I love the accountability that blogging about our debt journey provides. As usual, here is a look at what we earned, spent, and paid-off in debt last month!
Debt Repayment
Our beginning of the month payment was $1,459, just what we needed to pay off our balance transfer that we used to save on interest. At the end of the month we paid $150 for a grand total of $1,609 this month.
Income
Our total net income for May was $3,927. Since we “live on last month’s income,” this is all sitting in the bank waiting to be budgeted and used in June! Here’s the breakdown:
Regular Income: $2969— Nothing out of the ordinary here, just Mr. SixFiguresUnder’s monthly take-home pay. You can read more details about his pay here or here.
Husband’s Extra: $200— Mr. SixFiguresUnder opened a Chase checking account with a coupon we received in the mail to get a $200 bonus. He had to jump through some hoops, like going into the branch to link a checking account so he could put money into the account (I don’t know why they can’t do it online like every other institution), but all said, it was a pretty easy way to earn $200. You have to have a balance of at least $1,500 in the account to avoid paying a fee, so we put $2,000 (half of our emergency fund) in the account.
Etsy Income: $396— It was a pretty average Etsy month.
Other Income: $362— This is income from blogging and ebay. I sold two ebay listings at the beginning of the month: a pair of capris that I found at the thrift store with the tags on them, and a set of Playstation Portable UMD movies that I got for free.
Spending
Each month we budget down to zero using the previous month’s income. Our spending in May comes from the income we earned in April. In addition to the debt payments above, here’s where we spent money in May:
Tithing–$387 We pay a 10% tithe on our income. During May (while we are living on what we earned in April), we pay tithing on what April’s income.
Mortgage/Rent– $0 We are grateful to live in my in-laws’ basement rent-free. It may not be pretty, but it’s practical and allows us progress toward our debt-free goal much faster than if we had to pay rent somewhere.
Utilities– $0 We don’t pay any utilities. We’ve offered, but my in-laws want to allow us to pay off our debt as quickly as possible. We try to conserve resources and not be wasteful.
Cell Phones– $20 We might have the last dumb phones in the state, but for $10 per phone per month, we can handle any un-coolness associated with not having a smartphone.
Health Insurance– $114 We have an ACA plan. You can read more about our health insurance here.
Dental– $23 Our dental discount plan that we are planning to cancel soon (you can cancel and re-sign-up anytime). We really are planning to have appointments in June!
Car Insurance– $98 Our monthly car insurance payment.
Food– $298 Just coming off of a no-spend month in April, we needed to restock our fridge and some things in the pantry. I am extra careful to not overspend the month after a no-spend month. That’s how we make sure our no-spend months really save us money. Lots of people are surprised that we can feed our family of five on $300 or less each month. You can read about some of the ways we save on groceries without using coupons, if you haven’t already.
Gas– $478 We were under on gas even though gas is over $4 here. It’s probably because we started the month with full tanks and ended with empty ones!
Clothing– $23 Dry cleaning a suit costs $21. I also spent $12 on a few clearance items at Old Navy. I used a $10 gift card that I got from MyPoints (I almost always get Old Navy gift cards with my MyPoints points), so only $2 came from the budget.
Household– $31 We didn’t need too much this month, even though we spend $0 on household last month. Half of this was buying a new giant roll of plastic wrap since we finished off the roll we bought at Sam’s Club right after we got married. It would have lasted another decade if I didn’t use it to package some of my Etsy items. The other half of our spending was toilet paper.
Fun- $11 We went to the book fair at my daughter’s school and let the two older kids each choose a book and we paid for half. The kids each paid for the other half with their own money. We also borrowed Frozen from Redbox for a couple days.
Lawyer Marketing (Food)– $0 We usually budget $24 so Mr. SixFiguresUnder can spend $6 on breakfast at a weekly marketing meeting. The budget is pleased to announce that the location of the meeting has changed to an office instead of a cafe, so he will no longer be buying breakfast! This category will disappear!
Lawyer Marketing– $442 Besides the print ad (which we have a 1-year contract for), we put on a small seminar. We rented a room at a local hotel. I took care of the decorations and light refreshments myself. It went well and some of the attendees have turned into clients!
