by Matt Fildes
I hope everyone is having a great Tuesday!
I want to share with everyone the things I dwell on, but can’t buy/do due to being in debt and on a tight budget. I have a feeling I’m not the only one with this sort of list out there.
1) Home Improvements. I just bought a house back in 2013. While the house is in pretty good shape and the previous owners did a lot of nice upgrades, the house itself is still 100 years old. It would be nice to make it our own, so to speak. We’ve repainted some rooms, but haven’t changed anything up to the extent I would like. Whenever we clean up the house, I imagine the things we could do- move a wall here, upgrade the flooring in here, add shelves here, but I’m afraid that as long as I have student loans to pay, all these are going on the back burner for now.
2) New clothes. I haven’t bought clothes for myself in at least a year, which I bought a couple pairs of paints, shirts and shoes for work. Besides this one time, I haven’t bought clothes in at least 2 years, if not longer. The old saying “is dress for the job you want, not the one you have” and I certainly do wish I could live by this saying. The clothes I have work ok in our business casual office, but I know if I could do better if I have the funds to do so.
3) Trips. I’m not talking about trips to Europe or cruises or vacations to Disneyland or anything like that, but weekend trips to visit friends and family scattered around the county. One of my best friends lives in North Carolina and I haven’t visited him now in a couple years. Another good friend of mine lives in Ohio and just had a child. I would love to visit him more often than I do. And of course my immediate family lives in Buffalo, so thankfully I’m able to visit them once a month or so, except for my sis who lives in Orlando.
4) Girlfriend. My GF asked me what I was going to write about today and I told her I was going to post my wish list of things I wish I could buy/do but can’t. This of course lead to her asking me what’s on my list, so I gave her this run down and finished with being able to get you better gifts and surprising you every so often with things that you love. Being the amazing, down to Earth girl she is, she told me the gifts I give her and the time we spend together is all she needs. This didn’t stop my guilt. I still wish I could surprise her with flowers or cups of tea from Tim Hortons or grapes tomatoes- just little things that add up, especially considering I’m only on a $70 a week budget for groceries and gas.
Here we are on one of our budget friendly drives to a very cute ski resort in our area, where we took a hike on the golf course:
I thought this would be the perfect post to transition into next week’s post- my future (AKA post-debt) plans, because I would love to add budget lines for all these items eventually.
And speaking of future plans- shout out to Angie, Rachel and Joe for their input on last week’s post in pointing me in the right direction retirement wise. I spoke with our company’s human resource manager and our next available dates to get back into the company 401K is May 1st and August 1st. I’m still hesitant to get back in on May 1st since I’m on a debt payoff roll, but I’ll definitely be back in come August.
Lastly, here’s my debt totals as of last Thursday:
| Loan Name | Interest Rate | Original Balance- May '09 | Current Balance | Total Paid Off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sallie Mae 01 | 5.25 | $27,837.24 | $24,357.79 | $3,479.45 |
| Sallie Mae 02 | 4.75 | $22,197.02 | $19,107.77 | $3,089.25 |
| Sallie Mae 03 | 7.75 | $20,692.10 | $0.00 | $20,692.10 |
| Sallie Mae 04 | 5.75 | $10,350.18 | $7,652.04 | $2,698.14 |
| Sallie Mae 05 | 5.25 | $6,096.03 | $4,661.94 | $1,434.09 |
| Sallie Mae 06 and 07 | 4.75 | $6,415.09 | $0.00 | $6,415.09 |
| Sallie Mae- DOE 01 | 5.25 | $5,000.00 | $0.00 | $5,000.00 |
| Sallie Mae- DOE 02 | 5.25 | $3,000.00 | $0.00 | $3,000.00 |
| AES | 6.8 | $9,000.00 | $0.00 | $9,000.00 |
| TOTALS | $110,587.66 | $55,779.54 | $54,808.12 |
I won’t bore anyone with my budget this week- I’ll save that snooze fest for next week’s post. Have a great week!
Oh yay! I’m so so happy that you’re getting back into your 401k! I hope you still consider May 1, but at least August is only 3 months later. You’ll really be surprised at how little it impacts your take-home pay, thanks to the great tax savings. Good for you!
