It's been one year since my first debt snowball budget. The First of August 2010 was a rough day. I finally had to come to grips with the fact that I could no longer spend money that I did not have coming in. I had recently purchased a lovely (amazing, totally worth every penny) Dyson vacuum cleaner on a Best Buy credit card for zero percent interest for 18 months. Not the best thing I ever did, blame the heat of July and Medusa's propensity to shed, but really, it was because the other vacuum sucked and I wanted this one baaaad. So I did it. ugh. Now it's sitting in the storage unit because I'm living at home and we have enough vacuum cleaners for three houses rather than just one. No need to add another one, even though the Dyson > all the others combined.
That fateful August saw me starting my total debt balance at $12,288.42. It might not seem like a lot of money, but for me, that is a whole lot of money. Mostly, it is student loans, yay fifth year. Otherwise, it was credit card debt. I don't have a car payment, thank the sweet baby Jesus, or any outstanding medical debt. I like things. I love going out to eat, and I enjoy the convenience of plastic. Counting bills is a pain in the butt, and even though I use the envelope system for the majority of my purchases, I. Hate. It. It is, however, the best way for me to know where my money is going and how much I have left to spend. I just wish it could all have a separate plastic card. Like my separate checking account for my car expenses. When you start driving over 100 miles a day for your job, then you can just begin to understand the necessity it is to have several hundred dollars in an account solely for your car. Poor little Civic. (148,800 miles, now. I'm hoping we make it to 200k.)
I have acquired the habit of writing out a budget every week, mostly on Thursday nights, to tell my Friday paycheck where it is going. It fights a little, don't get me wrong. It hates that so much goes towards debt and other necessary living expenses, and that there's never enough left to beat the debt into submission. It's a very aggressive paycheck. It's small but feisty, kinda like me. It usually totals around $450 a week. (Disclaimer: This is the god-honest truth. I am not ashamed of what I earn, because I know I earn it. I'm going to leave it up to you to do the math, however.)
Every week that paycheck goes out like so:
$30 in personal spending money. If I want to go to a movie, there goes $15. I'm down by half.
$30 in food money. If I want lunch or a latte. I like lattes.
$10 for the kitty. We're trying to save for a de-clawing, but litter and food is expensive, too.
$15 for clothing. You don't want to see me naked.
$50 (at least - sometimes I sneak some extra...) for a Canada Fund. You best realize I want to see my husband mighty fierce.
$65 for my Car. I'll do this math for you. That's almost 15% of my paycheck going into my car, for insurance, gas, maintenance, and I don't even have a payment on it.
Then, every month are other expenses like rent, health insurance, cell phone, a little savings, and debt payments. From the approximately $1800 I take home, $1743 goes towards expenses. Yup. That leaves me $57 to pick up any slack in a month. If you are a single person, please think of the last time you went to the grocery store for more than 10 items. I bet that total was more than $60.
Now that you have the perfect understanding of my finances, you can be excited for me, too! In the past year my debt has gone from $12,288.42 to $10,482.18! I paid off:
$1,806.24
That is the equivalent of ONE MONTH'S TAKE HOME PAY!
I'm sure you probably think that's a kind of whatever. That I didn't do much, really. That I didn't really sacrifice or pay down anything extra on my debt. And I didn't do the latter, but I am working so hard and am so excited at this one thing I could cry in joy. I don't do a lot of things that I want to do, or that my friends do because I can't afford it. When the envelope's empty, it's empty, and I have to wait for the next Friday's feisty paycheck. And so, here I am, doing what I can, even though it might not be much, getting Closer to Fine.
