April showers certainly brought goodness to our house. This month was about making progress toward our goals while balancing celebrating all our hard work. At the end of the month, we landed in a place of better financial security while tackling some of that debt. Check out how it went below.
If you missed out on our full plan for ditching our debt, you can catch up here.
Some things that went particularly well this month:
- Hank got promoted to full-time at FedEx which was a delightful pay bump.
- We got state and federal tax refunds. However, we did not put those funds towards debt. Instead, we allocated the money forward to cover future monthly bills to give us a buffer on our expenses.
- For all our hard work, we treated ourselves to a few gifts… and paid cash for them.
Some things that didn’t go well this month:
- With Hank working more, I forgot to adjust our budgets for food and gas – oops! Next month has been updated though!
- I did feel a little conflicted about allocating funds forward and treating ourselves to gifts instead of throwing it all at debt this month. We could have made a pretty good dent in a debt or two. But at the end of the day, it does feel good not to worry about most of our bills for the month of May. So I guess the safety net is worth it.
So here’s where we stand:
| Debt | Balance: March 31 | Balance: April 30 |
| Student Loan 1 | $0.00 – YAY! | $0.00 – YAY! |
| Student Loan 2 | $1,397.91 | $1,310.51 |
| Credit Card 1 | $1,079.61 | $654.05 |
| Student Loan 3 | $5,281.67 | $5,194.01 |
| Personal Loan | $9,517.70 | $9,424.92 |
| Renovation Loan | $11,094.68 | $10,952.62 |
| Credit Card 2 | $23,252.39 | $22,757.80 |
| Credit Card 3 | $18,000.00 | $17,500.00 |
| Total: | $69,623.96 | $67,793.91 |
Things that are keeping us motivated:
- One of our credit cards is so close to being paid off! We’re hoping to make some big payments this coming month that will knock out definitely one – maybe two! – debts.
- We have more shifts to our budget coming in the next month or so once we stop paying for health benefits out of pocket.
- The way we think about money has gone through quite a transformation over the past few years, but in the past few months, our habits have definitely started to reflect how we want to behave.
You Need a Budget continues to be an amazing tool for us to plan ahead and ensure we can continue on this path. When you use this link to sign up, we’ll both get a month free!
Until next month!
xo,
Jen
In January I committed to “Ditch the Debt” with you, Jen. Like you, I needed to reduce my debt. Unlike you, I have less time to do that. In retirement mode, the last thing I want to do is saddle my family with handling my debt. I have retirement investments to cover it, but it would be nice not to touch that unless necessary.
That said, I have made great strides as well with reducing my debt. I have been remiss in posting my progress along the way so here is my report for January compared to April.
January April Change
House 4.828 2,093 -2,735
CC 628 0 -628
CC-Medical 604 791 -157
CC-Major Purch 13,093 9,692 -3,401
TOTALS 19,153 12,576 – 6,577
My Motivation: I wanted to be debt free by the end of 2021.
What went well: We received the stimulus checks and our tax refund. Because of that I was able to commit $2000 per month toward debt payments.
What didn’t go well: Medical deductions were due the beginning of the year so the medical credit card had additional charges. The other issue that arose was my car. I have some problems that cannot be
repaired so by the end of the year I need to purchase a newer vehicle. Although this will mean new debt it is still my goal to pay off the old debt before the end of 2021.
Next update…in about 3 months. Thanks, Jen, for motivating me to stay on track. I still need to check out YNAB. I’ve just been struggling with this computer so I haven’t set it up yet. Next priority…computer!!
Oh my goodness! I love this so much. Such amazing progress in three months! You’ll have this covered in no time.