I love the accountability that sharing the details of our personal finances provides. I was a little nervous when I started posting our financial details for the world to see, but my readers have been gracious and kind. I’m so thankful to have encouraging readers who are not overly critical or judgmental.
Without further ado, here is what we earned, spent and paid off our debt during the month of September.
Debt Repayment
This month we paid $2,392 toward debt. That’s higher than it’s been in a while, which feels good! Another bonus is that we finally got our total remaining debt to under $90K, which is exciting (and seemed to take forever)!
Income
Our total net income for September was $4370.For those who are new here, this is income that won’t be spent until October since welive on the last month’s income.
Regular Income: $2969–This is Mr.SixFiguresUnder’s current take-home pay. For moredetails about his pay see hereorhere.
Etsy Income: $326–My Etsyshopwas on the slow side this month, but I didn’t mind. I’ve been really busy and haven’t been feeling great, so I didn’t mind a bit of a break (though I still have orders in my queue).
BlogIncome: $1075– This is my net income. I have taken out my blogging expenses, which were rather large this month since I purchased tuition in a blogging course that I’ll be taking over the next few months.
Not all of this is cash income. It also includes referral credits from all of you who signed up for Republic Wireless after reading my experience and review. That will cover our cell phone bills for quite a while. We love our phones and our $10/month phone plans, and many of you have joined us.
Spending
Each month webudget down to zerousinglast month’s income. Our spending in Septembercomes from the incomewe earned in August. In addition to the debt payments above, here’s how we spent moneyin September:
Tithing–$449One of theexpenses that we never cut out of our budgetis a 10% tithe on our income.
Other Giving– $20 Includes other charitable donations besides tithing.
Mortgage/Rent– $0 We save a lot of money by living in my in-laws unfinished basem*ntrent-free. It may not be a pin-worthy home, but it’s a huge blessing with somegreatbenefits.
Utilities– $0 Most of ourutilities are included in our free rent. We do pay $30/month for extra Internet bandwidth (our Internet options in the boonies are few and expensive), but that comes out as an expense fromblogging income, which is deducted before it gets to our family budget.
Republic Wireless–$22We are on the $10/month plan for each of our phones (see my Republic Wireless Review here). With tax it comes out to $10.89 each. Our phone bill this month was covered by the referral credit I mentioned in the income section.
Health Insurance– $114 Brought to us by the Affordable Care Act, you canread the details of our plan here.
Car Insurance– $97 We have two ’97 vehicles.
Renters Insurance– $14 We were sure glad to have renters insurance (and car insurance) when Mr. SixFiguresUnder’s car was broken into recently.
Food– $299 To be more precise, it was $299.75. How’s that for barely staying under our $300 food budget?! We did our big shopping trip earlier in the month than usual, so we had to be extra careful near the end of the month.
Gas– $430It’s nice to be under this month since last month we were a little over. So much has to do with the timing of the fill ups, considering filling up the van costs over $60. Gas prices are also going down. Here it’s about $3.49 now.
Clothing– $120I mentioned the sweet dealI got on abrand new suit for my husband ($101). I haven’t tailored it yet, but I plan to have it done in the next month (hear that Honey?). I found snow pants and jacket sets for my 5- and 6-year-old at a yard sale. They were in beautiful condition and $5 per set. You know I hate to have to ask about garage sale prices, but it was worth it this time. After she told me the price and I was still looking at them, I heard her friend whisper to her that the price was way too low. I already knew that though! I got a couple of long-sleeve kids shirts at the thrift store and a dress for my daughter with my$10 sign-up credit on ThredUp, a site that sells gently used children’s and women’s clothing.
Household– $32I love doing family theme costumes for Halloween. I won’t tell you what we’re doing this year, except that it requires 3 pig noses. In years past I may have been up for crafting my own pig noses, but this year I was thrilled to get them on BuyCostumes.com. I was impressed at the prices and selection. The pig noses wereeven cheaper than the ones on Amazon and I got free shipping through ShopRunner (thanks to American Express). I also got some pirate hooks and patches to add to our dress up bin. I found a few other treasures on our yard sale excursion like a set of like-new twin sheets for $3. I also bought new water bottles for the kids’ lunch boxes. We save so much money by sending them with water instead of juice boxes.
Fun– $20 I took the kids to a little community carnival on a Saturday when Daddy was busy. I also used some fun money for a mom night. I bought myself dinner at In-N-Out (including a shake and fries!) on my way to an inspirationalGeneral Women’s Meeting.
Lawyer Marketing– $0So glad to be done with that ad contract!
Law Practice– $319 In addition to the monthly subscription to my husband’s law practice management software, he signed up for Continuing Legal Education credits. He has to have a certain amount completed by February. While he can get some free credits through webinars, this one will actually apply specifically to his practice area and really be beneficial.
Car Maintenance– $407 Hooray for no more squeaky brakes! We finally got the problem fixed that we found out about on that bad day back in August. It turned out to be less than expected because of our loyalty card (which pays for itself just in oil changes) and a coupon we received in the mail. We were excited that they “stacked” both offers!
Emergency Fund– $200It feels good to contribute a bit to our emergency fund. Right now it’s at $4,801. For years we have used our Capital One 360 saving account (formerly ING Direct) account for our emergency fund. We love the convenience of an all online account, a savings account that has no minimum, and easily transfers to their fee-free checking account or any other checking account. Not only is it free to sign up, but they give you a bonus for signing up!
How didyourfinances go in September?
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