Debt Repayment
At the beginning of the month, we budgeted the money that we earned last month and decided to start with $1,300 toward loans. We reserved some extra for our end-of-the-month payment. Then at the end of the month, we emptied all of the extra from our categories into our debt payment (our strategy for maximizing debt repayment).
Our total amount put toward debt in June was $2,149.91! We knocked out our smallest unsubsidized loan (they all have the same interest rate) and moved onto the next one (which is $14,000 something, so it will be a while).
Income
Our total net income for June was: $4,274
Regular Income: $2969 This is Mr.SixFiguresUnder’s current take-home pay. For more details about his pay see here or here.
Random Income: $250 This isn’t newly earned income as much as it is a reimbursement, but it is from nearly two years ago, so for budgeting purposes, it’s income. I’ll discuss the details in an upcoming post.
Etsy Income: $440 The beginning of the month was slow, but at the end, I had a bit of a rush, so I’ve got a whole line-up or orders to fill in the next week or so.
Other Income: $615 In addition to blog income, I sold a children’s book and a pair of kids shoes on ebay.
Spending
Each month we budget down to zero using the previous month’s income. Our spending in June comes from the income we earned in May. In addition to the debt payments above, here’s where we spent money in June:
Tithing–$392 One of the expenses that we won’t skimp on is a 10% tithe on our income.
Mortgage/Rent– $0 We live rent-free in my in-laws’ basement in the boonies. It’s a huge blessing with some serious benefits.
Utilities– $0 Utilities are included in our “rent,” but I include them here just so you don’t think I’m forgetting them.
Cell Phones– $20 We pay my dad $20 per month for our dumb phones that are on his family plan. We are venturing out though…
Republic Wireless– $202 Writing about the research I did on cheap cell phone plans last fall got me thinking seriously about switching. With Republic, it would still only cost $10 per month for each of our phones, but we would have unlimited texting and would have data via WiFi! Republic Wireless has a 30 day money-back guarantee, so we decided to give it a try! We got the Moto G with 16 GB of memory. You can read about our Republic Wireless experiment.
Health Insurance– $114 This is through our ACA plan which is explained here.
Dental– $23 Our dental discount plan. We failed again at getting ourselves check-ups so we can get rid of this plan, but we have back-to-back appointments in July (with grandma scheduled to babysit). What a fun date!
Car Insurance– $97 We both drive ’97 cars, so it just seems appropriate that our car insurance is $97.
Food– $271 We aim to be under $300, so this is right on track. For an idea of some of the regular meals on our menu, you can see our no-spend month menu (which looks pretty darn close to our regular menu).
Gas– $395 I’m pretty certain this is the lowest gas number we’ve ever shared! Mr. SixfiguresUnder went on a backpacking trip with the Scouts. One of his responsibilities at church is working with the 12 to 17-year-old boys. Not having to drive to work for a week saved a nice chunk of our gas budget. Also, we ended the month with the van empty, so that will be reflected on next month’s budget.
Clothing– $12 We stopped by the thrift store when we were in town and girls clothes were half off. I got a couple things for my 6-year-old for $1 each. I also bought a Groupon for dry cleaning. For $16 I got a $30 credit for a dry cleaner near my husband’s office! When I went to pay for it, I had a $10 Groupon credit just sitting there from who knows when, so it only cost me $6! Dry cleaning is so expensive, so I’m excited to have a way to save on it.
Household– $18.50 We bought toilet paper, shampoo, straws, kids toothbrushes (I caught my 2-year-old scrubbing down in the sink drain with his toothbrush) and rubber gloves (I have to have them to wash dishes). We still have our Dollar Shave Club subscription on hold. It’s nice that Mr. SixFiguresUnder makes each cartridge last a month.
Fun– $6 I took the kids to the county fair on kids’ day, so the kids were free. My $9 adult admission was waived because I brought something to enter into the daily special baked goods contest. The entry fee was $2. I was pretty happy that I figured out how to get us into the fair for $2 total (Mr. SixFiguresUnder was at work). The thrift store was having an outdoor sale on books. You could fill a bag for $4. We got lots of books, especially piano books.
Lawyer Marketing– $161 We’ll be excited when this contract to put an ad in a local publication ends.
Law Practice– $44 Monthly subscription to my husband’s law practice management software.
Emergency Fund– $200 We added $200 to our emergency fund just for fun. That puts us at $4,594 in our emergency fund. We keep most of our emergency fund in our Capital One 360 account.
How did your finances go in June?
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June was a good month for my husband I. It wasn’t as great as we had hoped, but it was as I expected it to be. I am okay with knowing that, vs thinking that it was a great month to find out it wasn’t after crunching the numbers.
That’s great Michelle!
June was a great month for the hubs and I. He got a new job!!!! Actually he got the job that he had always wanted. So we made some huge financial decisions that month.
We paid all of our standard bills as usual to the tune of $1852.02. This includes: Rent, Auto Insurance, Renters Ins, Roadside Assistance, Water, Trash, Electricity, Cable, Gym Membership, Cell Phone, Internet, & Cable.
