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February + March Recap

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So here’s the thing about my opinion re: all things debt:

  • it’s my personal opinion (influenced by Dave Ramsey, yes), not yours, and if you ask to hear my opinion or help, there’s no reason to get defensive if you don’t agree with me
  • it’s not a professional opinion, as I am not a professional financial adviser
  • it’s personal but has proven to work for us AND THOUSANDS OF OTHER PEOPLE

Just had to get that off of my chest before diving into the recap. I’ve been putting it all out there for over a year now and I’m well aware that what we’ve done / currently doing is not the norm and doesn’t align with everyone’s views on money, credit cards, debt, etc..

I know we’re weird as Dave puts it. And I know a lot of you want to be weird too because you’ve told me.

Everyone keeps asking me how. Here’s the thing: we became debt free by deciding to become debt free. If you’ve been following along, you know that we made a lot of sacrifices and said no to a lot. Getting out of debt was hard work, every single day sticking to a budget BUT it was a whole lot easier than making excuse after excuse and staying in debt. And I get it, getting to the actual point to take action AND following through with your plan is probably the hardest step. It took me YEARS of following the Dave-ish plan – while racking up more credit card debt – until it just clicked and we ran and never looked back.

Can you tell I’m sick of people reaching out to me, making excuses and wasting my time? I make zero dollars when I teach FPU. I make zero dollars when I respond to your private messages. I make zero dollars when I reply to your texts.

And don’t get me wrong, I LOVE receiving the texts and messages from friends and acquaintances who are rocking the baby steps and want to update me on their progress. Keep ’em coming! But I can’t stand the people who talk the talk but can’t walk the walk… month after month after month. I’m just not welcoming that in my life anymore. Bye, Felicia!

Like many changes in one’s life, there needs to be a mentality shift.

If you want to lose weight, you have to be committed to changing your diet in order to see the weight come off.
If you want to run a marathon, you have to be committed to running a shit-ton of miles / following a training plan to cross the finish line.
If you want to be debt free, then your spending habits must change.

Numbers (weight, miles and savings) change when YOU change.

And you have to be fully committed. You can’t eat healthy for a week and expect lifetime results. You can’t run 4 miles and expect to cross the finish line of a half marathon and feel good. Been there, done that, ha!

This is my motivational, get off your ass or shut up speech.

Back to the recap:

February and March weren’t high savings months for us, but for good reason… we’re paying cash for our summer holiday! Yes, it’s true, DR doesn’t suggest taking a holiday until you’re debt free with a fully funded emergency fund, but we’re flexing the plan for a once in a lifetime opportunity to eat a vegan meal at NOMA. Ahhhh! We’re still in disbelief that we even got a table for two! Total so far we’ve spent just over $2300 for our flights, dinner reservation and our accommodations (a hostile and Airbnb). Traveling on a budget posts to follow once we’re back and prove it can be done, ha!

We also lived a tiny bit.

  • The beau and I each got a haircut
  • We had taken Kitty to the vet.
  • We celebrated my dad’s birthday
  • We had car things pop up: an inspection and registration
  • We each bought new sneakers and the beau got a few new items of clothing for work
  • And we splurged(I’m kidding) and got new sheets for our bed from HomeGoods and mousetraps + lawn bags from Home Depot

Livin’ it up I tell ya!

We’re still using the envelope / cash method (for groceries, eating out/alcohol, gifts, car insurance and personal cash) and I’m still on the meal planning bandwagon. We’ve even thrown in a little twist on the envelopes: if we have any cash leftover at the end of the month, we’re putting it into our change jar. We usually roll the change at the end of each year, but we figured we’d do it right before our holiday and use whatever’s in there as spending money. Boom! It won’t be much but it’ll be nice for those times when we don’t want to spend money – like in the airport on food. It’s so expensive to eat in airports! This time there’ll be zero guilt.

Oh, and food wise, I’m now buying organic as much as I can. Yes, it is slightly more expensive however since the 21 day processed food / sugar cleanse that I completed, I’ve been buying far less processed food items – so I’m essentially transfer buying. Spending less on the easy, processed stuff, and spending more on healthier, real food items. Still 100% plant based and still 100% within budget.

