by Hope
Lessons I learned the last two months as I’ve started receiving income again:
- Paying everything at the beginning of the month can leave you struggling at the end of the month.
- Even with money coming in regularly, it feels much better to have a buffer in your checking account and at least a small emergency fund.
- After a year in “starvation” mode, even a little splurge right now feels too much.
Overall, April has been a great month financially. (You can see last month’s debt update here.)
| Debt Description | October, 2023 Total | Interest Rate | Minimum Payment | Current Total | Payoff Date (Est) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CC - Sams | $1,106 | 29.99% | $0 | $0 | April, 2024 |
| CC - Amazon | $1,497 | 29.99% | $53 | $1,462 | May, 2024 |
| CC - Wander | $1,630 | 29.24% | $75 | $1,605 | June, 2024 |
| Personal Loan #1 | $2,500 | 0% | $500 (beg April) | $1,500 | June, 2024 |
| Personal Loan #2 | $2,500 | 0% | $500 (beg April) | $2,000 | June, 2024 |
| CC - Frontier | $3,857 | 29.99% | $131 | $3,566 | |
| Dad - New Furnace | $2,600 | 0% | $500 (beg June or July) | $2,600 | |
| CC - USAA | $5,000 | 19.15% | $135 | $4,996 | |
| Car Loan | $19,581 | 12.69% | Gymnast Pays | $16,623 | |
| Student Loans | $22,121 | 2.875% | In Deferrment | $22,505 | |
| CC - Apple** | $500 | Paid off every month | $0 | ||
| CC - AMEX | $894 | 29.24% | $0 | $0 | |
| Total | $61,186 | $1,622 | $56,857 |
Updates
The Sam’s Club card is paid in full. Woot, woot! But I am not going to close it. The kids and I use that membership very regularly for food and gas. The girls and I even got our eyes examined there this past month – only $67 for an eye exam. (If we buy our glasses there, we get 20% off. Princess has already taken advantage of this. I’m holding off at least one more month before spending that money.)
I have rearranged the table (again) to show the order I am focusing on the debt. With my current forecast, here are the next anticipated payoff dates:
- Amazon CC – May, 2024
- Personal Loan #1 – June, 2024
- Personal Loan #2 – June, 2024
- Wander CC – June, 2024
I’ve not yet purchased a lawn mower. Still dreading that completely. Thankfully, Beauty’s boyfriend graciously volunteered to cut our grass last week, buying me a few more weeks. I will have to address the need in May for sure. I did purchase a edger/trimmer thing. It ran me $131 and is electric. The downside is that it will only run 25 minutes per battery charge. The upside is it’s the same brand as all my other tools so I will have 3 interchangeable batteries so can get the yard done with quick battery changes. At least in theory! So I can start doing some of the yard with that.
Moving along the right direction steadily. I am working 3-4 12 hour days weekly between my two jobs. And loving every minute of it.
Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 3 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.
I’m curious about your student loan debt. Back in ‘22 it was sitting at about $4,000 less than you show today. How did it climb so much when no interest was accruing until last fall?
Are you caught up on your mortgage?
How much is in your savings now and what is your short term savings goal?
Yes, I was never more than a couple weeks behind on my mortgage payments. Maybe a month once. But yes, all caught up and saving to be ahead.
Savings is only a couple of hundred dollars. It hasn’t been a priority right now, but I think that will change in a couple more months when most of my CC is paid off.
I think paying everything at the beginning of the month is good, especially if you are on a tight budget. Then you know what you have left for incidentals and you aren’t tempted to spend money that should go to bills. I had a job where I got one check on the first of the month. I’d pay all the bills, do a big grocery shop, then use what was left for gas, fun, some fresh food throughout the month, etc. Some months it was tight at the end but with all the bills paid I never worried. It’s wonderful you’ve got steady income again!
Yes, it’s the tight at the end of the month that caught me last month and this month. So I am trying to build a bit more buffer.
An electric mower is the way to go, Hope. My Greenworks has been going strong with zero maintenance involved. They are a bit spendier though, so might have to watch the sales prices.
I have noted your recommendation on this and have reviewed them on Amazon. (Don’t think they are sold anywhere local.)
I believe I have going to go with the electric option specifically for the “less maintenance required” feature.
What happened to your push mower?
It died several years ago after multiple attempts at cleaning/fixing by both my son’s and a couple of handymen.
How on earth did you break a manual push mower? Did you leave it outside in the elements 24/7/365?
It was probably 10-ish years old when we got it. But again, mechanical things are not my jam. We tried cleaning all sorts of things. But it wouldn’t stay on and it was impossible for me to ever get started. Even had mechanic friend look at it a couple of times and he couldn’t fix it.
And we don’t have a garage or storage building. So everything is in our carport…
Electric mowers are sold at Home Depot and any major hardware store. I checked and they should be sold locally to you.
True, sorry, I was referring to the Greenworks brand specifically. I was at Home Depot this weekend and looked at the Ryobi brand electric mowers.