Debt Repayment
Both last month and this month we have had an expected low debt payment. Starting in March, payments will increase substantially! We have changed from a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants budgeting system to a living-on-last-month’s-income system. It’s really exciting!
So essentially, in January and February we have paid and set money aside for a month and a half’s expenses each month. You can read all about living on last month’s income in this new post. . I am really excited about this change and how it will increase our debt payoff, organization and sanity.
Our (anti-climatic) debt payoff for February is $364.47. Of course, I would have liked to pay more, but this was what we expected as we made the budgeting change-over. Something is better than nothing! We are in a unique position of no minimum payments on any of our student loans because we have an income-based repayment plan and low income for our family size. It is nice to have that flexibility, though our loans are still accruing interest.
Income
Regular Income: $2969— This is the new standard after-taxes take-home pay for my husband. At first we thought that something was wrong because this is less than we had been receiving last year. In the middle of last year, his payroll switched from every two weeks to twice a month. In order to account for the change, his paychecks for the last several months of last year were higher. You can read more about our income here.
Etsy: $325— This is my profit after taking out all fees and supply costs. It was a below-average moth for Etsy income. I haven’t created anything new for my shop in ages, just custom variations on what I have been selling for a long time. In March I plan to get some new listings up and hopefully increase my profits on Etsy.
Other Income: $140– I had hoped to get some things up on ebay, but that didn’t happen. This income includes cash-back from ebates (I love how they just deposit it into my Paypal account) as well as some blogging income.
Spending
| Category | Budget | Spent | Notes |
| Tithing | $373 | Our regular 10% tithe on our income. | |
| Rent/Mortagage | $0 | $0 | We are happy to live in my in-law’s basement apartment. |
| Gas | $500 | $493 | I really thought we were going to go over on gas this month because our kids were involved in a musical production that was an hour away. Thankfully it was only for 6 weeks. We don’t do many extra-curricular activities since we live in the boonies, but this one (which was free besides the cost of driving into town) was well-worth it. |
| Utilities | $0 | $0 | Included in our free rent. |
| Groceries | $300 | $219 | We kept the grocery bill down this month because we knew we would be over in other areas (see below). |
| Cell Phones | $20 | $20 | Hooray for dumb phones on the archaic family plan! We pay $10 each. |
| Clothing | $30 | $8 | On Valentine’s day, my husband had a hearing at the courthouse that is near one of my favorite thrift stores (they have certain color tags that are 25%, 50% and 75% off). I had him go by and check out the kids clothes. They have a pretty small selection of kids’ clothes, so it wasn’t overwhelming for him. I gave him a few ideas of what the kids need and told him to browse through the ones that are on sale. He got some great things for the kids and gave them to the kids that night for Valentine’s day, which made them even more special. |
| Home & Office Supplies | $40 | $33 | Our Dollar Shave Club subscription is $6.45. So far my husband has been using 1 blade per month, so each subscription is lasting us 4 months of shaving! I also bought some thread and ribbon for a dress I made for my daughter (with fabric I already had). I also bought 10 dozen flat lids for canning (so I could can some more applesauce). |
| Entertainment | $0 | $1 | We borrowed Tangled from the library. |
| Health Insurance | $114 | $114 | You can read about our changes in insurance under the ACA. |
| Dental | $22 | $122 | Our $22 dental discount plan plus a $100 payment for October’s dental work. I thought last month was the last payment, but unfortunately I was wrong. |
| Lawyer Marketing | $450 | $553 | In addition to the standard half-page ad in the monthly publication, annual dues for his professional association were due. |
| Lawyer Marketing Food | $25 | $14 | Missed a couple networking meetings this month because of some overlap in work. |
| Law Practice Expense | $60 | $45 | Monthly $45 practice management software subscription. |
Looking forward to hearing about your new budgeting system!! Always really enjoy reading about your progress. Wow – I am so impressed that you managed to spend only $219 on groceries in one month!!!! Well done!