I have a similar list, but mine is from being trapped in a 3 year divorce case. A lot of debt comes with that (lawyer fees, ugh), along with uncertainty and restrictions. But like you, there will be a better, freer future someday!
Rachel- I definitely am still considering it. I haven’t made up my mind as to what I’m going to do yet, but I’m leaning towards May 1st. At the very least, I should put in enough to get the full company match, which was 4% or $50 when I was in it before.
Sorry about the divorce but you are very right- brighter futures are ahead!
I think you are doing great Matt – you are so young and having your act together at this point in your life is AMAZING!!! Care to hold a class for my kids :)???
HAHA, maybe after this is all over I’ll have to look into teaching as a 2nd career. But seriously- thanks for the kind words even though it doesn’t quite feel like I have it together…yet.
I think you’ll definitely have loans 4 and 5 paid off in no time. when you start getting into the two big ones left, you’ll probably have to think about how long you can continue to go hardcore on the debt and if any of these “wants” sneak into the picture. It’ll be pretty exciting to see what you can accomplish if you keep your focus in 2015.
I know- I’ve thought about this. After 4 and 5 are done (this summer, knock on wood) it’s going to be a long, boring road to get the others paid off. Thankfully, if I continue the way I am, I could have this finished by November ’16. I’ve been at this for 16 months already, so what’s another 1, 2,…18 months?
You’re almost halfway there, that’s awesome! You might want to check out Goodwill’s site for some “new to you” clothes.
Thanks April! Come this Saturday (when my automatic withdrawal comes out to pay Sallie Mae) I will have more paid off than I owe. Now that’s a pretty awesome feeling.
Really enjoying these posts and getting to know you better. Great picture of the two of you; your girlfriend sounds like a keeper.
Thanks Mary! She is! BTW- she reads the comments too and I know she appreciates the nice comments 🙂
Your girlfriend sounds truly amazing!
Thanks Scooze! And she is very amazing 🙂
Great post Matt, I’m a daily reader and always enjoy when a post by you shows up. I have a similar list of things I’d like to do but will have to wait until I can afford them.
Thanks Downstairs! How much longer do you anticipate before you’re debt free?
Forever haha. I’m hoping within 2 years if I can stay focused!
2 years isn’t bad! (Seeing as that’s also my timeline, lol.) WW can both do this!
I think you need to budget for clothes – that’s pretty much a standard line item in any budget. It doesn’t have to be much; like April said, you can always check out thrift stores (which is where penny pincher Clark Howard gets most of his clothes). Having that built in to your budget will give you some freedom to pick up a few new (to you) items each season and you’ll feel better about how you dress at work. Congrats on having a GF who doesn’t mind low cost or no cost dates – I’m sure that helps a ton.
I know I “need” to but I just don’t really want to at this point. I’ve gotten by so far, and I think the thrift stores could take me all the way to the end without having to worry about setting a budget for it while I’m on debt. Don’t get me wrong, the very second I make my last debt payment will be the second I revamp my budget to include line items like these. And yes, the GF, with her mindset, helps a TON!
Great post Matt. I hear ya on the home improvements – we have a bathroom that really needs to be redone (it’s 55 years old!), but two more years of helping our kids get thru college before we can tackle that.
I would second the suggestion to clothes shop at thrift stores and also consider online coupons – I scored brand new flannel shirts from JC Penney for less than $10 each – they were having a sale and there was an online coupon so I scored 4 Christmas gifts for cheap….so maybe a small $5 a week contribution to a clothing fund? That way when you run across a good deal you have some money set aside?
We save our change for travel – even $20 of rolled up change gets us some gas and some cheap eats to go for a drive to the beach or a park….
Keep up the great work – can’t wait to see your next debt all off the chart!
Thanks den- good to hear from you. I hear you on the bathroom- I feel ours could use a renovation too. I have nearly 2 years left too, and in the grand scheme, what’s another two years to give up these things until you hit freedom? IMHO, not much.
The thrift stores and bargains are definitely going to be something I take advantage of and I can probably pull $5 dollars out of my $70 each week for this. At the end of each week, I always put whatever’s left into my change bucket, and it seems $5 is left quite often, so definitely doable.