Because I’m finishing this post two month’s after starting it, I can disclose that we’re getting basically nothing back in taxes this year – which we prefer. And by nothing I mean like $300. We’d rather have our hard-earned cash NOW (or on a monthly basis) rather than loaning it to the government, interest free for a year, then getting it as a giant lump sum. We’ve found our sweet spot with deductions to allow us to basically break even. Being debt free and an emergency fund sure does change your outlook on specific things!

Speaking of things, our emergency fund is now 47% funded – wahoo! My goal is to have it fully funded by July 1st because we’d like to start investing in retirement ASAP and we’ve got a couple of home projects we’d like to complete this summer. Our deck needs to be replaced and while we’re at it, we’d like to install french doors / replace the sliding glass door that doesn’t have a screen and leaks cold air into our home like woah. It’ll take us a couple of months to save up that cash while investing, so we’ve got to buckle down and pinch those pennies!

Another two months in the books… and another one more than half-way completed. Baby Step 3 is far more difficult for me than Baby Step 2 mentally, because I am a spender and want to relax and shop, but we’ve got goals and I’m not shopping until we hit them!

ONE YEAR! August in Review

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Holy smokes! This past year has FLOWN by! Flown by. I remember starting this process and thinking 12-16 months seemed so far into the future, but here we are. Twelve months later and a shit ton of debt behind us. We’re doing it! I knew we could but I didn’t expect these kinds of monthly numbers.

$70,531.27 paid off in one year. Just twelve months! That’s an average of $5,878 paid toward debt per month; talk about hustling!

In August alone, we paid off $5,175.16 or 21.82% of our remaining debt. That means we only have $18,544.18 remaining! Another milestone: less than $20k to go! (Isn’t it sad that $20k of debt doesn’t seem like a lot?!) The student loan that we are snowballing right now started off at $16,656.09 last September and is now only $1,520.67. Blows.my.mind! These last two student loans seemed so daunting a year ago, being the largest, but I can now picture them gone and friends, the end is near.

But Murphy did pay a visit to us this month, which reminded us that big expenses can creep up at any moment.

Our 27″ iMac shit the bed. Like, can never be used ever, ever again. As of recently, we’ve been using this computer to stream shows/movies. But more importantly, this is how the beau has been freelancing/side hustling. Ugh. I still have my old mac laptop from college, so we are going to push it to see how long we can hold off from purchasing another desktop computer and in the meantime, back up all of our work and photographs.

Also, my iPhone 5S went crazy. No more texting, receiving texts, photographs, using the alarm/clock app or any app for that matter. I’ve been wanting the iPhone SE for a while now, especially for taking photographs while hiking, but am holding out until Apple releases their newest phone… which will drop the price of the SE. Hopefully this purchase will happen in September, as I also need a phone to navigate my upcoming trail race. You better believe I’ll be paying cash; no leasing cell phones in our household.

And in true transparency I have to admit that we did not stick 100% to our budget in August. Here are the items we purchased with cash that weren’t originally budgeted for:

  • mouse traps (I caught three – remind me again why we have a house cat? Especially when said mice are eating the cat’s food!)
  • a CL50 hiking map
  • epsom salts
  • hair product for the beau
  • renewed my ARE membership
  • fire tower patch / registration
  • towing fee / uber charge

Yeah, the beau’s car got towed. That “oh we’ll go out for just one beer downtown because I deserve it after a long hike” turned into quite the expensive beer. P.s… we had two. ($200+ night FYI)

Here’s a quick recap of the budget lines that didn’t end up as planned, the good and the bad:

  • Our cell phone bill was even cheaper than last month! I have no clue why and even called, but gave up when the representative gave me a nasty tone. I figured I shouldn’t argue over an unexpected discount. Honey my friends! A $12.39 savings (total bill was only $73.23)
  • Gas: even though I’ve upped this line from $120 to $160, I still went over by $36. Once again I blame hiking and know this will decrease once training for my race is over (so, so soon!).
  • Essential oils: I budget $300 each month and in August I only spent $114. I’m being very conscientious of our oil use and basically only ordering supplements from now until the end of the year. More on that via Instagram. $186 savings!
  • Eating out / alcohol: we only ate out together once this month with friends but did consume a lot of alcohol, including the Nine Pin 26er challenge, cider at Indian Ladder Farms after one of my weekly ARE STRS runs, the expensive beer night out mentioned above, a beer and dinner out in Tupper Lake after hiking the Saranac 6, I had a reasonable dinner out with a friend visiting from Delaware, a backyard fire with friends, and a night out at the Schagheticoke Fair. $99.73 over to be exact, and worth every penny. ($195 originally budgeted)

