by Hope
To make it easier for find the history here, I am starting this with links to my original money posts:
The Nuts and Bolts detailed my monthly budget. That’s changed.
Hump Day is Hope Day gave a pretty thorough explanation of my debt as I started this journey at BAD and my plan of action for tackling it. Then I updated my debt numbers as I evaluate a new plan.
I Got a New Job details how I started a part time job in order to increase my income and expedite this pay off journey. Still going strong though I have cut down to 8 hours per week for the summer.
Then, I wrote about how I have decided to change my plan of action after evaluating comments from the BAD community and looking at my near future (next couple of years) and housing situation.
So here we are, summer plans are in full affect and we have already returned from our first of two long road trips planned for this summer. This week all four kids are involved in FREE activities: vacation Bible school for the little ones and robotics camp for the twins. Not only are the twins volunteering their time running this robotics camp but it will fulfill their fundraising obligation for their competitive team next fall.
So let’s start with the new budget numbers:
| Rent | 1325 |
| Groceries | 600 |
| Utilities – Gas, electric, water & sewage | 350 |
| Life Ins | 23 |
| Auto & Renter’s Insurance | 150 |
| Netflix | 8 |
| Verizon | 211 |
| Internet | 57 |
| Dropbox | 10 |
| Car Expenses | 300 |
| Kids Activities | 100 |
| Kids School | 175 |
| Landscaping | 120 |
| Kids Spending | 240 |
| Total Monthly Budget | 3669 |
| Student Loans | 0 |
| Car Loan – NV | 696 |
| Line of Credit | 218 |
| Retail Card | 99 |
| Credit Card | 150 |
| Joint Account | 0 |
| Car Loan – Honda | 0 |
| Total Minimum Payment | 1163 |
| Total Monthly Output | 4832 |
You’ll notice some changes between my initial budget and this one. I’m just going to point out a couple:
- I am no longer paying my ex-husband’s life insurance so that bill got cut in half. Granted it’s just 20-something dollars, but every little bit helps, right?
- The item that once was kid’s allowance is now kid’s spending money. They must now earn it with work around the house, outside of their family chores so that may flux a bit.
- As you’ve seen with my kids’ activities/school, that money is collected from month to month and then spent when needed.
One last note, I have decided to take the BAD community’s advice on our landscaping line item at the end of this summer. With all the travel already planned it just not practical right now. So this will 1) give me time to research the tools we need and 2) save the money to purchase them. Any suggestions on lawn equipment would be greatly appreciated…remember I am not mechanical so we really need to start off with something that doesn’t need work to work. We have about 1/2 acre to maintain every week and a HOA who will make sure it is done every week so I’ve got to get mentally prepared to make that happen.
Note: I’m still working on my debt pay off plan and should have that up next week along with estimated pay off dates.
