Two month (and change) check-in

The job change has had me more scrambled than I expected! I'm loving the new role, even though the commute is still pretty rough. (Hurray for audiobooks from the library!) 

I've not been doing my monthly check-ins mostly because I thought I didn't have online access to my old 401(k). (Turns out I did have access, and I was finally able to initiate the rollover on it this week! There was about $2k not vested, but I don't think my mental health was worth sticking around just to vest that extra 40% of the company contribution.) 

I was also finally eligible to sign up for the 401(k) at my new job - I thought it was 90 days, but it was actually after three months with one hour of service, which was July, August, and September - so I'm signed up as of October 1! My first deduction will be on this coming Friday's paycheck. We have access to both a regular and a Roth 401(k), so I spent some time waffling on which to put my 4% into (salary match is up to 4% - I'll increase it once I pay off my credit cards). I asked my brother his opinion, because I was leaning toward splitting the difference, and he suggested to just put it all in the 401(k). I decided to do that because I believe I'll be in a lower tax bracket once I retire, plus I appreciate the lowering of my current tax bill.

One of the other things distracting me was trying to figure out how and when to move. I need to make some cosmetic updates to my current place in order to sell it for the best price, and I have too much crap in general. I debated between a personal loan and just saving up for a few months, and finally decided my credit score can't take the hit of a new loan if I want to get a good interest rate on my next place. So I reworked my budget, and all of the money above my credit card minimum payments is now going to be diverted to a savings account (~$1,100, plus another $265 from my still deferred federal student loan payment). I should have about $7,500 saved by the time I ready to pull the trigger in about 5.5 months. (Side note: I have enough equity in my current place that even after my next down payment, I'll have enough money to pay off my credit cards immediately.)

An upside of waiting means I have more time to declutter my place. I'm still determined to work on it daily, but it doesn't feel quite so overwhelming with the longer timeframe. I can also maybe do some of the cosmetic upgrade stuff myself, like painting and some minor repairs. 

A downside is that my credit utilization is still a bit high - it's currently sitting at about 41%, and ideally should be 35% or less. Aaaand I just fixed that by requesting credit limit increases on three of my balance transfer cards - one was approved for a $4k increase and two for a $2.5k increase. Love technology! That puts me at just a touch over 35%, which will decrease further when this month's payments hit. The increases should also help with those individual cards' utilizations as well. 

The final thing I need to do is switch my daily spending to a card with a higher limit - the current card's limit is only about $2.2k, and I usually spend about $1.5k per month on it. I have another card with an $8k limit (Chase Sapphire) that will work much better. I like the $2.2k card because it's Southwest Airlines-branded, but the $8k card has Chase Ultimate Rewards, which can be transferred to Southwest if I want. I've requested some of the credit line from my Chase Amazon card be transferred to the Southwest card, but I'll still move my recurring payments to the Chase Sapphire card. (Why am I not requesting credit line increases from Chase? Because their FAQ says I have to send a secure message with the amount I want to increase, and that they're going to pull my credit report to evaluate the request. Hard pass, given my future mortgage application!)

My Experian FICO score yesterday was 721. Wells Fargo's FICO 9 score says 699 as of 10/1. I want to get up to 760 or better by the time I apply for my next mortgage. The WF details say that I have too many inquiries in the last year, but the only hard inquiry I'm aware of is from applying for my latest balance transfer card in April. (I checked my credit reports yesterday - I stupidly got distracted while getting the last one and the session timed out and wouldn't let me re-access it. Luckily during the pandemic we have access to our free credit reports weekly, so I'll do a better job next weekend getting all three.)

This feels like a good stopping point for now. I'll try to put together a September net worth update shortly!

First day at the new job!

Today was my first day at my new job! The commute was less bad than I was expecting - about 45 minutes in the morning and I think would have been the same in the afternoon, but we were sent to another facility about 30 miles north of the office, so it was only about an hour fifteen total. I could have done it in an hour if I'd taken the first toll road, but I wasn't in a hurry.

I was a little stressed this morning trying to get out the door - one of my cats went out for his daily constitutional and stayed out much longer than I expected, and when I finally convinced him to come in, the other one decided today was a great day for one of her twice-monthly excursions and shot out the door as he was coming in. Luckily, she came in just as I was ready to leave. I had already set up a bed outside and food and water under the assumption she would just have to chill outside until I came back. 

Anyway, because I was so frazzled about the dang cats this morning that I forgot my gym bag! I had everything all packed and ready, too - I even remembered to get socks this morning when I forgot to pack them last night. I know myself really well and I knew that if I came home I wouldn't go to the gym... and sure enough, I did not. Instead I ordered pizza to celebrate my first day! I regret nothing.

I have some other stuff I want to post about (I forgot my June net worth update - but at this point I may just wait for July to be over - and I went on a last-minute trip to Boston last weekend and want to break down my spending), but for now this is good.

Two weeks' notice

Well, I did it. Last week I put in my two weeks' notice. It was bittersweet - my job has been insanely stressful (my blood pressure has been creeping up the last two years), but I really love (almost) all the people I've worked with. And as I mentioned in my last post, they had been very pleased with my performance (even though I personally don't think I was working up to my potential). I've been ready to move on, though, and hopefully to a position with less stress.

Where am I going? I got a job in an industry I'm very excited to be joining. It's a pre-IPO start-up doing some amazing things. They met my salary ask without negotiating me down (I had intentionally over-asked assuming they would), and I'm getting stock options. They also agreed to let me have a week off about one month in (vacation doesn't usually start until 90 days out) in exchange for me starting on the earlier of their two proposed starting dates.

However... I messed up a bit. I didn't negotiate to cover the bonus from my soon-to-be-former job, and when my old company mentioned a retention bonus, I didn't get a number from them to take to the new job. Live and learn! I was very ready to just get everything over with. Sadly, this means I won't be paying off my credit cards as soon as I wanted/expected, but the pay increase I'm getting will be going toward my credit cards. My current projection is that they will all be paid off by the end of June 2022, but I'm making a lot of guesses about my net pay and budget with the new job. 

Another minor bummer about the new job is that it's on the opposite side of town from me, which means I'll have a heck of a commute. Luckily, I love audiobooks, and once I get past downtown, it will be a reverse commute. My gym has a location on that side of town as well, so the tentative plan is that I'll go work out after work, which will give traffic time to die down. I had offhandedly mentioned an off-peak schedule to the hiring manager on my way out from my interview and he didn't immediately shut that idea down, so that could be a possibility as well.

I am considering moving to that side of town next year, if the commute really gets to me. My condo is enough of a disaster that I wouldn't be able to get it on the market in the next couple of months, and if I moved now, my housing expense would basically double, which would cut into my credit card repayments. A one-year delay, though, gives me plenty of time to declutter and make necessary updates (new flooring, for example) without having to stress too much. Even if the housing market cools off, I should still make a tidy profit on this place.

Current job update

Well, apparently I hate my job but it doesn't hate me. I had my annual performance review last week and hot damn was it good. (My company's fiscal year ends June 30, hence the mid-calendar year review.)

During this pandemic, I have definitely not felt like I was doing my best work. I love working from home, but I need a little more accountability than I currently have. Apparently though, I'm still doing well enough that I was ranked in the highest bucket (now three out of my four years), which resulted in a 17% raise (which brings me up to the salary I've been asking for in interviews - time to up that number!) and a TWENTY-THREE THOUSAND DOLLAR bonus.

Sorry about the all caps, I'm just unbelievably stoked about that number. I've never had a bonus that large before - I think $5k for professional licensing was the biggest bonus I've ever gotten previously. Last year's bonus was just $3k.

I have a relative who works in HR who told me that I can negotiate for a signing bonus from any companies in the offer phase to still get that amount of money even if I leave before the bonus is paid out (which would be September 30, presumably to keep people from quitting). 

Based on my last bonus's withholdings, I'll net about 2/3 of the gross amount, roughly $15.5k. Even that amount of money is staggering to me. I've already figured out that at the time of payout, the bonus amount would be enough to pay off the rest of my credit cards entirely and leave me about $1,500 to do with what I wish. 

Y'all, I know not to count my chickens before they hatch, but I'm already so relieved at the idea of having my cards paid off a full year earlier than expected. At my current rate, it was looking like June 2022 for full payoff. Once my cards are paid off, I can finally start saving heavily for early retirement and travel and all of the fun things I've been avoiding because they're too expensive (like scuba diving!). 

May net worth update

May was another good month. The Affirm loan was finally paid off, and I both went on vacation to Universal Studios and paid off both the package and incurred incidentals. Taking the vacation meant I didn't keep making progress on my debts, but after not having traveled in over a year (with the exception of a couple of road trips to visit my brother, which barely counted since I drove straight down and just stayed in his house hanging with my nephew), it was a welcome respite. 

Here's my introduction post where I broke down my net worth in January 2021, and here's a link to my February, March, and April updates.

Here's where my net worth stands now as of 5/31/2021:

• Checking: $3,822.66 
• Short-term savings: $4,908.61 (This is several savings accounts: car repairs, car insurance [paid every six months], cat savings [I have two approaching-senior cats, and their vet bills are always a kick in the teeth], and vacation)
• E*Trade: $537.35 (this is literally just a few shares in one stock that I've had since I was probably 12 or so?)
• Vanguard brokerage account: $200 (I've gotten antsy with credit card paydowns and wanted to start investing again, so I gave myself $50/month to start doing so - this is my seed money from a savings account that I will put toward a share of VTI once I have enough in the money market fund)
• Retirement savings: $31,841.73 (Roth IRA) and $39,424.77 (401(k) - I'm also not fully vested yet, but the unvested amount is maybe $1k)
• HSA: $1,370.28 cash, $8,458.91 invested = $9,829.19 (my HSA requires at least $1,000 in cash available to pay for expenses - anything over that, I just haven’t invested yet)
• Condo: ~$120,000 (A recent listing for the same layout unit - but more recently remodeled - was listed at $198k.)

