For three weeks now we’ve been receiving produce from Spud!. Nate still refuses to do a CSA because he wants to control what exactly he gets, and I even had to strong-arm him (sort of) into doing Spud by saying that we can choose what we receive. His argument is that he likes to handle the produce and pick out the best.
To his credit, he’s done very well with our healthier diet. Growing up, for him, included a LOT of fast food and sodas. In fact, he’s much more likely to eat a salad and veggies than I am (my dad didn’t like salad, so my mom rarely made it and all veggies were boiled to death).
We were mostly going to the grocery store for produce, so it’s nice to not be going at all…it’s an hour out of my weekend, and I almost always come home with something that wasn’t on my list, and never able to stay within budget. This way, I can make sure that my order is always about $50. And, unlike Organics To You (which we had been getting last fall for a while), it comes in a reusable bin, and delivery is free for orders over $43 (in my area).
If you’ve been thinking about trying it, put my code in (CRPDX-VELMAR) to get $25 off your first 4 orders ($5 off the first three, $10 of the fourth). Spud also serves these locations: Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
Recently, we were hit with a bunch of overdraft fees from our bank, which was simply because we had most of our money in an ING account and the checks being cashed were with Bank Of America. Totally our fault (although personally, I HATE overdraft protection – it makes me believe I have money when I don’t and it costs $35 for each overdraft). But it gave me the impetus to consider going with a smaller, local bank, instead of a large corporation (which both are). We also needed to use some of our Emergency Funds for rent, so we have to start over. If you know of a great local credit union, please post in the comments.
And to go completely off topic: here’s a weird thing that I can’t figure out. We’ve been overpaying our car loan while we had the extra cash, about $500 a month. Our monthly minimum payment has been reduced from $364.02 to (and I’m ballparking it) $56. We still owe roughly $3,200 on the car and our loan is supposed to end September of 2010. With that low payment, how would we ever pay off the car in 11 months? It just doesn’t make sense. At the same time, it’s nice to know that we have that extra wiggle room, should we not be able to make a larger payment (which would mostly be because of our own mismanagement). The good news about this whole thing is that we’re really close to paying it off…when I started this blog we owed three times as much on our car!
I don’t know if they have a branch in Portland, but when we lived in Oregon, we used Oregon Community Credit Union, and loved it.
Regarding your car loan – does the loan specify that you make a “balloon payment” at the end (that’s where, when you come to the end of the loan period, you have to pay a specified lump sum)? If so, they may have just adjusted what you pay between now and then to keep the balloon payment at the end the same amount. I really don’t know anything about loans, though! But that’s my guess.
I will look into the Credit Union you suggest.
I don’t remember reading anything about the balloon payment at the end. It was a 60-month loan, that when the calculations are done, comes out to the minimum amount we were paying. The interest doesn’t decrease simply because we’re paying early, it was included in the amount (unlike, say, a college loan, where you pay off part of the principle and part of the interest).
Here’s an interesting sidebar: my brother, who has lived in Brazil for the last 6 years, said that it is a breach of contract to pay more than the set amount and I would be penalized for paying more/paying my loan off early there. I find this both outrageous but also encouraging; it makes you take the contract much more seriously, or, at least, it lives up to the idea of what a contract really is, which is an agreement between both parties.
I was just checking back here to see if you found out anything about your loan.
I think it depends on your loan as to whether or not you are penalized. At least with mortgages, the repayment terms can vary greatly. There can even be a “middle ground” allowing you to pay back a certain percentage of the outstanding principal each year (like 10%) without penalty.
Credit Unions are a great idea. But they can be just as nasty with the overdraft fees as banks.
Check out Onpoint Community credit union. I know several people who are members and they love it. As for me, I have been a member of First Tech. Credit Union for about nine years. The nice thing I like about First Tech is that they don’t charge ATM fees, you can use your ATM card at any credit union ATM and there will be no fee. They also have a great on-line bill pay service. On-line bill pay, great for the environment and no stamps to buy.