Made it through May....

Here's my numbers for the month:

MC -       $473.46       $61.00          $412.46 

Total -   $473.46        $61.00         $412.46

Extra -                             $50.22

I was able to make the additional payment on my truck loan this month, again, which was great. There was a minor glitch, though, due to the holiday that almost gave me a heart attack. I scheduled the payment before the automatic payment was supposed to come out, but because of the holiday, the scheduled payment was late actually processing, so BOTH payments processed... which meant that basically my car payment came out of my account twice. EEK! I called the bank yesterday, and the gal was able to reverse it for me, so that was good. I was about to panic there for a bit. I could have handled it, but it would have blown my ability to add the extra payment for a month!

So currently, with my extra car payments, I'm sitting at 85% of my goal. I'm really proud of how much I have been able to accomplish this year, and the extra stimulus payment just put me over the top with my ability to make things happen. I'm determined to continue pushing towards this, it will end my truck loan 6 months early if I can continue to pay the $50 extra every month. That's not a whole lot earlier, but it's something (and since I continue to put miles on my truck like it's going out of style, that's really helpful...).

The only scary thing is that the BF does not have ANY breathing room in his pay checks since his hours got cut. AND my old explorer that he's currently driving is now having transmission problems. Like real problems... so he's facing having to get something now, and we really don't have room for a payment. We'll have to figure out how to make it work, though, and see what happens. We could really use an extra windfall at the moment, though!

May Check-In!

I'm 70% of the way to my debt payoff goal. In January, I thought it was a lofty goal. I'm going to blow past it in July.  I hit two milestones this month: I am under $60K in total debt and under $40K in consumer debt. Since joining YNAB in November 2019, I've paid off $10K!

It's a long haul, but I really do see an end! I'm so proud of the progress I've made.

Debt paydown progress in 2020:

May: $2002.09

April: $1712.68

March: $1730.05

February: $1370.62

January: $1821.11.

Total progress: $8636.55

Current standing

Student loans: $20,121. 18 (in covid forbearance, so I'm redirecting the payments to cc's)

Credit Cards (3): $39,008.04 

Link to April journal

May Update

May was a three-paycheck month for me, so it was another pretty good month for me financially. I still haven't been making payments to the student loans since they won't accrue interest until September, but I'm still stashing the money away in my student loans category. I think I have enough set aside for student loans that I will still pay them off by the end of the year, even with my salary cut from April.

• January Payment: $1,900
• January Loans Remaining: $16,100
• February Payment: $1,650
• February Loans Remaining: $14,450
• March Payment: $1,500
• March Loans Remaining: $12,950
• April Payment: $0 ($4,000 in Student Loans category)
• April Loans Remaining: $12,950 ($8,950 after payment)
• May Payment: $0 ($6,700 in Student Loans category)
• May Loans Remaining: $12,950 ($6,250 after payment)

Late to the party, but with student loan interest down to zero going to take the opportunity to knock out as much principle as I can.  Goal - 

$11,340 in Student loans

May Update - I paid off £100 each in April and May. I did actually manage to scrape together another £100 to try do a double payment in May but just as I was ready to send it off my Fitbit broke, and it costs about that to replace it. Easy come, easy go. On the plus side there was a complaint I was making to a company that has resolved and they've sent me a £100 cheque - so once that has cleared I can send my double payment next month instead!

May update - paid off our store credit card.  Hubby got a new truck with deferred payments so we used the deferral to first budget for one month of payments in the future and then use the rest of the deferrals to attack debt.  We also took advantage of skipping a mortgage payment this month to blow the rest of the card away.  Our bank is going to forgive any interest on the skipped payments so I figure it would make me feel better to get this card paid off.  Next month we are going to kill the credit card that has the lowest balance ($2,258) with a bonus from my hubby's work.  Huge strides which is so exciting!!!

I have failed to keep up monthly but here is my update. Unfortunately, I had paid a considerable amount in consumer collections but I had a few more hit collections these past months and so my totals creeped back up but I hope to keep pushing thanks to YNAB and this community! :) My goal is to pay off my car at least a year sooner and pay off all of my consumer debt before the end of the year so I can purchase a home for me and my kiddo. Below are my updates for May.

$15,970 Car loan - (May update Remaining: $15,967.26)

$5,484 Consumer debt (May update) - New debt of $2,705 added to consumer debt :(

Total: $21,454

May update

So, for May we stayed on track. The pre-authorized withdrawals came out every payday and went straight to the cc. We are still very fortunate to have had no impact to our earnings. I continue to work from home which has SIGNIFICANTLY reduced the fuel and eating out costs. No more take out lunches at work. Golf has now opened up and I am golfing with a league and another night with friends. That has helped with the mental health/depression tendencies. 