Total assets: $210,564.31

• Credit card debt: ($19,558.78) (so stoked to be under $20k! These are due to be paid off by September 2022)
• Student loans: ($21,339.72) (mostly federal, and payments are suspended until September 30, 2021 - roughly $5.1k is private, so that's where I'm focusing my efforts) (private loan due to be paid off December 2022, and federal loans April 2023)
• Car loan: ($457.89) (due to be paid off August 2021, at which point that money will be diverted to a sinking fund for a car replacement)
• Mortgage: ($35,922.12) (due to be paid off November 2038 - before grad school, I made 8 months of principal-only payments that were the same amount as the mandatory principal+interest payments [not including escrow for taxes and insurance] and it cut 2.5 years off the life of my loan, which still blows my dang mind)

Total liabilities: ($77,278.51) 

Net worth: $133,285.80

My prior month net worth was $129,584.90, which means I've had about a $3.7k gain in the past month! This time it was mostly a decrease in liabilities, which I'm totally fine with - the less debt I owe, the less interest I have to pay.

In June I plan to continue paying down the Chase Sapphire and to purchase one share of VTI.

Job hunt update

I'm frustrated.

I've applied to what feels like 20+ jobs at this point, and I've had several interviews, but nothing has come to fruition. I'm getting ghosted a lot post-interview, too.

A particularly demoralizing point was last week, while I was on vacation, I went back to my hotel room in the middle of the day to have a phone interview with a CEO, and it ended with him telling me that the recruiter would be in touch in the next day or two. Well, it's been over a week, and I haven't heard anything from the recruiter, but on Monday LinkedIn was kind enough to notify me that there was a new posting - for the same position at that company.

I can usually tell exactly when things go wrong in interviews. Usually I give an answer that doesn't frame me in the right light, or I say something in a particularly annoying tone of voice. The problem is, knowing when it's happening doesn't help, because I can't undo it. 

I thought with my most recent interview Wednesday that I did a really good job. There were a couple of the traditional "asking about a weak spot" questions where I answered honestly and also mentioned how I had overcome those weak spots. I didn't say anything in an annoying tone of voice, either. It's possible they could still get back to me. I would like the position a lot, it's remote and the duties seem well within my wheelhouse.

In the meantime, though, I'm going to continue applying to anything I seem even remotely qualified for. Hopefully someone finds my work history appealing!

Update: Yeah, that job from Wednesday rejected me shortly after this post was published. Cue further frustration and discouragement.

April net worth update

Another great month in April! The Marriott Amex is officially paid off, and balance transfers have happened for the Chase Sapphire. 

Here's my introduction post where I broke down my net worth in January, and here's a link to my February update and the March update.

Here's where my net worth stands now as of 4/30/2021:

• Checking: $5,702.53 (This includes my most recent stimulus and a small bonus from work equal to one week's pay, received on 4/30.)
• Short-term savings: $4,428.20 (This is several savings accounts: car repairs, car insurance [paid every six months], cat savings [I have two approaching-senior cats, and their vet bills are always a kick in the teeth], and vacation)
• E*Trade: $524.61 (this is literally just a few shares in one stock that I've had since I was probably 12 or so?)
• Retirement savings: $31,572.24 (Roth IRA) and $37,911.31 (401(k) - I'm also not fully vested yet, but the unvested amount is maybe $1k)
• HSA: $1,310.92 cash, $8,359.14 invested = $9,670.06 (my HSA requires at least $1,000 in cash available to pay for expenses - anything over that, I just haven’t invested yet)
• Condo: ~$120,000 (A recent listing for the same layout unit - but more recently remodeled - was listed at $198k.)

Total assets: $209,808.95

• Credit card debt: ($21,985.11) (due to be paid off by September 2022)
• Student loans: ($21,495.22) (mostly federal, and payments are suspended until September 30, 2021 - roughly $5.4k is private, so that's where I'm focusing my efforts) (private loan due to be paid off December 2022, and federal loans April 2023)
• Car loan: ($609.42) (due to be paid off August 2021)
• Affirm loan (I desperately needed a new mattress last year, as my 15+-year-old one was causing problems for my back, and Affirm was offering 0% and no fees for a 12 month loan of the purchase price): ($109.23) (due to be paid off in May 2021)
• Mortgage: ($36,025.07) (due to be paid off November 2038 - before grad school, I made 8 months of principal-only payments that were the same amount as the mandatory principal+interest payments [not including escrow for taxes and insurance] and it cut 2.5 years off the life of my loan, which still blows my dang mind)

Total liabilities: ($80,224.05) 

Net worth: $129,584.90

My prior month net worth was $122,704.82, which means I've had an almost $7k gain in the past month! Once again it was almost entirely asset growth. I'm still pleased at the progress I'm making with my debt paydown. 

Next credit card to pay down: Chase Sapphire

The Chase Sapphire card is the next victim on my credit card paydown list, with an interest rate of 15.24% (the same as the Amex I just paid off - I basically flipped a coin on which one to pay first). As of two days ago, it has a balance of $7,566.89, including the previous billing period's interest. 

Here's how I'm dealing with it: Balance transfers! I qualified for a new credit card from Citi (Citi Preferred Diamond) with a $4,100 credit limit, and also finally realized how I could get a new balance transfer on an existing Citi card I already have (Citi Simplicity, $2,700 limit). 

The Simplicity transfer processed two days ago as well, so my current balance is $4,945.53 (there was also a 3% transfer fee). I have to pay the Simplicity card by March 1, 2022, so I plan to pay $270 per month for the next 10 months.

I'm waiting for the Preferred Diamond card in the mail still, which I think is why the transfer hasn't processed yet. That one will bring my balance down by another $3,980ish (I'm not sure of the exact amount) to under $1,000! This card has an 18 month 0% period, so I'm going to be paying $227.75 per month on it. I expect to be able to pay it off by June 2022, because at that point everything else should be paid off! 

I'm currently budgeting $1,315 for credit card paydown (ugh, I hate that number), plus $265.78 from my federal student loans. It's being allocated as follows:

Card	Monthly payment
Chase Sapphire	$231.80
Chase Freedom	$50.00
Chase Amazon	$110.00
Wells Fargo CC	$82.00
Discover BT	$500.00
Citi Preferred BT	$227.75
Citi Simplicity	$270.00
Affirm	$109.23

(Affirm is due to be paid off in May, at which point that money will be reallocated to the Chase Sapphire.)

The remaining Chase Sapphire balance will be paid off by July! (I'm counting it as paid off even though most of the balance has been transferred to 0% BT cards, because then it's no longer accruing interest and digging me in deeper.)

After the Chase Sapphire is paid off, next will be the Chase Freedom, which should only take a couple months given that it's a relatively low balance (currently only about $1,000). The Discover BT will also be paid off at the same time as the Freedom. (The Discover balance was previously on the Marriott Amex.) 

I'm really excited, I finally feel like the end is in sight for this damn credit card debt. It's been hanging around my neck since I graduated grad school at the end of 2016, and I'm finally in a financial spot where I can make significant progress with it.

March net worth update

March was a great month for me! I got my third stimulus check, which I allocated to a vacation 

Here's my introduction post where I broke down my net worth in January, and here's a link to my February update.

Here's where my net worth stands now as of 3/31/2021:

• Checking: $4,503.83 (I have two checking accounts - more on that to come!)
• Short-term savings: $3,848.80 (This is several savings accounts: car repairs, car insurance [paid every six months], cat savings [I have two approaching-senior cats, and their vet bills are always a kick in the teeth], and vacation)
• E*Trade: $512.45 (this is literally just a few shares in one stock that I've had since I was probably 12 or so?)
• Retirement savings: $30,288.86 (Roth IRA) and $35,856.26 (401(k) - I'm also not fully vested yet, but since I don't intend to leave my current job before I fully vest, this is the full amount in my account)
• HSA: $1,132.43 cash, $7,999.52 invested = $9,131.95 (my HSA requires at least $1,000 in cash available to pay for expenses - anything over that, I just haven’t invested yet)
• Condo: ~$120,000 (Zillow estimates my place to be worth $173k, which is so unbelievably comical to me. I don't even know if it's worth $120k, but that seems like a more likely number than $173k.)

Total assets: $204,112.15

• Credit card debt: ($22,651.74) (due to be paid off by September 2022)
• Student loans: ($21,649.34) (mostly federal, and payments are suspended until September 30, 2021 - roughly $5.4k is private, so that's where I'm focusing my efforts) (private loan due to be paid off December 2022, and federal loans April 2023)
• Car loan: ($760.19) (due to be paid off August 2021)
• Affirm loan (I desperately needed a new mattress last year, as my 15+-year-old one was causing problems for my back, and Affirm was offering 0% and no fees for a 12 month loan of the purchase price): ($218.50) (due to be paid off in May 2021)
• Mortgage: ($36,127.56) (due to be paid off November 2038 - before grad school, I made 8 months of principal-only payments that were the same amount as the mandatory principal+interest payments [not including escrow for taxes and insurance] and it cut 2.5 years off the life of my loan, which still blows my dang mind)

Total liabilities: ($81,407.33) 

Net worth: $122,704.82

My prior month net worth was $118,215.51, which means I've had an almost $4k gain in about 4 weeks! It was almost entirely an increase in assets - my credit card debt stayed steady because I put an upcoming vacation (funded by my stimulus) on it. I did consider upping my estimate of my condo valuation because Zillow has increased the value by about $6k, but I decided it wasn't time yet.

