SlurpeeLove's Personal Finance Blog

Okay, so I received my reimbursement and sent everything out to the credit card. After paying that off, we have a total of $6345 left to pay on the credit cards, but our total debt for the end of this month will be more impressive than I had anticipated.

We're out of the $49k's and moving out of the $48k's too! I've been keeping up really well with my YNAB and it's definitely been paying off. I hope to have CC#1 paid off by the end of the year, which would bring us under $5k. We'll see how that goes, but either way, we'll just keep trucking.

Hi Everyone!

I haven't updated lately. I went on a business trip last week and put all my expenses on my rewards card and expect to be reimbused on Friday. With that debt sitting on my credit card though, it makes my credit card debt look slightly inflated.

I entered the amount that I expected to get back from my reimbursement into my YNAB register and used it to pay off that money that I spent. So when I do get the reimbursement, I'll send it all straight to the credit card.

DH also got his tooth taken care of, so that took about $400, which I had expected and budgeted. I told him that I'll be setting aside $50 each month for the dentist going forward, so he'll just have to wait until we have enough to do the next tooth. He's more interested in paying off our credit card debt right now as well, so at least we're on the same page.

His school tuition payment came out for $1 more than I had budgeted (my mistake, it came out for the same exact amount last month, so just an oversight on my part), so I took that $1 from his school books and moved it there. Not a big deal. Sometimes those things just happen.

I cannot explain the difference having a budget and sticking to it has made. The numbers, of course, are supportive, but emotionally, I feel better. I sleep more soundly, I don't sweat the small stuff anymore. I went to Petsmart and bought a Halloween costume and some toys. I stayed well within my $40 budget with lots to spare and my pup was happy to destroy another squeaky toy. On a side note, it drives my husband crazy that our dog destroys squeaky toys, but they were on sale, buy 2 get one free, and the dog enjoys them so much. I'll just spread it out one per week until the end of the month and then wait until next month to go get some more for him. The rags will just stay on the floor for the week. It's not like anyone comes over anyways!

Back to the budget, we've gone to dinner, gone grocery shopping, watched TVs, going to watch a movie this week. Basically, we're living a normal life, but a budgeted life, and that doesn't make me feel limited at all. I think I was concerned that budgeted would mean no fun, but really, it means you can relax. Stay within your numbers and you can actually enjoy your life. I would hate to knock Dave Ramsey because I do believe he has some very sound reasoning, but I don't think I should just have to not eat out ever or get a second job that I don't have time for, in order to pay off my debt. Yes, it would expedite the process. Yes, I would pay less in interest. But what would I lose?

My sanity, most likely. I already feel like that's going. I'm glad I started this journey. I already feel it's effects surrounding me, comforting me.

I even went to Target! Target, and stayed within my budget. That's unheard of in this house! We love Target. I spent an hour there and only spent $24. I bought a chalkboard to update my husband on our budget every week and some chalk. The chalkboard was on clearance! And my husband got some anchors so he could hang a few things around the house.

I can relax. Everything is going to be okay.

I do an update to keep myself accountable every Friday with my sister, who is also working towards paying off her debt.

Here's the difference between this week and last:

Credit card debt last week: $6785
Credit Card Debt this week: $6499
Difference:$286

Savings last week: $1000
Savings this week: $1025
Difference: $25

Car#1 last week: $7,586
Car#1 this week: $7,417
Difference: $169

Car#2 last week: $11,383
Car#2 this week: $11,144
Difference: $239

Student Loans aren't being paid just yet, so they're just accruing interest. I'll get to them eventually, but they aren't on my list of priorities at the moment.

But it was a great week. We expect some more income from the rental car place, so that'll be helpful going forward this month since this was all I budgeted for debt payoff.

Can we all stand up and do a little dance? I have just paid off our first credit card in this journey. Granted, it was small, but definitely progress!

{Insert super embarrassing dance here}

It's been a few days since I checked in, but I just didn't have much to report since we hadn't gotten any paychecks yet. Today, DH got paid and yesterday we received our first payment from the rental service. Today was the second payment. It's a bit weird that they split it into two payments, but I'll accept money in any form.

So goodbye CC#2, hello CC#1. CC#1 will take more time to pay off, most definitely. But I dug myself in this mess, I'm responsible for digging myself out.

So I'm using YNAB, but it was the end of my first month and I don't have my buffer built up yet. So at the end of month 1, I had $10 in my checking account after the rent comes out next week.

I have all my bills perfectly timed, so I wasn't concerned. I should have been concerned. For some reason, the car insurance people pulled out our payment a week early. We aren't supposed to pay them until October 4th! So I logged into mint so I can see all my balances at the same time and realize I have nearly $200 lower than I should in my bank account right now.

So I immediately look and realize that the stupid car insurance came out way before it was scheduled to. Ugh! I hate autopay!! But it gives us a discount for paying that way and we didn't have the money to pay the premium up front. Ugh!!

