Saturday, July 27, 2013

Income Boost & July Update!

*As of today we have $7850 of CC debt left.*

It's simple math.  In order to get out of debt, or save money, or build wealth, or retire at 42 (my secret goal, now not so secret) is to have your income be greater than your expenses.

Income > Expenses


Well I have good news in the income department.  As of today we have officially doubled our income! The hubs got a full-time position and is beginning his dream career!  I'm so proud of him and so proud of us for making it through the past two months on 1 and a half-ish income.  We had to dip into our $1000 emergency fund a little bit, but that's what it was there for. 

INCOME > Expenses

Not only are we bumping up our income, but we will cut back our expenses soon here too.  I'm going to give up my Kardashians, RHNJ (Real Housewives of New Jersey), HGTV, to save some extra cash money.  The hubs even figured out a way to watch football season online instead of through cable!  Plus, I have part one of my Anesthesiology Boards next July, so really I should be studying instead of watching TV on my days off anyway. So now....

INCOME > Expenses

Ok, maybe that visual is an overestimate of the difference between our income and expenses.  But really the best of news is, if I did the math right (using Dave Ramsey Debt Snowball Tool), we should be able to pay $1,900 a month toward our CC debt, which only bumps back our payoff date to January 2014 instead of December 2013.  Not too shabby!


June & July confessions:
1) We didn't stick to the budget as closely as we wanted
       ***Update from previous post:  June total Spending category went from $170.82 to $810.97.  Oops.  I'll do a final break down for ya'll soon.
2) Having to come to a screeching halt on our debt snowball really hit to my debt payoff ego.  It was almost like I was thinking, "Well if we can't pay $1,200 a month off right now why bother doing any of it?"  But we kept trudging along, something is better than nothing right?
3) I'm addicted to going to brunch on the weekends...it's bad...but I just LOVE it...goal is to slowly break this addiction....I'm sure the 80 hour work weeks I have coming up (starting in August) will slow down the restaurant spending.  If you are living in a hospital you don't really have the option of going to brunch : (


YNAB numbers:
June Debt payoff - $450
July Debt Payoff - $500

Check out our Chalkboard Debt Thermometer progress!  It's tiny....but slowly filling up.


And here is an updated pic of the work-space area we created, inspired by Iron & Twine.  


The hubby's Xbox and Laptop sit on the bottom shelf behind the door and all the wires, chargers, etc sit in the basket on the shelf above.  We also added some painted particle board to the back of the top three shelves since there is a gap between the unit and the wall.



Also, check out the awesome post Iron & Twine wrote about Doctor In Debt!  Thanks for inspiration and the shout-out Michelle!