This month has been full of ups and downs when it comes to my finances- mostly ups though! I'm going to show you the graph early in today's blog post so that you can see what I mean. I'll be moving the graph over to 2019 only next month so that it is easier to see but for now you can see all of 2018 plus January 2019. ​

The reason some of the decrease in November and December is also the reason for a portion of the sizable bump up this month- the market. The amount that my house is estimated to be worth went up this month and even though I don't have a lot invested right now- less than $10,000 divided between a 403b from my time as a teacher and a 401k from my current job- those accounts also increased this month, by more than just contributions. My job also started matching 4% in my 401k this month which did add slightly to the increase as well. The rest was good old fashioned payoff of debt. I'm positive I can hit my goal of being net worth positive this year so I'm feeling pretty happy right now. 

I didn't bring in a lot of extra money from side hustles this last month ($56.18) but I was able to pay for several items with gift cards received over the holidays and from various apps that I have been trialing for the blog. Gift cards used this month included one gift of $50 and another $75 earned through travel programs and apps. It sounds fairly small but for me that's a week of groceries- or more if I'm eating mostly from the deep freezer's stash of meal prepped food with fresh veggies added in! I was also able to use a travel voucher I received due to a delayed flight last year to lower the cost of  of my flight to DC later this year which was already budgeted for. This means that voucher allowed me to move $100 back into the general budget for allocating towards debt payments. These small savings really do add up.

The final piece of the puzzle, as it were, was medical benefits restarting for the year. My company puts $700 into my HSA for me at the beginning of each year (and then I contribute another $2,800 to reach the max for a single person on a 1/25th per paycheck schedule for the rest of the year) plus they fund my Limited FSA of $500 upfront so I tend to get a bump in January each year on the graph due to this inflow. A lot of this money, if not all of it, will disappear over the next few months as my medical bills start rolling in. I anticipate hitting my out of pocket max of $5,400 for medical this year on top of the expenses that I know are not going to be covered- some of my chiropractor bills, my mast cell stabilizer medication, my inhaler, all of the over the counter medications that my allergist has in my therapy plan, and etc. and then the Limited FSA will cover most of the cost of my glasses and contacts which need to be purchased early this year. My medical costs are likely higher than many people's due to my medical issues (and my plan is fairly good, thankfully) so later in the year I'll likely create a blog about how I budget for and save money on my health care costs in a separate post. For now I just wanted to touch on these accounts as they do affect my net worth as the money in these accounts, especially the HSA, could potentially be money that is growing if I was able to not utilize it.

What do I think February will look like... budget wise we were looking pretty good until a few weeks ago. Unfortunately it looks like the people who flipped my house cut corners (surprise surprise) so I will need to complete a repairs and projects on my home in February that may end up putting me in a little more debt. Not the direction I wanted to be going but you'll see why its important they not wait when you see the list:

• Clean and reseal the grout in both bathrooms and foyer (less than $100)
• Seal the granite in the kitchen (less than $50)
• Have A/C re-balanced ($69 with home warranty company)
• Get dishwasher fixed (pre-paid but need time off work)
• Fix kitchen chair leg (hopefully less than $20)
• Buy nightstands for guest bedroom (may need to wait now)
• Buy TV kit for living room + remotes for other TVs & hang TV's  (less than $50)
• Repaint (Eventually, but not this month. The paint is beginning to peel already on shelves and door jams and I've only been here for four months)
• Pull up the carpet, bleach the concrete and lay new flooring (unknown cost)

Depending on pricing that last one may be a multi-stage process as I want to keep the amount of debt I take on as small as possible. The first two are mostly work that I can get my dad to show me how to do and then complete myself for minimal cost but the last one is a doozy. As I have bad allergies and have had more migraines than usual since moving into the new house I decided I should clean the carpets. A natural decision for anyone I would imagine... the only problem is that this made the fact that the previous owners did not replace the padding very apparent very fast and now my home smells like urine. I've had a professional come out and use enzyme cleaning products and done so myself multiple times since this happened but nothing has helped. As I have dogs myself this means that there are bound to be more accidents in the house as everywhere smells like a bathroom to them and this is a new place so habits are still being formed. Its been driving me absolutely crazy and I simply cannot continue to live in a home that smells like a bathroom. It's not good for the items I have in the home- like clothing, furniture and linens which will absorb the smell- and its not good for my health either as the additional chemicals and strong odors are both triggers. Further it means that I am ashamed to have people over to my home and am cleaning all the time to try to rid the carpets of odor. Both of which affect my life drastically as my schedule has to change and I can't have friends over. Long story short- I'm looking at flooring tomorrow to hopefully start getting quotes for someone to come out and help me with the problem and its likely going to cost a pretty penny as most of my house is carpeted currently. The good of the story is that having hard flooring in the home was a big 'want' on my wants/needs list for a home so I'll be getting something that I wanted, just much sooner than planned. The bad is that sooner than planned means out of budget. More on this project next month.

Until next time,

2018 was an interesting year, full of major positive moments as well as some huge downturns as well. I struggled to stick with my "One Word" more than any other year to date... balance was difficult to achieve consistently. With that said, it was overall a good year. I thrived in my career, had amazing experiences with my friends and met a lot of my goals, including the giant one of buying a house! 

So, let's jump into goals and wrap ups for each section of my life in 2018.

I've updated the home page with my current set of goals for the coming year. Have you set your goals? Next week I plan to be back with another app review. See you then!

Hi guys! I'm so sorry I've been MIA for a while... I bought a house! It's been a bit of a wild ride this past month due to that but I'm excited to finally be in my own place. It will be a little while before I'm completely unpacked with all of the decor and etc. in place but all of the furniture is in place for the most part and everything that I need is unpacked except my office so its getting closer every day. That's not the point of this post though, its financial update time!

