Here is the latest in our debt free journey! If you’re interested in more about our debt free journey, you can read all of our budget updates here! If you’re looking for a quick way to start making changes in your finances, download my free Five Day Money Makeover challenge and apply these five principles to your finances to start getting back on track today!
March/April Budget Update
WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING
Hey friends! It’s been a while since I’ve posted a budget update. To be honest, I’ve been a little bit discouraged in the debt snowball department. So today’s update is as much for ME to get reinspired as it is for YOU to get inspired (maybe again, maybe for the first time!).
We were doing AWESOME and trucking right along when we got hit with a couple of unexpected blows:
1. I took a bit of a pay cut in my regular monthly salary.
2. We got a large, very unexpected tax bill to pay.
I had to let a client go a few months ago, and replaced them with another client for the same amount of money. Then that client had to let me go. So, all of a sudden, I was down about $800/month income. In the big picture we can definitely survive without that income. But, we definitely can’t make the same amount of progress we were making before!
Then tax time showed up and after a year of sending in an additional $500/month from my husband’s paychecks, which we thought would cover both of our self-employment tax requirements, we were really geared up for receiving a huge refund that we could put towards our credit card bill.
Instead, we got a tax bill of about $3,000. It was a huge blow to our momentum and my heart just fell when I got the news. It has taken me a month to sort of recover from that and start moving forward again mentally and emotionally. I’ll be honest with you – there have been a few times over the last couple of months that I’ve just wanted to throw in the towel and quit, but then I look at the chart on our fridge and remember how far we have come and how hard we have worked.
Then I get that stirring in my gut that reminds me that I’m not going to let my circumstances control my reactions to things like this. (This is why making that mindset shift in Baby Step Zero is SOOOO IMPORTANT!!!) Rather than just going back to my old ways, I’ve been able to tread water for a couple of months, get the IRS paid off, and then get back on track with our actual debts.
Here is a reminder of what we are working with:
OUR ORIGINAL DEBTS
Best Buy Credit Card: $441.23Student Loan #1: $859.03Spark Business Card: $1,409.59Barclay Credit Card: $2,377.31Student Loan #2: $2,939.64Student Loan #3: $4,464.77Student Loan #4: $4501.44- Capital One Credit Card: $4,911.49
Student Loan #5: $5,427.62- Student Loan #6: $9,772.15
Car Loan: $6,800
Total: $43,912.99
WHERE ARE WE NOW?
We have only been making minimum payments on our debts these last two months, which is fine, but we definitely have to get back in gear. I’m so ready to finish! We made a payment of $1000 in April towards our tax bill so the amount below reflects what we owe (not counting the penalties and interest – I don’t know what that is just yet).
OUR CURRENT REMAINING DEBTS
- IRS Bill: $1,920.00
- Capital One Credit Card: $4,266.27
- Student Loan #6: $6,993.09
Total Remaining: $13,179.36
THINGS I’VE LEARNED
The most important lesson I’ve learned in the last two months is to pay your quarterly income taxes if you are self employed and earn more than $640/quarter. My husband is a minister, and I run my own business, so he and I both are subject to our regular income tax PLUS our self employment tax. Yeesh. The government sure does love small business owners and clergy, let me tell ya. I’ve now got my quarterly estimates set up so next year we should be good and not have a huge tax bill!
I have become approved to be a Shipt grocery shopper in the North Houston area but I haven’t had a chance to start shopping yet. One of my goals for May is to make $800 in extra income to add to our debt snowball. I’ve also looked in to more VA work as well! But I have learned that just because my income changed, does NOT give me license to just sit back, whine, and give up on our hard work!
I’ve also started helping other people get their finances together as well! I am so nerdy, and absolutely love talking money with people now, so it seemed natural for me to start offering that as a way to serve people who need help! I haven’t charged anyone for it (yet!) but I’m really interested in becoming a certified Financial Coach so I can really continue to share this peace with everyone I can.
I’ll be back in June with an update on May and what we accomplished. I really need to make some huge progress this month to get my momentum going again!! How are you doing on your financial goals?
Hi Skye! My husband and I just started our debt free journey a little over two weeks ago. So, I'm researching as much as I can. I've read The Total Money Makeover too. I found your blog when I googled baby step zero. I wanted to see if it was a thing. Low and behold I came across your amazing post about baby step zero. This lead me to reading several more of your posts. I am loving how honest you are about the good and bad of working becoming debt free. Do you have an update? I'll be reading more of your posts over the next couple of days.
Hey Andrea! That is SO awesome!!! Baby Step Zero has been very important in our journey – so many times we have gone back to that to remember what our ultimate goals are. I need to post an update – this summer has gotten away from me! 🙂 Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving such a sweet content!