Law Practice– $44 Hopefully the firm will eventually pay for Mr. SixFiguresUnder’s law practice management software subscription, but until then we’re picking it up.
Emergency Fund- $200 We added $200 to our emergency fund for safe keeping, which brings our emergency fund total to $4,394.
More on Budgeting
Here are a couple articles that explain some more details on the way we budget:
How did your finances go in May?
PS- Thank you!
This is my 100th post! Time has flown since I started sharing our finances with the world at Six Figures Under. Thank you for reading and following along! It is so encouraging to hear your stories and have you read ours. Thanks for being a part of our journey!
Linked at Thrifty Thursday
Some links in this post are affiliate links. For more info check out my disclosure page.
Hi Stephanie,
I am a new reader to your blog, so I may have missed this point in past posts. I was wondering how does your entire monthly payment go toward the principal of your loans (none to the interest)?
I also have student loan debt and am trying to figure out the best payment option. Seems to me that even IBR plans have interest accruing because the government only pays the interest on subsidized Stafford loans; they do not pay the interest on unsubsidized loans, grad plus, or any other loan type. So while the interest on subsidized loans may not accrue on IBR, the interest on other loans do accrue interest.
So how does none of your monthly payment go toward interest? I would love to know how you deal with the interest factor because it would be a nice break to pay more principal!
Hi Krissy! The amount we pay toward loans and report in our monthly financial report is the total amount of money that we pay out of our checking account. When I make the calculations for the image at the top of the post (and sidebar) I add up all the money we have paid toward our loans (principal or interest) which is the green number. The red number is the current repayment amount which does include interest. Each succeeding month, the green plus red number grows because the interest is accruing.
I hope that answers your question, but if not, feel free to clarify!
Great job! You and your husband are truly inspiring. I’m glad your husband’s seminar earned him some new clients–it was one of your biggest expenses!
Thanks Kristia. I’m glad he got some new clients from the seminar too.
We did the Chase $200 deal, too – how could we not pass up that free money? Love reading about your journey; thanks for being so transparent with the subject’s details that are not always shared!
Seriously! I little hassle for $200 was worth it to us. Did they make you go into the branch to set up a linked account too?
They didn’t say we had to go into the branch, but we did because we were having some weird technical issue doing it online. There’s a branch super-close to home and on our regular errand route anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal.
Oh my goodness. You inspire. I was only able to read part of this post. My Cowboy will be home shortly from work in need of a snack. I mentioned earlier I am following you but now I put you on favorites. This was a great post. I am interested in reading more and checking out your ETSY. I’ll be back!
Sherry
Thanks Sherry!
Awesome blog! Adding you to my follow list for sure!
Thanks Sondra!
Holy moly! I just found your site thought SITS and I love reading about your successes! What an incredible story – and you’re doing awesome! I will be back for sure!
Thanks Jen! Thanks for stopping by!
LOVE this post! I appreciate how you put a very detailed explanation beside each category so we understand exactly what the money went to. I always look forward to reading this post every month! It definitely motivates me to be more INTENTIONAL about my spending. I laughed so hard when I read your clever wording above when you said: “The BUDGET is pleased to announce…” –ha ha I do have one question that I figured I would go ahead and ask you publicly in case other reads are curious too. Of course this doesn’t mean you have to answer as it’s private, but then again, all your financial info that you graciously post is private, so I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask: As of right now, do you and your husband feel that it’s the right thing to stay living where you are for as long as it takes to pay off your debt? Or have you capped it off at X amount of years? Of course over time you may feel differently than whatever it is you are feeling now, but just curious what your current master plan is. 🙂
That’s a fine question Liz. Not too personal at all! 🙂
Right now the plan is to stay here until we pay off our debt, and hopefully until we can save up a down payment. We really would not be able to make much progress at all if we were paying $1,500 on rent each month. Our living arrangement is what really makes our progress possible on our small income. Hopefully the income will pick up soon and make the payback pick up speed as well. We really are eager to buy our own place, but that just increases our motivation to work hard at earning, saving, and paying off debt. I think that’s why we are able to stick to our budget
My in-laws really are supportive and say they love having us here. My mother-in-law especially likes having us around I think. She likes having someone to talk to now and then during the day and she likes watching the kids grow up.
