SmartyPig

I finally signed up for an account with SmartyPig. I heard about it when they first came into existence, but I didn't like some of their terms & conditions. Then they changed their policies, but I was actively in debt-reduction mode and didn't have any extra money to set aside towards savings goals or expenditures.

Now I'm nearing the point of being able to really start saving aggressively. My credit card will be paid off by July 1st, and Hubby's credit cards will be paid off within a year (hopefully sooner!). We delayed some home improvement projects that we had planned on doing this year, to give us more time and money to devote towards other things.

I'm sort of testing the waters with SmartyPig, so I only set up one goal initially. Once I get comfortable, and my last credit card is fully paid off, I'll set up a few other goals.

Here are our goals for this year:

1. Vacations/Travel: $3,000.
2. Home Improvement: $2,000.
3. Fun Money (for big-ticket items): $750
4. Car Insurance Renewal: $750
5. Savings/2nd Mortgage debt reduction: $7,000

So has anyone else tried out SmartyPig? Any opinions, reviews, likes/dislikes?

Updated Progress Bars

I updated all of our debts today, including the progress bars on the right side of the page.

Car Loans: $10,725

Credit Cards: $17,671

Student Loans: $49,575

Mortgage: $164,077

That means we paid off $2053 in debt principal (including $171 on the mortgage) during the month of April... which doesn't seem too bad.

It's hard to imagine having that much extra money in our bank account each month, if we didn't have to make nearly $800 in car payments, $300+ in student loan payments, etc.

Status Report, as of 4/30

We made a small dent in credit cards this month:

His: $13,634

Hers: $3,899

TOTAL: $17,533

We're waiting on a few refund checks to come - our state income taxes (just over $400), and a refund of overpayment to our mortgage escrow account ($1375). Those will be put straight towards credit cards, and we don't have any major expenses this month - so by early June, we will probably be able to knock out my credit card completely, and have Hubby's paid down to around $12,500!

I went on Kelly Blue Book this week to find out how much our cars are worth. One is worth about $6k, the other is around $9k. We currently owe $3k & $8k - so we actually have a tiny bit of equity in each car! We have absolutely no plans to sell either car anytime soon, but it's nice to know that we could get rid of either one and still come out ahead.