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Decisions

December 7th, 2023 at 02:50 am

In the midst of financial activity, my AC set me back $250, and grout cleaning estimates ranged from $330 to $680. Opting for a DIY approach, I spent $21 on cleaner and a brush. It's time-consuming but rewarding.

 

On a positive note, I got a 2.55% raise. While grateful, I'm torn—should I boost my lagging 401(k) or tackle my student loan with the increase?

Happy Friday!

October 14th, 2023 at 12:31 am

Today was payday, and here's how it all unfolded:

I managed to save $1,147.50, which accounts for approximately 41% of my take-home income. It's worth noting that roughly half of this amount is earmarked for future expenses through sinking funds, but I'm still quite content.

Another chunk of $516.13 was allocated towards debt repayment, accounting for about 19% of my take-home pay.

I also set aside $490 for my everyday spending fund, which I manage using cash envelopes. This amounts to around 18% of my income.

An additional $240.52 was directed towards various bills, such as internet and phone, making up less than 1% of my take-home pay.

I allocated 10% towards tithes as part of my financial plan.

To top it off, my payment posted, and I'm thrilled to report that my student loan balance has now dipped to $31,106.85, with only $5.85 of that being attributed to interest. I'm incredibly close to breaking the $31,000 mark this month, which is a source of great excitement.

All in all, it was a  successful day on the financial front.

Exciting News on Pay Day! 🚀

October 12th, 2023 at 03:43 am

It's that time of the week – payday Friday! And guess what? I was so pumped to have the funds I budgeted for this week's student loan payment, that I couldn't resist paying it early. No more agonizing weekend waits for the funds to post! 💰💃

 

Drumroll, please... According to my calculations, my new balance on Friday should stand at $31,148.22 for the principal, $17.70 in interest, totaling a jaw-dropping $31,165.92. 🎉 It's all part of my plan to achieve my goal of paying $1,000 a month! 😄

But wait, there's more thrilling news! The client I was anxious about possibly losing has thrown a game-changer my way.

They want me full time, and if everything falls into place, I'm ready to hire an assistant to help manage the workload.

This means the potential for an additional six-figure income this year, and even after paying the assistant, I'm looking at around $75k! 🤑 of course I'll have to set aside for taxes  

If the blessings keep flowing, my student loan could be a thing of the past by June next year.

My excitement is off the charts! 🌟💫

$200 Spent, Not Expected

October 6th, 2023 at 05:39 pm

Checked my student loan balance and today it’s $31,381.61, of that interest is $23.61, on average the daily interest is about $5.90 a day. By Friday next week, the interest accumulated would be about $76.70, smh. I’m thankful that I can make payments, about $600 a month, but I tell you this sucks. Goal is to have this loan paid off by the end of next year. 

 

Changing gears, this was supposed to be a no spend month and it’s costing me. 

 

A while back I asked a friend to install a screen door, well the friend finally showed up. I’m thinking no more than a hundred bucks, well the friend initially quoted me $130, not bad. This friend had to leave and come back because something was needed, my new cost $200. That’s right $200. This was not a necessity but a want. I’d asked about it months ago and since the friend showed up I said okay. WTH. It’s my fault for not asking upfront the cost. I’ve learned some very hard lessons this month. One ask up front the cost before any work is done, even if it is a friend. 

 

I didn’t count yesterday as spend day wind today I’ll be paying for the screen. 

 

Edited to add that the screen looks good. 

Student Loan Payment Posted

October 2nd, 2023 at 09:10 pm

Exciting news! My student loan payment has finally posted, and guess what? My new balance is a thrilling $31,441! 🎉 

 

Since my payment on 9/29, the interest accrued is  $17.75, which means my loan is now accumulating under $6 a day in interest. 💰 

 

There's more good news! I received an unexpected check for $200. I immediately put $100 towards my student loan, $25 into my emergency fund, treated myself to $20, and the rest went towards paying down my credit card debt. 

 

Next Friday is payday and I’m trying to see how I can trim the budget to get $300 to pay towards my student loan. 

 

It feels fantastic to make progress on my financial goals! 💪🏾💸

Pay Day Fridays

September 30th, 2023 at 10:47 am

Yesterday was payday for me. I allocated my funds by prioritizing my financial responsibilities, including tithes, my student loan, and credit card payments. In light of forthcoming student loan obligations, I adjusted my bi-weekly contributions to my Emergency Fund to $150.