Of course, our master plan may change (as it has in the the past), but for now that is our plan!
You guys are really kicking it, Stephanie! I love how supportive your in-laws are about you guys getting your debt gone ASAP. Super job on the food budget too. Our food budget went out the window in May, and I’m still living in denial and haven’t written our May progress report yet. 🙁
Thanks Laurie. I do have great, supportive in-laws. I feel really blessed! I’m sorry that your grocery budget busted in May. I’ll be looking for your May report so I can remind you that it’s okay. We all have months like that sometimes.
A fantastic effort, Stephanie! I always really enjoy reading your progress reports.
That is great that you can now remove a budget category, with your husband’s weekly meetings now being held at work. Also brilliant that you now have some new clients, as a result of your lawyer marketing strategy!
Our finances have been a little challenging in the last few weeks, as we had a hot water heater that needed replacing and also needed eye specialist appointments (and subsequently, glasses to be purchased) for one of our children. As a result, we haven’t been able to contribute as much money as we’d like, towards our debts, but we should be back on track very soon.
Congrats on your 100th post!!!!!
Thanks Belinda! That is rough when expensive random expenses come up, especially when there are a couple of those in one month! There’s always next month!
New reader – hello! Love the detailed break down of your spending – it’s a pretty impressive budget 🙂 Loving the blog too – I shall be a regular reader 🙂
Welcome Nicola! Thanks for following along!
You guys are killing that debt! Great work- I know for us we really, really need to cut down on our cell phones. Our contract w/verizon is up in October and we will definitely be shopping around for a more affordable option.
We really lucked out with our cell phone set-up. Granted they are dumb phones. We don’t text or get on the internet, just make old fashioned phone calls. It fits right in with the rest of our current minimal-spending-debt-paying lifestyle.
You guys are doing great! Thanks for sharing. I enjoy these detailed monthly budget posts because they show me areas that my husband and I can cut down on. Right now we are researching different cell phone plans and car insurance. As of today, we have $31,575 remaining down from $173k. We just got down to our final loan group from the 10 we started with so we are excited to be in the home stretch!
Wow Courtney! You’ve made great progress! You’re so close.
I’m always amazed at how well you do with your budget! We aim to spend $300 a month on groceries for the two of us but that also includes toilet paper, laundry soap, personal care items and other non-food things like plastic bags which does cut into the budget. Granted, we eat a lot of meat, veggies and very little grains for health reasons so that brings grocery costs up significantly.
I noticed your household budget included toilet paper and plastic wrap. So is your grocery budget for only food and then non-food items are counted in the household category? I would be interested in hearing more about this. Thanks!
Yep.
Our grocery budget is just food. We don’t usually eat out, but if we do it goes in the “food” category as well. Sometimes at Sam’s club I’ll get a soft pretzel or an ice cream and that comes out of the food budget.
The household category includes everything that isn’t food, like toilet paper, sandwich bags, toner for the printer, etc. We really try to evaluate everything and see if we really need it. I bought two rolls of paper towels about 8 months ago and we still have one left. If I can use a rag or dishcloth, I will use that instead. We only use paper towels for cleaning up after haircuts or cleaning something really gross.
Thanks for your reply!
We use very few paper products as well to save money. I usually have a roll or two of cheap paper towels on hand but they last a long time. We use rags for cleaning, cloth napkins and even some cloth hankies. (I have a supply of Kleenex, mostly for guests, but again, they last a long time!) I bought some extra Corelle plates at thrift stores and yard sales so we don’t have to use paper plates every time we have a big group of guests over. I try to use more reusable containers rather than plastic bags.
I’ll need to look and see if it would help to separate the non-food spending from the grocery budget and what that would look like dollar-wise. I think it would help me since sometimes it feels like the biggest non-food purchases (toilet paper, laundry soap) really cut into the grocery budget!
I really like having them separate for that very reason!
I am so impressed by your grocery budget, especially after coming off a no-spend month and for a family of 5! We have a $300 “everything you can buy at Walmart budget” for 2 people and a baby, and sometimes it’s tough. I can’t imagine doing what you’re doing. Kudos!
Thanks. During law school we had a $200 monthly grocery budget, but that was when we had Aldi. Food is much more expensive in California. 🙁