August by the Numbers

Ok… so not ALL of the numbers are in yet and I’m still waiting for a few statements so we can actually write checks and pay off medical bills, but we do have a pretty good idea of how it will play out.

To start with, we have to pay the hospital. The hospital bill that we are paying out of pocket for both Z & myself: 5,714.40.

That’s quite a chunk of change! But… considering it’s the largest medical bill I’ve had in my adult life, where I have not had to say “Hey Hospital, here are my financials, I have no money, please let me work out a payment plan” I’m super PUMPED! We planned well and will be able to pay this entire amount with money we saved up in the “Crisis Fund.”

Next – I went to another consignment sale. Why is this part of the numbers this month? Because when we’ve spent money that was not initially in our budget for the baby, we’ve used Crisis Fund money to do so. What!? Going outside of the budget!? In this case, Yes. We purchased some much needed items like a standard stroller. The stroller we bought would have been at least $200 new. We spent $38. 🙂

In total, we spent $135 at the consignment sale, for items that would have totaled $425 if they were all new. Also, as a side note, I made some extra income through consigning. A whopping $22.

So … we now have a much better understanding of how much extra crisis money we have and can put it toward debt.

Medical Bills paid: $5,714.40

Consignment Money Spent: $135

Extra Income: $22

Extra Debt paid: $2,591

Total Debt paid in August: $2,837

Since 1/1/2012 – Total Debt Paid off: $35, 773*

*For the purpose of Baby step 2 we are not factoring in our home mortgage

 

Consignment savings Running Total numbers:

Running total for used items: $393
Approximate amount if all items were new: $1,119

Savings: $726

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July by the Numbers

So… once again, not a lot to report. However – This is hopefully the last month that the debt snowball is on pause!

While I was laid off in April (and now plan on staying home), the self-employed one in the house has had a tremendous increase in work. Praise the Lord!

Also, baby boy was born mid month! 🙂 He’s so precious. Yep, I’m bias, but he’s a super cutie!

And if you recall from previous “by the numbers” once the hospital bills are finalized, we’ll be able to use the Crisis Fund to Pay All the Medical Bills (creating no new debt!) and throw the rest at my student loan.

I’m guessing that the total number toward debt will be a bit smaller than I would have liked or hoped (mainly due to my not working since mid April), but every little bit helps.

I was looking at my student loan this month, and just paying minimum or a few dollars over minimum since November means we’ve still made a little progress. We are now almost under 13K for the loan. To put this in perspective, this loan was around 35K when I consolidated it into a 20 year loan, in 2008. (We’ve paid off 22K in 6 years. And we plan on having it done in less than 12 months, which is ultimately 13 years ahead of schedule.)

All that to say I can’t wait to report back for “August by the Numbers.”

One thing that was a bummer for July is that we seem to have spent a lot on food. However, this is because my mom was in town and we made trips to Costco and Sams. We purchased extra, and then she made us a bunch of meals – of double or triple proportions. Now we have somewhere between 10-15 meals in the deep freeze for simple cooking. We also have a wonderful community of friends that are providing us with meals a few times a week for the next few weeks. Which means the August food bill will be low and more than make up for the larger food bill in July.

January by the Numbers

Not a lot to report.  Still slow work. Still expecting a baby in July. So… no debt snowball progress.

We were able to add a bit to our crisis fund.  My job does reviews and possible raises at the anniversary date of your start date.  My anniversary date was in October, but my review and all of the paperwork was not done until this month.  Unbeknownst to me – the company gives you back pay from the point of your anniversary if you get a raise.  So we were thankful for a bit extra in our check. ESPECIALLY because the payroll tax holiday ended and more taxes are taken out of my check.

One particular set of numbers I thought I would highlight is my student loan. Because we paid such a large portion off early over the last twelve months, technically speaking, my next payment isn’t due until 11/14/2017. Of course, we are still paying the minimum payment during this debt snowball pause so we don’t lose all the extra ground we gained (and tack on more interest).

Also – on the saving money front – we are so encouraged about how much one can NOT buy name brand when prepping for a new arrival.  I’m planning to attend two consignment sales (yeah for First Time Mom Presales!).

We are also very blessed and thankful for an entire tub of maternity clothes from family. I honestly don’t think I’ll need to buy much clothes for myself.

November by the Numbers

As regular readers know, I was so excited for the month of November.  Since I get paid every two weeks (and we keep a monthly budget that assumes I have 2 paychecks each month) – every once in a while, 3 paychecks arrive within the same calendar month. November was one such month.

Since it’s basically a ‘bonus’ paycheck and it doesn’t fall within the normal budget, we were planning on putting the entire thing toward debt. Because the last few months were slow on the self-employed front – we thought this would give us a nice boost of progress and encouragement.

Now for the sad update….

It has been slow. Really slow. Fall is normally the busy season, but due to slow economy and general uncertainties, this fall’s busy season never really got going.

We don’t really expect it to pick up all that much, anytime soon, so we are considering this a “Crisis.”  Now crisis is a strong word – we aren’t majorly hurting, we have some backup funds, however, we are trying to plan the best we can, hopefully heading off a potential HUGE crisis.

When Dave Ramsey talks about times of “Crisis” – such as Job Loss– (which we are kind of comparing this slow time to) – he says to put a pause on the Debt Snowball.  Save up the money instead. Use it as you need in the crisis situation. The goal would be to avoid accruing additional debt during the crisis. And Lord willing- once the crisis is over, some (maybe all) of the money you saved up – will still be in your possession.  At that point, take that money you saved and throw it at the debt snowball. So this is what we are doing.

All that to say, other than paying our minimums this month, there are no numbers to report.

Total Debt paid in November: $250*

Since 1/1/2012 – Total Debt Paid off: $31,018*

*For the purpose of Baby step 2 we are not factoring in our home mortgage

And then (not to be too big of a downer) but this also means that we will not meet our goal to be completely out of debt by the end of the year.

However, while we won’t meet our goal, we cannot say that it was a complete failure.  We are So Encouraged! Just over 31K  paid off in one calendar year!?! (and a slow year at that!) We KNOW that we will be able to finish once work starts picking up. We estimate that we have about 16K more to go, so we are really hoping and praying that by as soon as possible in 2013 – we will be debt free.

I’ll still be updating monthly on our progress – and with minimums, we are still knocking out really small amounts of principle every month.

Thanks for following along!