 

Here's a breakdown of my allocations:

- $361 for tithes

- $500 for the student loan

- $225 for credit card debt

- $178 for my electric bill (factoring in budget billing)

- $1,200 into savings, designated for various sinking funds such as Christmas, birthdays, HOA fees, home repairs, mortgage, Emergency Funds, and car-related expenses.

 

I plan to organize my cash envelopes today; typically, I do this on payday Fridays, but I was so tired  yesterday that I didn’t. 

 

I'm also looking forward to tomorrow, it’s the last day of the month, I’m excited to see how I did. This month, I've diligently tracked my spending. I believe I've  recorded all expenses in my MSMoney software, a tool I wish they'd bring back. I anticipate my financial figures will look quite positive.

 

My largest expense this month was the fence repair, which depleted my home repair funds. Nevertheless, I'm grateful to have had the cash on hand for repairs. Sinking funds works! 

Student Loans - Rework My Budget

September 9th, 2023 at 04:33 pm

So I did the math, I'm averaging about $6 a day in interest on my student loans, that's $180 for the month. 

My monthly payment is $319, this is tentative, I haven't received the notice as to what my actual payment would be. If this is true, about $139 will go towards my principal a month. To stay a float and ahead of this thing I have to pay an extra $200, at least a month. 

I reworked my budget to pay $180 a month, $90 a pay check, since I'm paid semi-monthly. 

I still have my side hustle, so I'm budgeting my monthly payment and extra with my side hustle gig funds. 

Things are tight, but I think I can do it. 

I saw this article posted in a Facebook group and thought I would share, it sheds the light on student loan debt. 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2020/02/10/student-loans-balance-increase/

Student Loan Interest

September 5th, 2023 at 05:08 am

Between September 1st and the 4th my student loan interest has accumulated $18.15 in interest. That’s about $4.53 a day, or about $135.00 month. I’m not sure if this is right since Monday was a holiday. It’s  ridiculous how the interest works on these loans, but here we are. 

 

I’m thankful for the three year freeze, and am thankful that I was able to pay off two loans, I can’t imagine much my loan would grow had I not done this. Not many people were able to take advantage of the freeze and pay towards their loan. 

 

I pray that I can get things under control. My goal is to pay the interest accrued at the end of each week, in attempt to make things manageable. I can’t think of any other way. 

 

Let me know if you have any ideas. 

 

Other non financial news, after three years I contracted COVID from an infected colleague who traveled while feeling not well. I feel much better but I'm still a little down. SMH

Am I the Only One Preparing for Student Loans

August 12th, 2023 at 01:23 pm

I’ve been sharing with others that the interest on student loans, and repayments are scheduled to start back up with interest accruing first in September, followed by the  first payment due in October. 

 

Though I can only worry about myself ( I haven’t stopped paying), I’m still anxious about this happening. I’m scared, anxious and  nervous and I don’t know why. Maybe because no one is talking about it. I’m in different financial groups, follow financial gurus and nothing.  It’s almost as if no one is expecting this to start, strange. 

 

 I recently paid $96 dollars to round things to an even number, I hate odd numbers on any of my debts, don’t  ask me why. 

 

In preparation for repayment , I signed up for auto pay which saves me a very small amount on interest. I have to remember not to make any payments next month (September).  The reason why is that my first payment of $318.68 is scheduled to hit on October 15th. Since I get paid bi-monthly, (for a while I would pay $160 a pay date for a total of $320 for the month), I want to make sure the funds are available when payments starts. 

 

 If I skip the September monthly payment that I normally make, the funds are surely to be available on the 15th of October. 

 

I can surely make extra payments, and I want to, I just need to figure out how much and when. I’ll be reviewing my budget. 

Oops I Screwed Up

August 2nd, 2023 at 02:55 am

I’m still crunching the numbers but I can say dining out was my second largest expense for July, first was home repairs. 

I’ve committed to eating out less this month. With the exception of visiting a friend who was diagnosed with an illness, and a planned vacation the end of the month, I do not plan on eating out. I’ll post the numbers early next week. 

 

I’ve screwed up badly, I have no idea where my mind is. First I write a check for the fence on the wrong account which bounced, costing me $25. Next I use my CC to pay for the fence since the check was written on the wrong account, then paid the CC bill from the wrong account, causing an overdraft 🤦🏾‍♀️🙄. I’ll call Bank of America to make sure I’m signed up for overdraft protection. I never signed up because I never overdraft. First time for everything. 

