Warning: Long post. It's mostly for me, to have documentation and start holding myself accountable.
tl;dr: i'm too careless with my money, spending it on things i don't need, or on other people (this one is BIG), or on random take out. Gonna try to make this as succinct as possible.
Education: Student - Law school- part time night program, going into 2nd out of 4 years
Income: Babysitting. Earlier this summer was about $250/week, but I start a second job on Tuesday, so it will be about $335/week until September. Then I'll be at about $500/week.
Debt:
- Chase CC - $2,941.93 balance, 16.49% interest rate, $0 interest charged in 2018
- BoA CC - $792.05, 18.49% interest, $14.38 in interest 2018
- Barclay CC - $955.94, 0% until August 2018, $0 interest
- Citibank CC - $1530.10, 20.99%, $1.45 in interest (Only $76 currently subject to interest rate until April 2019)
- Student loan #1 - $21,311.58, 6% interest, accruing
- Student loan #2 - $2,582.63, 7% interest, accruing
- Car Loan - $10,183.80, 3.74%, $205 monthly payment (these are increased payments- I could/should lower it to I believe $150)
- I'm also behind on my rent $550 for one month, and don't have July's yet. However, my "landlord" is actually a family friend who made it explicitly known that while I'm in school, if I had to do a no interest "loan" for rent for a couple months, that was fine. I do not want to do this, but I know them extremely well, and they genuinely do not need the money, and are very supportive of me in general.
Current Debt - $40,848.03
New Monthly Budget:
- Rent- $550
- Health Insurance- $50
- Electricity - $60
- Water - $20
- Internet- $15
- Netflix- $6
- Sewer-$20
- Car payment - $205
- Car insurance-$92
- Grocery shopping - $90
- Cats - $30
- Gas- $40
- Maximum fun- $10
- Go out and do a thing so I don't wanna die - $30
- Chase CC minimum - $30
- BoA CC minimum- $25
- Barclay CC - $25
- Citibank CC - $25
Total: $1323/month
Total income (until Tuesday): $1,071/month
Total income (Tuesday-September): $1,435/month
Total income (September+): $2,142/month
I included my previous/current income to make myself realize how crazy it was to think I could live on that. There is clearly no reason, once September rolls around, for me to have any struggles as long as I stick to a budget. I'm gonna work out a better budget and repayment schedule based on my summer pay, then come the end of August I can reevaluate and see where I'm at, and make a plan going forward.
I used unbury.me to work out my payments. Until September I have an extra $112/month (going to Citibank, then BoA). After that, I have $819 a month, but at that point, I'll be driving more and my garden won't be providing any groceries, so we will see. Even if I only have an extra $500/month, it still cuts down my repayment to 4 years (as opposed to 10). My debt will be rising due to student loans, but honestly, once I get my CC debt cut out, I'll be able to be aggressive about my student loans. In fact, just looking at CC, looks like I can be debt free in 6 months if my expenses don't change too much.
Again, sorry for the long post. I really just wanted to get it all on the page, and write it out, and get feedback.
Submitted June 23, 2018 at 08:47AM by iwantmylifeback_pf https://ift.tt/2MSpKw3