Marriott Amex - officially paid off! Next steps...?

I'm so stoked! Last night at 10:30 pm, I was looking at my GoodBudget app, and I realized I could pay the last little bitty chunk of the Marriott Amex (while borrowing a bit from the next pay period's envelope loading/the "unallocated" envelope). I have officially paid it off!

So technically, I did make three additional purchases on it this month, primarily because I didn't have my main credit card with me. I bought a bottle of kirschwasser and a bottle of whiskey at the liquor store, I paid for a massage with it (that money came out of my stimulus funds), and I ordered some (much-needed) leggings from Old Navy, so I'll be on the hook for all of that (about $300) when the billing cycle closes in April. 

My federal student loans are frozen because of the pandemic, so I've been using that money (about $265) to pay off this card. That $265 plus the $97ish in the regular mid-month budget will more than cover the last chunk of spending, and I will be ready to move on to the next card, the Chase Sapphire with about $7,500 (ugh) on it.

I've already been paying slightly more than the minimum payment on the Chase Sapphire (I set all my cards up with a fixed payment instead of just the minimum because I hated having to adjust my budget every month). The current minimum payment is about $150. With the Marriott Amex paid off, I'll be able to put $680 ($150 min pymt + $97 Amex mid-month amt + $168 Amex end-of-month amt + $265 fed student loan) each month toward it! I'm expecting to have it paid off by November of this year.

I'm also planning to apply for a 0% interest balance transfer card in a couple of weeks to use for at least part of the Chase Sapphire balance. I do have an offer from my current Discover card for a balance transfer, but I need to find out how they apply payments, because I don't want to get stuck owing money on an older balance transfer if they're applying payments to the newer transfers. That is a problem for future Tex to figure out!

Job hunting update

As I mentioned last week, I've started applying for jobs. I'm trying to be a bit judicious in only applying for things that sound interesting to me and for which I'm qualified. (I am allowing myself to stretch some, since apparently it's much more common for women to only apply for jobs they definitely meet the criteria for, while men are more likely to apply for jobs they don't quite have the qualifications for.) 

So far I've had two phone interviews that have gone really well, and the salaries in the market are going to be such a boost to my debt payoff plan and future investing plans. I'm looking at a minimum 20% boost by moving from my current job.

One of the things I struggle with is imposter syndrome, which is wild because I absolutely have the experience that these job posters are looking for, and I'm very open about where I have drawbacks (but also that I love to learn new things).

I am a little bummed because the first job I applied to two weeks ago rejected me, but I was already ready for that to happen after I opened the cover letter last week and re-read it - good grief but it was terrible. It was a good start, but I definitely missed some critical language that would have better conveyed my enthusiasm and suitability for the job. I learned my lesson and have crafted better cover letters in the intervening time. 

It's interesting how different job hunting is this time around. A decade ago, when I was fresh out of undergrad with a liberal arts degree, I was not a top candidate for anything (and to be honest, I didn't know what I wanted to do). I enjoyed where I ended up, but it was not very well-paying in the grand scheme of things, which prompted my going to grad school. I took on debt in grad school, both student loans and credit cards (frivolous spending, sigh), but I'm so thrilled at the opportunities that my master's degree has presented me. I'm in a career that challenges me mentally and is decently necessary to the economy as a whole, so I have skills that are transferrable and in demand. That means that I can command more in salary and also find a job that suits me, rather than feeling pressured to take whatever was offered because it was the only thing on the table. I'm excited to see where this next step takes me!

Whoops

I haven't been keeping up with my spending journals. I could make excuses, but I don't have any particularly good ones. The project I was on at work wrapped up last Tuesday, and I just sort of fell into a funk. I think I suffer from depression (I was diagnosed as a teenager after my dad died, but I haven't seen any sort of mental health professional since then) and/or seasonal affective disorder, so I tend to spend a lot of time working on my mental health, but occasionally I slip and anything that's not an absolute must-do (basically, food and work) falls by the wayside. I just showered for the first time in four or five days, for instance.

I've also bought some stupid stuff in the last two weeks that I didn't really want to confess to. I bought a customized Yeti, coffee beans from a local roaster, a lot of pizza (I think it was like 5 places in a week), a slightly spendy dinner out with my sister-in-law when she came to town (socially distanced on a patio), and I blew my $1,400 stimulus on a trip to Universal Studios Orlando in early May. I decided not to feel too guilty about my trip, though, because: 

• I spent my last two checks paying down my debt
• I'm on track to pay down the Marriott Amex by April as planned
• I have not gone on vacation in a year and three months (as of now) and by the time my trip rolls around it'll have been almost a year and a half
• I got my first vaccine shot last week, so by the time my trip rolls around I should be fully immunized.

The package I got was about $840 for four nights at an on-site hotel and a three-park four-day ticket. I paid for my flight with points on Southwest, although I did splurge for the Early Bird check-in, so that was another $51.20. I earmarked about $200 of my stimulus to get a massage on my upcoming birthday, and the remaining $300-ish will be spent on the trip itself.

This morning I spent a few minutes during a work webcast catching up on my expense tracking in GoodBudget. Honestly, the damage wasn't as bad as I thought. I'm dying to put the next chunk of change on the Marriott Amex, but the billing cycle is due to close today, so I'm leaving it alone until tomorrow at the earliest. 

I've also started applying for jobs! I'm trying to apply to only things I think will be interesting and that I want to do.

All in all, I am making progress and mostly good decisions, even if I'm not reporting it. 

February net worth check-in

February was a good month for me! I paid down my Marriott Amex to below $1k, which means I'm on track to pay it off by April.

Here's my introduction post where I broke down my net worth in January.

Here's where my net worth stands now as of 2/28/2021:

• Checking: $3,354.45 (I have two checking accounts - more on that to come!)
• Short-term savings: $3,392.41 (This is several savings accounts: car repairs, car insurance [paid every six months], cat savings [I have two approaching-senior cats, and their vet bills are always a kick in the teeth], and vacation)
• E*Trade: $472.35 (this is literally just a few shares in one stock that I've had since I was probably 12 or so?)
• Retirement savings: $29,320.69 (Roth IRA) and $34,265.76 (401(k) - I'm also not fully vested yet, but since I don't intend to leave my current job before I fully vest, this is the full amount in my account)
• HSA: $1,178.04 cash, $7,866.85 invested = $9,044.89 (my HSA requires at least $1,000 in cash available to pay for expenses - anything over that, I just haven’t invested yet)
• Condo: ~$120,000 (Zillow estimates my place to be worth $168k, which is so unbelievably comical to me. I don't even know if it's worth $120k, but that seems like a more likely number than $168k.)

Total assets: $199,850.55

• Credit card debt: ($22,359.63) (due to be paid off by September 2022)
• Student loans: ($21,807.37) (mostly federal, and payments are suspended until September 30, 2021 - roughly $5.5k is private, so that's where I'm focusing my efforts) (private loan due to be paid off December 2022, and federal loans April 2023)
• Car loan: ($910.68) (under $1k! and due to be paid off August 2021)
• Affirm loan (I desperately needed a new mattress last year, as my 15+-year-old one was causing problems for my back, and Affirm was offering 0% and no fees for a 12 month loan of the purchase price): ($327.77) (due to be paid off in May 2021)
• Mortgage: ($36,229.59) (due to be paid off November 2038 - before grad school, I made 8 months of principal-only payments that were the same amount as the mandatory principal+interest payments [not including escrow for taxes and insurance] and it cut 2.5 years off the life of my loan, which still blows my dang mind)

Total liabilities: ($81,635.04) 

Net worth: $118,215.51

My prior month net worth was $112,293.71, which means I've had an almost $6k gain in about 5 weeks! About $3k was liability paydowns, and the rest was increases in cash and investments. 

Tex's money journal, February 21 - February 27

I originally planned to do these like Refinery29's Money Diaries, but my life is not interesting enough to be broken down by times! Also, these days I don't do much more than sleep, work, and obsess about my finances. I'm hoping I'll be more interesting in a couple of weeks!

February 21 (Sunday)

One of the things I forgot to mention in last week's spending was my order of emergency food from Go Habitat. I ordered their two week supply at the recommendation of a coworker. He even provided me a discount code that gave me $38.50 off, so it cost me $143.20. I charged it to my Marriott Amex (the one I'm working to pay down, sigh), and after a couple of days decided to pay for it out of my short-term savings - that is more or less the point of that savings account!

I didn't spend any money today. Well, not entirely true. I had a minor freakout about our project deadline being in 12 days, so instead of taking a break to cook the soup I had planned (I had also forgotten to take the chicken out of the freezer), I ordered a bunch of Indian food. Work had given us DoorDash credit, so it didn't actually cost me anything out of pocket. It was about $60 worth of food, plus $10 in tip (I have DashPass through one of my credit cards so the other fees were minimal). I ordered vegetable pakoras, mulligatawny soup, saag paneer, chana masala, naan, cheese naan (my favorite!), and a vegetarian sampler that consisted of "half" portions of saag paneer, dal bukhara, and malai kofta, plus roti, spinach pakoras, a samosa, and gulab jamun. It ended up making about 8 meals - the soup and the pakoras/samosa, the entree saag paneer and chana masalas were two each, and the vegetarian sampler half portions were another three. I have grocery pickup scheduled for Tuesday, with a very simple crockpot meal in the rotation and a slightly more complicated recipe (egg roll in a bowl) as well. 

Breakfast was oatmeal with egg, I finished off the last lemon chicken thighs with green beans for lunch and ate a cheese naan, a few pakoras, and a small portion of saag paneer for dinner. (I was pleased that I stopped eating when I was full. A problem I've had for a very long time is the inability to self-regulate an appropriate amount of food, so it was nice to do it even just this once.)

