Aquamarine Piano As a fellow student loan tackler, I'm looking forward to seeing you rid yourself of that debt! :)

Keith Borders I love how far under the line January came in at - nicely done! :)

MXMOM Sorry for the trouble! I'm sure Veronica can get you re-added if you want to message her your numbers. I don't want to miss your update!

(Or you can post here and any of us can get you aded back!)

MXMOM That would be really tough on an iPad! I'd be happy to help out and get you restored.

Veronica Faness is it possible to find me on the "overwritten" version? If that is simple, then if you could add me back in and let me know my new line number. 

MXMOM I see your line at 120, which is at ID 116! Is that the right one? It looks like you started adding a new one at the bottom, but I can remove the new one if that 116 line looks right!

Veronica Thanks yes ID 116 is me! You can delete my new one.  

Powder Blue Foal You're close to knocking a few of those off already! :)

Faness Yes! hoping to get rid of the smaller ones early then tackle the rest! 

Powder Blue Foal l am late posting for March but finally taking a moment to catch up on somethings today. I was able to paydown 669.28 towards my debt last month. Small steps but YNAB has made some big differences for me since starting. I have been saving along with debt repayment, I am so thankful that I am not currently affected financially with the current crisis. Yet knowing that I have a cushion to fall back on with my savings takes some of the stress. I will continue to make minimum payments towards my debts at this time hoping when this blows over to increase payments.

Aquamarine Piano That's amazing! Are you making minimum payments on your CCs? What are the interest rates? :)

Sparkleworker No one knows your finances like you do. I hope the extra in December put you ahead of where you thought you'd be even now and that things even out soon! :)

Faness Thank you! 

The Goat Queen 

❤️🙂 Congratulations on the new baby.  Wishing you all the best.

The Goat Queen yay! Congrats on the baby!!!!

The Goat Queen Congrats!! 

The Goat Queen Congrats on being so far ahead on the Debt and for the addition to the family. 

The Goat Queen congrats!!!

Things have changed for February. So here is the updated check in.

February Monthly Check In

• Credit Card: Paid $2,700 - Balance $0!!
• Construction Loan:  Paid $400 - Balance $3,150
• Medical Loan: Paid $100 - Balance $1,700

Total paid this month $3,200.  $4,100 / $8,950 - 46% complete for the year!

We ended up getting a monetary gift, and also applied our tax refund towards debt. So today I was able to send in a large lump sum and pay off the CC which we've had for several years. It started at over $15,000 so it is awesome to have no CC debt again!!

In other news, we also got final numbers from our hospital bill. We will have to get a new 0% interest loan for $7,000... Yuck.

The Goat Queen that's a huge win!!!!

The Goat Queen Congratulations on being credit card debt free (and for your new little one!!). February sounds like a month full of new adventures thus far! :)

WhiskeyThief You may be a little behind where you wanted to be, but you're still that much closer to accomplishing your goal! We'll be cheering you on this year! :)

Quick tweak.  I forgot a travel reimbursement from my company for a flight to Korea that got cancelled.  They reimbursed and I paid my card then the Airline ticket got mostly reimbursed.  So one of my cards is artificially low and I owe my company the balance and it gets paid back bit by bit when I have other travel.  The starting balance for that in Nov was $7742.45.  By Jan 01 2020 I got it down to $3971.82 by traveling and putting some back on the card.  So updated numbers:

Start 2020: $55,187

Payoff Goal: Let's bump it to $22000 even.

So as of the end of Jan I have paid $1414/$22000=6.43% but I do have $1000.16 in Travel reimbursement that I was able to cover with cash (not increase debt) that is pending so that is a jump start on Feb!

Faness Thanks.  This challenge will be great, although my wife works at a college so Jun-Aug are lean months.  Trying to knock out a good chunk while, for the first time in years, setting aside money to cover a portion of the missing pay.  Working on a few things to increase income, or at least get things reimbursed that I forgot to do (FSA, Pet insurance, etc...).  Plus a little bit of a tax refund should hit this month so (fingers crossed) Feb will be a good month.  The wife is not fighting it, but still working towards "fully on board".  Then we can cruise through it.