Speaking of the fair, we both love this one! This was our third year going and I love more that it’s becoming an annual tradition. We decided to go on opening night because it was only a $1 to get in, all of the rides were just one ticket ($1), and each food vendor had a $1 menu. Hot diggity dog! I like wandering through the barns to see all the animals, especially the chickens, checking out the exhibits and of course, seeing all the lights once the sun goes down. The rides creep me out and yes, I get more nauseous the older I get, but I love going on the ride that blasts the music and spins so fast you smush the rider you’re with. Oh and the giant slide where you sit on a sack… but they didn’t have that one this year.

Other free/cheap entertainment throughout the month: we got 4 free tickets to see the Philadelphia Orchestra perform the soundtrack to the Red Violin at SPAC from my place of employment (this is how I also saw the Cuban & NYC ballet this summer with my mom), we got 2 free tickets to a Tri-City Valley Cats game – a box, free bevvies and food, fireworks and this is where I found the diamond! from the beau’s place of employment and we also took a couple short hikes together locally to do some mushroom foraging.

Grocery-wise, we did great this month! We even had $6 leftover in our food envelope ($294 to start). With the Denison CSA and our garden, we’ve been overloaded with veggies and just pairing them with rice and pasta… both very budget-friendly carbs. And despite the heavy portions, my waistline doesn’t seem to mind – it’s even happier eating in season – as I’ve managed to lose 3 pounds. Not that that was my goal, I’ve just noticed by the way my pants feel. Riding this veggie high into September!

Feeling powered by plants: I ran only 62.2 miles this month. I also hiked 34.2 miles! Total: 96.4 miles. Admittedly I’m kind of over this training cycle and slogging out long miles. I’ve never looked forward to training for a 10k so much before in my life, ha! Two more weeks until my 50k – and typical taper feelings alllllll the way. Right now I’m just hoping it’s not a 90* day with full humidity – I’m ready for the autumn-like (cooler) temps!

My second FPU class begins tonight (!) with 5 more people looking to change their future. I couldn’t be more excited for them and what I’m about to witness over the next 9 weeks.

Oh! And with the new month, we’ll also be participating in the 30-day minimalism game. I didn’t think we had a lot of stuff but then I took a look into one of our closets, extra bedroom and unused office… all filled with stuff! We either need to find a home for them (put art up on the walls, etc) or toss it! We shall see how far we make it; less is definitely more.

May in Review!

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May was a FABULOUS month for us!

Not because of our numbers, well, those helped too, but because I started teaching my first Financial Peace University class. I was nervous because I had never attended the class let alone led one, and because the response was lower than I expected. Our small group is pretty open with each other, not something that is required to attend the class FYI, but I think has really brought us closer. It’s a judgement-free zone and we make sure each of us leaves confident for the next step / week ahead of us. Nine weeks sounded daunting as I was making the decision to commit but we’re half-way through the course already and trying to figure out how we’re all going to stay connected when it’s over. And if you’re curious, I will most likely be teaching another class this fall! It won’t be free and it won’t be in my home — but I can promise that it’ll be just as good!

Now let’s get to the numbers!

Our income increased this month, which helped us DUMP cash toward debt! If you can’t cut your spending any further than it already is, you’re only other option is to earn more to make a dent in the process. I participated in Market Research one evening, I received a Young Living check, and the beau took on freelance work.

This month we reduced our principle balance by $10,785.23 or 22.53%!!! To date, we’ve paid off $51,992.72 or 58.37%!!! in 9 months! We only have $37,082.73 in debt left to pay off and to meet our goal, we need to keep this momentum up, big time.

To put things into perspective:

  • In September 2017, our monthly minimum payments totaled $718.27
  • As of June 1st, our monthly minimum payments are only $194.20

That means if an emergency were to happen and we needed to stop the snowball, only $194.20 would be needed to cover minimum debt payments. Not too shabby!

