Brushes & Budgets

Hopefully you had the opportunity to read my previous post for my first year working towards paying off my debit. If you haven’t please go here to catch up on things. This is a long read so be sure to grab a snack. If you’re a skimmer, the bold areas highlight the month, year, starting, and ending balance. There’s something for everyone on Brushes & Budgets.

Now that 2019 was all said and done and I had a clear picture of how I wanted to handle my finances going forward, I started my prep in the new year and was looking forward to another positive outlook. This year was significantly different from the previous. We’ll get into that in just a moment.

January 2020 – Starting Balance $40,949.27 – Ending Balance $39,819.81

I paid a total of $1,383.35 towards debt this month

Guess what guys!!!! I was below $40k of debt! It’s probably safe to mention, I went from 5 of 12 debts paid off to 8 of 12! I was so excited because my raise was paying off but a little scared. COVID was starting to gain a bit of popularity and the footage was absolutely terrifying. Life hadn’t changed quite yet so things seemed to be okay.

February 2020 – Starting Balance $39,819.81 – Ending Balance $38,531.55

I paid a total of $1,554.35 towards debt this month

I took yet another trip I cash-flowed for my friend’s birthday. Things were great until she got sick. We still believe she caught COVID but it was February and we didn’t have any test options for tests. I was still making positive (see what I did there?) moves in the right direction. I promise, I’m done making bad jokes for this entry…maybe…

March 2020 – Starting Balance $38,531.55 – Ending Balance $38,064.06

I paid a total of $837.35 towards debt this month

This month may seem a little low. At the time, my car payment was $298 and I decided to refinance it as well. My credit score was in the high 700’s and I had it financed at a Local Government Credit Union because I didn’t qualify for a better rate than I did at my job. I went from paying $298 with a 5.25% interest rate to paying $221.24 with a 3.39% interest rate. I also got a bonus of $200 because they couldn’t reduce my payment by $100. Overall it was a huge win and I was hitting a personal loan I had hard. This is also the month I decided to get a breast reduction. More on this later. I also began working from home indefinitely.

April 2020 – Starting Balance $38,064.06 – Ending Balance $37,382.05

I paid a total of $929.59 towards debt this month

If these numbers look low…it’s because they are. COVID was running rampant and I had to make a new adjustment to working from home and I still had roommates. I also decided to begin stockpiling cash instead of paying off debt just to be on the safe side. So all of my extra income went towards my savings. I did pay a little extra towards debt though. My monthly payments were considerably low regardless of what I owed. This is also the last month I paid interest towards my student loan.

May 2020 – Starting Balance $37,382.05 – Ending Balance $35,935.95

I paid a total of $1,603.59 towards debt this month

I was still trying to get this personal loan balance dropped a bit but most of the rest of my cash was going towards savings. I saved up a nice nest age by this point and planned on continuing. Early on this month, disaster struck once again. My sister was in a car accident and was paralyzed. She had two small kids and had just relocated to Missouri. I drove to be with my family to help with the kids and brought all of my work equipment with me as things were changing drastically around me. We couldn’t see her, so I did what I could because my nephews were with my grandma while I stayed at my mom’s so I had a quiet place to work. I also found out…insurance denied my breast reduction. I needed it to feel better and not getting it was not an option. Then I found out how insurance certificates work. I thought about appealing but I was with my family still. So I did what I could to work on it. Also…I applied for financing for a new home. More on that later.

June 2020 – Starting Balance $35,935.95 – Ending Balance $34,682.67

I paid a total of $618.59 towards debt this month…allegedly.

I finally returned home to work on figuring out what to do about this breast reduction. The headaches, etc I was getting from having big boobs was taking a toll on me and I wrapped up my affairs in Missouri to figure out how to go about getting support I needed for a breast reduction (pun intended – more bad jokes) and to start my second journey to home ownership. I did indeed stop making extra debt payments this month to save for due diligence and earnest money for my home purchase. I placed an offer on a home by the end of this month and it was accepted!

July 2020 – Starting Balance $34,682.67 – Ending Balance $35,417.87

I paid a total of $542.42 towards debt this month

I literally paid the minimums for my debts this month and added a new debt. I bought the couch that I would later break my foot on in 2023. Who’da thought? It’s a huge comfortable couch that doesn’t exactly fit in my living room but I absolutely love it. I spent the rest of the month trying to get packed and situated before the big move. I also found out that my insurance probably would never cover a breast reduction so I went ahead and picked a surgeon and applied for care credit because I was going to pay of it myself. My credit card was for $10k. and I didn’t have any plans on putting a balance on it until AFTER I closed on my house because that would be a catastrophe otherwise.

August 2020- Starting Balance $35,417.87 – Ending Balance $43,189.07

I paid a total of $742.42 towards debt this month

I was still stockpiling cash at this point. I paid off the first of the two 401k loans I took out in 2019 right after I closed on my new home! It’s a cute 2 bedroom 2 bath condo. You’ll also notice the balance increased significantly. That’s because I scheduled and paid for my surgery. It was $8,400…ick. I had my home that included a place for someone to stay to help me while I recovered. I landed on my friend from Nashville because she was looking to move back to the area. So…I paid for her plane ticket, let her use my car, in exchange for her being able to go house hunting. She accepted and I unpacked and got things together as best as I could. The one thing about my home that I hate, is the previous owner smoked. I got a good 90% of the smell out but sometimes items smell like smoke when you leave my house even though it doesn’t smell like smoke. My future project includes ripping up this gawd awful carpet to help with the air quality in my home.

September 2020 – Starting Balance $43,189.07 – Ending Balance $42,723.45

I paid a total of $589.54 towards debt this month

This was surgery month. If you think you may need a breast reduction. GET ONE! It was literally life changing. I still have problems thanks to the incident in 2019 but I can function a lot better. My back doesn’t scream every time I jump. By this point, I had already made my plans for when my first mortgage payment occurred and I was still saving heavily. I also worked towards paying off my couch and had started paying on my surgery. As soon as the couch was paid off…I was going to start throwing cash at my care credit credit card but I was pacing myself first.

October 2020 – Starting Balance $42,723.45 – Ending Balance $41,945.27

I paid a total of $1,075.90 towards debt this month

This is where things started to pick back up. My friend in Nashville moved back, I was relatively healed from my breast reduction, and I understood my financial responsibilities. It was time to start life and debt payments back up again!

November 2020 – Starting Balance $41,945.27 – Ending Balance $40,851.54

I paid a total of $1,311.42 towards debt this month

My couch was finally paid off and I started to attack my care credit credit card. In a sense, it felt like I started all over again. On the other hand it was extremely necessary. I just kept telling myself it was going to be okay. You’ll find out later if it really was. I was really enjoying my new smaller boobies though!

December 2020 – Starting Balance $40,851.54 – Ending Balance $39,303.01

I paid a total of $1,760.42 towards debt this month

I considering I added $9,548.65, I was pretty shocked I managed to make it back below $40k for the year. I made sacrifices considering I wasn’t out of debt and didn’t have the savings and I have no regrets. If I were out of debt, I’d do it the same way all over again honestly.

I made $12,948.94 of payments for 2020. Of those payments $2,308.37 went to interest. I had no choice but to do better for 2021 but nothing was holding me back…or so I thought…