 

I’ve got to slow down. I don’t know why I always feel rushed. This behavior has cost me.

 

Physical news. My blood pressure is slightly elevated, the company I work for reimbursed me for walking pad (treadmill), and I’ve been working to get this thing down. I’ve been exercising daily; however, I need to change my eating habits. 

 

Great Week

March 10th, 2023 at 11:12 pm

Whew, this has been a pretty productive week. 

I’ve managed to knock everything off of my to-do list. 

 

Today I received my final payment from my former employer. I was able to save some funds for my car, sinking funds, and EF. 

 

I also added $500 to the credit cards and $100 to the student loan. In addition, I get an extra 300+ dollars to use towards what I want from my employer every quarter, a nice little perk, so I’ll be adding that toward my student loans. 

 

This week I feel as though I'm making progress 

 

I’m happy because though I’m nervous about my role, things are still coming together. My official training kicks off next week, wish me luck. 

Slowly Getting My Groove Back & My SA Anniversary

March 6th, 2023 at 03:25 am

It’s been months since I actually looked at my spending, needless to say , it was out of control. Primarily my spending was on things for the house. 

 

Since quitting that toxic job that made me too exhausted to do anything, tonight I was able to catch up on balancing my accounts and entering receipts. I still have a few more accounts to reconcile but at least I’m in a much better place than I was a few weeks ago. 

 

I also updated my planner, so that I’m on a work schedule, working from home can go sideways if you don’t stick to a schedule. 

It feels good to be getting back on track. 

 

Lastly, I had the opportunity to meet up with a few friends this weekend, we haven’t seen each other in 20 years. Though it was sort of planned but not planned, meaning I didn’t budget for it but knew about it, just learned two weeks ago about the meetup, I’m glad I went. I only ended up paying for my lodging and gas. 


oops I failed to mention, last month was my SA anniversary. I've been blogging on this site now for 17 years 

Ready for 2023

December 31st, 2022 at 10:25 am

Closing out the year in a not so good of a shape. 

 

I added both the kitchen remodel and shutters to my credit cards, brining my balance to just over $7k. One card, Home Depot, is interest free until December 2023. Shutters still isn’t complete, I have a call to company. Once complete it will be another $3k, remaining balance. 

 

I didn’t hit my EF savings goals of $5k, I just made $4k, new balance is $18k. Goal for next year to get to $27k. 

 

My bank account was hacked for about $18k but I got the money back and changed my account number. 

 

Since starting this new job I’ve been all over the place with my finances, no budgets no savings etc. I’m feeling overwhelmed. I’ve been looking for work. I hate I didn’t continue with the consulting. 

 

I took the least expensive route in redoing my kitchen, hired a friend. Though it looks okay, it is costing me more. One cabinet isn’t on properly, crown molding not added, under mount sink is hitting against the pipe, drawers are on wrong, it’s just been a mess but I’ll make do with what I have. Kitchen needed to be done because the under sink had collapsed due to water damage and other cabinets were falling apart. 

 

I’ve still been paying on my student loans but not as aggressively as I’d like. 

 

I am so ready for 2023

Mini-Update

July 9th, 2022 at 03:16 pm

Just wanted to share that I landed a mid-level contract on Thursday and a lower-level one on Friday, both are remote.  So I should be able to net about $3500 a month. 

 

I also had an interview for a full-time remote position on Friday that went well and I’ll be moved to the second round, just waiting to hear from the recruiter, regarding scheduling. 

 

I’m also scheduled for two additional second rounds with two other organizations. One is in person $100k a year the other is remote $85k full benefits, honestly, I’ll take the remote job over the office, it’s not about to pay for me. It’s more so my peace of mind and the $100k role sounds toxic, I’ll explore and see what the CEO has to say. 

 

In other financial news, I’ve been able to make about $400 in gift cards submitting content for HR professionals. This has allowed me to significantly decrease my grocery, household, and personal budgeted line items. I wish I could use it for gas, but I’ll take this. 

 

I also had to pay close to $700 to get my car fixed. I’m glad I have the money in both my car fund and baby EF. I paid using my credit card for points and will pay the bill today.  I’m disappointed I had to tap into the funds though. I think I’ll take the funds from the baby EF since my six-month car insurance renewal is coming. 

