I've been doing some thinking about this $60,000 student loan bill, which is growing like a monster each minute I put off my repayment. I want to pay this sucker off as soon as I possibly can, and I'm just starting to consider what I'm willing to do to achieve that.
Today, I looked at my "day job" income (which is 20% lower than it was last year). With 10% going to my 403b, I'm bringing home just over $1800 a month. I logged into my trusty Excel spreadsheet to see what my life would look life if I were 'forced' to live off of just that income (thereby allowing me to send all the income from second jobs to good ole Sallie Mae). Here's what it looks like:
Pretty barebones, eh? I know that in order to make this work, I need complete confidence in my ability to live on $1800 a month, but this just looks unrealistic! Then again, I'm so tired of that $60K hanging over my head.
Since I stopped monitoring every penny I spend, I'll need to begin paying attention again, or this austerity plan will never work. So, starting next month (July 1st) I'll see just how frugal I can be!
2 comments:
I just started working part time to take care of my mom so I have had to cut back a lot. I am being more creative in the kitchen and it has turned out to be fun. I am allowing myself to go out one night a month with my friends for dinner. I am going through old things in the house and selling them on Ebay or Craig's list and that will help with extra income. And of course, I have a budget. I wouldn't be able to stay home and take care of mom without it.
I have a similar budget as you do, but my net monthly income is significantly lower as is my housing cost. I spend about twice that amt. on food and my fun acct. is around 4 times that amt. I'm not saving enough though. Good luck, I think you can do it, if you switch to the library for all your media consumables, and possibly get the minimum netflix for just under $10-there are tons of watch instantly flicks.
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