Blogging Away Debt Our Journeys to a Debt-Free Life

by Ashley

Awww, September! As much as I love August I welcome September like a breath of fresh air after the wicked heat of summer. Here in Tucson it’s still HOT (so don’t get me wrong). But we start to notice a cool down particularly in mornings and evenings and it becomes beautiful to hang out outside after dinner, letting the girls run around, enjoying a slight breeze, and chatting with hubs. Good times to look forward to as I welcome Fall weather with open arms!

In the meantime, here’s how our budget from August ended up shaping out:

Things to note:

• Increased rent: I wrote here about how our rent increased. This was our first month at the new rate.
• Electricity: Still high as the sky, but in-line with last year’s August budget (August 2014’s electricity was $251, so this year we were slightly lower). We can just gear up for a high September electric bill, too, because its going to happen.
• Cell phones: This category is a bit of a mess that will hopefully be straightened out in the coming months. Remember that we switched to T-Mobile from Sprint earlier this month to save some money (and it also came with a few additional perks, mentioned here). Well we got a ridiculously high Sprint bill after we cut our service ($250!!!) T-Mobile is supposed to credit our account for the equivalent amount so, in theory, we will have no cell phone bill for a few months until the credit has been run down. So I “cheated” a bit here. The full amount we paid was $250, but I put $150 in August and $100 in September to try to spread out the pain a little. It should work out since we’ll have no bill in September. This is something I’ll continue to monitor to make sure everything worked out in the wake of our switch.
• Cable/Internet: This was a bit of a mess, too! Generally our bill is about $110/month. In August I received a bill for nearly 50% more than what I’d expected. When I called to ask about it I was told we’d been in some promotional package for years and it had finally expired so our bill would increase. I was not willing to pay a 50% increase so I tried to work with them to get us into a better package. Long story short, I had to make 3-4 calls and physically go into a Comcast store to have everything fully resolved. We should now be back in a plan that costs $100/month (probably closer to $110 when taxes are factored in), and we were given credits in August for all the hassle and headache. So this is a temporarily low bill and hopefully in September things should be back to normal in this category.
• Preschool: This category is also a little lower than is normal. This is the amount we pay for the regular Monday-Friday preschool, but the normal day ends at 3:00pm. We pay extra to have the girls stay longer (hubs usually gets them at 4:00pm), but so far we have NOT been charged for the extra time they’re in school. This was the first month of preschool so I’m not sure what the billing cycle is yet for the extra time, but I know it’s charged separately from the regular bill so I anticipate it coming sometime soon.
• Household Goods: This included a Costco haul with some paper products (e.g., toilet paper, tissues) and some cleaning supplies at the regular grocery store.
• Clothing: I discussed how I was budgeting $100/month for new work appropriate attire. This month I got new shoes from DSW and a new bra from Victoria’s Secret (the last bra I bought was from when I was immediately post-partum/still breastfeeding, so I was in sore need of a new bra!)
• Toddler Purchases: This is just from their Halloween costumes (I wrote about the great deals at Costco and they still have tons of costumes in my area.)
• Rainy Day Savings: I put $300 toward different rainy day savings categories. This includes:  $75 (car repairs), $50 (travel/Christmas), $75 (health/dental/vision), $75 (annual fees), and $25 (Girls’ college savings). HOWEVER, I should also mention that I withdrew $307 from different savings funds (I keep all my savings in Capital One 360 due to their higher interest rate <refer a friend link). I withdrew $100 from health/dental/vision to pay for my contacts, like an idiot (because now I have insurance!!! I’m going to try to submit the receipt and see if I can be reimbursed). I also withdrew $207 from my annual fees fund to pay for my annual premium of life insurance.
• Savings Goals: This is $100 for a Roth IRA and $500 for Cruise 2016.
• Debt Payments: Still chugging right along with debt payments. This is slightly more than last month, but still right around our typical debt payment size.

Related to debt payments, I’ve made the executive decision to cheat a little bit on our “living on last month’s income” ideal. We’re still living on last month’s income, BUT September is the first month where I’ll earn double-income (from my part-time job in addition to my full-time job. Remember, I wasn’t paid from my part-time job in August due to regular schedule of payment).

Soooo, I’ve decided to allocate my regular full-time paycheck toward living on last month’s income (so it will go toward expenses incurred in October). BUT I’m going to keep my part-time paycheck for use during September to help speed up debt payments. I’m just REALLY itching to make some higher debt payments and it’s been a real bummer to have started this job nearly 2 months ago and not have made any really killer debt payments yet! Rather than waiting and putting that off until October, I’m going to dive in THIS MONTH with some higher debt payments by putting a portion of my part-time pay toward debt in September. Right now I’m thinking I may allocate 50% toward September and keep 50% allocated toward October. But I want to discuss it further with hubs to make a final decision. I just know that I’m itching to make some big debt payments and I can’t wait until October. Some of it is going down SOON!!!!

So that’s how August shaped up and some plans for how I plan to handle September’s debt.

Where are you in your debt repayment? How was your monthly budget in August?