A lot of people are curious how we eat and stay on budget. We only plan our dinners, here was our meal plan for the 1st thru the 15th:

  • Mondays: fajitas
  • Tuesdays: veggie stir fry
  • Wednesdays: taco pasta
  • Thursdays: BBQ tempeh with a crockpot green bean casserole and sweet potato fries
  • Fridays: tofu & broccoli + a birthday dinner out
  • Saturdays: dinner out at a Mets game + tofu & broccoli
  • Sundays: king oyster mushroom pulled pork sammies + a Mother’s Day lasagna

My mom had been requesting this lasagna for months, so I offered to make it as an early Sunday dinner. I made the sauce and roasted the veggies ahead of time during the week so that it would be less to do on Mother’s Day (more time spent with my mom).

This was our second time making the pulled “pork” sandwiches via Bosh = so good! And we had enough leftovers for another meal, so we froze the cooked mushrooms…. we shall see how those hold up! I’ve never frozen mushrooms before, I’m hoping they’ll be okay and then we can just cook ’em up in the air fryer.

Oh yeah, we won an air fryer! Whoop whoop! Culinary Square had a giveaway for TNO and I entered after picking up a bridal shower gift. We’ve fried mushrooms, gyoza, sweet potatoes, chicken-less tenders, eggplant, zucchini, tofu and russet potatoes (home fries) – this thing is awesome! The beau tends to use more oil than I do (but he does get things a lot crispier than I do), so I was excited to use this device and cut back on oil. LOVE IT!  

The beau requested I buy canned green beans for the casserole because fresh or frozen were still too crunchy for him. Confession: I had never purchased canned green beans (or any canned vegetable for that matter). I was a skeptic at 40 cents a can but I have to admit, they were delicious! Yes, these canned beans were not organic and yes, they were in a can but I have to remind myself that these are the sacrifices we are making now so that we can invest more later. Don’t judge… at least we’re getting a serving of veggies.

Our meal plan for the 16th thru the 31st:

  • Mondays: tempeh jalapeno wraps with roasted broccoli
  • Tuesdays: veggie stir fry
  • Wednesdays: pasta with TVP sauce and roasted asparagus
  • Thursdays: Chinese takeout + tofu + broccoli
  • Fridays: tofu + broccoli + loaded potatoes
  • Saturdays: eggplant parm + loaded potatoes
  • Sundays: southwest quinoa burgers + tater tots

This month we cash flowed ($585) a CSA with Denison Farm – all USDA certified organic and I have to admit, I’m a little nervous about it. I’ve been rocking the whole meal planning thing and now I’m going to have to shop / cook on the fly with what we receive each Saturday at the Farmer’s Market delivery. I like shopping twice a month. And I also prefer shopping on my lunch break, avoiding the weekend crowds. Once the CSA begins in June, our monthly food allowance will decrease by $27 per week because of the prepayment amount. I’ll surely have an update next month with how I’m juggling this change.

We also cash flowed:

  • a birthday gift and two mother’s day gifts – sinking fund envelope
  • hair gel for the beau and soap for us both
  • a new website layout (business investment)
  • tickets for a show at the Egg (beau)
  • the beau signed up for a watercolor class at the Arts Center of the Capital Region
  • parking at the train station (the day we went to a Met’s game)
  • stuff for our garden (some seedlings, burlap, screws and twine)
  • our 6 month car insurance payment – sinking fund envelope
  • and a small gift certificate for an employee on my work team

This month I also tried to focus on my running more, as last month (April) it took a back seat… and I have a race to run in three months! I ran almost 70 miles in May, which wasn’t what I was aiming for but I’m happy with because I feel like I’m easing back into a routine and not overwhelming myself. I’m remembering what it feels like to be sore and getting use to being out of the house before 5AM.

June will hopefully bring a lot of miles… and a lot of cash because I’ll be working downtown again on Saturdays. I’ve picked up a side hustle at Annick’s during the farmer’s market – hey, I’m going to be down there anyway getting my veggies!

That’s it folks, we made yet another budget, told our money where to go, hustled and made it happen. No magic, just a plan!

