Julia's Money Diary

side blog to @jmrich109 for messages or inquiries

[jmr-money-diary]

Fuck yes. Finally understand paying off high interest debt is a better investment than sitting in savings. I left $1000 for emergencies and I have a couple other acorns tucked away here and there (not much but some)which is sort of the David Ramsey philosophy a lot of people have borrowed from in their finance books too. I don’t believe everything he says but once all credit card debt is gone I’ll make aggressive savings payments to rebuild it as if I still have debt payments. I now have a final cc balance of about $3600 that I have 0% APR on until February. I am expecting a bonus and some retroactive pay tomorrow that I hope I can make a big initial chunk and pay it off by December or January. 2019 debt free would be an absolutely amazing goal!!

[jmr-money-diary]

with no context and full accountability, here is where my money in July 2018 went

Hi! I’ll introduce myself with some detail at a later time, but I spent all of July tracking every single one of my transactions. No matter which method you choose to budget or to get out of debt, most places that say “start here!” tell you to track every single of your transactions.

Even tracking made me more conscientious as the month went on. The second half was a little crappier as I got tired of it, but I pushed through and refocused. I’m using these numbers to have made my first budget for next month. Next month, August, is the glorious and rare ~*3 PAY PERIOD MONTH*~ so I would really like to make a dent in some debt with the extra cash.

I’d like to be radically transparent with this blog because I think it helps with accountability. But so not to overwhelm and keep posts thematic, I will reveal my debt and my actual income in posts to come.

So digging into these numbers, there’s a lot I do super well with, and a lot that’s easy to change for next month. For one, I don’t have any trips coming up and that airfare was a one-time deal. Another category, uber, I know were trips out of pure laziness (I have to walk about a half mile to and from each public transport stop on the home and work side of my commute, but it’s GOOD FOR ME when I walk this, so no complaints). 

Going out was also atypical in July as saw a movie, went out to dinner with friends 3 times, and went heavy on the cocktails one night when I was delivering sad news and we indulged a lot more than usual at fancier places. I usually only see friends once per pay period and spend less than 50 each time, so I anticipate next month will be less than 100 in this category. 

What then of the other category that is just alcohol? Sadly that is just my transactions from the liquor store. I’ve switched to Bota Box as an acceptable box wine instead of going through one glass bottle together a night, but my boyfriend and I are going to try to cut back on liquor after I told him the number (and he spends a fair amount too). I know that’s an easy category to judge and a hard one to defend, but with two people who enjoy wine with dinner, it’s definitely easy to go through a bottle a night, with sometimes a cocktail before dinner. The plan for next month is liquor only on weekends. As for the coffee category, I only drink starbucks with giftcards I get for completing surveys or giving reviews online, so this is not a weekday habit of mine. These are weekend walks with the boyfriend to get a cortado, our midday routine on Sundays.

Hulu I cancelled a day too late last month! That was frustrating. I was only subscribing for the Handmaid’s Tale. 

Despite some of these crazy categories, I’m very happy with where this month ended up spending wise and my decision making, but I overspent by about 500 dollars. I’m proud that I saved 10% and made big credit card payments, but I’m kind of back at 0 net for the month since I overspent. 

After examining my patterns, I’ve crafted a good budget based off of it for August 2018. Wish me luck!