Ok, Time for the Feb Update.  I feel like this was a better month but I will collect the numbers as I type this, so let's find out together.

According to Undebt.it I paid a total of $3,417 towards the debt including the travel I was able to cover that decreases the travel reimbursement debt. There was also a payment to finish of a car loan to my parents but we had a small argument and they felt it had already been paid off and my records must be wrong so they sent me that money back. Not a huge amount, but a good argument to lose.

So total payments were 3417.60.

Started the month with $53773 of Total Debt.  or $20,586 left for my 2020 goal.

End of Feb... $51,031 or $17,844 left for my 2020 goal.  That means I paid off $2,742 this month which is 13.32% of my goal.  Much better than the monthly goal of 8.33%.  After two months I should be at 16.66% paid and I am at...calculating... 18.89%! 

I pulled ahead and it feels good.  Also since January my age of money increased by 2 weeks from 7 days to 21 days and my Net Worth increased by $6,800.  That is huge.  That is only my liquid asset and debt accounts, not affected by a 401K or other investments.  Thanks YNAB.

WhiskeyThief Those are some pretty huge accomplishments! And yeah, that's an argument I would prefer to lose, too. Glad it's not in the other direction!

WhiskeyThief  End of Mar Update

Started with $51031  Paid $2300 bringing the total principal down to $49232.  Total Paid off for Mar is $1799.  Brings me to 27.07% of the way there. and a total of $5,955 paid off so far this year.  Wow, that feels pretty good.

Not sure how this coming month is going to be.  Mar was tough with a lot of extra grocery and home entertainment.  Possible 2 week furlough coming up so who knows.  But with YNAB I know I can survive a lot longer that without it.

WhiskeyThief It also just dawned on me what your user name is. :)

farfromtheusual Typically only check in around the turn of the month.  This comment just made me smile.  It is a little play on words, as I am one, and my dream job would be using one.  :)

WhiskeyThief I love it!! The newsletter and "VIP Club" for Sagamore Rye Whiskey is called the Whiskey Theif :)

farfromtheusual I love Sagamore.  Did a tasting back on Feb 29th at an event with Brian Treacy of 8 different expressions. May have even sampled a little penny. ;) 

Have a Sagamore Reserve Double Oak and a Barrel select blend that is amazing (Awry 421 - Quad Batch).  I love what they are doing both themselves and within the industry.  Some of my favorite Rye.

Thanks to you, I just signed up as a Whiskey Thief.

WhiskeyThief awesome :) Glad to share!! I went and did a tasting at the distillery last year on Fathers day with the BF's dad and family. Their whiskey is a bit strong for me (the BF and his brothers finished my tasting!) but I enjoyed the tour and everything. And I agree, I like what they are doing as a company, and for Baltimore. Of course, it's all Kevin Plank's genius, and he's got the money to do it.

WhiskeyThief Student loan payment was processed today so it must be that time again.  End of April Update.  This has been a strange month for all.  Groceries are through the roof, but eating out is $0 for the month.  Other expenses are a bit out of whack trying to keep the kids entertained and educated.  But between some lower expenses, and the stimulus payment that came through we made a good dent this month.

Start of April Total Debt: $49,232

Total Payments : $3,398 (WHAT!)

Total Principal paid: $2,942. - what I am tracking in the spreadsheet!

End of April Total :$46,289

That means I have paid 40.44% of my goal for the year.  This is big.

So glad I made it this far and look to maintain the momentum through the summer when my wife doesn't get paid (works for a university).  Thanks to YNAB, this is the first time we have actually put money aside to use as replacement income during the summer, it's not the full amount, but better than the $9K in debt we added last year when we didn't pay attention.  Probably lower expenses this summer too. 

