Debt Repayment
If you’ve been around Six Figures Under lately, you know that we had a No-Spend Month in April. Not spending anything on food, household, clothing , entertainment or anything else extra paid off. We put $2,032 toward our law school debt this month! That is 57% of our income for the month (income we earned in March since we’re “living on last month’s income“).
In addition, SmarterBucks paid $21 toward our student loans. SmarterBucks is a cashback and rewards site specific to student debt. You sign up and connect your account to your federal student loans account. Then, when you shop online through SmarterBucks you earn cash back. You can also take surveys and do other things online to earn money. When you have at least $10 in your account, SmarterBucks makes a direct payment to your student loans. I was excited to see that the program really works. It’s really nice that the payment is applied directly to your loans.
Income
Our total net income for April was $3,872 , which is all sitting in the bank waiting for us to use in May. Here’s the breakdown:
Regular Income: $2969— My husband’s monthly take-home pay. If you’re new here, you can read more details about his pay here or here.
Husband’s Extra: $400— Mr. SixFiguresUnder did some legal work for a partner at his firm a few months ago and got a check from him this month.
Etsy Income: $264— We were extra thankful for his extra income because Etsy was unusually slow for me in April.
Other Income: $239— My earnings from blogging and selling a couple of small things on ebay.
Spending
Tithing–$358 One of the categories we don’t skimp on, no matter how dreary our financial situation looks, is tithing. This is 10% of the money we made last month. Our tithing on April’s income (above) will be paid at the beginning of May.
Mortgage/Rent– $0 One of the reasons we are so driven to pay off our student loans fast is that we want to make the most of living rent-free in my in-laws’ basement. It may not be pretty, but it’s practical and really contributing to our progress.
Utilities– $0 My in-laws take care of all the utilities. We try to be considerate and conserve energy where we can.
Cell Phones– $20 We’re still rocking the same dumb phones we had 4 years ago.
Health Insurance– $114 We have an ACA plan. You can read more about our health insurance here.
Dental– $23 Our dental discount plan. The plan can be cancelled and restarted any time. We are hoping to cancel it after May, but first I need to go have a check-up because it’s been way too long. I am scared though! I don’t have any problems, but I’m afraid they’ll find something that needs to be fixed. The Mr. also needs another check-up. In addition to that root canal back in the fall, he was supposed to have a cavity filled but that never happened.
Car Insurance– $98 Our monthly car insurance payment.
Food– $0 We kept our goal of not spending anything on food in April. You can read about our no-spend month plan, some updates and more updates, our menu and conclusions if you haven’t already.
Gas– $494 We barely made our gas budget of $500. Gas is up to $4.09 here, which is pretty painful. I was hoping it was going to be less since we didn’t go shopping, but it is what it is.
Clothing– $0 Nothing here this month!
Household– $0 Hooray for another zero! We still have about 6 rolls of TP to spare too!
Lawyer Marketing (Food)– $20 Tuesday morning marketing meetings require a breakfast purchase.
Lawyer Marketing– $161 We will be excited when our year contract for this ad is over. Until then, we have downsized to the least expensive ad.
Law Practice– $44 We pay for my husband’s subscription to his law practice management software. Someday maybe the firm will pay for it.
Shipping– $29 As I explained in one of my no-spend updates, I sent my sister’s baby boy clothes back to her. She lent them to me for my two boys, but she is having another boy soon, so I sent her clothes back to her. After being through 3 boys so far, some of the bigger clothes are well worn, but for the first year or two babies grow so fast that clothes stay pretty nice.
Car Repairs– $345 This is the rest of last month’s car repairs. Since it came right at the end of March, it was convenient to split between the two months’ budgets, though we paid in full with the credit card. Fear of car repairs is almost as bad as fear of dental work, but both are pricey!
I am really loving the way our budget is working! Living on last month’s income is such a stress reliever! YNAB is really helping us make sure we are putting the maximum amount possible toward our goal. Come back Monday and I’ll explain more about that! For now, let’s talk about you!
How did your finances go in April?
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E.M. says
May 2, 2014 at 12:07 pmWow, nice work on the debt repayment! That must have felt nice. I hear you on being afraid of the dentist. My wisdom teeth have randomly been giving me trouble on and off. I had one pulled back in November, and of course the other two started hurting last month. I hope your visit goes smoothly.
Our finances were okay last month. I finally totaled everything up after the move and we actually spent less in some areas than I thought.
Stephanie says
May 2, 2014 at 10:31 pmI’m glad I’m not the only one who’s a wimp about the dentist. That’s awesome that you ended up spending less that you thought for some things! Moves can be tough on the budget for sure!
Debt Busting Chick says
May 2, 2014 at 12:29 pmIt must be tough living with the in-laws but it’s the best way to save money quickly. I’m living with my family and it’s not ideal but it’s cheap.
Stephanie says
May 2, 2014 at 10:33 pmBelieve it or not, it really isn’t bad at all. We get along well and have our privacy and have the added benefits of grandparents upstairs. It is easy to overlook the things that aren’t ideal when I think about how much we are saving.
Sicorra says
May 2, 2014 at 1:29 pmCongratulations on doing so well in paying off your debt. You are so creative when it comes to making money and saving money.
Have a great weekend!
Stephanie says
May 2, 2014 at 10:34 pmThanks Sicorra! I like making things into a challenge or a game. It makes the mundane fun!
Leslie says
May 3, 2014 at 5:32 amThat’s a huge payment! Love that student loan program. I’ll definitely be sharing that with some of our family members/friends. We’ve been wanting to get to the point of living on the previous month’s income. I’m seriously considering YNAB for tracking our budgets, hopefully that will help. Thanks for more great tips!
Stephanie says
May 5, 2014 at 8:28 pmLiving on last month’s income makes life so much simpler. It takes a little work to get to that point sometimes, but it’s totally worth the peace of mind!
Courtney Conover says
May 5, 2014 at 10:47 amUber congrats to you!!! I can in no way claim the fiscal victory you’ve achieved this month. The best I’ve got is that I managed to not blow any money on useless crap off eBay. (eBay shopping has proven to be my true Achilles heel through the years; if I am to get ahead, I MUST stop buying so much on eBay…)
Wonderful post!
Stephanie says
May 5, 2014 at 10:24 pmThanks Courtney! Great job staying controlling your ebay habit! That’s a big accomplishment! 🙂
Sandra @ Sandra's Ark says
May 6, 2014 at 2:57 pmI don’t even know you yet I felt so proud of you while reading this. So many young people would not be thinking and working so earnestly like this but moaning instead. I was also so pleased to see what you felt about the tithing. My husband & I got married while we were students and we tithed from the start and we have never regretted that decision. God bless you this month again.
Stephanie says
May 7, 2014 at 9:51 pmThanks for your sweet comment Sandra. We really are blessed so much by paying tithing. We can’t afford not to pay it! 🙂 Thanks for your encouragement!
Tamara @ Provident Home Design says
May 8, 2014 at 6:42 amHi Stephanie! I admire your commitment to paying off your husband’s student loan! You guys are awesome and are setting such a great example of fiscal responsibility! Keep up the great work!:-)
Stephanie says
May 8, 2014 at 10:51 pmThanks Tamara! I actually never think of it as my husband’s student loans. I think of it them as our student loans. Although he was the one going to school, the money from the loans was what our whole family was living on. Thanks for the encouragement!