Here is a comment TOTALLY unrealated today's video. As I mentioned to you, we have sold our house that we have lived in for over 40 years. And we are in the process of clearing it, so it can be sold. (And to pack stuff that we want to take to our new loacation.) After going through this exercise. I want to encourage you to do at least a 10 year purge of the home. Meaning go through it. And if you have stuff that you haven't used since the last purge, or maybe 5 years. THROW it OUT!!! You, and your house will thank you for doing this. I wished we had dont it years ago. It is amazying how much stuff you can collect, thinking you will use it later. Only to have it sit and collect dust. See, I told you the comment had NOTHING to do with your budget. EXCEPT. the more one buys stuff. THe more stuff they will eventually find cluttering their home. (Anyone want a TV?)
It’s funny that you say this because I’ve been watching decluttering videos and we just got rid of a bunch of stuff in Liam’s room Today! I was proud of him for actually Choosing to get rid of a bunch of things he didn’t use anymore, but we still have a lot more to do!
I get paid weekly, so August will be a 5 paycheck month instead of 4 for me. Excited to use the extra paycheck to work towards my investment and retirement goals!
Yaaay for a magic month!❤ Sorry to hear about the ninja classes, how unfortunate that an adult is acting in that way. You'll crush your debt this month!❤
Thank you, Rox! He’s already talking about what else he wants to do, so he’ll be ok! He wasn’t really happy doing it anymore anyway, so the coach made our decision easier.
Katie is always love watching your videos bc we’re in such a similar place financially. Similar income, similar debt scenario. And my husband gets four commission checks a year august being one of them so we call it a magic month!
It's a 3 paycheque month for me too. I'm a bi-weekly budgeter, but since I'm a month ahead on bills and I won't be adjusting the amount I put towards bills in my first 2 August paycheques, I'll have an extra $500 or so to play with on paycheque 3! My plan is to use it to fully fund my trip to Asia in October.
Looks like you're going to have a great debt pay off month. I just looked at my pay schedule and i will have three paychecks, that extra one will actually be a free paycheck since im a month ahead now.
Thanks, Sara! Hopefully they can find something else that’s fun for them. There are other places around us that offer similar programs, so we might try on of those. They are talking about some sort of martial arts or CrossFit kids, too, so we’ll see 😀
Wow, wow, wow on the Fed loan 5! I went back and peeked at the previous, Q2 net worth video to roughly refresh on the amount on Fed loan 5. Im guessing that you are in the $13k's and i can remember when you got below $20k; cant remember the month but I remember the horay of crossing that milestone. The next big milestone on Fed loan 5 is $10k and i think that one is coming up sooner than later despite the additionals going to replenish the Emergency Fund, sinking funds, savings, and a differently more balanced budget.
Thank you so much, Terry! We should land in the 15K’s I think at the end of this month for Fedloan 5, so we aren’t doing quite as well as you predicted, but you are right that 10K shouldn’t be too far away, especially if August goes as well as we hope 🤞🏼
@@KatieoftheHouse So, so, so sorry for not taking the time to listen completely enough to cheer what is reality! (Arithmetic is not my forte and also sometimes I fidget so "get" to be score keeper when playing games. It can be interesting. I call it emotional arithmetic as when things are not what I want to see im able to even things up with my adding; good thing i write everything down so it can be checked or run through calculator.) The $15k milestone is no less important; and SUPER when you look at Jan '24's Fed loan total!
@@terryhenderson424 you don’t have to apologize 😂 you’re so sweet and supportive! I do think that 15K milestone will be passed next month though! And just MAYBE the 10K as well, but that’s only if things go better than expected with income, but we’ll get close 😃
@@KatieoftheHouse And, I was counting chickens before they hatch by including the August budget numbers in my original comment. (Didn't know until utube how few chickens hatch from a clutch of eggs; the old adage is very appropriate.)
It’s going to be a fantastic month for you! Huge progress ahead, and what a great savings rate. We’re going on a road trip so August will be spendy for us, trying to get in a visit before the grandkids are back in school (seems like they just got out). We’ll really have to buckle down when we get home since the work on the Caddy is starting in earnest and we’re now receiving monthly parts and labor bills - OUCH! But it’s good to see the project moving forward after being stalled for months and months. I’m not planning any extraneous expenditures for the foreseeable future while we get this done, so anything not already on the books has been postponed indefinitely while every dime goes to the car. We’re also kicking around moving out of state, just starting to think about it but it’s become cost prohibitive for us to remain here and we don’t need a home this size…we’ll see, life is full of surprises and I’m here for it 😊.
I’m so happy you get to see the grandkids before they go back to school. It feels like Summer break gets shorter and shorter each year 😩 Oh, if you move, would you move closer to the grandkids? That would be nice!!
