Dave Ramsey Plan: June 2018 Budget/Debt Totals

This month has been an odd one! I made the decision to move out of my grandmother's house where I was living rent free into an apartment much closer to work and school. While this decision will delay some things like saving and will add some additional monthly expenses, I knew that I could afford to do it. I move at the end of July and I'm so excited!

Also, my total debt is now under $13,000 and my car loan is under $8,000! Thank goodness those numbers are going down! I think I'm going to start sacrificing some personal money each week to start slowly paying on my student loan so it doesn't accrue so much interest. 

Current Debt Totals:

Cox Communications($61)      $0

DLO #1($92)                            $0

Optometrist($103)                    $0

DLO #2($201)                          $0

10gym(collections)($290)        $290

DLO #3($382)                          $0

AT&T($879)                             $434*

SVRH(collections)($700)        $700

Mom($675)                              $0                           

Navient #1($2,750)                  $1,065

Navient #2($2,750)                  $2,760

Car Loan($11,208)                   $7,947

TOTAL: $20,091                     $12,496

Total Debt Paid to Date:         $7,595

Dave Ramsey Plan! Debt Totals: May 2018

Soooo... I got a little behind on posting! School was super insane but I made it through and now I'm taking two more classes this summer which means I'm cash flowing about $865 of tuition and fees. I'm also going to Florida for a week to see my sister. I know, I know. Broke people shouldn't go on vacation. Sorry, Dave... That being said, these are my totals for the month! Pesky interest got me on my student loans, unfortunately and added about $30! LAME. Thankfully, I should be able to tackle it pretty quickly once I graduate, but hopefully before then! 

Current Debt Totals:

Cox Communications($61)      $0

DLO #1($92)                            $0

Optometrist($103)                    $0

DLO #2($201)                          $0

10gym(collections)($290)        $290

DLO #3($382)                          $0

AT&T($879)                             $472*

SVRH(collections)($700)        $700

Mom($675)                              $300**                           

Navient #1($2,750)                  $1,065

Navient #2($2,750)                  $2,760

Car Loan($11,208)                   $8,256

TOTAL: $20,091                     $13,843

Total Debt Paid to Date:         $6,248

Dave Ramsey Plan! Debt Totals: April 2018

Welcome to the end of March! This year is flying by! I now only have about six weeks until the semester is over! Holy cow! Let's get into where I'm at with my Baby Steps and my Debt Snowball. Keep in mind, you still make minimum payments on everything even while in Baby Step #1! :)

As of today, my current Baby Step is: Baby Step #1 - $817 ($183 until funded). I will admit, that this money sits in the same account as where I auto-pay my bills from; however, I over fund it every week so I also know that I will always have more than enough in there to cover an emergency. Basically, as long as I have more than $1,300 in that account every week, I'm good to go. It works for me. ;)

Current Debt Totals:

Cox Communications($61)      $0

DLO #1($92)                            $0

Optometrist($103)                    $0

DLO #2($201)                          $0

10gym(collections)($290)        $290

DLO #3($382)                          $0

AT&T($879)                             $500*

SVRH(collections)($700)        $700

Mom($675)                              $700**                           

Navient #1($2,750)                  $1,055

Navient #2($2,750)                  $2,740

Car Loan($11,208)                   $8,592

TOTAL: $20,091                     $14,577

Total Debt Paid to Date:         $5,514

*AT&T: I financed my iPhone 7 Plus. You can only make minimum payments OR you can pay it off in full. No extra payments allowed! So until I'm able to pay it all off at once, it will be there for awhile.

**I had to borrow money from my mom! NOT FUN. While she did not ask me to pay her back with interest, I have chosen to because she had to put the money on her credit card. If you haven't noticed, I don't have a shred of credit card debt and never will.

How I Budget!

