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This post is by staff writer Honey Smith.

In my last progress report, I mentioned that I took my student loans off Kwik-pay (autodebit) until after closing on my house. The thinking was that I’d have the money just in case things didn’t go smoothly with the house and move. Originally, I thought I’d re-enable the automatic payments after closing.

Then I realized that if I kept my student loans on manual payments, I wouldn’t be at the mercy of my lender in terms of how payments were allocated. I assumed that I was no longer receiving an interest rate reduction for being on Kwik-pay. Nothing about an interest rate reduction was listed anywhere that I could see in their account interface.

This article is by staff writer Kristin Wong.

Last Friday, I had an amazing realization: It was the weekend, the weather was beautiful, and I had absolutely nothing to do. Great feeling.

On Saturday morning, my boyfriend and I decided to slap some sandwiches together and head to the beach. It was relaxing and low-key, and it made me anticipate summer.

But at the beginning of the year, I made some lofty savings goals for myself, and I’d like to stick to them. So I’m using the change in season to assess my savings and remember those goals. Last year around this time, I spent quite a bit of money on travel. This year, I want to focus on being frugal. Here’s how I plan to make frugality a part of my summer.

Purging my apartment

This article is by staff writer April Dykman.

Over a year ago, I bought my first home. And while I’d been warned about the extra expenses that come with homeownership, there were still some surprises.

I don’t mean the “unexpected” costs of property taxes and repairs — expenses that are often covered in articles about new homeownership. “Surprise! There’s no landlord to come fix your garbage disposal.” Is that really a surprise to anyone, though?

No, what I’m talking about are the less obvious expenses — the ones that new homeowners probably aren’t thinking about when they sign the closing documents and get the keys to their new home. Here are some of those less obvious expenses that took me by surprise in the last year.

This reader story comes from Brandon. Some reader stories contain general advice; others are examples of how a GRS reader achieved financial success or failure. These stories feature folks with all levels of financial maturity and income. Want to submit your own reader story? Here’s how.

Buying a brand new 2010 Chevrolet Silverado was the best and worst financial decision my wife and I ever made. I had just received orders for Germany at the time, and we were preparing for the move. The Army would pay to ship one vehicle, but we had two. I had an F-150 and my wife had her Jeep Compass. We both loved the vehicles we had, but we compromised on a “family friendly” truck. (We didn’t, and still don’t, have kids by the way.) It was a crew cab, 4-wheel drive, Z-71 and all the other goodies I could want.