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February 20, 2017 · Leave a Comment

January 2017 Budget & Debt Update

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Click here to read my disclosure policy.

Budget· Debt Free· Our Journey· Our Monthly Budget

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It’s been a while since I’ve gotten on here and updated you all, and for that I’m sorry.  January came and went, and we had gotten back to our normalcy.  I was even able to get in here and get a bunch of drafts started to post throughout February.  Then someone, no idea who, brought home some more germs with Hubs and I being down for the count, and the return of strep to this household.

January 2017 Budget Debt Update

I’m glad to say we’re up and at ’em again.  Kind of.  Their school bus schedule is even back to it’s normal 6:50 time now with the opening of temporary bridges after the flooding we had in October.  While our shortest route to town is still the long way around, they’re at least back to a somewhat normal schedule again.  You would not believe how much a 30 minute delay in pick-up time can throw off a schedule!

Anyways… January 2017 brought lots of changes to our budget.  The biggest change was our take home income decreasing.  But the great news is that after making an extra payment on our second credit card last month, we weren’t limited to forecasting how much I can pay on the card by the due date, and then end up being wrong at the end of the month.

Since I was not dependent on a due date, I waited until all of our income for the month was in, our bills were paid and our weekly savings and spending was done.  I then went through and reconciled the account and saw what we had left over for the month that hadn’t been allocated.  That’s the amount that I used as our snowball payment for the month.  And honestly, I enjoyed it.  There was a lot less anxiety involved in the end.  {And since this is a new way we’re budgeting, one of the posts I’m currently working on is a step by step explanation of how we’re now budgeting.}

So that got me thinking.  When our smaller remaining student loan is on the chopping block, I think I’ll use the same method.  The due date on this loan is currently advanced 3 months out, but I keep paying on it each month.  I keep paying because the entire payment is going to interest, and sadly, it’s not combating all the interest that is accumulating.  It’s close, but not even.  The very dark side of student loans.  And debt in general.  It’s like a legitimate, in repayment kind of forbearance.  And I refuse to make that same mistake again.

So if I leave this due date as advanced, I can make the snowball payment at the end of the month after reconciling the month’s budget.  I won’t be limited to a payment due date at all.  Using this method may eliminate the need to have a 1 month income saved up for the time being.  Now while we will still be saving up a 1 month income, it may be possible to not need it right away.  That would be awesome.

All that being said… how did we do for the month?  We ended up paying off $1,884.41 in debt this month.  Not bad with our reduced income, and it’s really close to my $1,900 debt paid per month goal!

Credit Card 2:   $1,219.41
Student Loans:  $165
Mortgage:  $500

So to break it down even further, here’s how our January budget went.

Income

Salary: $3,689.69
This is our take home income for this month.

Monthly Expenses

Mortgage**:  $500

Cell Phone:   $47.42

Home Phone / Internet:  $75.30

Credit Card 1:   $79.69
The payments on this are reoccurring bills whose payments are made online that we don’t feel safe enough leaving our bank information in their account records.

Credit Card 2**:   $1,219.41
This month we were able to pay a lot more on this credit card than we had been throughout the summer and it felt really good!

Student Loans**:  $165

Electric:  $99.37
Cooler weather has arrived, and it’s showing in our electric bill!  It’s on the decline, and it’ll continue to do so as we fire up the wood stove for the winter.

Insurance:   $241.52
Our insurance payment includes our car, house, and life insurance policies.

Piano Lessons:  $0
Bookworm’s piano lessons are a generous gift from my mother-in-law.

Newspaper Subscription:  $13.45
Our monthly, weekend only subscription.

 

Savings

Each month I put an allotted amount of money into our savings accounts to pay for expenses that vary throughout the year.  This is a breakdown of what we put away in the account throughout the month, as well as any expenses through the month that came from that account.

Annual Savings Account:  $360
Every week I put money aside into this account, and on months with an extra paycheck, I put even more into this account.  Some months we don’t use anything that I put aside, other months we use a lot.  To read more on how much we try to put aside and what we use it for, you can check out this post.

Clothing: $29.98

Gifting Savings:   $240
I also add money to our gifting account each week.  It helps us to stay on budget each month and still have funds available for when birthdays and holidays come up.

Birthday: $71.63
Our family has two January birthdays.  This month we also had a birthday party with family.

Additional Expenses

Groceries:  $475.66
You can see what was on our meal plan for the month here.

Fuel:  $69.48
With holidays and sports over, our fuel bill is back to a reasonable amount for the month.

Eat Out: $28.70
This is split between two instances: $15.90 dinner out with Hubs earlier in the month; $12.80 with LadyBug at the end of the month.

Household: $30.81
This was spent on contact solution, ziploc bags, and trash bags.

Pre-K: $8.98
Lady Bug and I stopped at Michael’s for some supplies for a preschool craft.

Band: $9.49
Bookworm needed the second trumpet book for band this month.

Home Repair: $27.41
After replacing the light in our bedroom, we installed a second light switch and patched the wall.

 

January 2017 Budget Debt Update

Overall, I think we did really well for January considering we started the month with a few unknowns on how our income would be changing.  I’m hoping that with the new changes in our budgeting technique as well, we can continue to smash our debt one account at a time.

January 2017 Budget 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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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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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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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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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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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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