Our budget overall has improved with using goals. While there is still some massaging, I am finding it helps us have better discussions about our money and what we want to do with it. We have sat down and reviewed the budget every payday weekend (we both get paid on the same Friday) and confirm staying the course. We use the macbook and project it onto the TV so that is always very interesting to see the numbers on the big screen in that way. 

Two of our cards have interest only options so we are doing that (has been for a very long time and is a big reason that they have hung around so long.....). It allows us to focus all of the debt payment on the card with highest interest, get it paid and then next one with highest balance/highest interest. Then low balance/high interest and finally high balance/super-low interest. It may not mathematically be the best overall but for us, psychologically, it works. Part of the reason is names on the cards because they are not all joint.

CC#1 - paid $2835. Original balance $19,937.78 Current Balance $4,388.37

CC#2 - Interest only payments.  Original Balance $13,861.85. Current Balance $13,861.85

CC#3 - Interest only on old debt.   Card is used for regular expenses so am paying those regularly. Original Balance $7,500.71. Current Balance $7,500.71

CC#4 -  Interest only payments.  Original Balance $34,944.68. Current Balance $34,944.68

Wishing everyone else good luck on their debt smackdown journeys!

It's time for a May non-update update from me. I have the money to pay the car loan off in full right now, but I'm struggling to actually do it. I know I don't want to pay the monthly payment next month on the car and it will feel great to have it paid off, but it's also feeling nice just sitting in my budget. I'll probably push forward in the next couple days and do it, but it's a current situation I'm struggling with 😬

Hi people, new user here but long time YNAB4 user. Can't afford the new subscription at the moment, let me know if this doesn't belong here so I can remove.

Working full time in a factory but due to COVID19 my salary has been cut in half every month, so gotta make do with what I have. I have monthly mortgage for my current home -- 11 more years left out of original 15 years approx 250 USD / month (adjusted from my local currency).

See that red lines in the attached picture - my 'net worth'? That's when I had to spend most of my savings to get this house, paying for certificate fees, signing the agreement and the others. Thanks to YNAB4, I could prepare for it, although it wiped most of my not-so-adequate wealth, but it was manageable and I can keep on paying until today. I have been budgeting carefully with YNAB4 so I no longer live paycheck to paycheck, at least three months worth of paychecks in my saving accounts to keep me going. Other than mortgage, I have no other annual responsibilities..

Hopefully COVID19's gone quickly so I can earn my regular paycheck back soon and be in an even better position.

May check in: Paid $258.11 towards my credit card debt bringing the total paid to $1998.17, that's 55% of the way there! I've decided with everything happening that I would happy if my credit card debt was eliminated by December of this year so will continue making approximately $250 payments each month while also starting an emergency fund and building my true expenses out. My husband and I are currently in the process of building a new house... ourselves with a plan to be in before the snow flies this year so I've also started saving money I know we'll need later for things like a guest bedroom set and mattress, if I want to splurge on a fancy faucet or tile etc.

Thank you for keeping me accountable!

I did it! Paid off the last of my debt. Dipped into the job loss fund to do it, but it reached that tipping point where it made sense, interest-wise. Now that Mooney can be redirected to upping the retirement savings, and getting one-month buffered.🥳

Haven't posted here in a bit. To Date I have paid off $3,893.78 of mixed debt. Retired the Social Security Overpayment and Old Medical I think every time I think I have it taken care of another the ex-wife had supposedly taken care  of pops up on my credit report.  Should finish up the line of credit loans next month. then start on my stupidity and clear that up.

Update: May is in the bag!  Hope y'all don't mind if I use an image to show the progress made.  ;)

Well May was my lowest month yet - I only paid $300 towards my debt.  But I had home maintenance that I had to do - my large mature trees have been rubbing on my roof (will cause damage if left) so I paid $800 to a tree service to cut back all of the trees in my yard, paid $360 to have my septic tank serviced, and $575 to an electrician to repair some electrical and switch my fuse panel to a breaker panel (under the table and so cheap!).  All paid in cash.   

This is my "post-divorce" home - I figured I'd be here 2 years - it's been 8.  It's a 50 year old house and It needs work.  My decks are falling off the house, so is my original aluminum siding, and my exterior doors don't even seal or work properly anymore.  I am about to pay $20,000 for new decks, siding, soffits/facia, and exterior doors.  I'm refinancing my mortgage - so adding to my debt - but it's necessary - I can't have a house and not maintain it.  I need to protect my investment.  As a nurse - my salary goes up annually, I have no car payment, and still plan to pay off this LOC debt by year end.  I hate the thought of adding to my mortgage - but moving into a rental isn't an option.