Thanks Belinda! I’m excited to explain the way we budget now because it is wonderful 🙂
I am so impressed by your determination to rid yourself of debt. I have been reading your posts since we were in the same SITS tribe and I really enjoy what you write about. I have finally put my finances in order and now I need to figure out where to make cuts until the money picks up again. Can’t wait to see how much you pay off next month!
Thanks for saying hi Beth! Great job getting your finances in order! Now that you know where your money is going it will be easier to decide where to make cuts. The best part is seeing those sacrifices make a difference!
Congrats on another $364 in debt repayment. Every little bit helps. We definitely had a tumultuous month in our household. We paid all of our regular bills in February (Rent, Electric, Cable, Cell Phone, Insurance, and Gym Membership). I paid about ~$150 towards medical bills that I accrued from injuring my back in January. We also paid off another $2400 towards our student loans. This brings our total down to ~$7200 in debt. I have been selling things on ebay/half.com and saving this money towards a vacation since we were making such large payments towards the student loan debt.
Then the unexpected/expected happened. My husband lost his job. We had a very strong feeling that the time was approaching and we knew it would happen eventually, but we didn’t expect it to happen so soon/suddenly. This is why we had been so gung-ho about paying everything off and saving money. Fortunately the lay-off came with a large severance package that we should be able to use to pay off the last of the debt. Also my income is enough to pay the bills, buy groceries, etc. single handedly until he finds a new job. He is working on lining up interviews for next week. We feel like everything will eventually fall into place the way it is supposed to.
Hopefully by next months report we will have all debt paid off and my hubs will have a job. Wish us luck.
Great job on your student loan payments! That’s awesome!! You’re so close!
I’m sorry to hear about your husband’s job loss. That is great that he got a nice severance package and that he is working hard to secure a new job! I love how positive you are about your situation. Things will fall into place. I’m excited for next month’s report 🙂
That is so sweet that your husband was willing and capable of picking out clothes for the kids that would fit them…love this. I also love that you were willing to go over on gas to do something fun for the kids. We were on school vacation this past week and we also splurged to do two fun outings for the kids, and both very inexpensive but we knew the memories would be priceless. We took the kids ice skating (it was my son’s 3rd time and my daughter’s 1st time) and my son ended up splitting his entire chin open on the ice…the other fun outing we did was to take the kids to an indoor bouncy house type place and my daughter got her first concussion. I will say that being married to a pediatrician finally paid off because daddy was able to treat them and so it was zero cost (or waiting time!) to us…not that we would have cared for a second, but hey, I like to find the positive in EVERY situation! 😛 Needless to say, I’m hesitant to plan another fun outing anytime soon! 😛 Can’t wait to hear about your new way of budgeting!
That’s fun that you guys got to make some fun memories over your break! And a concussion?! Yikes! That is definitely handy to have a doctor around 🙂 So far we haven’t had any concussions or stitches (which is pretty amazing considering how active my kiddos are)!
My husband also told me that he really wanted to find me a new skirt or something, but he couldn’t find anything that he thought I would like and would fit. It made me smile that he tried though 🙂
Yes, it’s always the thought that counts. The fact that he thought of you and tried and told you about it, is super sweet. My husband was able to glue my son’s chin back together (in his office with the doctor glue stuff) so he didn’t need stitches. This is the 4th time he’s glued Max’s face. My daughter has never needed glue and this was her first big injury. But because there was no blood, I would definitely say my son’s injury was a lot more traumatic–we were both covered in blood, and there was a huge red trail on the ice skating rink. I almost passed out. Oh, and I’m pretty sure I mentioned it, but we DID get our credit card paid off and due to God blessing us (for our faithfulness in tithing–you know how that works), we now have quite a good start to our emergency fund! 😛
That is a pretty wild set of outings! I’d stay home for a while after all that excitement too 🙂 That much blood would make me queasy! I’m so glad everything worked out with your tax refund and paying off the credit card! What a blessing!