Our household expenses $1152.00. This included: Groceries, Restaurants, Haircuts, Dog Food & New Pet Beds, and new work clothes for the Hub’s new position (clothes= $369.32 of the over $1100)
We contributed 1255.37 into various savings accounts and sinking funds. We are LOVING YNAB it is the best budgeting tool ever and works perfectly for someone who literally gets paid everyday and has an irregular income (like myself)
The biggest financial decision we made involved student loan debt. We received an offer in the mail for a 0% interest loan for 12 months from a credit card that we hadn’t used in years. We decided to take this money and pay off the last of the student loans with it! We figured that as long as we saved $516/mo. we would be able to pay it off before the interest rate went up. We were concerned, but figured that it was doable even though it was hard. Then a few days later the hub’s got his dream job offer. So we decided to use the severance that he received from his last job (which had been sitting in our EF) to go ahead and pay off the loan. This dropped our EF pretty low, but with him having a new job and us having no debt I felt ok with it.
Thanks again Stephanie for writing that awesome article about YNAB. I feel like it has totally changed our financial lives.
Looks like June really was a great month for you, CeCee! I’m so happy that your husband got his dream job!! And you took care of the student loan balance transfer too! You’ll be able to build up your emergency fund quickly now that he has a new job and you are done with student loans! Great move!
I’m glad that you are loving YNAB like we are! Like I said, it was the best thing that ever happened to our budget!
Congratulations on your debt repayment for June!!!! You always inspire me with your efforts!
Thanks Belinda!
That’s awesome, and I admire all the income you’re making — “blog income” and “etsy” both *sound* easy, but I know they are not. You are a serious financial contributor to the household.
My June was pretty good: paid off my student loans, got into positive net worth territory. I could mention some financial lowlights too but honestly that has to qualify as a good month!
Paid off your student loans?! Hooray! And a positive net worth!! Definitely a great month! Thanks for sharing your exciting news Cecilia!
Isn’t it amazing … it seems our incomes are so great, but it all goes so fast! June and July will be rough for us but we are determined to get back on track! I’d love to learn how you make money blogging … maybe you have a post about that?!
It does go fast! I’ll do a post about earning money blogging eventually (now I still feel like a newbie). A great resource is this e-book by Ruth Soukup
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I put my largest payment ever towards my debt last month. Hopefully it’s just as big next month. Well done on your debt repayment.
That’s great! Keep it up!!
We pay $96 a month for our cars but they are a 2007 & a 2008. Maybe its the area? (We are in illinois) but we got a great deal via our alumni association, if you want to check into yours.
That’s great Jerilyn! Our insurance is with USAA. We usually get dividends at the end of the year which is a fun bonus. We’ve gotten alumni association things in the mail, but I’ve never really looked into it. Thanks for the tip!
You guys are incredible Stephanie! I have been following along with you guys for quite awhile now. We are rooting for you and praying for you with each new post. Many people get motivated to start getting serious, but then get lukewarm or peter out completely. You guys are 100% devoted, and an inspiration!
Blessings
Thanks Deborah! That means a lot to me. 🙂 We really want to get out of debt so that we can save for a house of our own. Our living arrangement isn’t bad (it’s a huge blessing!), but it keeps us motivated to keep progressing. We aren’t willing to slack off because we are eager to reach our goal.
You’re making great progress, Stephanie! Keep it up. I’m seriously impressed by your low health insurance costs. I’ll have to check out your ACA post.
It’s low because our income is low. As our income increases, our subsidy will decrease. We used to have a high deductible plan before high deductible plans got cut. It worked fine for us because we are all healthy, so we rarely use our insurance.
NIce! It is amazing how you are able to stick to a $300 grocery budget! We do it, but we are only a family of 3, and one is a baby! Congratulations on so much progress!
Thanks! We never eat out and cook most things from scratch. Having a garden helps too!
Congrats on getting your smaller loan paid off! We’re in the homestretch with our loans, too. Not fun, but at least we’re getting there. I hope Republic Wireless works out for you. It sounds like you got a great deal on the clothing and Groupon! I love getting crazy deals like that. I hope July goes well for you.
Thanks E.M. Congrats on being in the homestretch! I bet it’s nice to see the end in sight!
Wow, that’s an amazing number up there. I’m excited for you for being able to make such a big payment this month 😀
Thanks Carolin! I was pretty excited too!
Ok, I’m sure I won’t be the only person to be curious, so I’m gonna ask: How did you sell one children’s book and net over 500 dollars? That is crazy and awesome! Would love more details on that one. 🙂
That’s great about the decrease in gas spending for the month. Does your husband have paid time off or does he miss commission/incentives when he’s not at work? Just wondering, because normally in my life, if one category is good, it usually means another one suffers. Hope this is not the case for you.
You guys are doing AMAZING! What a huge number to put toward debt this month. Before you know it, you’ll be in the 80’s! Keep up the good work!
I wish the book was worth that much! Most of that “other” income comes from my blog. The book and shoes didn’t make that much! 🙂
My husband makes commission on the work he does, so yes, if he’s not in the office, he can’t do work or bill any clients. It doesn’t affect the actual pay we receive because he is on a draw, but it does affect the commission he makes, which is also important and kept track of too. I was just looking on the bright side!
Thanks for the encouragement Liz!
Sorry, I wasn’t trying to be a downer…I also always look on the positive…I was just curious. 🙂 Oh, and I totally did not see that line about the blog income being included in that. I seriously thought that was all from the 2 ebay sales, which is why I just HAD to know how you got to sell a book and shoes for 600 dollars! 🙂
I figured you did Liz! 🙂