[Again, sorry no photographs, I should be purchasing a new phone over the next three months prior to race day.]

February in Review

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February was an interesting month for us.

We paid off the beau’s car! 
When we started this journey back in September, we owed $10,106.53 on the beau’s car. He bought it (a 2014 Prius) on February 18, 2017 which means we’ve paid it off four years ahead of schedule AND within a year of the purchase date! Boom pow!

We started tackling student loan 2 of 6!
From here on out, it’s allllllll student loans. We’re now tackling subsidized Stafford Loan 1-01. The beau originally took out this loan back in August 2007 and its original balance at 5.8% was $8,500. When we started this journey back in September, the balance was $10,218.42 and if we stayed on Navient’s track, our anticipated payoff date would be 12/25/2031. My personal payoff goal for this loan is June 2018… that’s a 13.5 year difference in case you didn’t do the math. After all we’ve dumped on it this month, the remaining balance is $8,232.72!

We took a holiday / honeymoon in Mexico!
This trip was booked back in July prior to the start of all of this and frankly I don’t care if it was booked two weeks prior, we were going! It was paid entirely by cash, thanks to the generosity of friends and family who gifted us cash as a wedding gift. Seriously, THANK YOU friends and family! xoxo While planning this trip our intentions weren’t to be frugal, we just don’t prefer extravagant accommodations. No resort for us, or even a hotel; we hit up Airbnb which allowed us to book an entire house in a pretty remote area of Mexico inaccessible by road. It was lovely to say the least.

Returning home from the trip, we had about a thousand leftover and my first initial thought was to dump this toward debt. After all, Dave Ramsey says no holidays during the first four baby steps. In one ear and out the other, we both agreed to continue to keep this cash in a separate savings account and we’ll use it as needed for little mini getaways i.e. long weekends camping in the Adirondacks, a trip to NYC to see the Mets play, a weekend in NH with friends, and possibly an autumn trip to Montreal. I think our friends and family would agree with this decision too.

While in Mexico, we celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary!
Time really has flown by! It’s so cliché to say, but I can’t believe it has already been one year. On our actual anniversary, we traveled from Yelapa back to Puerto Vallarta, ate lunch at a wonderful brewery we stumbled upon, enjoyed a delicious taco dinner, and then walked the boardwalk along the ocean and caught the sunset… and drank more beer at that delicious brewery! It was relaxing, it was fun and it was an anniversary I won’t forget! I love the idea of spending our anniversary each year on holiday buuuuuuuuut with annual reporting in the library community, that won’t be possible. We’ll see what we come up with next year.

And because we were in Mexico for nine days, we saved money on both our groceries and eating out/alcohol envelopes! $229 to be exact! Hopefully we’ll see a savings on our utilities bill too next month! Our meal plan wasn’t very adventurous, a rotation of regular meals we enjoy, switching after two weeks.

I earned residual income while in Mexico.
More on this to come in a future post regarding MLM companies and how it’s working for me and has been over a period of time (I’m not talking legging fads), I earned an income while on vacation doing nothing. Was it as much as it has been in previous months while working toward earning that income? No. But it was income that I appreciate and value and not only did I deposit a portion of it toward debt, but I also invested some back into my friends and family who support me on this journey of abundance. I don’t share Young Living just because there’s the potential to earn cash, I share because I’ve been a fan of their products for a number of years (10+ years) and I know many people can benefit from them as well. Earning a paycheck is a wonderful thank you bonus for making a referral (because let’s be honest, we share our opinions about everything)!

I paid a hefty parking fine.
Long story short I got a ticket back in October for talking on my phone while driving… even though I wasn’t holding my phone. That’s a five point violation on your record FYI. Luckily, it was reduced to just a parking violation with a $225 fine. FINE BY ME! I’d gladly pay that over receiving that many points. Don’t worry, I’m no longer speaking on loudspeaker, I got a Bluetooth device for Christmas from Santa.

We still had fun.
Despite being on a budget, we both had some fun outside of the house this month. Oftentimes I think people assume because you’re on a budget, you don’t get to engage in other activities: not true! You get to decide how much money you spend on fun! The two of us are very content being homebodies, which is great because you save money however I know not everyone is like us. We might spend more cash on groceries because we like cooking at home, while you may add more to your eating out envelope because that’s what you prefer. Budget = options.

