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
