Money Date #7 (1/21/2019) - Celebrating small wins!

Hello again, curious readers! If you’ve stuck with me so far, I thank you, and I hope you continue to stay along with the ride as I'm cruising towards a debt-free 2019!

Let’s start by celebrating, shall we?

#WINNING

I paid off TWO of my credit cards this past week, and it felt SO good! I’m so proud to have taken this huge step towards vanquishing my debt. I also had two no-spend days this past week. Having set a $80 “fun budget” for myself, I stuck to it—until the weekend... I’m pretty sure I also made dinner four out of five of the weekdays this past week, so yay!

I tried Hello Fresh for the first week. I received my first shipment of groceries on Saturday and last night, my husband and I made enchiladas. They turned out great! Today, I made a really yummy creamy mushroom pasta, and I have plenty of leftovers so I’ll be ready for lunch tomorrow too! With a referral code from my friend Thien-Kim, I paid less than $15 for three meals—an absolute STEAL.

Income

  • Regular FTE paycheck: $2000

  • Freelance revenue: $50

Mistakes Were Made

  • I accidentally forgot to return two Redbox DVD rentals for like five days, and that racked up about $25 of fees that could have been avoided if I’d just returned them on time… :(

Expenses

Business Expenses

  • Business strategy coaching: $484.00

  • Logo design: $100.00

Personal Expenses

  • Payment towards debt:

    • $2112.00 (WHOOOOoooooo!! YASSSS!)

  • Food (Restaurants, going out for lunch, etc.): $159.32

    • I think the weekend really got me here. I also forgot to meal prep last weekend and relied on getting food at restaurants for lunch and breakfast a few times. This part of my budget definitely spun out of control on the weekend!

    • Total for the month: $352.77

    • How I feel about this: A little disappointed in myself. :| BUT I am grateful that I was able to enjoy delicious food! I don’t regret any of those experiences, but may need to find ways to replace eating out with eating in while still dining on delicious foods. :)

  • Coffee: $21.01

    • Whooooo! I’m still riding out my Christmas/birthday Starbucks gift cards. I’ve been saving so much money in this category because of them!

    • Total for the month: $54.84

    • How I feel about this: WHOOOOoooo! This is an excellent balance for me.

  • Gas: $76.26

    • A little higher than usual, but no biggie.

  • “Fun” miscellaneous stuff: $91.20

    • This includes a $16 textbook I had to buy for my Copyediting certification, but most of it included planners, pens, and notebooks… Another oops. I don’t foresee this repeating in the future because I’m stocked up now!

  • Groceries: $173.77

    • Again, a little higher than usual, and I think it may be because I didn’t factor in that Thomas paid me 1/2 of most of this balance so it’s really closer to $85 or so rather than $173, but I wasn’t careful enough to “count” that this time around. Womp womp.

    • Total this month so far: $315.12

  • Other - Entertainment: $34.64

    • Lesson learned: RedBox isn’t a good option for me unless I KNOW I will have time to watch the movie AND return it the next day. I also bought one book this week.

Action Steps For The Week Ahead

  • I am reducing my usual $80 fun budget to only $30 because I definitely overspent last week!

  • There are only 4 work days this week, so I’m hoping to bring lunch and make dinner everyday.

  • I have $41.19 left on my Starbucks card, which I definitely think that will carry me through the rest of the week.

  • I have to file my business taxes before the end of January. UGH. I’ve been dragging my feet on this task but it will need to get done ASAP.

Joanne Machin