Heeeey y'all! So I'm considering doing something a little different and maybe doing budget posts. We'll see how well that works out! They'll be a little boring and shorter than some of my other posts and here's why: I get paid weekly! The way I do my "budget" is definitely not Dave Ramsey approved. My brain absolutely cannot stick to itemizing my budget. I've never been able to. I've just recently read about the 50/30/20 budgeting guideline! Since my bills are somewhat disproportionate to my income because I'm cash flowing school, here's an example of what my budget might look like using my paycheck that I'll receive tomorrow:

Pay: $480

Step 1: 10% Tithe              $48
Step 2: Bills/Debts             $300
Step 3: 50% Necessities     $66
Step 4: 30% Savings          $39
Step 5: 20% Fun                $26
TOTAL:                             $479.xx

What are necessities, you might ask? Gas and food! Those are my two biggest things I spend money on! Now, in a way, this is still itemizing somewhat but it gives me some flexibility. For those of you who don't know, I do live with my grandmother rent free. It was a mutual decision that would help both of us. She's older and needs help with things around the house and I'm trying to finish school. It's also really strengthened our relationship. The beginning was horrid but it's been much better! :) Back to the budget... I'm not sure how well this system will work for a couple of reasons... I already "technically" have savings built into the $300 I contribute to my auto-paid-bills account at a separate bank(yes, my emergency fund sits in that account as well). I never see that money, I already know that that money is automatically deposited in there and I have enough of a cushion in it that if something were to go wrong like my direct deposit messing up, that I would be okay until I could get to the bank to deposit a check or whatever. I look at that account every Saturday to ensure that the right portion of my check deposited. Otherwise, that's it. I know all of my bills' due dates and which ones get paid which week and I never worry about late fees. It's great! I also over-contribute to that account just for my peace of mind. The other reason I'm not sure the 50/30/20 thing will work all the time is because I am a per diem employee, I'm not guaranteed 40 hours of work every week. Today is currently Friday and I'm working 16 hours today and tomorrow for a total of 32 in two days and something like 44 for the week but I won't always get that lucky. Over Spring Break(next week), I'm working something like 68 hours that week! Or I'm scheduled to, anyway. I may not get all of those hours. So for those really high paying weeks, I don't want to over-contribute to my "fun" budget when I could be paying off more debt or putting more toward saving for school so I can work less during the fall semester. Make sense?

Obviously, I'm super long winded(type-ed??). I could talk and type for hours! I love words. I'm a logophile. Yes, that's a word. Look it up. ;)

If this system winds up working, I will just post the budget, my Baby Steps progress, and a little snippet each week to keep y'all updated. If someone new comes along and they don't know what the 50/30/20 Rule is, I'll just link them back to this post so I don't have to type as much and y'all don't have to read the same things each week! :)

As of today, my current Baby Step is: Baby Step #1 - $817 ($183 until Baby Step #1 is funded)

Current Debt Totals:
Cox Communications($61)      $0
DLO #1($92)                            $0
Optometrist($103)                    $0
DLO #2($201)                          $0
10gym(collections)($290)        $290
DLO #3($382)                          $0
AT&T($879)                             $500
SVRH(collections)($700)        $700
Mom($675)                              $700                           
Navient #1($2,750)                  $1,103
Navient #2($2,750)                  $2,767
Car Loan($11,208)                   $8,676
TOTAL: $20,091                      $14,736

DISCLAIMER: I hadn't actually figured out how much I've paid off in the past year and some change. Holy smokes!! That's A LOT! That's $5,355 in just over a year. That's not bad for someone who wasn't totally on board with DR! Woohoo!

Dave Ramsey Plan! March 2018

Hey y’all! So it’s been a couple of months since I posted! The Spring semester is in full swing and the coldest months of the season are FINALLY behind us! Thaaaaaank goodness. I am not a fan of the cold and I’m relishing in the fact that once I’m a nurse, I can work anywhere I want to. Currently, I’m working full time for a medical staffing agency and taking 11 hours this semester: Anatomy, Chemistry, and Nutrition. I have 6 classes and an entrance exam to take before I can get into nursing school and I’m taking three of those classes now. This semester has brought a few changes but I’m doing pretty well adjusting to them and I’m super excited! 