So I logged into my bank account and had to move $200 from savings into checking to keep myself from overdrafting just in case they take the rent payment out before I get paid. I hate everything right now.

I'm happy I was able to catch it before I was overdrafted. I think I'm going to take the rent off autopay, that way I have more control over when it's taken out. Also, I'm slowly starting to dislike so many people having access to take money from my checking account whenever they want.

Once the paychecks come in next week, I'll transfer that $200 back. Just a slight crisis.

I thought I should enter my October budget. When I make a change, I'll try to remember to update you.

Education
Tuition: $166.35 (Payment plan)
Books: $170

Debt
CC#1: $73.23
CC#2: $131.69
CC#3: $62
CC#4: $51

Food
Groceries: $360
Restaurants: $50

Housing
Rent: $1210
Electricity: $30
Phone, Internet, Cable: $280

Personal
Doctor/Dentist: $400 (DH needs a filling)
Gifts: $25 (nephew's birthday)
Pets: $40
Vet: $50
Laundry: $20

Recreation
His: $100
Hers: $100 (Time for winter clothes!)

Transportation
Car Payments: $417.05
Gas: $100
Car insurance: $183.68
Repairs & Maintenance: $50
Train Fare: $95
Tolls: $10

Savings
Emergency Fund: $25
Vacation: $600

Here's my recap on September:

Wins
-Eliminated $467.58 in debt
-Added $392 to savings
-Paying cash for groceries

Learning Experiences
-$400 is a little bit too much for groceries if we're shopping knowledgeably
-Paying cash for those groceries made a huge difference on my thought process of what I could afford
-We don't make $3800 a month, we make closer to $3600
-We pay $20 more for TV a month than I thought we did
-My husband's toll pass comes out every 4 months or so
-I realized all these things a little too late in the month to make any real changes to the budget. I trimmed where I could, but at the end of it, we only have $10 in checking to close out the month.
-We spend more on gas than I thought.

Changes for October
1. Grocery budget is reduced by $40 to $360 ($90 a week)
2. Not adding anymore to savings while we pay down our credit cards
3. Extra paycheck month
4. We're using the extra paychecks to help fund our honeymoon in December(too late to cancel now, though I considered it)


I can't wait for October to start. I've updated my numbers for the end of September since I do a weekly update every Friday. I know that I've tweaked the budget for October based on what I learned this month. Either way, we made some really great strides this month and I'm very proud of us.

Is it October 1st yet?! I just looked at it and I'm going to leave us with $10 for one day so I can pay off my husband's school tuition payment from a credit card that just posted. I don't want to have to have my credit card balance go up! I'm sure he won't like it, but he can deal. I'm trying to do something here and his education is getting in my way. LOL.

I also have two job interviews scheduled on Friday. One is a recruiter who is trying to match me to the right company and the other is for a very famous resort as an accounting manager. Also, it looks like a controller position is going to come available at my old hotel, so I'll be posting for that once the position is online.

So hopefully, we'll be able to move back home to Florida before the winter really kicks in. That would be ideal. I already feel really bad missing my nephew's birthday. I spent so much time with him when I lived down there and when I last left to fly back to Chicago, he was really heartbroken. Also, once our finances are in better shape, I'd really like to start trying for a family of our own. We definitely have some work to do before then though.

Hopefully today at work will be better and more productive than yesterday. I'm still exhausted. It was just one of those days where I was getting a million phone calls and before I could finish one item, another would pop up (or be given to me by my boss). So I'll be going in a few minutes later today since I want to enjoy sitting at my table a little longer and I left 2 hours later than usual yesterday.

At least my husband was nice enough to make dinner!

Back to the numbers, I'm super excited and I know you guys are going to be very proud of me when I post September's ending number. I can't wait to get out of the $49k's for debt! Just $1k at a time, right?

I can't wait for September to be over so I can update that end of month balance of debt number. I was so excited to see it last Friday. And we still have money to put towards debt this month!

I'm still learning the basics of the budgeting process here. If I go over in one area, I'm removing money from another area to compensate, but I'm not sure if that's how it's supposed to work. So because we went over on gas and television (still month 1 people), I took some of the budget from what we were going to pay the credit cards. Ugh!

Either way, making good strides. I'm just trying not to think about the student loans. I'm not paying those yet, but the interest is compounding DAILY! One thing at a time. CC #2 will be paid off in full in October, so we'll have finished one!

This month starts a very new era of living for me and my new husband. We sit down and set a budget, and are actually sticking to it! I'm so proud of us. It's stupid, but it's definitely a step in the right direction. And though our debt seems daunting, we're making strides in the right direction.

We're currently working on our credit cards, which is why our student loans will continue to rise. After that, I think I want to start working on the cars, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. We still have plenty of time before the credit cards are completely paid off.

So I guess for now, we'll call it a work in progress. Just have to keep trucking along.