​First up... side hustle income. For tracking purposes, only income that hits my accounts during the month is counted here rather than income earned that I will receive at a later time.

Notable Savings:
​This month there was pretty much the exact opposite of saving money... lots of outgoing money with moving and closing costs especially. Also, the plan to eat out minimally didn't work as well with all the driving around (I moved about 90 minutes away from where I used to live), lack of one single living space this month during the transition and etc. Next month I'll need to buckle down to keep on track.

*I am using Credit Karma for estimating my credit score change and Kelley Blue Book (private sale, rounded to the next ten thousand miles up) for the change in worth of my vehicle in these calculations. For house value I decided to go with Zillow for ease of use. I do understand that all of these tools are not 100% accurate but they allow for simplified tracking for these purposes.

The debts include:

• My vehicle
• Credit Card(s) 
  • A lot of it is from right after I got divorced, moving costs and etc.
  • I have a few other cards but they are paid off monthly at this point if I use them at all
• Student loans
• My home loan

Assets are:

• The worth of my vehicle should I sell it privately
• Retirement funds
• Savings
• My house's value

I am not currently tracking large ticket items that I have (such as appliances, electronics, jewelry, etc.) currently.

The next few months will likely be fairly low level on debt pay down as I settle into a new budget and take a trip that I've been saving for all year. Slow doesn't mean non-existent though! I fully intend to keep working towards my goals and keeping you in the loop along the way. Until next time!

September has officially arrived so it's time for a financial journey update. In this series you join me in tracking my side hustle income, debt payoff, notable savings moments (or downfalls) and more. August was a really good month on this journey as I was able to pay off over $1,000 in debt!

​First up... side hustle income. For tracking purposes, only income that hits my accounts during the month is counted here rather than income earned that I will receive at a later time.

This month didn't see a lot of extra side income hit my bank account but I did have an 'extra' paycheck come in. My employer uses a biweekly system which means that I receive 26 paychecks per year. This was a pain to figure out how to budget for at first but now I find that it works much the same as a semi-monthly (or any other) budget... simply budget for what you need to pay before you get paid again! Since my budgeting & debt payoff is still in its infancy after restarting I was not able to take full advantage of having an extra check since I needed most of it to pay my early September bills. I anticipate feeling the 'extra' check surplus a bit more in September for this reason.

Notable Savings
The first things I did this month was cancel a couple of subscriptions that I simply didn't need. 

• Ipsy: $10.83
• DirecTV Now: $10.83

I don't have cable, and haven't for years, but I do subscribe to both Netflix and Hulu as well as Amazon Prime- though not for the TV & movie part of the subscription, that's just a perk- so I really don't have a need for DirecTV. Especially with my current schedule, its not being utilized enough to justify the monthly expense. Ipsy was simply a need verses want discussion with myself. That nearly $11 per month translates to $129.96 annually that could be helping me accomplish my goal. Little bits here and there add up quickly so I cancelled the subscription. Between the two I saved $21.66 per month going forward or $259.92 annually that's going straight towards making my financial goals a reality.

The next item on my to do list this month was to lower my phone bill. I was getting pretty frustrated seeing my 'unlimited' plan slowly creep up in cost each month- not by a lot but a consistent increase nonetheless- so when the advert for a plan similar to the one I am already on but cheaper came up I jumped. While in the store I also inquired about cancelling the data plan I have on my tablet. Unfortunately that later was not possible without fees (always read the fine print people, I obviously missed something when reviewing the terms of purchase) so I simply lowered the data plan and manually turned off the data usage on my tablet so that I won't go over. The net result of my visit was $11.40 savings on my next bill with a larger chunk to be saved going forward. 

The final thing that saved me a substantial amount of money this month was actually my last minute business trip. While the trip was exhausting and meant not attending an event I was really looking forward to as well as rescheduling two doctor's appointments I count it as a success. I learned a ton, we accomplished quite a bit and I was able to make a little progress towards my goal as an added bonus. A win for sure! Since I wasn't in town and therefore needing to drive into the office or around town on errands I was able to save money on both fuel and tolls in August. Further, I was able to slim down my food and entertainment budget lines. There was a few hundred dollars saved here!

Progress Update
OK, progress update time! This month was great, as you read at the beginning I was able to pay off over $1,000 in debt this month. Here's the stats:

Student Loan Principle: -$204.92
Car Loan Principle: -$352.21
Credit Card Debt Change: -$709.56

My assets went up by $381.92 this month through retirement and home purchase savings plans. Both are quite small at the moment as most of my money is going towards debt to get my credit score as awesome as I can before I purchase a home. 

My net worth is still negative but went up $1,606.63 and my credit score by 2​ points. *

I'm slowly but surely headed towards a positive net worth. August should have a fairly large bump as I've been able to throw a nice chunk of change towards it after:

• Lowering my phone bill
• Cancelling a few unneeded subscriptions
• Starting my side hustles back up again in July.

I'm thinking about doing a monthly blog post (like this one) to track my progress. Would that be helpful to you all? It would break down the money I was able to save and or make additionally (and how for that particular month as it is usually a mix of things) to throw at each category of debt and track my net worth progress.

So far this year hasn't been consistent in its monthly pay offs for a lot of reasons... lot of ups and downs but I averaged about $500 a month in positive change as you can see below (this doesn't mean I paid $500 average as there's interest built into payments that isn't counted). I'm not ok with that level of progress as it will take me much longer to reach my goal than I would prefer. That realization is what spurned me to really turn the pressure up on my plan and I should have much larger jumps going forward. ​

Over the last two months I've paid off...
June: $534.52
July: $1,834.47