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Welcome To Our January Personal Budget Report!

It’s time for our January Personal Budget Report.

I haven’t been here much lately. In fact, it’s already mid February, and I’m just getting around to this report! We’ve been in survival mode for about two months now. So I hope you can forgive my absence! I’m hoping to build back up to a more consistent posting schedule.

January was a crazy month. We all came down with the flu simultaneously. I actually caught it twice. Mr. P&P concussed himself opening the car door. Then there was the move… We are officially out of sick days. Keep reading for more details about that.

So, let’s look at last month’s earning, spending, and saving!

Check out these links to see previous Budget Reports!

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Why Create A Monthly Budget Report

The first real budget I set was back in 2014 when I was making A LOT less money than I am today. I had been idling along for years in my retail service job, scraping by from paycheck to paycheck, and making very little headway. Way back then, it wasn’t even debt reduction or budgeting that got me interested in getting my finances under control. An interest in prepping lead me there.

In learning about preparedness, I began to realize that if there were ever an emergency, I was going to be out of luck. There was no savings to speak of, cash or otherwise. Stocking up was out of the question. The debt I had accrued was taking up all my expendable income and then some, probably. I thought I was okay with money, but it turned out, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. At best, I was JUST okay. So, I started to research.

I probably learned about every system under the sun. Cash envelope systems, spreadsheets, percentages and ratios… There was so much to absorb. I made a lot of mistakes. To be honest, I still do. But I did find a system that worked for me, and it made a difference almost instantly. In finally creating a physical budget, I could see that my money was being wasted all over the place. It was no wonder I couldn’t catch up.

If I could share only one takeaway, it’s this. You do, in fact, need to set a budget and put it on paper! Yes, technology counts as paper here!

Why Am I Sharing My Spending And Earnings?

Simply put, it helped me when others showed me what they were doing. I can only hope that sharing my own monthly budget report can help others out there who aren’t sure where to start.

I also think it’s really important that we talk about money. Like, as a society. The secrecy and shame surrounding spending makes it so much harder to figure out a system that works for you. There should be less fear of judgement and failure around money. If I can contribute to expanding the conversation, I want to!

Now that I have a child, I am realizing she learns so much by watching me. The best way for me to set her up for success is by showing her what’s out there and how it could be handled. It might not have taken me until I was almost 30 to realize I didn’t actually know what I was doing if there had been more conversations about healthy spending going on around me.

A Few Details Before We Start

Everyone budgets a little differently. There’s not really a right or wrong way. Just what works. Mr. P&P and I don’t track our budgets exactly the same way. But we’re working on getting there.

For a little consistency on our budget report, I’ll calculate monthly spending based on purchases made during the calendar month.

As for income, I work on a zero based budget using last month’s income. Basically, this means that all the money I earn this month is budgeted and spent next month. It’s an absolute life saver, especially if money is tight or inconsistent. Having the ability to borrow from my future self has saved my life a few times! Want to learn more? Check out this post where I break down how and why I budget this way!

Mr. P&P is still budgeting the current month’s income, so we do a little of both. Since most of our income is salary, this really only effects extra earnings and rental income.

Big Changes This Month

Last month, we finally broke down, sold The Pit, and bought a new home. We just couldn’t handle all the problems anymore! Specifically, we couldn’t handle the rat infestation that was only getting worse by the day. It was becoming unsafe, and we’ve been sick almost nonstop since last summer.

Our numbers are a bit of a mess this month because we couldn’t actually afford to move. Fortunately, a realtor friend of ours helped us navigate the whole mess. We wound up having to do a cash out refinance on our town home AND sell The Pit for a little less than we owed in order to get down payment money and escape quickly.

Yep, even though we’re trying to get out of debt, we did a ton of debt shifting and moved into a home with a higher mortgage payment. It’ll add to our timeline. Our family has A LOT more debt now. We believe it was the best choice, though.

In The Pit, we were paying tens of thousands per year in repairs without seeing any appreciation in value. The unexpected expenses were getting out of control. It was becoming impossible to try and pull ahead. We kept getting severely ill. Also, every surface in the place was slowly transforming into a rodent toilet.

Sometimes, you have to consider other factors when making financial decisions. I’m not saying this is what you should do because every situation is different. Just that it’s what we decided was best for our family.