BIG NEWS: Paid of my lowest balance credit card this month.  I needed that mental boost, that card (Credit Union) was at 10% and has dropped to 8.5%.  So I did the responsible thing and maxed out the card transferring $5,000 from a 24.5% interest rate card.  I will now focus on the high rate cards but really needed that emotional win.  The next card should be done by the end of summer then on to the BIG ($15K) card.  We can all do it though.  If I make my goal, the $15 K card will be down almost $10K.  That has had a balance on it since I got engaged to my wife (ring) in 2003.  That will be the biggest win I can have.  Think of all the interest that has been wasted in 17 years of carrying some sort of balance between $1K and $18K. But it ends now.

Take care everyone.  Good luck and let YNAB help you if you are going through rough times.

WhiskeyThief WOW! That's HUGE!! Way to go!!
The mental wins are the best ones, I find. It is amazing how much of a boost they give you in keeping up the momentum and continuing to take big steps!

And congrats on having the income replacement available. That's also a big win. When I started making some small adjustments for things like that that happen in my life it was huge as well. It feels SO good to know it's all covered!

WhiskeyThief It's been a little while.  I'm not surprised I didn't update as I knew I wasn't doing as good as I had before, but I just updated all the numbers and must say I am more than happy.  My wife works at a university and only gets paid 9 months out of the year.  Since I restarted YNAB in Sept we have gotten expenses down to being able to "barely" live within our means on my salary which enabled us to have this loft goal of $22,000 in principal paid off in 2020.  I also was smart and started putting away $ to help even out the summer month.  For reference, I am here because last summer we didn't track anything and suddenly at the end of Oct '19 I realized we added $10K in debt with nearly nothing to show for it.

We were able to put away $4K in "Summer Float Money" and $1,400 for vacation funds to use for camping trips and eating out.  With the way 2020 has gone, I am so glad we did this.  With the cancelled vacation and reduced eating out, we really lived within our means and the $3000 emergency electrical work we needed done (water coming in the main and flooding the panel!) we were able to pay in cash!  That felt so good.  Out of the $5,400 total we saved, we still have about $900 left for small summer fun and seeding next years vacation savings.

On to the good stuff.  I knew the summer would be leaner on debt payoff and I just finished calculating what I actually paid in principal over the last 3 months I skipped updating.  Without further ado here are the numbers (Principal paid, % of years goal($22K) paid to date)

May: $1,345, 46.56%

June: $1,143, 51.75%

July(the month with $3000 in unplanned expenses): $878.06, 55.74%

So, I am still pretty well on track and we start to get some additional income again starting at the end of Aug!  Pretty excited.  I should be a little over 58% complete by now, but I am well above what I expected, especially with the $3K surprise expense.  Not going to complain about being over $12,000 in less debt.  Especially with over $7,000 of that being in debt with over 20% interest.

WhiskeyThief Congrats, those are some really big wins. In the past years I had gotten sucked into the not keeping track thing because I felt bad about my progress, and that is a big trap. SO glad that you've come out of it with some big wins, which will help encourage continued tracking!

WhiskeyThief Back on track with tracking and everything.  Paid off $1,414 of principal this month. Pretty happy with that and I am at 62.17% of my goal.

Still a bit below the trend of wanting to be at 66.67% but I am in the ball park.  My wife's seasonal salary also kicked back in last week so the next few months should be pretty good.  Feeling optimistic about reaching my goal!  Every month I feel a little more liberated as the debt disappears.

WhiskeyThief WAHOO! That's all good news!!

WhiskeyThief  Here is the update.

Looks like I missed last month.  Paid $1863 in principal in Sept and reached 70.64% of my goal.

Paid off $1353 in principal this month.  Part of that was I finally paid off a Credit Card with ~25% interest!  I have paid a total of $16,893 in principal so far this year.  That is AWESOME!  Not quite at the goal, but that goal, while possible at the time, was a tough goal.  But even if I don't make it, this journey has shown me what is possible with a little planning.  AND, I know start paying off the big one.  A Discover card with near 25% interest and a balance around $15K.  I have carried a balance on this since buying an engagement ring in 2003.  It has also gone up over the years for really no good reason, but, given what I have done this year, by the end of next summer, I should be done with it.  I'll never regret buying the ring, and we are still married.  I do regret not paying it off as it would have been so much easier to just limit my lifestyle before kids, but we learn in our own time. 