I spent most of Sunday working my tail off because of that freakout. It had the happy result that I felt much better about our progress by the end of the day, so all's well that ends well.

Day 1 total: $0

February 22 (Monday)

Another no-spend day. Breakfast was oatmeal and egg again, lunch was chana masala (spicy!) and naan, and dinner was mulligatawny soup and the remaining pakoras and samosa.

Work was good, and our status meeting helped me realize we were in better shape than I had thought the previous day. I went out for a lunchtime walk, my first in over a week, and felt much better physically and mentally for it. 

Day 2 total: $0

February 23 (Tuesday)

Time to spend money! I did my laundry (just clothes) for the first time in over a week ($1.50), picked up my grocery order from HEB ($65.68), made a small donation ($10), and got my tax refund, so after topping off a couple of budget envelopes (my entertainment spending went a lil crazy last week with the tea and the gym program purchase), I put the rest toward the Marriott Amex ($276.13). I'm so close to being under $1,000 with that card! Once the short-term savings transfer for the emergency food posts, the balance will be finally be in the three digits. My Amazon Prime annual payment also posted ($128.82), that amount will come out of my annual savings fund. $482.13

Work wasn't super-productive. I think I swung too far in the other direction from Sunday's freakout and was just complacent and easily distracted. Breakfast was a jalapeno-cheese kolache from the grocery order and a banana, lunch was dal bukhara and more naan, and dinner was saag paneer. I made more naan (completely whole wheat) because I clearly didn't order enough. I'm a little nervous I'll eat it all instead of eating it with meals like I'm planning to, but this is something I need to work on.

I signed off my work computer at nearly midnight and went to take off my makeup with an oil-based cleanser, only after the application of which did I discover that the water had been shut off in our condos. I checked my email and saw the management company had sent out a notice saying they found a "major leak." This is crazy annoying because I've been using up all the water I boiled/bottled last week, so I only have a couple of bottles left, and they don't have a timeline for when they'll fix it.

Day 3 total: $482.13

February 24 (Wednesday)

I let my annoyance at the water situation get the best of me this morning. I went to the local grocery store to buy water (I haven't been in a grocery store in months!), and also picked up instant coffee and some Coke Zero ($8.76). Then since I was already out of my house, I mobile ordered Starbucks and went to pick it up. I had to reload my Starbucks balance ($15) to cover the cost of the coffee, but I decided it was worth it. Then I subscribed to the new People Royal magazine because I'm low-key obsessed with the English monarchy, and I wanted a little treat to make me feel better ($20). I moved money from my car envelope to top off the entertainment envelope again to cover these expenses - the only driving I'm currently doing is to and from the grocery store. $43.76

The water came on again around 4 pm, which was a relief. I'm skeptical it will stay on, but at least I have supplies to deal with it if necessary. 

Day 4 total: $43.76

February 25 (Thursday)

I woke up before my alarm, which was not ideal given that I went to bed after midnight. I do think I would function well with 7.5 hours of sleep generally, but for some reason I insist on attempting 9 hours. 

I ended up having a terrible time focusing on work today. Eight days til we're done with this project, but most of my part is done. I got a reminder email that I had signed up for Austin Monthly's Front Porch Session, the virtual version of which comes with a free cocktail kit that you have to pick up from Still Austin the day of the show. While I was picking that up, I impulse bought a bottle of their gin and a bottle of their whiskey. (I haven't even tried their gin yet; it was the sample in the cocktail kit yesterday but my cocktail shaker is currently occupied with leftover tea from the storm when I had no other containers.) $77

I was supposed to make soup for dinner, but I talked myself into getting pepperoni rolls instead. I'll have to make the soup for lunch tomorrow, but it's a pretty simple recipe. Pepperoni rolls were $8.65, but I round up for a tip (even though I always order carry out). $10

And of course, today is the day my Chase minimum payments post ($345 total). The short-term savings transfer for my emergency food hit as well, so I threw that at the Marriott Amex ($143.20). The balance is finally under $1,000! I'm so close to paying it off at last. $488.20

Day 5 total: $575.20

February 26 (Friday)

A decent workday, and I signed off at 5 pm (for 5 o'clock Friday!). Breakfast was a jalapeno kolache and a banana, lunch was cabbage egg roll soup I didn't make last night, and dinner is pot roast (literally just a pork roast with cream of mushroom soup and onion soup mix) over egg noodles, with a side of Italian green beans with olives. I spent the evening watching Modern Family and reading on my Kindle. (Actually on the Kindle webpage.)

Today my private student loan posted ($55.43 + $21.94), and I sent $5 to my short-term savings account from the unallocated envelope in my budget. $82.37

Day 6 total: $82.37

February 27 (Saturday)

Ugh, I drank too many bee's knees cocktails last night (I drank three total). I also dropped the shaker while making what would have been my third one, splattering gin, lemon and honey all over my kitchen - and naturally I didn't clean it up while I was inebriated, I just cleaned the shaker and made another one. I slept terribly, too - ever since this year's Whole30, booze hits me so much harder than it used to. I woke up three hours after I went to bed (I'm already sleep-deprived because of work!) and couldn't go back to sleep for a while, so I played on my phone a bit. Then I only got another three hours of sleep, so my day started earlier than I would have liked. More phone time before I got up (it's such a bad habit). 

I was going to go start doing some laundry I'd been procrastinating, but I overheard some neighbors mention that there were supposed to be plumbers on site from 10 am to noon, and I didn't think I'd be done with the washers by then, so I just didn't start. Instead I got onto my work laptop a little earlier than usual for a weekend.

My Fire TV remote stopped working a while back, but the box was still working, so I had just been using the app on my phone as a remote. (Technology is wonderful.) Tonight, though, I'm not sure what happened, but the app couldn't connect to the box. Hulu played on for a while, which was perfect, but eventually I got the "Are you still watching?" message and had to set up my Fire TV Stick.

Day 7 total: $0

Weekly spend: $1,183.46

Mostly credit card payments this week! I'm very stoked about my Marriott Amex balance getting below $1k.

• Credit cards: 764.33
• Entertainment: 250.82
• Student loan: 77.37
• Groceries: 74.44
• Donation: 10
• Savings: 5
• Laundry: 1.50

Tex's money journal, February 14 - February 20

I originally planned to do these like Refinery29's Money Diaries, but my life is not interesting enough to be broken down by times! Also, these days I don't do much more than sleep, work, and obsess about my finances. 

February 14 (Sunday)

Ah, Valentine's Day, the scourge of single women everywhere. I woke up at like 10 am (I took NyQuil last night shortly before midnight) feeling surprisingly refreshed. I idled in bed with my laptop and my cats snuggled up until a little before noon. I finally got up to make toast because I was hungry, and the cats wanted their food. A friend messaged about doing a virtual Puzzled Pint meet up, so I spent a couple of hours with some friends doing the January puzzles. We got all the way to the bonus puzzle and then I kind of lost interest and remembered I still needed to do some work, so I signed off with my friends to switch to my work computer.

I got some quality work done! For dinner, I made pork loin from the freezer with lots of broccoli, which was delicious. I drank a big glass of wine and a couple of small servings of Bauchant, and I'm extremely surprised how it made me flush, but if I had to guess, I would assume it's the six weeks of no drinking.

My gym sent out an offer for a new program that starts the day after my current project ends, so I signed up for it! I did it in November and it was... moderately successful for me. I'm hoping that once this current project ends, I'll have more energy and interest in exercising. I think my schedule should be much better when I'm not working 12+ hours a day. For an eight-week program, it's only twenty dollars, so I'm hopeful it will help motivate me! $21.65

Netflix finally implemented the price increase they've been threatening, so my monthly bill is now $15.14 - and that also posted today. $15.14

Day 1 total: $36.79

February 15 (Monday)

Ugh - all the booze last night had me waking up before 5:30 a.m. I could not convince myself to go back to sleep, so I browsed my phone for a while and lazed in bed with the cats. I finally got up around 7:30 and got dressed in a ton of layers (did I mention that it snowed a couple of inches last night?). My condo seems to be on a section of the power grid that's not affected by the rolling brownouts in the area, but I still feel obligated to turn down the heat and conserve power. The local power company requested 68 degrees on our thermostats, which I was surprised to see was already the setting this morning, so I ended up turning it down to 56 as the day went on and more outages were reported.

Last month's spending credit card payment posted today - not counting that toward my daily spend since the money was already acknowledged earlier. (It was $1.3k - higher than the usual $800 or so because of my car insurance premium.)

I spent the day working in bed, since my bedroom was the warmest place in the house and my bed has good thick blankets. I got a really good chunk of work done, but I signed off “early” (around 7 pm) because what I did all day was repetitious and boring, and half my team wasn’t working anyway because of lack of power. I took a nap that somehow didn’t last all night, got up and ate dinner (both lunch and dinner were leftover pork loin and broccoli), then did the dishes and crawled right back into bed.

I wanted pizza for dinner again, but there was no way I was leaving my place, so I sucked it up. I did polish off the S’mores Girl Scout cookies (dang they were tasty!) and had some plantain chips.

I’m hopeful I don’t lose power the next couple of days, but if I do, I’m trying to think of how to feed and caffeinate myself. I have camping gear, so I can always set up my little aluminum side table and camp burner on the porch so I can boil water or heat up food (why didn’t I make soup?). I can make oatmeal for breakfast - or heck, even any meal, really - and I have Triscuits I’m sure I can do something with. I should make chicken broth in the Instant Pot tomorrow morning - normally I prefer to do 20 hours in the slow cooker, but I’d rather not try to count on consistent electricity.

