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March 1, 2019 · Leave a Comment

February 2019 Debt Update

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Budget· Debt Free· Our Journey· Our Monthly Budget

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February brought our second monthly paycheck, and with it a lot of insight on our budgeting strategy.  So far though, I’m liking the switch to a monthly paycheck.  I’ve started saying no to things more often – simply because I know that even though the money is there in the checking account, I need the money to stay in there for the bills that I’ve scheduled out.  Plain and simple!

Related Posts:

  • 9 Painless Steps To Pay Off Your Debt
  • Debt Snowball or Debt Avalanche – which debt payoff method is right for you?
  • 5 Ways To Increase Your Debt Payment Without Breaking The Bank

The first insight is that making the switch from a weekly paycheck to a monthly paycheck has not been as hard as I thought.  As a matter of fact, it’s allowed us to keep on top of our savings goals, since we are able to save right away rather than waiting until a week that isn’t bill heavy.  And it’s also allowed me to not worry about waiting to mail out a check or schedule a payment until after payday.  The month’s money is there, and I can schedule them out all at once.

Another insight is that I have to modify our food budget.  When we were paid weekly, I would take out $160 each week for our groceries.  Doing the math, that’s approximately $693 per month on food {it averages out months where there are 5 weeks vs 4 weeks}.  When I was setting up our monthly cash envelopes, I set our food budget at $650.

It may be enough once we get used to this new budgeting, but during our January budget where we had 7 weeks on our month’s budget {December 27th – February 14th}, I stuck to our grocery budget, but at a toll of using up a lot of what we had on hand in our freezer, fridge and pantry.  When it was time to start with our February food budget, a lot of what has been spent has been on stocking back up.  So I need to reevaluate our grocery amount for the time being so we don’t continue to overspend because we are forever restocking.

One drawback is that any leftover money from the previous paycheck gets used as our snowball on the 14th of the month.  Based on our budgets in the past, it’s a bit too early in the month for it to be a “snowball”.

It’s simply because it’s been during the last week of the month for years now, and it will take time to become accustomed to in the middle of the month.  No matter where in the calendar month your paycheck hits, your snowball is any money that’s leftover before the next paycheck.

 

February 2019 Debt Update

Throughout February, we paid $1,269.31 on debt.

Credit Card 1:  $211.31
Credit Card 2: $278
Student Loans:  $230
Mortgage:  $550

Also throughout February, by numerous requests, I’ve started filming our weekly budget set ups.  You can find them on my YouTube channel.  I was really against this at first, simply because I’m not a fan of putting everything out there, but decided to start sharing our setups with you at your overwhelming request.  I have found that it’s motivated me to stay on top of our budget even more!

With all that said, I’m impressed with our February debt payment.  As of the writing of this post, our February paycheck isn’t done yet.  On March 14th I’ll know what we have left for our debt snowball payment, and that will be on our March 2019 budget update.  So stay tuned.

During 2019, we have paid $2,690.83 to debt.

February 2019 Debt Update

I want you to remember throughout your debt repayment journey is a thing called life.  There will absolutely be months where you’re crushing it, and months where life happens and you’re just getting through.  In the end, all of that is completely okay!  Give yourself the grace to learn from it, and to move on.

The end game is financial freedom, and financial security.  The journey is all about changing your financial habits, learning to spend within your means, saving for the known, and having a little money on hand for the unknown.

If you’re interested in other debt updates I’ve done, you can find them here.

  • January 2019 Debt Update
  • December 2018 Debt Update
  • November 2018 Debt Update
  • October 2018 Debt Update

 

What did you overcome this month on your debt free journey?  Let me know in the comments below!