So, I am at 76.79% of my goal for the year.  Lets see how close I can get.  I am buying a car next week. A reliable used car from my parents with fairly low miles for only $5K.  Paying half cash and "borrowing" the rest through Jan. So my debt will increase some but the car is a necessity and I am being responsible about it.  Probably should have save more and paid off less debt, but I couldn't resist paying off more on the cards and swapping it with a short term interest free loan.

WhiskeyThief All good stuff!! The car is a necessity, and it's great that the loan from your family can help spread things out a bit. I think we all need a leg up now and then.

WhiskeyThief Dec 31st and the final update.  November I Got a car from my parents for $5000 and the "gave me a loan" for the whole amount.  This is good for tracking this.

Looking back at this year:

Start 2020: $55,187

Added $5000 loan in Nov 2020 for the car. Total Debt for 2020 is $60,187.

Paid off exactly $22,000 in PRINCIPAL this year (doesn't include the Interest!)

Would have preferred to have that $22K get me to $33,187 But I will take the $38,187, plus a solid working car that will last a while and gets better mileage.

2020 may have been a crap year, but it has been great financially thanks to this challenge and YNAB.  This is my first full year of tracked expenses.  Can't wait to look at the numbers and find places to trim down.

This has been awesome.  At this rate I am looking at 100% debt free by Jul 2022 and I will do my best to get it done even sooner.

Happy New Year all and I look forward to what happens this year!

WhiskeyThief Those are some awesome accomplishments! Way to go!

ISuckatMaths that's too bad. Hopefully you can find something that pays you well for your skills.  And don't even get me started about car insurance!

ISuckatMaths Aw man :( I know how it is doing work beyond the hours you can manage physically. I hope you can build in some rest time and good strategies for coping with what needs doing around the house to keep you fed and sheltered and warm.

ISuckatMaths Anyway you can negotiate a lower price for your insurance, or look into a competitor? That's quite the rate hike. 

I'm hoping you find a part time job that's flexible, works for you and that you enjoy! :)

MXMOM uggg, I've had the worst luck with car insurance. I didn't know that if you're without insurance for more than 2 years, the consider you an 18 yr old. So when I moved back from living abroad, my years didn't count. So I've been paying like I'm 18. The worst is that every year my star rating goes up, but my insurance isn't going down. Sooo frustrating.

WairereRose aww thanks. I might have found a pt job, that might actually help me do well in my current role. So, I'm bitting the bullet and planning to apply for the job. Aggg.

Faness thanks, I hate working haha. Yah that's what I'm doing now. Going through the insurance rounds. But with all the disasters insurance companies keep on increasing rates, so they keep on saying. I'm sure they are still making lots of money🤨

Sweet Tangerine Those are some great goals!  You have some great interest rates combined with the spending decreases, you should be able to knock this out.  How great would it feel to end 2020 with just 8-9000 left on the Parent Plus Loan.  So many bills you wouldn't have to worry about.

How did you decrease your spending that much last year? $35K!  Sounds like the makings of an impressive blog post.

WhiskeyThief It will feel great to end 2020 with that much lower debt!!  Woo hoo!  As far as the decreased spending, I just couldn't believe that I spent what I did (overall numbers), basically what was coming in was going back out.  I live a very modest life, and pretty much always have (to be fair, much of my spending has been tuition for 2 college kids which is by my choice...I take care of undergrad, they will pay for graduate degrees).  But still....I wanted to control the other stuff more.  I just became more intentional.  I cleaned out tons of stuff in my home (did a lot of simplifying, minimalism) and sold items.  I put that money towards debt or saving, not more spending.  I didn't overdo eating out, I used up stuff in my pantry before going to the store again, I consolidated errands to use less gas, and got rid of excess things I wasn't using (cable tv!).  I gave mostly handmade gifts for Christmas, and didn't spend near as much on that this past year.  Even with a trip to Europe to visit my daughter studying abroad (16 days!), I still spent that much less (did some solid travel hacking to get cheap flights, free accommodations, etc.).  I was really good about not using anything that wasn't already set aside in YNAB, but my company decided to defer our PTO pay-out this year (typical Clark Griswold scene where our bonus that usually comes right before Christmas got deferred to 2020 in straight up "jelly of the month club" style, ha ha!).  Sigh.  So...this is why I had an "overages" category.  I know I know I should never ever ever count on something like that...still, it had been paid at Christmas the last 15 years!  Lesson learned.  Ha ha!!  