January Budget Income Report- $8,172.91

Teacher Salary – $6,958.34 This includes both teacher salaries after the automatic withdrawal of taxes and health insurance.
Rental Income Property – -$1,214.57 Our first home was a townhouse we paid under $100,000 for in good condition, which is unheard of in today’s market. When we bought The Pit, we decided it was better to keep the town home as rental income rather than sell it to put money toward the new house. We stand by this choice today! This is the money we receive after paying any management and repair fees. It’s so high this month because we did a cash out refinance on our rental property. As a result, there is no mortgage payment due this month. Sadly, the value of the loan went way up. So did our monthly payment and interest rate.
Extra Income Deposited – $0 Nothing this month
Extra Income Paid in Cash – -$0 Honestly, there should probably be some money here from January, but in all the shuffle of moving, head injuries, and illness, I just didn’t keep up with it.

January Budget Spending Report - $6,965.60

Considering all the chaos of this month, I was pleasantly surprised with how all the non-moving expenses turned out.

Monthly Living Expenses - $3,656.87

This budget report category includes typical monthly expenses that come out of our budget basically every month. These are our “basic living” expenses that we need to pay in order to get through the month.

Mortgage – $1,647.30 This includes our payment, interest, taxes, and insurance on The Pit. It is also our final payment toward that house.
Utilities – $416.15 This covers the electricity, gas, water, sewer, and pest control services. The Pit had regular problems with spiders, mosquitoes, and rats, making pest control an essential service! Even though we moved, we are contracted with our pest control service until summer.
Daycare – $600.00 Paid during the school year. We are fortunate to know an incredible lady who provides services for teacher’s kids at a very affordable rate. Baby Girl loves going!
Car Payment – $234.35 On top of the home issues last summer, Mr. P&P’s 14 year old car died right in the midst of everything. The car seat doesn’t fit in mine, and we were basically living in a hotel, so we were stranded. We purchased a used car through Hertz Rentals because we knew it would be maintained, and their process is very straightforward. But we didn’t have the cash saved up after foundation repair, so we had to finance. I am still driving my 13 year old, paid off sub-compact.
Gas, Toll, and Other Transportation Expenses – $140.35 This covers gas for both cars. We drove a lot more while moving, so this expense is higher than normal for us. Also, my toll tag renewed this month. My tollway commute has increased with the move, so I expect this expense to occur more often.
Car Insurance – $90.99 We decided to start setting aside money each month to cover insurance premiums. It will actually need to be renewed in June, so we will set aside money each month to cover this expense in a sinking fund. This way, the money is available when we need to pay our premiums again.
Groceries – $527.73 We’re over budget this month. I don’t feel too bad, though. With all the rodents, we couldn’t buy food for the week. We basically had to shop one meal at a time which is more expensive. After moving into the new house, we also stocked back up on some things the rats had decimated.

Debt Expenses - $2,264.88

This is money we spend in order to pay down previously existing debts and any expenses we have as a result of those debts. Just look at how much money we’re giving away every month!

Student Loans – $747.13 Ouch. There’s good news, though. I have officially paid off one of my six student loans! My other loans still have years left on them. By making extra payments on my highest interest loan for a year, I shaved off tons of time and interest. Time to avalanche that payment to the next high interest loan!
Debt Repayment – $1514.31 We need to pay off one of our credit cards by June to avoid paying interest. This month, we took advantage of not having two mortgage payments and funneled extra money toward that card. We continued to make minimum payments on all other cards. I also had to make an installment payment to my doctor on an unsettled bill when I visited with the flu.
Fees and Charges – $3.44 I put a purchase on my card in December that I couldn’t cover. Yes, I know this was bad. It was a membership to the Elite Blogging Academy. Hopefully, this expense pays off in the long run.

Other Recurring Monthly Expenses - $162.81

These budget report expenses happen every month, but they are not absolutely vital spending categories! It’s the stuff we could get rid of and survive if we needed to.