Day 2 total: $0

February 16 (Tuesday)

Still cold! I worked in bed all day, since I left my heat at 56. I drank lots of coffee and tea. I made my chicken broth in the Instant Pot, and I'm obsessed with doing it now - the recipe I found online suggested putting everything in the strainer insert, and it made taking all the ingredients out super-easy!

I ordered tea from The Republic of Tea because there was a tea in the Resolution box I ordered from Sips By that I really liked. I ordered a couple other versions that also sounded good - I ordered Get Wellness (the one I got from Sips By), Get Some Zzzs, Get Heart, and Get Relaxed. I had a discount code for buy three get one free. $40.74

My monthly Hulu charge also posted, too. $12.98

Day 3 total: $53.72

February 17 (Wednesday)

Another day working in bed - it's the warmest part of the house. This morning I made some lemon chicken with green beans from the Whole30 Slow Cooker. Not my favorite recipe, turns out, but edible, and luckily it only made four servings that I have to eat. (Specifically, I didn't like the flavor the tomatoes imparted to the green beans, but it turns out enough salt can get me past it. If I make it again, I'll leave out the tomatoes.)

Today all my second paycheck savings went out - cat savings ($170), vacation savings ($300), and annual expense savings ($100). $570

Day 4 total: $570

February 18 (Thursday)

It's still so cold! I worked in bed again. I've been eating savory oatmeal with egg for breakfast the last couple of days. Lunch was the leftover lemon chicken, and dinner was leftover pork and broccoli. There's been a boil water notice since yesterday, so dishes have been tricky, but I boiled plenty of water and managed to hand wash a few things. The dishwasher has been full up already for a couple days.

My PBS donation ($5.15) and my iCloud storage ($0.99) charges processed today, and my Affirm payment ($109.27) and my Marriott Amex payment ($704.29) also posted. $819.70

Day 5 total: $819.70

February 19 (Friday)

A good day of work! I ended at 6 (instead of the usual 5) because I was on a roll, and then I watched Modern Family. I really wanted to order pizza, but the boil water notice is still on, so my favorite place is closed, and even most Pizza Huts were closed. I'm not quite ready to venture out on the roads, either. I ended up making a loaf of 100% whole wheat bread and eating almost half of it! I forgot to eat dinner because I was full of bread. I had the lemon chicken for lunch - just one more serving of it! I turned the heat up to 60 finally, because most people in Austin have gotten their power back.

My Discover payment posted today ($500) - I'm making good progress on paying that down. $500

Day 6 total: $500

February 20 (Saturday)

Slept in a bit, then got up and got to work. I ate the last serving of pork and broccoli for lunch, and worked til around 6 pm. 

Last night was the final night of the 2021 Austin snowstorm, where it got down to freezing one last time. I was extremely lucky that I retained power and water the whole time. The worst thing that happened was I lost water pressure a couple days ago, and I kept the temperature at 56 to minimize my energy usage. My worst fear was that my pipes would burst - my house is full of crap that I need to declutter, and it would be so stressful to try to clean that up!

No spending today!

Day 7 total: $0

Weekly total: $1,980.21

Not too bad a week - mostly savings and credit card/loan payments.

• Credit cards: 1204.29
• Affirm: 109.27
• Savings: 570
• Entertainment: 96.65   

Tex's money journal, February 7 - February 13

 I originally planned to do these like Refinery29's Money Diaries, but my life is not interesting enough to be broken down by times! Also, these days I don't do much more than sleep, work, and obsess about my finances. 

February 7 (Sunday)

Woke up around 7:30 - I will admit, I was wearing a sleep mask but it was slightly askew, so when I opened my eyes and could see light, I panic-jerked awake only to discover it was 7:30. Got up around 8 so I could get started on my day! 

Reintroducing non-gluten grains today, so I made oatmeal with an egg in it for breakfast (and coffee, of course). I also started a load of laundry around 8:15, given how annoying the facility usage has been the last couple of weeks. Just clothes this week, so I was in and out in about half an hour. $1.50

I spent the morning working on classwork for a certificate I'm getting through work (our first real assignment was due today and I had done very little of it). I finished earlier than I had planned, so I switched gears to get dinner into the crockpot. After that was started, I went for my daily walk. I forgot eggs in my grocery order, but it turns out Walgreens sells them, so I popped in there at the tail end of my walk to grab a carton. (I am slightly annoyed that every carton had a use by date of Feb 9, but that's not going to stop me from using them after that date. Eggs tend to be last much longer than the use by dates indicated, and I'll check the freshness by floating them in a cup of water before I use them.) $1.99

After lunch (the taco filling from last night on corn tortillas), I did a couple hours' work. Around 4, I realized I couldn't focus anymore, so I switched gears to my living room and watched an episode and a half of Flack before putting on the Super Bowl. (I don't really care about pro football, but I've put enough money on the two squares games I'm in that I'm invested in the scores, at least.)

Browsing recipes during the game instead of really paying attention, I finally decided to buy some dried porcini mushrooms from Amazon to make Nom Nom Paleo’s magic mushroom powder. The charge goes to my Amazon credit card (another one I’m in the process of paying off) so I transfer the purchase price from my entertainment budget to the debt payment envelope for that card. $21.42

The Bucs win, and so did I! I had the winning set of numbers for one game for the last two quarters, so I won $275! I use the money to restock my entertainment envelope with the amount I spent on both squares games, and I put the remaining $225 in my Marriott Amex debt payment envelope.

Day 1 total: $24.91

February 8 (Monday)

Why did I meal plan to have to make breakfast every day this week? Such a bad idea in busy season, even if bacon and eggs is delicious. I didn’t wake up til 8 or get out of bed til 8:45, so I was late to work. I wonder if 9 am meetings would do the trick.

My productivity pod and I didn’t have very successful days. I spent a lot of time coaching new team members and planning with my boss.

Lunch was my last serving of the weekend’s Instant Pot tacos (on lettuce leaves again) and it was just as good as the first time - and as messy! I didn’t get out for a walk at lunch, but an afternoon meeting that was supposed to go for an hour ended after only 30 minutes, so I snuck out for my walk then. I also did some chores (taking out trash/recycling, cleaning the cats’ water fountain) during downtime.

Dinner was a serving of the hearty herbed pork stew I made yesterday. I had to add salt to get it as tasty as I wanted, but it wasn’t bad. Unfortunately we had an emergency water shutoff, I think to deal with a leak, right as I finished dinner, so I wasn’t able to do my dishes. Luckily I was warned by an HOA board member on my way in from my walk about the possibility of the shutoff, so I have several containers of tap water on my counter.

I spent $30 on annual fees for an online trivia league I’m in. I could dip into my annual expense fund but I’m going to cash flow it this time since I’m in a good spot with my Super Bowl winnings! $30

Day 2 total: $30

February 9 (Tuesday)

The water was shut off again this morning. Luckily it was after I had dealt with yesterday’s dishes and taken a shower, and I still had bottles I’d filled up with tap water the night before. Trés annoying, nonetheless.

Breakfast was scrambled eggs and bacon again. For lunch, I was supposed to cook something in my Instant Pot, but the water was still out and I guessed (correctly, as it turned out) that it would be a recipe I’d need to wash my hands for a lot. (A whole raw chicken was involved.) So instead I ate pork stew for lunch and ignored my dishes until the water came back on. Dinner was Instant Pot Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic from the Whole30 Slow Cooker cookbook. I made a number of mistakes from the outset (I bought a whole chicken to piece out myself, I didn’t buy pre-peeled garlic, etc.) but despite the prep work taking forever, it turned out really good - and I know what not to do next time! (Like, I think searing the chicken before pressure cooking may have been unnecessary.) It also only made 4 servings instead of my planned 6 (because I’m bad at breaking down a chicken), so I’ll be ordering something for lunch this weekend. (I can extend one of my planned reintro meals to cover another meal that day, so I’m only out one day of lunch.)

Work was busy, I stayed up til midnight chugging away. I’ll be really glad when this project is over!

The only money thing that happened was I paid off the credit card I used in December while waiting for a replacement for my daily use card (I thought someone had placed a fraudulent charge, but I realized like a month later that my local newspaper had been sold and the charge was my monthly subscription - which, by the way, had doubled without warning. Apparently when Chase rejected the charge because I thought it was fraud, the new owners canceled my subscription, but honestly, I don’t care. I love supporting local journalism but the new owners are based in the Northeast and are not doing a good job of communicating with customers.)

Day 3 total: $0

February 10 (Wednesday)

Dairy reintroduction today! I made a cheese omelet for breakfast and put half-and-half on my coffee. The other two meals were pork stew and garlic chicken, with plantain chips for a snack.

Busy workday again! I ended up closing everything on my computer except what I was working on so I could focus, which helped a ton.

Money-wise, my car payment posted (I owe less than $1,000 now!) and my Squares winnings posted to my Amex. For the third month in a row, Amazon has charged me for someone else’s fraudulent charge. Last month I asked Amazon to not allow charges on that card number any more (because I had it changed in December, but recurring charges can apparently keep happening) and they said they did, and I asked Amex to not allow any recurring charges to that old number any more, and they said they did, but here we are again, month 3 of some scammers getting cheapo Amazon Prime Video on my dime (although not literally because I’ve disputed the charge every month so far). I have to wait for my credit card statement to post so I can go back to Amazon with the full transaction reference number (it’s annoyingly cut off in the online view) and get them to take responsibility for not cutting off the scammer’s access to my card. I may talk to Amex tomorrow about why recurring charges are still being allowed, though. $441.78 (NOT including the scammers’ use of my card)

I also bought a VIP ticket for the Austin Mac N Cheese festival February edition. They’re doing a take-and-bake version this year that I think will be so fun! $54.14

Day 4 total: $495.92

February 11 (Thursday)

Not a very productive workday, sadly. I kept getting distracted. It’s very cold in central Texas right now (I don’t think it got out of the 30s today - last week I went on a walk in a t-shirt), and for some reason I was really affected by it today. I think it’s because I didn’t get to do either of my two usual cold weather acclimating activities - a trip to Chicago in the fall, and camping over New Year’s Eve (it rained on NYD, otherwise I would have braved the cold).

Scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast, garlic chicken for lunch, plantain chips for a snack, and pork stew and air fried French fries for dinner! I almost broke the reintro protocol to order a burrito from my favorite food truck, but apparently I’m now too far away for delivery (although I wasn’t in December). Since I didn’t want to leave my house to pick it up, either, because it's EXTREMELY cold here in Texas at the moment, I stuck to my meal plan.

During lunch, I discovered that you can deduct up to $300 in charitable giving from 2020 on your tax return. I updated my return with H&R Block and my refund went up by $66! I haven't filed yet because I'm missing ONE document from E*Trade, which I've been checking obsessively. (I've logged in more in the last two weeks looking for that document than I had in the entire year before.)

The only monetary transaction today was my NYTimes subscription. I swear they keep increasing the price and decreasing the payment interval... $18.09 

I’m tired, and I’m ready to be done with this work project. Less than a month to go!

Day 5 total: $18.09

February 12 (Friday)

A much more productive workday! Some of my coworkers and I were discussing the concept of Parkinson's Law, that work expands to fill the time allotted. Since it's Friday and we usually knock off at 5 pm even during busy times, I was much more motivated to get stuff done as quickly as possible.

I forgot that Monday is Presidents' Day, so I got paid today! My 401(k) decrease must have gone through, because my paycheck was about $120 higher than usual (I had calculated about $115). That extra money got put into my Marriott Amex debt payment envelope. The Amex balance is sitting below $2k finally, so the end is in sight!

It's still extremely cold in Texas. I didn't get out of my PJs to do work because they were warm, and when I finished work, I went straight upstairs to snuggle in my bed with a heating pad and extra blanket (and two cats, eventually). I battled cravings for pepperoni rolls and tried to remind myself that this reintro protocol is only for a few more days, but I failed. Something about the cold and being exhausted from working so much just got to me. $10

Breakfast was scrambled eggs and bacon, lunch was garlic chicken, and dinner was pepperoni rolls. I savored the hell out of them, since I hadn't had any in six weeks. I spent the evening watching old episodes of Black-ish on Hulu, and went to bed early.

Day 6 total: $10

February 13 (Saturday)

Woke up to cat puke noises. One of the cats (I assume the big one with lots of fur) yakked up a hairball on the floor in the bedroom. I laid in bed snuggling with the little cat for about an hour and reading on my phone. I checked E-Trade again to see if my last tax document was available, and it was! So I eventually got up and filed my taxes finally. (I am moderately annoyed I had to pay taxes in another state since I worked there for five weeks this time last year. I owed them an extra $25 on top of what they had withheld, and I had to pay an extra $32 to H&R Block for the privilege of filing that state return.) $67.14 (tax software fees) + $25 (other state tax owed)

Breakfast was scrambled eggs with sprouted wheat toast, lunch was tuna salad sandwich on more sprouted wheat toast (I have missed bread!), and dinner was my last serving of pork stew. I also ate four more slices of toast after dinner, plus for an afternoon snack I had a mini dark chocolate Kind bar and some Trader Joe's truffle chips that were highly recommended by a coworker (I didn't think they were that good). Oh, and I finally got into the Girl Scout cookies - I started with the S'Mores, which are delicious. (I really don't do moderation well...)

I did my laundry this morning ahead of the extremely cold weather that's due tomorrow and Monday - just clothes today. I'll do sheets/towels in a few days after the weather clears. $1.50

After I worked a few hours, I stopped to pick up Snap Kitchen (almond-crusted salmon and a brownie = 12.16) and my grocery order. I have ranch pork loin from the freezer, and I'll have lemon chicken thighs with green beans from the Whole30 Slow Cooker cookbook. My grocery list consisted of four 8-packs of sparkling water (there was a coupon and I didn't know about the bad weather so didn't know I would have to bring them all in the same day), a 4-pack of sparkling juice, a dozen eggs, freezer bags, yellow onions, a white onion, broccoli, green beans, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, russet potatoes (ya girl wants to get crazy with the air fryer), bananas, chicken thighs, chorizo, plantain chips, and pecans. $70.89

Oh, and my Google Internet payment posted. $70

Day 7 total: $234.53

Weekly total: $813.45

Not too bad a week!

• Groceries: 82.14
• Laundry: 3
• Credit cards: 287.63
• Internet: 70
• Car payment: 154.15
• Taxes: 92.14
• Dining out: 22.16
• Entertainment: 102.23

Tex's money journal, January 31 - February 6

I originally planned to do these like Refinery29's Money Diaries, but my life is not interesting enough to be broken down by times! Also, these days I don't do much more than sleep, work, and obsess about my finances. 

January 31 (Sunday)

Grocery pickup at 10 am this week. I need to reconsider these morning pickups - I like having my groceries early in the day, but I didn't even get a chance to sip my coffee before I had to go to the store. (I don't like to take it with me because I don't want to try to juggle it with my groceries on the way back in.) Luckily my first cup was still hot when I got back (roughly 30 min round-trip for grocery pickup - possibly not as time-saving as I thought, but I also don't have to go into the store, which saves me from potential impulse purchases and potential 'rona exposure). $62.25

Sundays are usually my chores day, so everything will be ready for the week ahead. Two loads of laundry (sheets/towels and clothes) cost me $4.50 in our community laundry. ($1.50 to wash each load, $1.50 to dry the sheets/towels - I line-dry my clothing.) My neighbors were rude and hogging the machines. I ended up removing someone’s nearly cool clothes from the dryer and putting them in the basket they left on top of the machine. The clothes were still there when I went back for my dry sheets/towels. $4.50

Meal prep time! As I mentioned last week, I have loaded burger bowls and chicken pot pie soup in the queue for this week. I made the soup first, and I’m interested to see how it turned out - I didn’t use celery (the stuff I had was limp and gross), and I used homemade chicken broth. The burger bowls took a surprisingly long time to prep/cook everything for, but damn are they good!

Day 1 total: $66.75

February 1 (Monday)

February already? This’ll be a heavy spending day, as several monthly charges hit today. Mortgage ($579.13), Patreon ($32.45), WF credit card ($82), Ipsy ($12.99), NYTimes Cooking ($5.32), and Wikimedia Foundation ($3.10). My annual Pandora subscription renewed, too ($51.83, which will come out of my annual expense sinking fund). Patreon is on the spendy side, for sure, but the four artists I’m supporting bring me a lot of joy, so I don’t regret that expense, and the most expensive one at $19/month has some amazing rewards. Ipsy is new for me in the last couple of months - I want to get better at makeup without buying full-size stuff! My January bag was lost in the mail and as soon as I reported it, they told me they would send me another - A+ customer service! I love to cook, so the NYT Cooking app is worth it to me - I am considering canceling my monthly subscription to the Times proper, though. And finally, I love Wikipedia and am happy to support it! Patreon, Ipsy, and Wikimedia are all charged to the card I'm currently working on paying off - not a great idea, I know! I did manage to put $53 towards that card. $819.82

Work was good and productive - support from the client finally started coming in! I also had a moment of realizing that I am the “adultier adult” in some conversations.

Food was meal prepped stuff - chorizo/potato/spinach frittata, loaded burger bowl, and chicken pot pie soup, with a Chomps stick (“clean” Slim Jim-type meat stick) for a snack. I got a $100 DoorDash credit from work that I’m excited to use soon!

Day 2 total: $819.82

February 2 (Tuesday)

Lost track of time a bit with work, but got a lot done. I’m exhausted, so I took a much-needed nap in the middle of the day. I was still tired when I woke up but I didn’t feel like immediately crashing, which was all I could hope for.

The only scheduled expense for today was my Gympass membership, which I get heavily discounted from work (I’m at the $25/month tier, discounted from $100). I’ve been waffling about canceling this the last several months - I haven’t been to the gym in almost a year because of the pandemic - but they offer workout apps, live classes, and one-on-one virtual training sessions, so I haven’t canceled yet (the apps in particular are my fave!). I also stopped at Walgreens for toothpaste and NyQuil. (The toothpaste was shockingly expensive, especially compared to the grocery store I usually get it at [they didn’t have it for last week’s order], and I bought two NyQuil to get a discount - I know I’ll use them eventually.) $51.48

Same meals as yesterday - my snack today was plantain chips, finishing the bag I bought on Sunday.

Day 3 total: $51.48

February 3 (Wednesday)

Zero interest in getting out of bed today. I finally convinced myself to, got in the shower, and logged on a couple minutes late (no one notices and I worked til 11:15 pm, so I think I made up for it!). Did some work, then at lunchtime, I went on a half-hour walk. I fell off my walking habit in December after I finished my last StepBet (I didn’t want to try to meet my step goal during my busiest time of the year) and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite pissed me off during an event (where the hell were we supposed to find the wit-sharpening gifts??). HPWU and StepBet were apparently in combo the two things that would get me out the door consistently. Now I’m just walking and listening to audiobooks, which is nice too. (Okay I did play HPWU today, trying to recapture the magic. It was... fine, I guess.)

Meals were all the same as the last two days (are you sensing a theme yet?). For a snack, I cut up two russet potatoes and made French fries in my air fryer - they were dang good but two potatoes was a little excessive.