My goal is to spend another $5000-$10,000 less in 2020 than 2019.  And smack that debt down.  And another year of maxing out 401K ;) Thanks so much for the words of encouragement!!  

Sweet Tangerine Those are great budgeting steps you are taking. Keep going! And put a few celebratory treats in there for you when you hit a milestone to keep you motivated otherwise the tight budget won't be sustainable. :)

Purple Foal great idea!!  Thanks for the tip!!  ;)

Sweet Tangerine I must say, this is so encouraging.  That is an amazing shift of funds in just a year.  I need to take a hard look at all the usual bills.  We probably wouldn't miss cable anymore, could possibly save on cell phones, that is great.  I do agree a bit with Purple Foal though.  You are trending down into the real austerity area.  Create a small category with a big impact.  Something you want but think you shouldn't get.  A couple hundred can seem like a big splurge, but if it keeps you saving $10K...seems pretty good.  The PTO pay out kinda stinks but from my end, the Christmas Vacation reference was gold.

WhiskeyThief Glad you liked the Christmas Vacation reference...ha ha!  What was truly funny was mine and co-workers back and forth memes about it "Why of all the cheap lousy ways to save a buck!" ;)

Agree, I likely need to add some small happies/splurges in there as reward.  I do plan to contribute a bit to my travel/AirBNB category for a few weekend trips.  But I want to add milestones too so that when I hit them, I feel motivated to keep going.  My debt smack-down includes a yearly Bonus and that (deferred) PTO pay-out, so not all coming out of my paychecks!  Also, I should say that last year I did not remotely feel deprived...I felt just normal, like everyone else around me were the weird ones, spending so much dang money ;)  

A huge motivation for me is having that Parent Plus Loan paid off before my daughter's graduation in May 2021...I just can visualize it being a REAL celebration (for her and for me!) being paid before it ever officially goes into repayment!  And that will be the true reward!!  Thanks again!  It does take a village!! 

Whiskey Mama 

MXMOM so true!  haha

Whiskey Mama Wishing you a quick end to your lockdown (and an even quicker recovery for your husband)! :)

Faness thank you! :)

Spring Green Cobra congratulations! I recommend that you do a separate category group called Wedding and start breaking things down into tiny details. A line and a spend by date goal for each thing. Using a spend by date goal will let you start paying things at the same time that you save. So if you have to pay the caterer a deposit but you haven't funded the whole cost yet, this type of goal lets you do that. 

I am posting an example of what I mean by showing you my Germany trip category group.  This started as a single category in the wish farm. When we decided to go, I created a category group and started breaking it all down.  Also, any inflow (eg. if your parents give you money), you can have a separate category you use to track that and then as things come up or details are locked down, you can move money from the inflow line to the detailed line.  What I like by doing this is that I can click on the whole category group and see where I am at (see the 2nd image) .  This quickly tells me how much I need to budget this month to stay on track. The amount in my 2nd image is misleading because I haven't reallocated the inflow (net pay contributions) to categories yet.  But this should give you the idea. 

I would see categories under wedding like dress, limo, flowers, etc. and each should have a goal. 

MXMOM thanks for that tip! I hadn’t really thought about breaking up the wedding category - newbie mistake. I will do that for sure! 