This month we participated in Nine Pin’s 26er challenge, sampling ciders #3 and #4. On Valentine’s Day we joined a friend at Rare Form for a chocolate and beer sampling. I had a date night out with an old colleague and friend, enjoying a sushi dinner and cashing in a gift certificate at the Latham Paint and Sip location. The beau had a bro night out with his old biz partner in Albany, checking out an art show and sippin’ on beers. We even had dinner out twice this month, once after our trip because the fridge was empty. We did all of this on a reduced envelope this month, normally $195, set at $100.

Other random facts about February.
We cash flowed an inspection, oil change, tire rotation and registration for the beau’s car. I re-upped my subscription with AAA, as I do not pay for those services via our car insurance. AAA is an expense you use once, see how convenient it is and keep in fear of needing again. Ha! I’m determined to take advantage of their discounts this year! I also renewed hosting for this blog, but for only a month. Dun dun dun. Oh! A little home improvement: we bought a doorknob. And a hot water bottle because hello, it’s cold in Upstate NY and this is my $17 solution for not turning up the heat. And relieving cramps.

Numbers wise, we paid off 4.25% of debt this month, totaling 25.09%! One fourth of the way done! Our balance is now $66,730.17 having paid off $22,345.28 since September. This system works, no need to try and reinvent the wheel or my other favorite motto: keep it simple stupid. According to these stats, we should be debt free by September 2019; two years after starting this debt free journey. It’s hard not to get consumed by that date and what’s “expected” of us each month to reach that goal, but on the other hand, it is motivating. I want to earn more money. I want to spend less. I want to live a life saving and spending my income in a way that makes me happy… not giving it to Sallie Mae. I’m constantly fiddling with spreadsheets to figure out how to move that date forward… and it is creeping up. Slowly but surely.

How was February for you? Did you hit any financial milestones?

December’s Budget Review

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December was a wonderful month for us! Hard, especially saying no to a number of requests to go out for a drink, but we did it. We cash flowed Christmas with no sinking fund in place and even had extra cash at the end of the month to deposit toward debt. Step back and think about it: are you going to be paying off Christmas next month or next summer? Not worth it!

The beau and I had a conversation about Christmas and what it means to us: we both agree that spending money on gifts is unnecessary. We both have families that are fortunate enough to buy as things come up / are needed, and having this added pressure is silly. Looking back at last week, my favorite part of Christmas was being together. Wouldn’t it be nice if we all saved our cash and instead saved it for a trip or vacation together? At least on my side of the family, there are no kids = gifts aren’t needed under the tree for that added Christmas magic moment. Do I sound like Scrooge? I don’t feel like one: I just enjoy being home for the holiday, having a special dinner and playing a couple games.

With the added gift expenses, I wanted to save as much possible in other categories. Here are some things we did this month to reduce our fixed expenses:

  • We combined our cell phone plan: I opened my Cingular Wireless account back in 2003. Eventually AT&T bought Cingular and my plan never changed… until December 3rd! I feel silly for paying as much as I was each month (it was up to $79.29), I was admittedly nervous about getting rid of my grandfathered plan, but it was indeed outdated. The beau joined my plan, as I receive a discount via my employer, so we should save at least $25 per month (we haven’t received an invoice yet reflecting the change). With five days left in this billing cycle, we’ve used .8 of 6GB…. so we will most likely be changing our data plan to save even more.
  • We did our research and changed our insurance company for both auto and home owners insurance. It took us about three weeks to make the decision, but it was worth it: we are saving $24 each month for our auto insurance (or $288 each year). Our home owners insurance actually went up $1 per month, but that’s because we opted in to an additional coverage line that we didn’t have previously (regarding water backup damage). But it wasn’t just about the money: we just weren’t happy with the representative that we were working with and as it turns out, our bartender also slings insurance. Or did, he got us set up before taking time off for the holidays.
  • Ohhhhh Spectrum! I received our INCREASED December internet invoice and called to ask why it had changed (the promotion was over) without notification. They insisted it was on my November invoice, but when we both took a look, it wasn’t. So I negotiated our rate for one more month and saved $10. The cost will jump from $44 to $69.95 for 20Mbps (with Time Warner). But with Spectrum, you can get 100Mbps for $64.95… explain that one. AND they insist on saying I’m a TW customer despite logging on to the Spectrum website… but when I asked to become a Spectrum customer to receive the next promotion ($44 for 100Mbps), I was told I couldn’t because technically overall I’m a Spectrum customer. Talk about confusing. I’m just HOPING and SENDING POSITIVE VIBES that Massive Mesh will expand within the next couple of months so that I can officially DUMP Spectrum. I would cancel it altogether until their expansion buuuuuuuut the beau is taking a class that runs through February and he needs the Internet to do his hw. hw – remember when you’d have to write that little shortcut down in your agenda? Ha! I digress: either Massive Mesh needs to get their act together ASAP or we are going back to track phones to avoid that payment each month.