One of my coworkers and I have started doing mini power hours (well, power half-hours) where we set goals for the next 30 min and then focus like crazy. They’ve been really helpful little sessions, so we’re going to keep them up!

HOA dues today ($259.89). They seem crazy expensive, but I was on the board a while back and the money’s being used correctly - they’ve also managed not to raise them for several years, which has been very nice not to worry about. Three of my savings accounts’ contributions were withdrawn ($300 total - $100 for car insurance, $80 for car repairs, $120 for what I call “short-term” but actually functions more as my emergency fund). Oh, and I bought another 5 squares in one of the Super Bowl squares games I’m in ($15). I also ordered groceries for pickup on Saturday afternoon (instead of Sunday morning!), but that charge doesn't post til the order's picked up, so I'm not counting it here. $574.89

Day 4 total: $574.89

February 4 (Thursday)

Another busy workday. My coworker and I continued our power half hours and were really productive. 

Today I reintroduced beans! I had scrambled eggs with black beans and salsa for breakfast, then for lunch I had a side of faux-refried black beans with my loaded burger bowl. The beans filled me up so much I wasn’t interested in my snack (which would have been roasted chickpeas) so I skipped it. At dinner I was supposed to have a side of lentils with my soup but I just plain forgot - and didn't really have time to make lentils anyway.

Money-wise, no active spending. The interest on one of my credit cards posted ($31.96), but that's it. I'm not going to count that towards my active spending because it will get double-counted when the card payment is made.

Day 5 total: $0

February 5 (Friday)

TGIF! Where I work, we're pretty committed to 5 o'clock Fridays, even during busy periods. I ended up working a little later trying to get some communications out, but I succeeded shortly before 6 and finally called it a day. Normally I love 5 o'clock Fridays and stick to them as much as humanly possible, but this week I just didn't really care because all I had planned for Friday evening was sitting in my living room and watching TV - big whoop.

My last meal-prepped breakfast-in-a-bowl for breakfast today. I had the chicken pot pie soup for lunch today so that I could make air fryer fries to go with my last loaded burger bowl for dinner - such a good idea! I couldn't really settle on what to watch on TV, so I watched the latest episode of Mr. Mayor, three episodes of Schitt's Creek while I was cooking/eating, and then I started watching Flack, which I really enjoyed! I got about three episodes in before calling it a night.

No cash outflows today, yay!

Day 6 total: $0

February 6 (Saturday)

I was surprised when I woke up after 9 am. I had gone to bed by 11 at the latest last night, but I guess I've been working so much (and sleeping badly) that I needed the sleep. That cut into my start time for work, since I needed to cook myself breakfast (bacon and eggs - was supposed to eat a banana also but never got around to it) and make coffee.

Work was moderately productive, although I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. I called it a day a little earlier than I would have liked, too, because I needed to go pick up my grocery order (it was scheduled for 4, I got to the store about 5:10 pm) and get ready for a virtual murder mystery party with some friends!

When I unpacked my groceries, I was a little shocked that they had cost as much as they did. I got corn tortillas (reintroducing non-gluten grains tomorrow), shredded cheese (dairy in a few days), half & half, sprouted wheat bread (next weekend), pre-chopped butternut squash (I just don't have time to wrestle with a whole one these days, and I only needed two cups, which this package conveniently contained), fresh organic thyme (okay this wasn't exactly necessary), spring mix, bananas, fresh parsnips (weirdly expensive given that it's winter), carrots, garlic, pork loin roast, a whole chicken, a package of bacon, Triscuits (for next weekend), plantain chips (should not have ordered two bags!), onion powder, coconut aminos, cat litter, and canned cat food (the latter two were paid out of the cats' sinking fund). $94.39 (only $68.21 without the cats' stuff - much more reasonable)

After putting away the groceries, I made the Instant Pot rich and saucy tacos from the Whole30 Slow Cooker cookbook. I served them on lettuce leaves that I bought last Sunday that were still good! (Tomorrow I'll have the tacos on corn tortillas and Monday lunch will be on lettuce again - fingers crossed it's still good then!) While the IP was doing its thing, I was hustling to get ready for the virtual murder mystery party - it was Valentine's Day dinner cruise-themed. I was kind of tired and not super-stoked to be socializing, but I'm very glad I did, it was a lot of fun (plus I had the second-most votes for the murderer, although it was not me!)

Day 7 total: $94.39

Total spending: $1,658.81

Ouch, another high-spend week. But it was mostly my usual first-of-the-month bills: mortgage, HOA, savings.

• Groceries: 156.64 (two weeks' worth!)
• Laundry: 4.50
• Credit cards: 135
• Mortgage: 579.13
• HOA: 259.89
• Savings: 300
• Entertainment: 172.17 
• Pharmacy: 51.48

Tex's money journal, January 24 - January 30

I originally planned to do these like Refinery29's Money Diaries, but my life is not interesting enough to be broken down by times! Also, I don't do much more than sleep, work, and obsess about my finances. Here's a post about my budget, although it doesn't reflect a recent change where I decreased my 401(k) payment in order to increase the money I'm putting toward my credit cards.

January 24 (Sunday)

I woke up around 8:30 am and laid in bed browsing my phone. Finally got up around 9:15 am to get dressed because I have a grocery store pickup scheduled for 9:30 to 10 am.

If you're not familiar with HEB, it's basically the best grocery store in Texas. They're a local chain, and they're fully committed to being good citizens in the communities they're located in. Their business model is predicated on selling mostly their own store-brand goods, and luckily, their store-brand goods are just as good as name brands (which are also available at HEB). The weather's misty, and I feel a little bad for the associates who run the groceries between store and car, but the guy who brought my stuff said that so far it wasn't too bad. I'm doing Whole30 this month (today is day 23), so my grocery bill has been a little higher than usual. I picked up pork butt, chorizo, bacon, chicken wings, coconut milk, tomato paste, bananas, toilet paper, pre-made guacamole, collard greens, broccoli, cauliflower rice, red onion, lemon, sparkling water, plantain chips, a 2-pack of 3V batteries (my car's key fob needed the battery replaced), cat food, and cat litter. $102.32 (they forgot one bag of cauli rice, so I'm expecting a refund of $2.66 for an actual total of $99.66)

After I got home and put away the groceries, it's laundry time! My condo doesn't have laundry in-unit, so I have to go to the on-site laundry room. This week was just clothes, and I choose to line-dry (both to save money and to make my clothes last longer). $1.50

Once the laundry's done, time to work on meal prep: Whole30 butter chicken in my Instant Pot (but using the slow cooker function). Afterward, I finally hung up the laundry on my collapsible drying rack.

Then, in what was definitely an unusual expense - I went to a day spa to get a deep tissue massage. A big work project wrapped on Friday, and I was extremely tense from long hours on it, so I scheduled this massage as a reward. The massage therapist was great! Technically this money is coming out of my stimulus check, which otherwise is going toward my credit card. $150

I spent most of the afternoon reading personal finance blogs and working on this blog! My mom texted to ask if my Christmas present was delivered (she's really bad about timely present-giving). Somehow the Amazon delivery driver got a giant box up the stairs to my front door without setting off my Ring. It's an Instant Pot air fryer attachment! I can't believe how big it is. Can't wait to try it out - next weekend's meal plan includes chicken wings.

In the evening, I watched Parks & Recreation, which I bought on DVD a while back in anticipation of it leaving Netflix. Parks is my favorite TV show of all time, so the expense was worth it because I know I'm going to be watching it several times and I don't have to pay for yet another streaming service.

I cooked cauliflower rice to go with the butter chicken. Even though the store forgot one package of the cauliflower rice, I had a steamable bag of frozen cauli rice on hand, so I used that to round out my meals. The butter chicken turned out great! I had to sub a dash of cayenne for the chili powder because I always forget I don't have any.

I remembered that I had a balance due for a recent doctor's visit, so I logged on and paid that - $35.31 from my HSA.

Day 1 Total: $251.16

January 25 (Monday)

Woke up, snuggled the big cat. Finally got myself out of bed when I remembered that I needed to put together my crockpot dinner (garlic pepper pork with collard greens from The Whole30 Slow Cooker (Amazon, but not an affiliate link). That took longer than expected, so I was a little late logging on. Didn't matter, I didn't have much to do today! 

Before lunch, I dropped the crockpot insert in and turned it on, then joined my coworkers on a new project for a virtual lunch so we could get to know each other ahead of the work. It was a nice time! We ended up playing scribbl.io, a virtual version of Pictionary, which ended up being really fun!

Signed off work around 5:30 pm and went for a 30 minute walk. I'd prefer to go at lunchtime (Vitamin D, anyone?) but right before sunset is okay too! The crockpot finished a few minutes after I got back, so I divvied it up into Pyrex containers (that way I can microwave them and just eat straight out of them - avoid doubling dishes later in the week) and a serving for my dinner. It turned out okay - may have needed more salt?

In the evening, I checked my bank accounts - several of my credit cards' monthly payments posted, and I got an email that my student loan paydown benefit from work ($100/month) had been sent. $345

Day 2 total: $345

January 26 (Tuesday)

Woke up around 8 again and stayed in bed looking at my phone - it’s a bad habit but I can’t help it. Breakfast was my last prepped one, so I need to get up early tomorrow to make more (lol unlikely).

Work was good - easy morning, then tons of stuff got done in the afternoon. Lunch was meal prepped (aka leftovers) butter chicken over cauliflower rice and dinner was garlic pork with collard greens. For a snack I had deviled eggs and carrots with guacamole. This is my last week of Whole30 and I would shank someone for a cookie, which is weird because I’m not usually big on sweets. I ended up having homemade applesauce for “dessert” because I wanted something sweet and it needed to be eaten. I don’t consider this giving in to my Sugar Dragon, really, because to be honest, I almost never have sugar cravings when I’m not doing Whole30.