It’s great you are paying into that Emergency fund after depletion. It took us forever to build ours up to cover 6 months of expenses. Paying bad debt to us was more important to pay off first.
We are basically once a month'rs. Back in the day, we carried virtually no credit card debt and a 3 paycheck month usually included the purchase of some "toy"/ tangible want of some type be it more or less expensive. For the longest while 3 paycheck months included some extra principle on the mortgage be it big or small; it usually depended on how much the toy cost.
I love that you used the extra income for a purchase! I can yell by all of your comments that you guys are good with money, so it’s great to see that your really made sure to enjoy it, too 💜
Excellent progress, Katie!!! I love when you have three paychexkss because you really optimize what can be done.!!! Yay Fed loan five yay to get ahead with the kids tuition.!!! this is spectacular🎉🎉🎉
My employer switched me to one paycheck per month, so I no longer get those exciting three paycheck months. Sadface. I haven't found too many folks documenting their budgeting journey at this detail, I find it really interesting to see the differences in a lot of the line items. My wife and I budget about $600 per month in dining out for just the two of us ($200 definitely doesn't go far), and around $500 in groceries. We put solar on our roof last year so our electric + gas was $52 for the latest bill (in SC), and water here is $35 per month, maybe $40 if I do a lot of watering. We have prepaid phone lines at $15 per line from T-Mobile, so $35 total after taxes. We do pay a house cleaner $146, but that's some of the best money we spend. All in all this is incredibly disciplined budgeting, I love to see it. We're currently sitting at 48% going towards savings and retirement - not quite your 60%, you're crushing it.
Ahhh I’m sorry that you don’t get the three paycheck months anymore. That is definitely a bummer! It’s interesting to hear what other people are spending on different budget categories. This is why I love watching budgeting videos as well! I would 100% pay for a cleaner if we didn’t have so much debt. Just someone to come once a month and do deep cleaning would be nice 😄 We don’t hit 60% yo debt and savings most months. The extra income will help this month for sure! We usually aim for 50%, but we do dl short sometimes. That’s ok though. It’s good to have goals. Thanks so much for taking the time to watch and comment 😀
I know you guys are doing the paleo thing, but if you still want to have bread you could learn how to make "real" bread aka sour dough bread made from fermented flour instead of store bought yeast. Could be a fun science project for the kids.
That’s a great idea! I did try it once but wasn’t very good at it, but that was a while back. It may be time to try again. I do love sour dough bread 🤤
No need to eat Beans and Rice unless you need too. You set a wonderful example of how to live below your means while paying off debt, however, you have not stopped living. Balance is key when dealing with a debt burden like you have. As I have said in the past, Student Loan debt is different. Look at the size of those paychecks, that is due to the education that Marc got. Slowish and steady will win this race.
Thank you for that perspective, Dee! I need To remind myself of that more often. Marc wouldn’t be bringing in what he is without the student loans, so they really did help us get where we are 😀
When preparing the 2025 budget, look over your 2024m budgeted and/or unbudgeted gift purchases for all the birthdays, wedding and baby showers, Christmas, and other gifts. Come up with a rough dollar amount and consider an average monthly amount to budget for. Before gasping, do some introspection on what you're buying. For example some families do what ill call fash fashion toys only; things that come and go quickly. Others gift mostly standard wardrobe clothing. In between includes larger ticket, durable items like bikes, computers or electronics pretty much required for school, room do-overs or do-over items, etc...These inbetween items effectively cover items that you would or should buy during the year in addition to the celebration gifts. In the adult world they would include electronics, tools for the garage, appliances big and small in the house, etc... Sometimes the amounts spent on celebration gifts aren't as outrageous as they would seem, if you can afford them, when you consider the rest of your purchases. - Then there's the other half with birthday split into the year from Christmas and a desire for more expensive things. For years he got a pair of preductably wrapped jeans each holiday to go with what ever else he was getting so he had at least 2 things to open; no jeans were purchased and put into use elsewise.