 

Tonight is my class reunion, so I washed my hair and colored it, saved me $55 I’m adding this towards my EF. My goal was to get to $20k this year, and I’m $3k away. 

 

Lastly, I paid an extra $50 on the student loans. I’m praying I get one of those remote gigs because if that’s the case I can pay number 3 off next month 

Positive Net Worth

June 8th, 2022 at 05:27 am

Finally closed my books and I was right, I went way over in the travel category last month due to poor planning. I can't beat myself up over spilled milk, I just have to make adjustments, primary adjustment, be involved in the planning whenever there is a trip. 

Other than that, I either broke even or came in under budgeted. There were a few unexpected home repairs, it happens and I was able to pay all expenses  in cash. 

I decided to run a few more reports and found that in October of 2021 was when I hit a positive net worth. I never really looked at this number, disgusted I guess, but now more than ever I'm so interested in tracking. It's a goal to get to six figures, just as much as it is to pay off my debt. 

As of today, my net worth is $39,799.17 with a credit score of 845, and total available cash $41,852.90. I would have never thought I'd see this day, never in my life I could have imagine a thing like this. Wow! 

I am going to keep pushing, my goal is to hit millionaire status  one day and I think I can do it.  

Quick Update

May 18th, 2022 at 11:38 pm

Well, I paid the HOA and COBRA bills for three months. I paid two months on the mortgage because the website didn't update and I want to make sure my payments are applied to both June and July, before I pay August. 

 

I'm so glad I did this because I don't know what may happen as far as income goes. 

 

I also purchased a used refrigerator for $214 with tax. Thankfully my ex will pick it up for me, so there is no delivery charge. Though it's not the color I was looking for I'm glad I was able to get a good used one. 

 

I got the news that the payment for my settlement was received, after legal fees I'm expecting about $8500. I'm just going to save this money. 

 

I also saved a total of $433.27, I rounded up to the nearest $50 for all my savings account. I'm a big believer of putting something up, no matter how small for rainy days. So, I wanted to make sure I socked away something since money will be right. I'll update my sidebar later. 

 

Lastly, in regards to finances, I have about 310 euros left and will exchange those tomorrow for US dollars, I checked and it will be $308.

 

In nonfinancial news, one of the travelers I went on the trip with, admitted that the trip was poorly planned and that he too was very disappointed. I was really surprised because I thought it was just me. He stated that there were quite a few days that he was very upset with us not spending any time at some location visited and also that we had too many things planned for one day. 

 

That's it for now. 

Feeling Down!

May 17th, 2022 at 02:41 pm

I decided to pay three months of mortgage, HOA, and COBRA. After my conversation with the TPA yesterday, he informed me that it appears as though my contract will be ending. I was really hoping to have paid off my third student loan by June but looks like this won't be happening. 

 

I'm so bumbed by this. I really wanted this loan gone by June. I feel I worked so hard to have come to halt. I know should be thankful for what I have paid off so far, and I am but I am still hurt by this. 

Home!

May 16th, 2022 at 11:00 am

I’m so thankful for the opportunity to have had traveled abroad, though the trip was not what I expected, to say I've been to Greece is a plus.  

After traveling for 23-hours, I can say I finally made it home. After a review of things, I found that I am at fault, rather than relying on others to plan the trip, I should have been more involved in the planning,  asked a ton of questions, and shared my expectations. 

 

What I learned was that you can’t travel with everyone, including friends. One traveler was solely traveling for social media likes so we would get to a location after traveling for hours only to spend thirty minutes for a photo-op, while the other was so “cheap” and inconsiderate of time, that the trip ended up costing way more than I anticipated/budgeted (penny wise pound foolish).

 

Things were so poorly plan; for example, I didn’t get the itinerary, that I asked for multiple times, until the day before (couldn’t make heads or tails of it once received),  there was only one key to the places we were staying so it forced us in many cases to travel together, also transportation wasn’t figured out prior to the trip, so we wasted a ton of time trying to get transportation. At one point we couldn’t even get a rental car. 


 I take responsibility in this, I assumed because I had no experience traveling internationally and they did, that things would be great, and that a plan would be set in motion.
 You don’t have to have travel abroad to plan things accordingly. Lesson learned. 