Phones – $30.63 This is just Mr. P&P’s phone in January. My mom gifted us some breathing room this month by offering to cover my phone bill. We share an account and normally split the bill.
Digital Media, Streaming, and Internet – $86.68 This covers our internet and Hulu accounts. We’re taking a hiatus from Netflix to save a few bucks this year. With so many other options, we have never paid for cable!
Rock Climbing Gym – $0 We love rock climbing together! But when we learned that Baby Girl was coming, we stopped attending and haven’t picked back up. Our family plan account is currently frozen through March to help save money.
Monthly Renewals – $45.50 We each have some subscription boxes for various hobby interests throughout the year.

Variable Spending - $881.04

These are expenses we may or may not have every month. They are somewhat unpredictable and variable.

Health Care – $346.93 This covers the cost of normal prescriptions. January also chose to gift us with 4 bouts of flu, 2 ear infections, and a concussion. It was rough. The hardest part, though, is that it’s currently mid February, and we still aren’t back up to snuff, health wise. We hope that as we continue to unpack and sanitize everything we own, things will improve. I know rodent germs moved with us. We’re working hard to kill off any remaining contaminants.
Home Improvement – $0 We sold The Pit in as-is condition and fixed nothing before moving out.
Home Expenses – $0 We could probably put moving expenses here, but we chose to handle those differently.
Dining Out – $211.53 I’m not thrilled with this at all, but I’m not really upset either. We moved out of a rat house during the week after Christmas break while fighting off illness. Survival was the highest priority.
Blog Expenses – $49.99 Something renewed this month. I don’t even remember what at this point.
Baby Expenses – $73.99 Even though we cloth diaper at home during the day, Baby Girl does go to daycare and sleep in disposables. Home and daycare ran out at the same time, so I stocked up. Disposable diapers are a bigger expense for us. Baby Girl has sensitive skin, and she does best with Honest Diapers, which cost more than other brands.
Classroom Spending – $20.61 We both needed a couple things for the classrooms after the holiday break.
Digital Streaming/Media $0 Nothing this month.
Gifts – $0 Nothing this month.
Hobbies and Entertainment – $158 One of my hobby boxes renews twice a year.
Other Spending – $9.99 Mr. P&P’s annual renewal for Endomondo.
Savings – $0 We thought a lot about whether to put money into savings this month. On one hand, expenses are bound to come up with the new house. But on the other, we really needed to put a dent in that credit card. We decided it was better to create more monthly breathing room by paying down the card. It created over $100 of potential “extra money” in the budget every month until it’s paid off. The payment we actually needed to be making was barely feasible. Now we have room. If a small emergency comes up, we can still cover the credit card payment and the emergency without pulling money from savings or next month’s budget money.

What About Moving Expenses?

Now comes the sticky situation of the move. We didn’t even account for this part in our budget. Instead, we chose to track all of these expenses separately from our regular budget report.

We chose to look at the amount from the cash out refinance as money received. Everything else is an expense taken from that money. I know it’s not truly extra money. It’s totally a debt shift, but it’s what we needed to do to make our crazy situation work.

Cash Out Refinance Amount – $27,949.94 This is the money we got from the refinance on our rental property. Due to cash flow issues, it was the only way to get out of The Pit quickly.
New Home – $10,089.23 This includes the down payment, wire fees, option money, new house keys, and a leaseback that we were less than thrilled about. Unfortunately, we had no time and no other options.
The Pit – $3,479.72 In order to leave The Pit, we had to cover closing costs and pay a difference on our electric bills which were averaged out through the year.
Moving Expenses – $226.55 This was the cost of the rental truck and gas. We were fortunate to have neighbors who rallied up help move us out. They did an amazing job even though we have entirely too much junk AND it snowed for the first time in 5 years. It was brutal and exhausting. As a result, we are already planning a home purge!

That leaves us with a good chunk of change. We have decided to split the remaining money into two sections.

$4,000 stays in the account for repairs on the new place. We learned our lesson with The Pit and had a lot of evaluations done with this house. This amount should cover the costs with room to spare.

We’ll use the rest to pay off the credit card with the largest minimum payment. That payment will be applied to other debts. But if there’s an emergency, the extra money create the most breathing room and usable cash flow in our monthly budget. If something does happen, we can handle it better.

Budget Goals Progress

I was pleasantly surprised by our numbers. Even with everything that happened and our complete lack of tracking in January, those good budget habits seemed to roll over. Not having one of the mortgage payments helped, too.

