by Hope
Lessons I learned the last two months as I’ve started receiving income again:
- Paying everything at the beginning of the month can leave you struggling at the end of the month.
- Even with money coming in regularly, it feels much better to have a buffer in your checking account and at least a small emergency fund.
- After a year in “starvation” mode, even a little splurge right now feels too much.
Overall, April has been a great month financially. (You can see last month’s debt update here.)
Debt Description | October, 2023 Total | Interest Rate | Minimum Payment | Current Total | Payoff Date (Est) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
CC - Sams | $1,106 | 29.99% | $0 | $0 | April, 2024 |
CC - Amazon | $1,497 | 29.99% | $53 | $1,462 | May, 2024 |
CC - Wander | $1,630 | 29.24% | $75 | $1,605 | June, 2024 |
Personal Loan #1 | $2,500 | 0% | $500 (beg April) | $1,500 | June, 2024 |
Personal Loan #2 | $2,500 | 0% | $500 (beg April) | $2,000 | June, 2024 |
CC - Frontier | $3,857 | 29.99% | $131 | $3,566 | |
Dad - New Furnace | $2,600 | 0% | $500 (beg June or July) | $2,600 | |
CC - USAA | $5,000 | 19.15% | $135 | $4,996 | |
Car Loan | $19,581 | 12.69% | Gymnast Pays | $16,623 | |
Student Loans | $22,121 | 2.875% | In Deferrment | $22,505 | |
CC - Apple** | $500 | Paid off every month | $0 | ||
CC - AMEX | $894 | 29.24% | $0 | $0 | |
Total | $61,186 | $1,622 | $56,857 |
Updates
The Sam’s Club card is paid in full. Woot, woot! But I am not going to close it. The kids and I use that membership very regularly for food and gas. The girls and I even got our eyes examined there this past month – only $67 for an eye exam. (If we buy our glasses there, we get 20% off. Princess has already taken advantage of this. I’m holding off at least one more month before spending that money.)
I have rearranged the table (again) to show the order I am focusing on the debt. With my current forecast, here are the next anticipated payoff dates:
- Amazon CC – May, 2024
- Personal Loan #1 – June, 2024
- Personal Loan #2 – June, 2024
- Wander CC – June, 2024
I’ve not yet purchased a lawn mower. Still dreading that completely. Thankfully, Beauty’s boyfriend graciously volunteered to cut our grass last week, buying me a few more weeks. I will have to address the need in May for sure. I did purchase a edger/trimmer thing. It ran me $131 and is electric. The downside is that it will only run 25 minutes per battery charge. The upside is it’s the same brand as all my other tools so I will have 3 interchangeable batteries so can get the yard done with quick battery changes. At least in theory! So I can start doing some of the yard with that.
Moving along the right direction steadily. I am working 3-4 12 hour days weekly between my two jobs. And loving every minute of it.
Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 5 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.