Good morning Katie! I'm 100% in the same place as far as trying to balance adding to my EF & saving while paying down debt. This number/set up may be different for you, but I take what's in my checking account & round it down to the nearest $10 at the end of the month or pay period. Maybe you can send that amount to your EF just to keep something going. 😊 Edit: August is a 3 paycheck month for me! I view them as my regular biweekly check so I pay some of the same bills out of it. However, the rest I'm free to put into savings/ investments. 🎉
Love the idea for rounding down to make sure the EF still gets a little something! If I don’t end up budgeting a set amount, that might be what I do because I don’t want to stop contributing completely. Yay for your 3 paycheck month! 🙌🏼🙌🏼
For quite a while we added beans of one type or another to "all the foods"; well, plenty of them. What I did was cook beans from the bag, 1 lb at a time; 2lb may make more semse for more people. Once cooled, I frozen them in measured 1 and 2 cup volumes in repurposed, round plastic food containers and with time in glass food storage containers. Once frozen i removed the beans from the storage containers then stuffed them down repurposed bread bags seperated by 2 layers of waxed paper. Then when cooking i removed a bean chub and/ or the crumbles that fell off a chub to toss in; or made an actual bean dish. I generally used my cooked beans within 4 to 6 weeks and within 3 months so i didnt have to worry about freezer burn etc.. i generally used them in a cooked dish, or added a kiss of water and nuked them covered in the microwave, so i didnt have to think of or consider proper reheating temp with respect to food borne illness. We generally preferred black beans and small white (Northern?) beans as their flavors and textures melded better with more different dishes. - Beans are now a carb with a protien bonus for us blood sugar wise so we dont each much of them; loooong off the menu is white bread.
Yes on perpetually paying 1 month ahead on the Highlander bill! I call it insurrance against a hiccup on a higher payment bill. Yes its a little bit of an interest hit most times but the piece of mind is great.
Great BWM Katie, woohoo for a magic month! we have one for august also. Im sorry to hear about the trouble w the boys ninja classes, hopefully they can find something new theyll love!
Thank you, Stephanie! We’re already exploring some other options for them! We probably won’t start anything new until Logan’s cross country season is finished, but I’m sure we can find something they’ll enjoy 💙
Happy Tuesday! The summer does go so fast I didn’t even enjoy July lol. Ya for 3 paycheck month lol . Great budget breakdown! Oh yes heathy is so expensive I try but I’m always going over grocery
How unfortunate that you had to take your kids out because of adult bullying. Wow. Yep... I'd do the same as you! Awesome awesome budget! 7k to debt is amazing!! 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽 praying that things go smoothly and you can reach your targets. ❤❤❤
Good morning❤ Sorry to hear about the boys ninja class. I only get 2 unemployment checks for august. Hopefully I find a job and get lots of paychecks. Beautiful fur babies. Hope you had a wonderful weekend
Just found your channel! Love this! Quick question: what category do you put car insurance or homeowners insurance for instance? I want to try this spreadsheet out! Thanks!
Hey, Tracey! Thanks for being here! We pay home owners insurance through our mortgage with escrow. For car insurance, I pay every six months, so I actually use a sinking fund for that and track it on a different spreadsheet. If you pay yours monthly and wanted use this spreadsheet, I’d just add it under the “bills” category ☺️
I get 3 paychecks in October, but won’t see it until February 2025. I’m still excited for it though. And my 2nd job I just started I’ll get paid 3x in August but the first check won’t be much, then the next one will be in January
Congrats for your decisions over Ninja class. Few people make it through the sports ranks, despite the sport, into the "professionals" (or Olympics) making the primary purpose of sports being character building, discipline, and team building along with some physical exercise. - My recommendation is to use this as a learning exercise in life style and life circumstances changes. In the next 100 years these boys are likely to live, they will probably have a major life change such as a job loss, move into a completely different area, etc...
Oh yes, we definitely view sports as just a way to stay healthy, have fun, and to build up the disciple, so there will be plenty of other options. Liam has been interested in trying CrossFit kids or possible some type of martial arts, but we’ll probably wait until Logan’s cross country try season is finished to start something new because that keeps us busy for the first few months of the school year.
@@KatieoftheHouse Do talk to an ortho and especially a neuro before settling too much into Cross-Fit. All the more so since his bones, joints, and muscles are not mature.
Thanks for sharing your plan! Our next 3 paycheck month will be in October. I have been doing all my budgeting by hand and am seeing if I can use a program app. It’s been difficult to set that up since I usually set money aside the month before for things like the mortgage that is paid on the first of every month. So it looks like I’m paying the mortgage late, but I’m actually a month ahead. I may need to go back to the old way for peace of mind. Do you use a budget app or do you make your own?
Yay for a 3 paycheck month in October! That’s something to look forward to ☺️ Budgeting by hand is great if that works for you! I know there are a few free apps out there, but I haven’t tried any of them. I’ve always made my own spreadsheet. It’s linked if you want to try it. It’s a free google sheets download ❤️
It’s actually not online, so it’s only for local folks because they meet in person twice a week and then we work at home the other three days. It always sounds like it’s online when I say hybrid though 😆
@@KatieoftheHouse sure I didn't take it to be online. So you have a group of home schoolers together on 2 days of the week? Parents lead on those days?
He wasn’t enjoying for the last few months, so he’s ok with it, but there are some other places near us that have similar programs if he decides he wants to pick it up again ☺️
