November 2020 No Spend Update

It’s getting hot in here! My debt pay off is on fire! Every extra dollar not spent on necessities or allocated to savings is going right towards my car!

November 1st

• Total Cash: $2,845.52
• High Yield Savings Account: $3,001.53
• Mutual Fund: $2,694.69
• Current Car Debt: $5,840.46
• Current Student Loan Debt: $45,644.12

November has been a good month. I celebrated my 38th birthday. Mr. BMM was sweet and gave me the option of an automatic car starter or money towards my car loan. I opted for the extra money towards my car loan. Guess it’s a sign I’m getting practical.

I also started to manually track every penny spent on a paper calendar so I’m pleased to announce I did a great job managing life vs. my no spend 2020 year. All but four purchases fell within my no spend rules. I mostly spent money on groceries, gas, and house essentials. The manual tracked helped redirect me from October’s spending. I found that once I got one new thing, I needed just one more new thing. There is a formal term but it’s like the Give a Mouse a Cookie book. I wrote about the shopping/buying new phenomenon in a blog post. Check it out if Christmas shopping is your gateway to breaking your spending rules/budget.

• $1.88 to print my furbaby’s annual Halloween pictures
• $7.50 for a clay flower pot
• $23 for a new house plant
• $25 for my office Secret Santa

Besides the spending, Mr. BMM and I refinanced our home. It’s going to help us save thousands of dollars. I will certainly take those thousands of dollar bills and cram them in my pockets. I’m not financial planner or advisor but if you have debt, I would check out your options for refinancing. I refinanced my car, student loans, and home all this year. Collectively I think I’m close to saving $45,000 in interest. There was some work involved but no where close to $45,000.

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I’m having a bit of an internal debate about my next steps in my financial goals after I pay off my car. Do I take that money and max my 401(k), build an investment portfolio that allows access prior to 59 1/2, or put it towards my student loans? Some FIRE rules exclude the house. Well we are planning to pay off our house within the next 3-5 years so can I swap house payments for student loan payments? I guess the issue I have is that the student loan payments won’t ever go away and I have a decent rate. Why not capture the time value of money and build a solid retirement base?

I think spending the money frivolously it the worst thing I could do at this point. Investing in my future or paying off my debt are both equally good options. Speaking about retirement, I’m $500 away from maxing out my ROTH IRA contributions for 2020.

From a girl who was broke, money clueless with a closet full of clothes that mostly sucked, lots of anxiety about stuff, and nearly maxed out credit cards to this badass financial millennial with a budget, I’m proud of my progress. Check out my November accomplishments!

Change in Cash… INCREASE OF $649.98

Change in Debt … drum roll please! DECREASE OF $3,057.72

November 30th

• Total Cash: $3,126.59
• High Yield Savings Account: $3,023.38 (I add $10 a week to this account just to take baby steps to building this account to $5,000)
• Mutual Fund: $3,041.75
• Current Car Debt: $2,980.69
• Current Student Loan Debt: $45,446.17

My goal for December is to either pay off my car or be so close that it will happen in January as well as a plan for redirecting my car loan money.

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