 

My next trip is to the islands, this one is with family. Lodging and transportation are already arranged. The good thing is, if I want to go off and do things on my own I can. I’m actually planning my days and the things I want to do and see. I found a local driver, at a reasonable cost through a travel group, identified things I want to see and made a list. I’ll be mapping things out, so I can get a clear picture of how long it will take to commute to significant sites and estimate costs. 

 

Now it’s time to tackle my finances. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the person that I was working with,  my biggest contract, is no longer with the organization, so I’m not sure where things are. I have a call tomorrow to touch bases with the TPA who got me the gig. Fingers crossed because I was relying on this to pay off student loan number three(3), now I’m going to pause the extra payments until I get definite answers and a feel of how things will go. 

 

Because of this, I decided to pay June and July’s mortgage, HOA, and  COBRA. Though I have a great deal of savings, I don’t like to touch it, and I only want to in case of a real emergency like no money coming in, and since I have the money to pay these things (I received my last contract payment before I left), I am. You never know. 

 

The good news is, a former client reached out to me to work on a project for a few weeks. We are scheduled to chat some time this week. This should bring in about $2-4k a month. I’ll throw a little at the student loan but I won’t be as aggressive. I’m just thankful for income. It seems like God is always one step ahead of me. 

 

That’s it so far, I’ll update my expenses and share over the next few days. 

Mortgage, Stocks, Debt, and Progress

April 20th, 2022 at 03:59 am

I can't believe where I've come from. I have worked so hard to save and pay off debt. I've done it before but this time seems more difficult. I don't know if it's because I'm older, had more debt, or simply have a better understanding of money. Either way I'm making progress. 

I re-worked my budget to include extra payments on the mortgage. I know some will say why pay extra on the mortgage when you have student loan debts? Well because it makes me feel good and keeps me motivated. So today as I prepare for my trip, I paid my May mortgage and an extra $71.11 towards the principal. I absolutely love the amortization table, I use this to round down my debt. 

Other news, looking at my side bar you can see that I'm way behind the eight ball as it relates to my retirement account. I also re-worked the budget so that I max out my IRA account this year. I'm self-employed so I have no 401(k). I did a little research and learned that a SEP might work for me. I'm able to double what I'm contributing to an IRA to a SEP, so this might work. I've set up a call upon my return with a member of the Fidelity team. 

Also about a week ago, I bought my first stocks, Nike, because I'm a Nike snob. Well it's been exciting to watch how my stocks are doing, following the news on the company and all, not to mention the highs a lows. I'm new to this whole investing thing so I'm nervous as hell, I only bought five shares (I do plan on increasing). I must say that  I'm happy with the progress I'm making. I decided to follow a few other companies and every month when I deposit to my IRA, I'll take a little and buy a few shares. By doing this, I have an entire month to research the companies before purchasing. 

Friday is pay day for me and I'll be dropping $2100 on my student loan, this will bring my third student loan balance under $10k. I'm so happy I can scream. I still cant believe that in just over a year and a half I've paid off over $40k in student loans. Plus my other credit card debts. 

If you're new to this journey, keep pushing it gets better. 

Motivated

March 22nd, 2022 at 10:11 pm

 

I did it!

 

I reworked my budget so that I will max out my IRA for 2022 and meet my savings goals. 

 

Yes, I'm still paying off debt but for me paying debt and saving simultaneously gives me peace of mind and keeps me motivated. I've learned that everyone’s journey is different and I have to do what best fits my needs and most importantly keep me motivated. Who knows this may change again, but for now here's what happened today. 

 

$500 added to EF

$773 paid on mortgage principal 

$2000 paid towards student loan number 3

$500 towards IRA 

$205 saved for HOA

$100 for house fund, next few years I'm going to need a roof 

 

Next week I get another $800 and I’m going to throw it towards my student loan 

Wow, I Am So Excited

January 22nd, 2022 at 11:48 am

I'm so excited, I thought budgeting monthly was going to be hard. When I started working for myself I completely stopped, didn't even try. I continued to knock out my student loans and save a nice chunk but I also spent a little more in a few areas. 

 

Well, I decided to get back at it, I started back using the cash envelopes and when I tell you I killed it, I killed it. I pay myself about the 20th of each month, monthly, this is also new. Anyway, I came in well under budget, this budget period and had a ton to roll over in my cash envelopes. I usually roll over twice before throwing at debt. 