MXMOM Really good idea!  Using this for the next trip I plan.  I always get caught out by committing to one part of the trip and then not having budgeted properly for the rest (part of the reason I have the credit card debt I do!)  Did pay cash for my trip last year for the first time, but it was a close run thing.  This would be really helpful for next time.

MXMOM Nice! I started doing this for my trips too and you can really see how things add up. I make a master budget line at the top too for the total money and then move it to lines as needed. I did this for Xmas by person. I had a master total and then all the people were a part of the whole. :)

Turquoise Major I sometimes have the same issue #YNABProblems, although, make sure your Feb minimum payment you keep (you should be able to estimate this) or a set monthly payment.  Then you can pay any extra, if that is what you are targeting, whenever you want.  They calculate your interest every day so paying early helps.  This assumes you CC allows multiple payments in a month.  

WhiskeyThief Thanks - yes it's definitely a #YNABProblem! This particular card is the only one not set up on a direct debit, but YNAB has kept me straight in terms of making sure I've budgeted for it.

As it's not on Direct Debit, I want to get this one paid the moment the bill comes to ensure for my own peace of mind I've paid it.

Now 11 days to wait until the next one is collected by Direct Debit (and I can make an overpayment)

GroceryAddict You have two boys and a grocery goal of $400? Woohoo! I have two very young ones + a husband and we're at $800. I don't think we could go much lower, and as the boys grow up I expect them to eat a lot more! There goes my budget *grumble grumble*. 

Yellow Pufferfish  no - not normally.  But I spent almost a grand last month in groceries for me and my 2 sons who are at their dads 50% of the time. I need to work on eating the food we have in the pantry and feel freeze so am trying to really limit myself this month. 

Yellow Pufferfish @groceryaddict

I have been doing the grocery challenge too. I have 2 boys, 15 & 12, half the time and my budget for January was $350 and I came in at $275. I have been eating healthy meals from scratch. Not buying processed/ready made foods is key. I also use an app called Flashfood, for the Real Canadian Superstore, which lets me buy clearance foods which I stock my freezer with. I pricematch all the time now with the app FLIPP.  I have been stretching meat with beans (well soaked/cooked) and I make muffins etc. I heard that a food budget should be $100/pp/month, so I made it $350. In the past few months I was averaging $400 and stocking up my freezer & pantry. Cooking real food is way cheaper. No food waste. I have started an anti-inflammation eating plan too which is real food, but selective. And do I need to buy all the food suggested in the menus? Nope. I'll buy/eat what fits my budget. 

Check out these suggestions to save money and read the comments too:

https://www.frugalwoods.com/2017/01/18/our-complete-guide-to-frugal-healthy-eating/

Purple Foal Thanks for the suggestions.  I have tried Flipp before and don't find it saves me much money because the food I eat doesn't tend to be on sale a lot.  I rarely eat meat, and we eat a ton of fruit/veggies.  I do cook almost always, I always bring my food to work, still I manage to go over my grocery budget every month.  I can't say I don't know why though - it's because I shop at Costco!  Too many temptations!  I have a ton of food in my house right now so going to see how long I can go before getting groceries again. I'll keep ya posted!

GroceryAddict you can price match produce too!  I didn't realize that for a while using Flipp and then I saved almost half on grapes. We price match EVERYTHING!

MXMOM yes price match everything! You never know! And once you know the sale prices & stock up prices, it makes a difference. Doing an inventory of what you have and what you can make is key. Just like clothing, shop your closet instead of always buying new things. Try to eat everything you have and look up recipes for items you have you don't want to eat. (Costco size bag of frozen broccoli. Can't stand it. Must've bought for when my Mom was over. lol)

MXMOM Yeah I do know this - but I just haven't enjoyed shopping at Superstore or Walmart.  I think it's a quality thing for me - and now I would miss the things I always buy at Costco.  I just need to better meal plan and stick to my list. 

GroceryAddict I know, I don't enjoy Superstore either. Actually prefer No Frills and they do price match at a lot of stores. But regardless, meal planning will help you & look for cheaper meals for awhile. :)