Thanks for your reply! We do have $1000 between 2 banks, I hope to keep it that way and keep it growing. That doesn't seem like a lot, just 1 thing goes out in our house (like our fridge almost did recently) or the water heater (god forbid) and that PLUS more will have to be paid out!! I'm so glad we paid off our couch set that we rented from Rent a Center in May before our daughter's college graduation party. We never had a nice set, in fact, when we lived away for 2 years, our kids allowed the dogs to scratch up & sleep on our old sofa so I gave it to my daughter and her husband when we moved back. I would have loved to use YNAB, but it got me more confused than anything, so I stopped using it and just continued with my own spreadsheet/method. I am actually using another system online now through my husband's work, it is part of a package deal where we pay $39.99/month and talk to a financial counselor twice a month. I am not 100% sure that I need to continue it, I just switched counselors because the other one seemed condescending and I wasn't feeling like being talked down to, especially when paying them for support/guidance. The main thing is to make sure the transactions from autofeed from our checking account are categorized correctly. Some will be totally off, I just have to keep an eye on it. I also use Mint.
FYI, I did change our AK USA pmnt of $530 to come out the day of our paychecks (28th) even if it's not due until 11/4, so thank you for that suggestion!! I see what you mean. I should probably do the same with BOA, since it's not due until the 7th of Nov, right now I have it set to come out the 4th, but the 2 paychecks from next week will be paying for it anyway, so I guess it's best to have them take the $$ out sooner than later.
I just wanted to add this point, any debt that is 0% interest it has no effect on but any debt that is accruing interest, paying a week or even just a few days early, lowers the amount of interest you are charged.
Most cc companies tell us right on the statement how interest is calculated. Usually it's based on the "average daily balance" which means at the end of every day, the balance is recorded and when the billing cycle closes, let's say that it's 30 days long, they calculate the average of those 30 amounts. So if you make a payment of $500 15 days into that cycle, it will make that average lower than if you made that
same payment amount on day 29.
I had read that average daily balance phrase so many times over the years but didn't really see it in action until dh got a truck way back in the day of coupon booklets for car loans. The final payment coupon stated something like, "You will receive a bill in the mail for this payment." and I though ugh, that doesn't sound good.
So based on timing of paychecks, mortgage and other bills, and allowing time to mail checks the old fashioned way, I had to make the truck payment on our first pay of the month, even though it wasn't due til the 15th or 20th or so. I wasn't doing this to try to save on interest, it simply was the only paycheck I could assign this bill to.
Well, when we finally got the bill for that final payment. It was $50 less than usual. I called to ask why, I was afraid they would see their error and rebill us later. They told me it was from paying a week early for 4 years.
So sure, it's not a huge amount but still, why let them charge you more interest when you have the money just sitting in the bank? It's not as if you could do anything else with it or that it's earning big interest in a bank account. Just get it off your plate and know that you're doing all you can to keep the interest amounts as low as possible.
I am very careful to do this with the mortgage since that's much bigger numbers than our $350 truck payment and it's a longer term. So even though it's not due til the first of the month, I pay it 2 days before the last paycheck of the month, usually around the 24th or 25th. This is another instance that I know I have 2 days until the funds get pulled from my bank account yet our mortgage company credits us the payment on the day it was scheduled for. This month, our last pay is on the 27th so I can schedule the mortgage for the 25th and the funds won't get pulled until the 27th.
I do check our bank accounts online 2x per day at least so if our mortgage payments should ever get faster at pulling our funds, I can transfer some EF from savings and quick deposit some cash to cover it. I've been doing this for years with no problems.
Once, when our mortgage company first offered us auto pay I thought it was a great idea until I saw that they didn't send for the payment until the 10th of each month!! When I asked why, they told me, It's ok we have a 15 day grace period!! Whaaaaat?!!!
Sure, it makes more interest for them and most people wouldn't care as long as it gets paid. Well no way. That's 2 weeks later than when I would have paid it and we'd have to remember for 2 weeks, when tapping an ATM that we can't really touch that money. Ugh!
I ditched that crap asap. Imagine how much that would add up to over 15 or 30 years.
That's my favorite part. 
I'm too embarrassed to say what ours is at, but the good news is even with the vacations we have planned we should be debt free except for the mortgage this time next year. No CCs, car loans or student loans. Fingers crossed our short sighted 20s are out from under us!
