Thursday, May 1, 2014

Month 18: Debt Repayment Update

Well we didn't make it under the 50K threshold in April for the second month as anticipated/hoped but we're slowly creeping there. Since last month, we are down $400 which puts our debt at:

$50,923

This was my first month off work but I did receive a full pay early in the month along with my vacation pay.

Additional expenses this month were for convenience meals since my freezer meals ran out after a week and with the cesarean I still wasn't feeling able to do a lot of prep. Also, medications - a ton of them for myself and asthma/allergy medication for the boys. Most of this that isn't over the counter we'll receive compensation for through R's benefits. Other unanticipated expenses were for hospital parking, formula for few days we had to supplement, extra child care since R was working 6 days/week and I still wasn't able to manage on my own, a few items for opening our trailer, and additional groceries due to my increased hunger from breastfeeding!

Where we have had some savings this month has been for gas. My $40 tank has lasted 3 weeks so far and I expect will last another week. Also, though the overall grocery bill has gone up, I've been able to dedicate time to scouring the flyers to price match and use coupons which has made for big savings. I hadn't been making this a priority the past few months.

I've been contemplating doing something with our cable for at least the summer to save a bit there but we'll see. Now that I've received my first maternity e.i. payment we'll be able to put our maternity leave budget plan in to action and see what tweaks are necessary.

2 comments:

Amanda said...

I think it's awesome that you're still paying down debt with less income! We ate a lot of frozen dinners last month when I was finishing schoolwork, so I understand! It hit our bank account, but the time saved was so worth it. :)

Kristy said...

Sometimes we have to make adjustments in other areas of the budget to account for...life. Even though our income has gone down, I feel like we should be doing much much better in the debt department. Expect a post on some changes coming soon! :)