Yesterday we decided that if we went to bed super early (which ended up being 9:30) we could get up early and be productive before heading off to work. It was kind of successful...
We made a new spreadsheet of all of our student loans, how much the beginning balance was on everything and how much we owe now. We are under the original balance by $1.02. We've been paying on our student loans since 2010 and as of this morning paid off all of the interest that had accrued. Gross!
It was August when we started really following our budget and budgeting any extra money to go towards our student loans. We've paid 2 small student loans plus throwing quite a bit at another one and our minimum payments. We calculated how much we've paid from August-October and came up with:
$8,357!!!!
We were pretty excited, that averages out to $2785.66/month going towards our debt. $919/month of that is our minimum payments, the rest has been what is left over after we've budgeted for the month.
Two things that has really helped us out to start making some headway. First, Phillips boss realized he's been working in 2 departments but they never updated his pay rate so he received some back pay for that, and now he receives a higher rate when he works over in that department. Also if you remember I started a new job back in July, so I'm earning more now as well. Even though we're earning more than we were when we first got married we haven't changed our standard of living. We did raise our grocery budget to $75/week but we usually spend closer to $60 and carry the rest over, we also raised our tithes to match the 10% of our income.
I think the biggest change we've experienced is that when we budget for things and stay focused finances aren't scary anymore! It's actually kind of fun to track your progress and know where everything is going.
Have a great day!
This is amazing!!! I'm so proud of you, friend!