 

I also do these money-saving challenges (e.g. 52 weeks) ad love them.  every year that I do these challenges I say I'm getting a new bedroom set, well the money always goes towards my student loans. Last year June, I took half and threw it at my student loan. Then in December I took a little, even though I have a Christmas fund, and used it towards Christmas gifts. Well, I have $955 left of that money and that will pay for my ten days in Greece (housing). My plane ticket was paid in cash last year. I'm so excited. 

 

For 2022,  I started the savings challenges again and I have $365 saved. This money will be my spending money while in Greece. I'm thinking by the time we go, I’d saved about $1200. Everyone on this trip is just as frugal as I am and I love it. I'm certain I'll probably come home with a ton 

 

I'm so excited about my journey. Never in my life would I have saved to pay cash for a trip, under any other circumstances this would have been on a credit card. I've never been able to afford COBRA and here I am seven months in and haven't missed a payment. I've never had more than a few thousand dollars saved and here I am close to 30k saved. I just can't believe this  

It’s My Birthday!

January 18th, 2022 at 01:00 am

In honor of my birthday and turning the fabulous 48, I decided to pay $48 on my student loan. 

Normally I'm out and about for my birthday but today all I wanted to do was rest. Unfortunately, I worked, well I'm thankful so I shouldn't say unfortunately. I work for myself, and my clients needed attention, and I'm thankful for the opportunity to serve. I am heading to Greece for my birthday later this year, that's my a gift to myself and  I've paid cash for this trip 

In financial news, I've reworked my budget and I should be able to pay the final amount in interest on my student loan, #3, next week, this will allow me to start tackling the principal. With student loans, you must pay the interest before paying the principal. Fingers crossed that I can have this loan paid off before the interest starts back up. 

Student Loan

January 11th, 2022 at 09:52 pm

My brother paid me back, $150. I took this money and threw it at my student loan, and the new balance is $17,500 (student loan #3), I'll update my sidebar later.

Looking at my budget, I may be able to add $2000 at the end of the month, fingers crossed. 

It's a Wrap, the 2021 Numbers Are In

January 9th, 2022 at 07:11 am

After balancing my final account, I've been waiting on the statement, the numbers are in. Sadly, overall I spent 14% more than the previous year( 2020).

 

First, my savings accounts increased by $6789.87; liabilities went up by $2400.07. Last month I used the CC for dental work, I'll be paying it off this month, I wanted to use the CC for points, that equal cash. 

 

I paid off $15,429.81 in student loans; decreased the mortgage by $3455.10, and my net worth increased by$2306.14. 

 

Where I spent my money the most was student loans, up 269% (payments); entertaining, up 101%, I bought season tickets to football games, dental up by 125% and personal care, up by 86%, I started back going to the salon and I'm now cutting this out, so my personal care line item should decrease. Clothing  was also up, 26% 

 

I didn't see much decrease but the mortgage decreased by 7%, auto registration was down by 9%, cellular down by 9%; and miscellaneous spending down by 4%  

 

Looking at these numbers really put things in perspective. I'll admit, I lost focus in June and hadn't started budgeting again until December. 

 

Some things I'm doing to ensure this is a better year:

  • Started the cash envelopes back up
  • Started budgeting again 
  • Cutting my salon visits 
  • Will not buy season tickets to the games this year 

That's it 

EF Update

August 6th, 2020 at 08:57 am

This week I received two checks, one for my escrow from the previous lender and a refund from my attorney. I had asked her to hold on to the retainer a little longer in case my brother started up. Well the check came and it was almost $2k. I was surprised.

With both of these deposits and my payday savings I’m about $15 away from having 6 months of expenses saved. I guess things work out for a reason. Ii will up the side bar later

I’m pretty certain my escrow account will not be enough to cover taxes and insurance in November, so I’m saving my October and November side hustle checks to pay the difference. I do not want a higher mortgage payment.

Things are trucking along, after reviewing the budget, and making some adjustments, I’m able to pay $400 on my student loans Friday. I’ll be honest, I’m hoping this interest free savings continues, I’m making some serious progress on my loans.

54% Saved

July 26th, 2020 at 05:41 am


I completed my budget review tonight and found that for this last pay date I saved 54% of my income. Though most was to my sinking funds (future events) it was nice to know that I’m able to. Just wish I was investing this.

I also paid $300 on the student loans, next week I’ll pay about $500. I haven’t calculated but I’m anticipating that I’ve paid closer to $2000 this month on student loans, surpassing my goal of $1,000.