I’ve also started Dave Ramsey’s Debt Snowball Plan and am on my way to realizing my dream of graduating 100% debt free! Woohoo! If you have debt and are broke and “normal” like me, I highly suggest you check out Dave Ramsey’s YouTube channel. He also has audio podcasts from his radio show and I listen to them anytime I’m in the car. I’m officially OLD, I know. Ha! I’m going to start posting my monthly totals on my DR journey on this blog. At this point, I don’t think many people read it, but it will still be fun to look back and have a record of everything! If you’ve read this far and don’t know who Dave Ramsey is, he’s created an extremely successful program for helping people get out of debt known as “The 7 Baby Steps.” I’m currently halfway funded on Baby Step #1 which is getting $1,000 in an emergency fund. The next step is Baby Step #2 which is getting out of debt except for the house(I don’t own one yet). A lot of people disagree with Dave’s $1,000 emergency fund number. He’s never explicitly stated this, but I believe his reasoning behind it is that you’ll get intense with your debt payoff if you have less in that STARTER emergency fund. For some, like me, it’s a step toward no longer living without an emergency fund at all. I never have money in the bank which is why I currently owe my mom $700! My car broke down and it was critical that I get it fixed and I didn’t have the money. If I had had a $1,000 emergency fund in place, I would have never needed to borrow the money from my mom in the first place. MOST emergencies can be covered for under $1,000. I’ve contemplated keeping more in that fund but I’m not sure. Technically, that’s what Baby Step #3 is for which is a Fully Funded Emergency Fund of 3-6 months of expenses. For me, I’d like to base it on my income which would be roughly $7,500-$15,000. Since we’re talking about Baby Step #3, I’ll go ahead and give a brief overview of the rest! Baby Steps #4, #5, and #6 are done consecutively and they are as follows: Contribute 15% of your income to Retirement(preferably in a Roth IRA), save for your kid’s college funds, and pay off your house! Since I don’t have kids or a house, I get to skip those(for now). Baby Step #7 is build wealth and become extremely generous! 

So here’s my personal breakdown of the Baby Steps for March 2018! :)

Baby Step #1: Starter Emergency Fund

$511 of $1,000

Goal Date: April 2018

Baby Step #2: Pay off Debt

1. Gym(Collections): $280
2. Hospital(Collections): $700
3. Mom: $700
4. Student Loan #1: $1,100 ($50)
5. Student Loan #2: $2,760 ($30)
6. Car Loan: $8,760 (~$200*)

Goal Date: April 2020

*I pay my car loan bi-weekly so most months I pay $182 but there are a couple months where I pay $273. It depends on where paydays fall in the month. 

TOTAL DEBT: $14,320

Baby Step #3: Fully Funded Emergency Fund

$0 of $7,500-$15,000

Goal Date: January 2021

Baby Step #4: Save for Retirement

Save 15% of income in Roth IRA

Goal Date: Ongoing

Baby Step #5: Fund Kid’s College Fund

I currently don’t have any kids, and if I still don’t by the time I reach this point, I’d like to talk to my sister about contributing to my niece and nephew’s college funds. :)

Goal Date: Unknown

Baby Step #6: Pay off Mortgage

I currently don’t have one, but I would SAVE for a down payment in Baby Step #3B

Goal Date: Unknown

Baby Step #7: Build Wealth and GIVE

This one, I can’t really put a dollar amount on, but I’m excited to be in this place one day. I’ll be a nurse once I get to this point and my income will be a lot higher which will help a lot. If you know me, you know that I LOVE giving gifts. 

Goal Date: Always until I see Jesus! 

My goal is to be totally debt free in 24 months while cash flowing my nursing education. I have about three years left on my Associate’s degree but I might go straight for my Bachelor’s. I haven’t decided yet. I like the school I’m at which is why I haven’t committed to transferring. 

I know that was super long but if you stuck with me through that, thank you! 

Until next time!

Taylor

New Beginnings

Hey y'all! I'm Taylor! I'm a 20-something future Registered Nurse and this blog will be all about my random musings about getting into nursing school, working at the hospital, and maybe some personal life lessons I'll learn this year. While I know that we're almost to February, 2017 was a doozie of a year and I'm working to turn this year into something different. I've decided to cut ties with Facebook and hopefully I hold to that! This semester, I'm taking Anatomy, Chemistry, and Nutrition while working full-time and helping my mom keep an eye on my ailing and aging grandmother. My goal is to get accepted into nursing school in the Spring of 2019. Until then, I'm going to be working my tail off to achieve that. I'm also hoping to get into Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu if money allows for that endeavor. OH. And I'm also trying to graduate college without any debt, student loans included! So hold on tight and take a seat on this wild ride with me because it's going to be pretty legit!

Taylor