February 2019 Debt Update

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makingcentsmatter

makingcentsmatter
Only you can determine what your financial goals a Only you can determine what your financial goals are. If that means you're adding money to your savings account, or contributing to your retirement, while you are paying off debt, then so be it!⁠
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Do what looks right for you and your personal finances.⁠
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The trick to meal planning is to make it predictab The trick to meal planning is to make it predictable. But predictable doesn't mean the same thing week to week. You could have a chicken meal, a soup meal, a pasta meal, a leftovers meal, a family favorite meal, and so on.⁠
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We always try to go with themed days, but some weeks are so hectic the theme is literally "fast". Thankfully that hasn't been the case lately.⁠
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#mealplanning #mealplan #budget #budgeting #monthlyincome #savingmoney #savings #cashbudget #cash #cashisking #frugalblogger #frugalmom #frugalliving #financialgoals #personalfinancetips #personalfinance #debtfreejourney #debtfreecommunity #debtfreeprogress #makingcentsmatter #financialfreedom #debtfree
I can only hear about my extended warranty I never I can only hear about my extended warranty I never purchased so many times. 😣⁠
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#makingcentsmatter #budgets #monthlyincome #debtfreecommunity #realbudget #savingmoney #payingoffdebt #savings #frugalliving #frugalblogging #budgeting #monthlyincome #zerobasedbudget #financialgoals #personalfinance #personalfinancetips #financialfreedom
March Debt Paid numbers are in!⁠ .⁠ House: $51 March Debt Paid numbers are in!⁠
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House: $511.13⁠
Citi: $0 – this has a residual $3 in interest charges since payoff, due in April⁠
D NelNet: $100⁠
K NelNet: $100⁠
K Chase: $600⁠
Explorer: $336.27⁠
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Total Paid in 2021: $8,258.84⁠
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Extra Payment: There isn’t one this month since we were $25 away from zeroing out the budget for our February 15th monthly paycheck. That $25, and monies left from our January 15th paycheck, covered our OOP costs for Hubs’ filling. We also have some savings goals coming up that need to be met, making our debt payments a little lower for the time begin.⁠
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#makingcentsmatter #debt #debtfreejourney #debtfreeprogress #debtfreecommunity #realbudget #savingmoney #payingoffdebt #savings #frugalliving #frugalblogging #budgeting #monthlyincome #zerobasedbudget #financialgoals #personalfinance #personalfinancetips #financialfreedom⁠
The battle for who can charge what tonight is abou The battle for who can charge what tonight is about to begin. 😬⁠
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My kids run off with my charger, plug it into one outlet 5 feet from where they found it like that particular outlet is the only one in this house, and then proceed to fight over who can charge their device first at night.⁠
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Then they get grumpy when it's their turn and it's not the proper input cable. #itwasmychargerfirst #dontlikeitgofindyourown⁠
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#parentingteens #parentingtweens #momlife #realife #budget #budgeting #savingmoney #cash #frugalblogger #frugalmom #financialgoals #personalfinancetips #personalfinance #debtfreejourney #debtfreecommunity #debtfreeprogress #makingcentsmatter
A needs his wisdom teeth taken out. I've talked a A needs his wisdom teeth taken out. I've talked a bit in our February Budget Check-In about how much of this I think we'll owe, and you can check that out on my YouTube channel if you're interested, but I wanted to say here...⁠
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To the mother with little kids struggling to get your finances in order, it will get better. I wish I could have heard those words years ago.⁠
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Nearly 10 years ago we were facing a $1,400 out-of-pocket portion for A's Phase 1 orthodontic work (I looked it up after I uploaded the video... we had a $1,400 portion).⁠
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It was a lot of money for us at the time. Our kids were 6, 2, and 3 months old. I don't think we even had $500 in savings, and I just left a part-time teaching job because it wasn't paying the part-time daycare bill, so paying our portion in full was just a dream I didn't think was achievable.⁠
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I was even stressing about the monthly $100 payments. We were so strapped. It was our breaking moment to start cutting costs and budgeting more effectively. We've learned a lot in that time period.⁠
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What we've learned is that it does no good to stress about it all the time. Life happens. All you can do is try to plan ahead, and if it's something that's unplanned, readjust. It won't always be easy, especially at first, but it will be worth it.⁠
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Nearly 10 years later, we are still paying off our debts. Student loans suck. But I see this bill as a reminder of how far we have come. Seeing a bill like this doesn't stress me out like it used to, and I know we can easily create a plan that can get it done and out of the way.⁠
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Will it delay our debt-free date more? Yes. But it's not worth stressing over. Life happens, readjust, and continue on down the path. It's called a journey for a reason.⁠
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#wisdomteeth #personalfiannce #personalfinancetips #financialgoals #budgeting #budgets #savingsgoals #savings #cashbudget #zerobasedbudget #debtfreejourney #debtfreeprogress #adulting #lifehappens #realife #realbudget #makingcentsmatter
It's almost payday! Here's how our variable budget It's almost payday! Here's how our variable budgeting categories are working out for the pay month.⁠
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Food is looking good this far into our paycheck, probably because miscellaneous - which includes eating out - took a hit with unexpected purchases. Pet is low for this time of the month, and Household is spot on.⁠
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Fuel looks like it'll be lower than last month (yay for weeks of snow days & delayed school starts), and Therapy had one more appointment than initially planned.⁠
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Garden, Dental, Medical & Propane are not included in these estimates so far because those expenses are coming from sinking funds. Once we're done with the month and review the budget, I'll move over the total amount spent from those sinking funds.⁠
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How's your paycheck budget coming along?⁠
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#realbudget #monthlyincome #monthlybudget #budget #budgetupdate #budgeting #savingmoney #variablecategories #savingmoney #savings #debtfreecommunity #debtfreejourney #cash #financialgoals #personalfinancetips #personalfinance #frugalliving #frugalblogger #budgetblogger #makingcentsmatter
Automating your finances makes saving money and bu Automating your finances makes saving money and budgeting more convenient, and therefore easier on you. Out of sight, out of mind, right?⁠
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What's one thing you can automate this week to make your finances easier?⁠
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Me? I'm going to set up our sinking fund transfers to automate every payday (the 15th of every month). Our bank set up a feature on their app where we can schedule savings transfers now, and I'm going to take advantage of it!⁠
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#personalfinance #personalfinancetips #budgeting #budgettips #personalfinancemadeeasy #savingmoney #savings #sinkingfunds #cash #frugalblogger #frugalmom #frugalliving #debtfreejourney #debtfreecommunity #debtfreeprogess #financialfreedom #makingcentsmatter
Oh my word... our miscellaneous category has gone Oh my word... our miscellaneous category has gone a smidgen overboard this month!⁠
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I foresee a goal for March's paycheck to at out less than twice. That's where this category went awry. $99.16 of it went to eating out. 😑 Some of it was avoidable, but not all of it. Having to drive to multiple appointments in one day during snow squalls and rearranging our whole day was one of those unavoidable instances.⁠
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Tracking our expenses - much like a budget review - is vital to sticking to your budget!⁠
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#makingcentsmatter #debt #debtfreejourney #debtfreeprogress #debtfreecommunity #realbudget #budgetcategories #monthlyincome #savingmoney #savings #frugalliving #frugalblogging #budgeting #zerobasedbudget #financialgoals #personalfinance #personalfinancetips #financialfreedom #expensetracking #budgetfail
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