Debt Reduction March and April 2014

Yes I am a total and complete slacker and am over a month late with this update. As my last post explains, staying on top of things has been difficult for me as I am growing a human being and my head is in twelve places at once. As such, this may be the last official update and I may just continue to keep my paper record and at the end of the year, let you know how we did. Because I know that things are only going to get crazier and I did not even budget for April or May except for our regular bills. I am very happy with where our savings is at this point but I know we need to save more before the baby gets here, which means that I need to get my butt back in gear on the budgeting front. I bought Quicken and am hoping the automatic updating of accounts and categorization will help me to stay more on top of things. Plus we will each have an app on our phones where we can take pictures of receipts and link that to a transaction. So if we lose receipts, it will be no big deal anymore. Though I may not be doing monthly debt payoff updates, I will try to let you know if this change in how we budget helps us out. But onto the numbers....

Here is how our debt numbers looked at the beginning of April...

Credit Card #1: $0 (-363.24) (In other words PAID OFF)

Credit Card #2: $4,190.64 (-152.99)

Car Loan: $12,357.83 (-189.19)

Student Loan #1: 27,865.35

Student Loan #2: $56,914.03 (-151.00)

End of March Debt: $101,327.85

Debt Paid off in March: $856.42

Debt Paid off in 2014: $1342.37

The March debt number is higher because Student Loan #1 has gained interest. But the good news is my smaller credit card balance is paid off!!!! That card hasn't been paid off in a very long time, I did the responsible thing and used our tax refund to pay if off but the rest of it got spent.....at least there is one less monthly payment to worry about. But for debt paid off throughout the year I still totaled the amount I have actually paid towards debt. I think I will continue to update on debt status but probably not much else for the rest of this year at least. Going to try and get back on the saving and paying down debt wagon. Since it is May, decided to include April pay off as well.

Here are our debt numbers as of the beginning of this month....

Credit Card #1: $21.50

Credit Card #2: $4,073.01 (-117.63)

Car Loan: $12,165.62 (-192.21)
Student Loan #1: $27,865.35
Student Loan #2: $56,781.28 (-132.75)
End of April Debt: $100,906.76
Debt Paid off in April: $442.59
Debt Paid off in 2014: $1784.96

So in case you are wondering I did not use credit card #1, Matt and I went to a zoo last fall right before they closed and turns out their credit card machine got turned off before being closed out. This means that we were never charged until they turned it back on at the beginning of May. This will get paid off as soon as I can get things straightened out with my credit card after thinking someone got my credit card number and then finding out they didn't. Also once again student loan #1 is still a challenge for me to use in calculations, I don't get statements so I can't see balance from month to month, only when I look at it that day. So because I didn't track it like I should have at the beginning of the year, the numbers are slightly off. I will be recording balance at the end of every month from now on in order to keep better track. I am pretty proud of the progress we have made but honestly slightly disappointed that I am falling off the wagon. Hopefully by the beginning of June I can have Quicken figured out (still getting used to the software but like what I see so far in terms of visualizing our spending) with the help of a book. I have a guide in my amazon cart but waiting until there is something else I need so that I can get free shipping. 

I currently have another post in the works and want to do a pregnancy update but sleep has been winning once again, that and housework and hubby time and trying to figure out summer plans and starting to get a little stressed about baby stuff oh and work and....the list goes on and it will only get longer once our little one is here. Ultrasound is May 30 so I will probably be doing a big update after that with pictures of our little bambino :-)

Ta Ta for now!

The February Report

Taxes filed. Not as great of a refund as I had expected but something is better than nothing so in the grand scheme of things I can not complain. I started this post at the end of February and am just now getting around to finishing it and updating you on how we did financially in February. So not only are taxes filed but we have received our refund. I have been struggling just to make it through the weeks lately. Work is crazy and was feeling overwhelmed in general. Trying to get back on track but it is tough. Meal planning has totally gone out the window and we have been consistently spending about a hundred dollars a week on groceries, I know we can do better but I have been content with that. Our slight boost in income has made us slightly lazy and feel sort of entitled when it really shouldn't. We should be buckling down and paying more towards debt and saving more. We had a plan for our tax refund but got slightly carried away so still trying to see if I will be able to work the plan out to fruition. Will report on that in the March report as that is when I counted our tax refund as income. I don't know if I had mentioned that but Matt's bankruptcy has been filed and he has his final step this upcoming week, so happy to have that behind us so that he can start rebuilding his credit. February was an ok month financially, though we were able to sock away enough money for the next propane bill which may not be until this next winter now but my grandparents have generously been paying for it for us which I feel terrible about and we keep trying to pay them and they won't let us. First world problem for sure I suppose. When it gets filled this next time around I am handing them the money as soon as possible and not taking no for an answer.