For the month, I saved almost $500 for my challenges. This will go towards my bed room set. I’d taken half the previous amount saved and threw it at the student loan, this was why I was able to go beyond my goal.

Yesterday was the first day I went out in months. Literally. I took a drive to a consignment store and they required a mask, and practiced social distancing. It was just nice to get out. I didn’t find a bed room set, but I did find the place to be expensive. It’s might be less expensive for me to buy a new set. I’ll keep saving and browsing around.

Every Little Bit Helps

July 20th, 2020 at 12:29 pm


Every little bit helps. I signed up for budget billing with my electric company, I’d budgeted $120 for the month. However, the bill was to be $150 but because I did the budget billing it was $97. I took the $20 saved and added to my student loans.

This week is a pay week, and I’ll be adding $300 to my student loans.

I went back to using cash envelopes, I noticed I was spending a little more with my debit card. I also noticed that I still have about $94 left in my cash envelopes left, hopefully this is a no spend week and I can use what’s left and pay down my student loans.

My fingers are crossed 🤞🏾 that this deferred interest accrual continues at least through the end of the year. I’m really making some headway on these loans. The interest kills me.

Crunching The Numbers Before Payday

July 8th, 2020 at 10:16 pm


Pay day is Friday, I sort of played around with the numbers and realized I will be saving about 34% of my income. Though most of this is sinking funds (e.g. HOA, mortgage, car insurance) it’s still a great feeling knowing I can save for these things.

After tallying what I’ll be adding to my challenge fund, my YTD will be $1532. I’m so excited about this. I had so many plans for this money when I first started, saving for my 50th, then it changed to paying off CC, now I’m teetering between a bedroom set and student loans.

My bedroom set was a hand me down, it’s over 20 years old and the drawers are actually falling apart, literally. I also need a new mattress but think I can hold off another year. However, a apart of me is saying screw the bedroom set and pay off the student loans. Maybe I can find a decent use set for $500 and throw the rest on the student loan. Either way I’m waiting until the last check in December and I make my last contribution before deciding.

By playing around with the budget I found some extra cash and I’ll be paying $150 on the student loans. That’s $707.02 towards my goal of a $1,000 for the month. Though I’ll meet my goal with the last check of the month, I really hope I get my tax return before the end of the month, so that I can throw the money on this student and that will take me over goal.

I’m happy that I’m able to make the payment but ticked off that this $1000 isn’t going towards retirement.

On Track!

July 5th, 2020 at 08:55 am


I’m finally tackling Chris Hogan’s “Retire Inspire” it’s pretty good. I ended up purchasing it because for some reason none of the local libraries had digital copies. Honestly, I like the way books feel anyway, and I can highlight if need be.

After reading a few chapters I got even more anxious about paying off my student loans, I want to max out my 401(k), IRA and HSA but I can’t until I get these loans paid off. I hate I took these loans out. 😡

Now that I’m doing these user surveys, I get Amazon gift cards so I can use these for books and household supplies. I’m nervous about ordering groceries via Amazon but we’ll see what happens down the line. Any money saved from not buying household goods I can throw at the student loans.

This was a good week, money wise, with the next pay day I will only be able to throw an extra $100 at the student loan. I cashed out the reward cash from the credit card, $27.02 and threw at my student loans, MTD paid, $527.02. I’m on track with hitting my goal of $1000 for the month.

I’m hoping I get the mortgage payment refund back soon. I have to reach out to the broker regarding my $75 application fee refund. That’s on my list to follow-up on Wednesday.

Lastly, I reworked my budget. I bumped my direct deposit to the emergency fund by $100 a paycheck since I’m saving that amount in mortgage, I also reallocated the car fund direct deposit. I met my goal for the upcoming six month car insurance renewal in August, so I was able to decrease the amount needing to go to the account for the next renewal in March 2020 by $100. It feels good, everything seems to be working out.

Closed!

July 1st, 2020 at 09:24 pm


Closed today, I’ll be getting a check on the 7th for just over $700 and I’ll also be getting a refund on the payment I made for July.

The first payment is due September so, I’m throwing August payment into the saving that will give me three to four months of mortgage payment saved. I’m happy with that because that was my goal.

Next I’m adjusting the budget, and my direct deposit, to account for the $222, I’ll be saving each month in mortgage since refinancing.

I completed my first user review and made $50 in gift card (Amazon). I’ll use these gift cards to purchase household goods.


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