10/24 Expressions

Frugal thoughts for the week: Like many people, I have had the urge to hoard cash. We have steadily been adding to our savings accounts. Why the urge? Hmmm, lets take my daughter's prepaid tuition account - they've taken a heavy loss. I still have 4.5 years before she will need it - but for some reason, I feel like I need to be ready. My daughter's education is very important to us. Not only did I prepay her tuition the year she was born - paid a lump sum so I could avoid interest, I invested some $ in an education IRA and also put some $ in Uniform Gifts to Minors account for her - and of course, have been adding incidental amounts to her savings account. Everything but her savings account has suffered. Yes, they have made some improvemens in the last 6 months - but not enough to make feel comfortable. So, I quit making extra payments to our HELOC - which is sitting at 2.6%. But, I will be back at slashing it as soon as possible. I have finally decided to make a small dent in it this month and the next two months - and then will start applying everything possible in January with the goal of having it gone before the end of next year. If for some reason the HELOC jumps to some awful rate between now and then, I will redirect the savings account funds to the HELOC and start saving again for her education. In the next two months we have some big expenses coming up. Yup, that time of year again, property taxes and while no one likes to see their property depreciate, when it comes to tax assessment value, it isn't all that bad :) So, those are the financial pre-occupations I have been having. We did pick up two shares of the Angel Food packages today. Now I have 2 bags of fresh apples I need to do something with. That's my next project for the day.