally be. Why? Because they back-payed me all the way back to August. Yeah, I know...crazy, right? I didn't expect it since our district is so poor, but you better believe I ran right to the bank and deposited that sucker before they could change their minds!

Brian and I joked around a lot about what we could/should/would do with that money. It was never a debate, though. I knew, from the moment I saw that check, what I would spend it on. I was going to pay off my car.

If you've been reading for awhile, you might remember when I bought my car. Almost two years ago, when Brian was off on his second deployment, I decided it was time to trade in my 8-year-old Explorer Sport for something more practical and less gas-guzzling. That poor Explorer had served me well through college and beyond. It had seen a LOT of things. I narrowed down what I wanted and drove to Fort Worth to buy my new 2011 Fusion Sport.

It was a stressful ordeal. Car salesmen are slippery creatures. There was a lot of back-and-forth about trade-in values, interest rates, and down payments. Hours (seriously hours) later, I left with my new car. I was totally in love with it and still am.

I financed it for five years and always hoped to pay it off sooner than that. So, today, I wrote an absurdly large check and sent it off to Chase bank to pay off the loan on my car. Hopefully the title will show up in my mailbox in the near future.

This is my first real job since I graduated from college. We have always been a one-income family. It hasn't been a challenge and we are smart with our money. I must say though, being able to pay off a student loan AND my car all with money that I have earned working my butt off since August is incredibly rewarding. I know it's a drop in the bucket compared to what Brian has sacrificed and earned for our relationship, but I am finally contributing! Paying off this debt will help us in the future. We paid $500 in interest on my car loan last year. That is $500 that will be in OUR pockets this year!

I still have one student loan that is interest free, so I will continue to pay on that monthly until it is paid off. Other than that, we will be basically debt free when this car loan is officially paid in full. I can't believe it! Debt free is the way to be, man!

This is the one highlight in an otherwise long and tiring week (and it's only Wednesday).