To save money in general, this month we:

  • Installed a new condensate pump ourselves. And by we I mean the beau and his dad. The furnace service person suggested a replacement costing $346 – we had a gift card to Amazon and bought one for $45 – BOOM! 
  • Registered for a 2018 race at the early bird rate. I learned my lesson with the TTT, the earlier you register for a race, the better. $10 saved 🙂
  • Switched around a dermatologist appointment. I’ll now have a deductible in 2018 for my health insurance ($50), so I changed doctors (I didn’t care for mine anyway) and expressed my intention to the new doctor to save money, and not only did she see me as a new patient, but she also performed a little procedure that same day. Normally that’s a second visit, so I saved $30 for a copay and essentially $20 extra dollars had I gone in January. And I no longer have a skin tag growing on my nose that looks like a booger. Win win.

I continued planning our meals but didn’t use the repeating method this month. I can tell you that it’s far easier shopping for repeat meals! It felt like chaos in the stores running around for a ton of different items, ha! We did use up all of our allocated cash for both food and eating out, with the help of some money won during the holidays on scratch offs for Chinese takeout. Not bad because I also bought some added ingredients for our Christmas dinner…

…which was a portobello wellington via Bosh! So so good! It was a tiny tad bit dry but definitely something I can tweak the next time I make it (just add more stock to the stuffing). A delicious gravy would be a great addition too! But paired with creamy potatoes, I didn’t mind one bit.

I also had two leftover squash in the house and tried three new recipes to use ’em up:

Creamy Pumpkin Marinara however I used an ugly squash via Field Goods and didn’t add the cinnamon or parmesan cheese. It was delicious! The beau isn’t a lover of squash but paired with pasta and made to taste like an alla vodka sauce, we both enjoyed this meal.

I had one other random squash lying around from Halloween and decided to make a spicy curry soup. It was bland despite smelling great and the texture was weird and now I can’t seem to find the recipe used, whoops! I must have deleted it from a Pinterest board it was that bad.

But I did attempt my first loaf of no-knead bread! I used this recipe and it came out okay – not bad but not anything to get excited about. It was what we ate with the soup, and just about devoured the whole loaf. I’m determined to master a good loaf of bread!

Now on to my most favorite part of the post – the total numbers!

In December, we reduced our total debt by $3,556.43 (or 4.65%)! *The smallest payoff month to date. Our remaining debt balance is $72,884.19! That means in just four months, we’ve paid off a total of $16,191.26 or reduced debt by 18.18%! That’s soooooo close to 20% or being 1/5 of the way done and sooooo close to being in the $60ks… which will happen in January! The remaining balance on the Prius (our current debt snowball account) is only $4,257.18.

Other random numbers I calculated this month that keep me motivated:

  • We paid $322 in interest this month, NOT including our mortgage.
  • Multiply that number by 12 and you’d get $3,864; that’s money that we’ll NEVER see again. That is WHY we are speeding up this process to get rid of our debt and pause our retirement contributions.
  • On average we paid $4,047.82 a month! If we stay on that track, we’re projected to pay off $48,573.78 next year! Hint: I hope to BLOW that number out of the water by increasing our monthly income!

I know the month isn’t over yet, but the final payment has been made and we’re both in agreement that our bank account is frozen for the next four days (no pun intended – it was -6 when we got up this morning!). Our NYE tickets were purchased earlier this month and money is set aside for an Uber – we’re ready for 2018!