Personal Finance Thoughts: August 16

So I ended up paying off a credit card that was $1,800 this month. This frees up $49 a month which will go into my next credit card. I setup my payments my automatically taking out $500 from my paycheck into my money market account and leaving it there until I have $1,500, then paying off a credit card with the lowest balance, while keeping my other cards at the minimum payment. I decided to do it this way because then I sort of have an additional emergency fund for 3 months besides my regular emergency fund of $1,200. If I put the $500 immediately into the credit card I would save about $3 in interest, but I like having that extra safety just in case something big happens.

I recently bought a food processor for $30, and I love it! So far I have diced onions and garlic for a stir fry, ground beef, and made pizza dough from scratch. It is well worth the investment. I also went back to my classroom this week and noticed some of the random food items I had sitting there. It gave me quite a few good cooking ideas. Not counting eating out, I will spend about $200 this month on food (My plan is to average one night out eating a week; that will give me new cooking ideas and time with friends).

I am on pace to spend $1300 this month on living!