I finally crunched the numbers correctly and realized I should drop my 401(k) contributions to the minimum to get the employer match and then use the remaining money to pay down my credit cards, so I put that into play today. My private student loan payment was scheduled for today ($56.57), so I went in and manually paid the difference between my budgeted amount and the autopay ($19.24) (I don’t remember exactly how I got on this path, but it turns out my loan term is 15 years, not 10 like I had thought, so every month I pay a little extra [plus the $100 loan payment from my work!] and every month they recalculate my autopay for a 15-year term and mail me a letter to alert me to the change). Oh, and I paid $35 via Venmo to two separate Super Bowl squares games. $110.81

Day 3 total: $110.81

January 27 (Wednesday)

More trouble getting out of bed again. I made scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast, since I haven’t made meal prepped breakfasts yet this week.

Work was good again today, and I had the same lunch and dinner as yesterday. Snacks were a Chomps stick (fancy Slim Jim) and plantain chips, plus I drank a ton of tea.

I got an email from my car insurance that they were sending me a cancellation letter because my scheduled payment last Friday didn’t go through - they had an old card number on file. I was under the impression that when I put the new card number in, they would automatically charge it for any outstanding balance, but apparently that wasn’t the case, so I manually triggered the six-month payment today. $537.06

My refund from the grocery store posted - got my $2.66 back! (Already incorporated in my Day 1 total)

Day 4 total: $537.06

January 28 (Thursday)

Light workday today. Breakfast was scrambled eggs and bacon with coffee and OJ, and a banana. Lunch and dinner were the same as the last two days. I’m glad I don’t mind eating leftovers! (I do make a conscious effort to not eat the same food at lunch and dinner, for the most part, so I still retain variety that way.) Snack was baby carrots and guac, and plantain chips.

My mom texted to ask if I had time to chat, which I appreciated the courtesy of since it’s a busy time at work. Since today was light, I called her immediately and we spent about 15 minutes catching up.

I ordered groceries for next week - if you order them at least two days in advance, HEB waives the shopper fee! (Another reason to love them) Next week I’ll start the reintroduction portion of the Whole30, so I added beans and non-gluten grains to my grocery list. I’m having my favorite chorizo/potato/spinach frittata for breakfast, loaded burger bowls for lunch (a new-to-me recipe that I’m excited for), and chicken pot pie soup for dinner. (And tacos - in lettuce leaves - for next weekend’s meals.) My card was authorized for the estimated amount of my groceries ($61.90) but since it won’t post til they put the groceries in my car, I’m not counting this in today’s spending.

Day 5 spending: $0 (finally!)

January 29 (Friday)

Another light workday! We're waiting on information from our client that we can't proceed without, so we're just sort of twiddling our thumbs. I ate the same breakfast, lunch, and dinner as yesterday, and only plantain chips for a snack. 

In terms of spending, since today was my payday, I sent the remainder of my car expense envelope to my American Express. Normally I would send it to my car expenses savings account, but that account is currently in pretty good shape (almost $700 now, and another $80 will be added automatically next week), plus I only drive once or twice a week for brief trips for errands, and I'm obsessing about getting my cards paid down now that I know it'll only take 16 months! $45.82

The student loan paydown benefit from work finally posted with yesterday's date. I wish my bank allowed principal-only payments, but since the extra money appears at the same time as my regular payment, only a minimal amount of one or the other goes to interest.

Day 6 spending: $45.82

January 30 (Saturday)

Woke up a little late, but I slept badly the last couple of nights. Lounged in bed for a bit, then got up and made myself a French press of coffee and started breakfast. I have been obsessed with a chorizo/potato/spinach frittata from the Whole30 Instagram (it originally called for kale, but blech), and lately instead of making it a frittata at the end, I've been putting the cooked ingredients into one-cup Pyrex and then adding one egg each morning for my own version of breakfast-in-a-cup. This is basically all I've eaten for breakfast this Whole30 and I'm still not sick of it! (Well, there were about six days where I was eating homemade sausage and broccoli, which was good, but not quite filling enough.) I also started applesauce in my crockpot because I kept buying apples during my Whole30 and not eating them. This batch had Gala apples (usually my fave to eat!), Kanzi apples (these were new to me - I ate 1/8 of one and then ignored the rest of the slices for an entire day), and two Granny Smith (why did I buy these? I don't actually remember - they've been in the fridge for about a month.)

I had to log on to work for a while, but nothing too strenuous. I worked in my living room instead of my home office for a little change of scenery. (I got rid of my couch a few months ago because the cushions were breaking down and it was aggravating an old hip injury. Since we're in a pandemic, I haven't gone shopping for a new one yet. I chill on the floor, and it's not uncomfortable!)

I finally got to try out the air fryer that my mom sent me! I made both lemon pepper wings and broccoli in it - it may well be my new favorite way to prepare broccoli! The only thing that sucks is that it doesn't have a very large capacity - I could only fit four wings and one serving of broccoli (and they were cooked separately). If I can figure out how to quickly hand wash it, I think I will enjoy using it on weekends and when I'm not working til 9 pm during the week.

When I was lying in bed, I decided to spend some money in a game app I've been playing for a while. it's the first time I've bought anything in this app, and I've been playing it for several months and getting a lot of enjoyment out of it. My iTunes account is linked to the Amex I'm currently trying to pay down, so I'll transfer this amount from my Entertainment envelope to the Debt Payment envelope. $10.81

Day 7 spending: $10.81

Total spending: $1,300.66

Higher than average spending for me, driven largely by the massage and the car insurance, plus various loan payments (credit cards and student loan).

• Groceries: 99.66
• Laundry: 1.50
• Credit cards: 390.82
• Student loan: 75.81
• Entertainment: 45.81
• Car insurance (6-month policy): 537.06
• Massage: 150

My credit card debt problem and my plan to solve it

So, as I mentioned in my introduction post, I have a little problem left over from graduate school - credit card debt! It's currently sitting at about $24k, broken down as follows:

Card Name	Card Balance	Interest Rate	Minimum Payment	Expected Payoff Date
American Express	$2,291.53	15.24%	$80	April 2021
Discover (Balance Transfer)	$3,999.59	0.00%	$500	September 2021
Chase Sapphire	$7,813.70	15.24%	$185	November 2021
Chase Freedom	$1,133.04	14.99%	$50	December 2021
Chase Amazon	$4,799.42	13.24%	$110	March 2022
Wells Fargo Visa	$3,734.68	11.15%	$82	May 2022
Total	$23,771.96

(This doesn't exactly agree to my introduction because I also have a credit card that I use for my everyday spending and pay off every month that was included in Personal Capital's grouping.)

I am currently putting about $1,000 a month (my budget says $1,135, but I also have a small loan with Affirm that is getting paid out of that envelope at about $110) towards my cards. I also just pulled the trigger on decreasing my 401(k) contributions down to the minimum to get my employer match - that should give me about $230 extra per month to throw at my debt. I’m not sure when that will come into effect - I doubt this Friday’s paycheck (last day of month on a weekend = getting paid the Friday before), so probably the 15th. I really hated to do it, but the extra money will cut about four months off my payment time, and that was sufficient motivation to do it. I’ll crank up my savings again after I pay off all my cards.

The Discover card is a balance transfer card - it actually has two different transfers on it, both from the American Express. The first one ends September 2021, and in theory the second one ends December 2021, but I'm not 100% sure on how they're applying the payments, so I'm planning to pay the whole balance off by September 2021 so as not to risk any back interest.

I really appreciate balance transfers - they're really helpful for paying down debt as long as you pay it off before the BT period expires.

Single girl budget

I don't really know how to describe my budget. It's been refined over the last several years, and it works pretty well for me. In theory, it's based on the 50/30/20 budget, but my percentages don't presently match up by any stretch of the imagination. 

My net income is approximately $4,040 after taxes, 401(k), HSA, etc., and I'm paid twice a month, on the 15th and the last day of the month. I use GoodBudget to keep track of my spending. My monthly budget is as follows:

• Mortgage/HOA: $839.02 (this may go up in April, when the bank re-evaluates my escrow to ensure they're collecting enough for taxes and insurance, although I should have enough in my short-term savings account to cover the shortage)
• Car: $240 (includes car payment - $154.15 - and the remainder is for gas and maintenance)
• Savings: $820 (car insurance, $100; car repairs, $80; house maintenance, $120; vacation, $300; cat care, $170; gifts fund, $50)
• Student loan payments: $342.75 ($265.78 is for federal loans, which are currently paused, so I'm using the money to pay down my credit cards, and $76.97 for my private loan, which is also getting $100 extra each month from a program at my work that helps pay down our student loans)
• Bills: $249 (electricity, $98; Google Fiber, $70; Netflix, $14.06; gym, $24.99; NYTimes, $18.09; PBS, $5.15; laundry, $15)
• Credit cards: $1,135
• Groceries: $280
• Entertainment: $174.23

Since I get paid twice a month, this is how I divvy up my actual paychecks. Most of my bills are due in the first half of the month, and my credit card due dates are in the second half, so this split works really well:

Month-end

• Groceries: 200
• Car: 240
• Car savings: 180
• Bills: 249
• Mortgage/HOA: 839.02
• House repairs: 120
• Entertainment: 76.98
• Credit cards: 135 

15th

• Student loans: 342.75
• Groceries: 80
• Credit cards: 1000
• Vacation: 300
• Entertainment: 97.25
• Cats: 170
• Gifts fund: 50

I wish I had a little more money in my entertainment fund, but overall, this budget suits me pretty darn well.