Debt Payment Update March 2015

Hello!

Time for a little update on the debt progress!

$0.00 remaining for the Pontiac – PAID OFF!
$6867.38 remaining for the Honda
$23,059.28 remaining for student loans

End of January 2015: $35,735.66
End of February 2015: $29,926.66
Change: -$5,809.00

I am SO happy to have the first car loan paid off. A lot of the progress made last month was due to tax refunds being used for debt payoff. I am very pleased with that decision because this was a great push forward in the whole debt total. I combined the student loan totals for future reference, and soon there will be additions to that amount because I start back up in school in May 2015. I know we won’t get the debt paid off as fast as I want it to. I am happy to see the progress we have made either way, and I am making it a point to add some savings in the budget going forward to even things out.

Amber

Budget Update – January 2015

Hello!

So one of my first posts on this blog included a budget plan for the first 3 months of 2015. I had to make some changes due to some trial and error with the budget so far.

This is the new plan for the budget until the end of March 2015. I will need to make additional changes depending on how this plays out and the need to allocate debt payoff money elsewhere.

Rent: Rent is only $100 per month because we currently live with my dad. He was nice enough to agree to let us use his basement while we pay off debt and save for a house.

Phone: Phone bill. Pretty standard. 2 iPhones, unlimited talk, text, and data.

Fixed Loans: Pontiac payment, Honda payment, and my student loan payment. These are the minimums due. I pay extra on the Pontiac at this point, but that’s shown in another category.

Gasoline: I still don’t know if I have the accurate amount and with gas prices being so low right now I am afraid to put it any lower for fear it won’t be enough when the prices go back up. I was allocating $80 per week for the 2 of us to use, but we always had some leftover. I moved it down to $70 per week and we will see if that works out. I don’t want to go too low until the prices appear to be steady and normal again. (I am certainly not complaining about them being low, I just don’t think it wise to budget based on that price.)

Car Insurance: The policy is $950 and renews every 6 months. I put aside $160 a month and then pay the bill every 6 months.

Entertainment-ish: Comics vary per week, but I set a budget of $20 per week just in case it’s a heavy week. The gym cost is actually $20 for me and $10 for Boyfriend. Netflix is $8 per month. Can’t say no to that.

Groceries: I had to bring this one up. I was allocating $50 per week towards a grocery fund. Sometimes we wouldn’t shop at all in a week and then have it to add to the next week, but other times we needed household/grocery type items that are purchases sporadically. Turns out $200 a month is not feasible either way I look at it unless I become an extreme coupon (which I would be terrible at) so I upped it to $75 a week. I would rather have too much set aside than not enough.

Periodic Fund: In this category it has the yearly expenses, some car care stuff, clothing, etc. I just put away $100 per month so when these expenses come up they won’t need to be put on a credit care or come out of the savings account.

Gifts/Events: I am trying the whole 52 week saving challenge thing. Put $1 away the first week, $2 the second, so on and so forth. I am going to use this as my birthday/holiday gift fund and a way to save for any concerts or events we might want to go to.

Additional Debt Payment: This is how much I am applying to the Pontiac in addition to the minimum due. This will change when stuff gets paid off.

I didn’t include anything about savings, so this is just expenses.

Let’s hope it works out this time! 🙂

Amber

Oh, 2015

Hello! 🙂

With New Year’s approaching, I see it only fitting to set some plans up for the coming 2015 year. Plan seems to be a more appropriate word than resolution, I think. (Seems to be that most resolutions that are set are not usually met.) I hope to actually stick to this plan during 2015 with tweaks and updates as needed.

Personal Health:

• I want to get down to 200 lbs in 2015. This will mean losing 30 lbs during the year. If I happen to make this goal before the end of 2015 I will adjust the number accordingly.
• I want to stop drinking Monster. Boyfriend and I bought a coffee pot and are going to start drinking coffee for our caffeine intake rather than Monster. It will be cheaper and healthier in the long run. I had coffee this morning and did not have a Monster for the first time in 3 months. I feel great that I didn’t drink the Monster, but I feel the difference in caffeine so it will take some getting used to.

Relationship/Social:

• At least one weekend night per month with absolutely no plans. Just me and Boyfriend. Too often we jam pack our weekends with social time with friends or work events and do not spend enough quality time together. This will change in 2015.
• Dinner with parents once per month. When we had our own apartment and didn’t live with my dad we had dinner every other Friday with the parental units. It was nice to see them and catch up on our lives. Now that we live with my dad, we never eat with the parents. We stay in the basement and don’t bother anyone and are not bothered by anyone. It’s nice to have the privacy, but I miss the interaction.
• Spend more time with my sister. I will aim to see her at least once per month one on one. We do not live together anymore and we are both old enough now to have a mature relationship. We are 6 years apart so we did not always get along growing up. 😉 I still see the age difference, but I feel that our relationship can become more than just “she’s my sister so I have to love her” type of thing. It would be nice if we could be friends.
• Schedule dates with close friends to avoid going multiple months without seeing them. We see a couple of people more than others due to busy schedules, so we need to make it a priority to give adequate time to all friends. Nobody is more important than the other. 🙂

Financial:

• Pay off Boyfriend’s car. (Aiming for end of March.)
• Pay off my car. (Aiming for end of June, but it may end up being closer to end of August depending how the first loan goes.)
• Find cheaper/better car insurance.
• Do not use credit cards for everyday purchases.
• Attempt to eliminate impulse shopping.
• Do the 52 week savings challenge for birthday and holiday gifts. (I opened an online savings for this so I do not have the cash on hand. I am always more tempted to spend cash.)

Educational:

• I want to return to college to start working on my B.S. I graduated with my associate’s degree in May of 2014 and took a break, but I want to go back this year.
• Boyfriend is scheduled to graduate with his associate’s degree in August. He will take a small break and then return to school as well.

Fun/Blogging:

• Post weekly updates on weight progress.
• Post monthly updates on debt repayment progress.
• Use my 2015 planner to my advantage with other goals and use ONLY my 2015 planner. (I am pretty bad about writing down events. I had stuff written in multiple places during 2014 and none of the dates ever matched up. Sort of purpose defeating, in my opinion.)