Here is how our debt stacked up at the beginning of March:

Credit Card #1: $363.24 (-$36.30)

Credit Card #2: $4,343.63 (+$131.88)

Car Loan: $12,547.02 (-$190.40)

Student Loan #1: $27,692.93 (see note)

Student Loan #2: $57,065.03 (-$131.79)

End of February Debt: $99,626.40

Debt Paid of in February: $226.61

Debt Paid off in 2014: $485.95

So February was about as good as January which isn't great but the bills were able to be paid and money was put in savings. Student Loan #1 is still tricky, I realized I think I had the right number to begin with and that because I am making such a small payment, all I am doing is paying a little bit of the interest so that balance is increasing each month which is what I knew would happen so really I have probably added more debt than is reflected. I think for now I will track the balance from month to month and may or may not include it in calculations. I will see how it works out for next month's report.

We made more than I planned for us to make in February which actually allowed for the first money remaining at the end of the month that I have seen since we started budgeting. Kind of exciting. Some exciting stuff has happened financially in March already as well. But will fill you in on that probably toward the end of April lol. I am not completely happy with the online PearBudget application and am seriously considering switching to You Need a Budget as soon as possible. I have seen rave reviews about it on a couple of blogs and think that it's flexibility would work better for Matt and I. We shall see. I have yet to enter any receipts into Pear Budget this month, seriously lacking motivation. Sitting here drinking hot cocoa and once I hit publish on this entry, I am going to tackle that. Then clean off my desk maybe. Or watch Grey's Anatomy.....whichever calls my name louder I suppose :-)

January Financials

We started off the year not as strong as I would of liked. We only payed 15 dollars extra toward debt on the smallest credit card balance. But we put about 100 dollars in savings. As I thought about that towards the end of the month it didn't truly make sense to me. This may also be attributed to the fact that I have been reading The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey (Finished it just a bit ago actually). For those who aren't familiar, he strongly encourages to have an emergency savings of $1000 and then focus solely on paying off all debt besides mortgage for the first two what he calls baby steps. I agree with many of the principles that Dave talks about but have some conflicting feelings about how the steps work. As we have started this journey to pay off debt, it definitely is making more sense to focus on one thing at a time. For this month I continued the direct deposit into our emergency savings but cancelled all other automatic transfers for savings (our savings accounts are at an online bank so the money is not as easily accessible). Still only planning on paying the $15 dollars extra towards debt though. But if we scrap our car that is officially broken down (sad day,only one vehicle at this point, thankfully have parents with an extra vehicle that they are generously letting us use it) then we may be able to pay off credit card #1 more quickly than anticipated and start throwing more money at credit card #2. The second credit card has a ridiculous interest rate so that would be very exciting. Here are the debt balances as of the beginning of February:

Credit Card #1: $399.54 (-$35.96)

Credit Card #2: $4,211.75 (+$95.29)

Car Loan: $12,737.42 (-$187.33)

Student Loan #1: $25,080.87 (not sure of difference see note)

Student Loan #2: $57,196.82 (-$131.34)

Debt to start: $99, 885.74
End of January Debt: $99,626.40

Debt paid off in January: $259.34

Tracking our progress (even just for a month) has really helped me to gain perspective on where our money goes and make me feel like we are getting somewhere even if slowly. Though it is quite depressing that with all the money we have to use for debt payments, so little is actually paid off. Student loan #1 is a weird one, I am only making a small $23 dollar a month payment but there is nowhere on the website to really see balances and I recorded the incorrect one originally so I changed it in that post as well. Will see if it changes after this month's payment I suppose. Also the reason that Credit Card #2 increased is partly because of the ridiculous interest rate and partly because I charged gas once. Sue me, habits don't change overnight. I had to have gas to get to work. 

Budget-wise we ended up about $324.94 over budget. Basically that means we did not set aside as much money for irregular expenses as we should have. I broke down when looking at the numbers. I feel so helpless but know that I shouldn't, that I should be working on new ways to make more money and save money. I told Matt that just because money is in the bank doesn't mean we should spend it which is kind of the habit we have gotten into. Being lazy and wanting to get food on the way home is still a struggle as is not spending money to have fun. I want to utilize the crockpot more and would love to try out freezer meals. Motivation still seems to be something I really need to find. Winter is killing me. Emotionally draining with this lack of sunlight.

This past week we also got some amazing news on the job front. Matt has been hired in full time at the company he has been working at for a year and a half as a temp. A raise and benefits! So exciting for us and our future. This came after I started writing this post or I probably would have led with it. His first official day was yesterday so next week the larger checks start coming. We haven't decided the exact best way to allocate the money in our budget but we are talking about it. Also we are quite sure that we are not going to opt for the benefits offered through his company for this year (we are still going to review them and then decide). If he opts not to get coverage he will receive $500 which would probably be used to pay off the smaller credit card balance and the rest put towards the larger credit card balance. He does not receive the information for a couple weeks so we shall see.

Anyways Olympic figure skating is distracting me and bed is calling my name.....Good night for now....PS tracking 101 Things to Do in 2014 on the page titled such at the top :-)