So we’ve officially completed the first month in the second half of the year. Did you meet your monthly goals? Did you push yourself? Did you impress yourself? Did you let yourself down? I find that a lot of times throughout this journey people don’t take the time to sit down and properly reflect on where they came from and where they’re going and by not doing this they easily fall back into old habits.
I for one am excited that June is over as the month slapped me around like I stole something! As most of these jobs pay out in July, I can’t wait to be able to throw all the extra money on this loan. Not only did I take on a major load of extra side hustle work, but I have been going super hard looking for a big girl job. I knew job hunting wasn’t going to be easy and it’s almost become a second full-time job. Even though I had big plans to share more and more on our platforms, especially regarding the blog post, I’ve found that when I come home, I can hardly handle dealing with normal task around the house. I plan to hopefully get better with things in July, but if I fall short, cut a sistah some slack okay y’all.
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This month Marcus and I paid off I debt, which I really didn’t consider a debt until a few weeks ago. A We were leasing our phones, meaning the monthly payment for those phones were rolled into the bill every month after talking with several people during our Facebook discussion, we realized that a lot of other people considered this debt as well. Our cell phone bill was over $194 just for two lines, and it made me sick. After looking at the bill this month, I decided I had enough and pulled money from our savings (we keep well above $1000 in a savings account) and paid off the remaining $449 that was owed on the phones. We’ve already received the bill for July, and now we only owe $126 a month. While it’s not under $100, it’s still something I can handle paying mentally. I’m not going to add this amount to the total amount of debt paid off since we technically just classified it as debts in our mind.
On another note, Communication saved us over $650 this month. Marcus brakes were sounding something awful, and he informed me that after calling around it would be about $800 to have them fixed (he called two places). As soon as I heard him say $800 alarm bells in my head went off. There was no way I was shelling out $800 for brakes. They became even louder when he told me he wanted to fix them himself. I was like
Even though I knew life insurance policies were in place, I could not in good conscience let him fix his own brakes. As a wife, it is my duty to know his limitations and fixing brakes is one of them. After getting over the initial shock, I had him call around to every place in town to find out who could do it for cheaper. It turns out his brakes were still under warranty at Sears, and we were able to have the necessary repairs done for around $150!
What’s that line about “He who finds a wife”?
Alright lets get into the numbers
GREAT LAKES STUDENT LOAN STARTING BALANCE $12,008.33
Amount towards debt: $2852
Remaining Balance $ 9156.00
Amount paid since living Broke on Purpose (27 months): $85,557.00
On the Broke on Purpose Instagram stories, I shared how we were able to decide how much extra money we put towards a particular student loan per month. Again, we haven’t consolidated these loans yet and probably never will because by not consolidating we have more control of where our money is being applied. With a little over $9000 left, we’re still hopeful that this loan will be paid off by mid-September. Our original goal was set at 3.5 months, and in my heart, I feel we’re still on track to knock out at least another $20,000 before the year is over.
How was your month living Broke on Purpose? Share with us the comments. We seriously love to chat with you all, or you can hang out with us on Facebook or Instagram (we’re more active here) using the links below!
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