We felt excited to make such a huge credit card payment this month. It also feels amazing to have one less student loan. While it’s not much, it’s a big step in the right direction.

Our overall debt totals are going to skyrocket this month. The refinance, the move, the more expensive home… It doesn’t look the best on paper. Even with the increased expenses, we believe this transition gives us the breathing room we need to heal our bodies and our finances.

Life in The Pit had started to feel like we were on a sinking ship. We kept scooping water out, but the boat was leaking faster than we could drain it. This move feels a lot like patching up the hole and sailing for shore.

What Does The Future Hold?

Facing your financial burdens head on does not feel good, but it is important if you want to grow. You can’t fix a problem if you don’t know it exists. No matter where you are, figure out what you’re starting with so you can decide where you’re going.

If you need help getting started, well, that’s what I’m here for. Check out this recent post that will give you a step by step guide to help you make a plan and get out of debt.

We longingly dream of the day we can say we are entirely debt free! I don’t know if that day will come, but why not dream big? Today, our goal is to make progress. But someday, we want to have as much control as possible over how we use our money. So, I’m giving you a breakdown below of our major debt goals and monthly progress. Who doesn’t love a nice graph?

All totals except the credit cards go back to the original loan amounts, and the credit card total comes from our calculations in September 2019. Yes, some of these numbers are going WAY up. Specifically, that mortgage section.

The percentage bar shows the percentage paid off.

The numbers beneath show the total remaining / original loan.

Credit Card Payoff Goal

Debt Paid 7.4%

$36,611.74 / $39,558.61

We are shooting for a goal of payoff in 2 years! Just 1 year, 7 months to go.

It’s not going to happen unless we seriously pick up the pace. Time to get busy.

Medical Debt Payoff Goal

Debt Paid 16.3%

$11,885.63 / $14,169.05

This includes only the debt I took on with the birth of Baby Girl. The cost of her conception through treatments and prenatal care were paid in cash, as was the hospital down payment. It’s just the debt accrued after delivery complications and emergency services that I couldn’t deal with due to a mostly unpaid maternity leave. A lot of this is currently in collections because I just don’t have enough money to settle yet, but I’m chipping away.

Medical Debt Payoff Goal #2

Debt Paid 1%

$5,427.53 / $5,526.63

This is the debt we took on as a result of Mr. P&P getting an infection that went septic and needing hospitalization in October.

Car Payment Payoff Goal

Debt Paid 10.7%

$12,594.97 / $14,111.92

We’re not putting extra here yet.

Student Loan Payoff Goal

Debt Paid 22.6%

$62,303.04 / $80,567.17

Someday, we might qualify for debt forgiveness due to becoming public school teachers. We’re not really putting a ton of eggs in that basket though. If I can get them paid off earlier, I will. A lot of the progress I made here happened in the years where my income was fairly low, so I’m pretty proud of that.

Mortgages Payoff Goal

Debt Paid -39.4%

$407,870.00 / $292,407.00

I left our previous mortgage total because I thought it would be interesting. Mostly, it’s painful. This move increased our debt total in this category significantly. There’s no guilt here, though.

We had to make the best choice for our family’s health and finances. The best choice for us was to get out and start again somewhere else . Between the purchase of the new home and the refinance on the rental property, we took on a lot more mortgage debt. It’s weird, though. For the first time in a while, we feel like we can breathe. Not literally, of course. We’re still fighting off all the immunity problems likely caused by rats. But we see a light at the end of the tunnel and an opportunity to actually make some progress.

We are definitely gambling a little bit. Not much can go wrong, and the budget will be tight for at least a year.

The mortgages are last on our list of payoff priorities. They’re pretty huge amounts for us, but we really would like to pay them off early and save some interest!

Now, It's Your Turn

If you haven’t sat down yet and faced your debt head-on, I really encourage you to do it! Figure out what you owe. Write it down. Stare those numbers in the eye and acknowledge them! Here’s a step by step guide to help you get started.

You can’t fix a problem you don’t know about!

What was your spending month like?

What goals are you working on, and what kind of progress have you made?

While you’re at it, don’t forget to share this post on your favorite social media, follow us, and subscribe to our newsletter.

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