Another month down - another progress report!

This is progress report #30 which means we’re up to 2.5 years of progress reports! Yay!!

First we need to talk about little man, Otto Stanley.

Otto has grown nearly 20 pounds in the six weeks we’ve had him, has had successful hernia surgery and learned to swim! He’s finally mostly pottying outside (score!) and he’s a champ when it comes to sit and shake. He’s also dang adorable!

Was I right or was I right? Isn’t he the cutest?! Not that I’m biased or anything.. but check out that Mets bandanna Mike’s mom made for him!

I could talk (read: brag) about him all day like the crazy dog mom I am but I’ll spare you for now because I have other things on my mind..

Ugh I don’t even want to think about it! 

How about we talk about the reason we’re here instead? In case you missed it, here’s my last monthly progress report.

Alright, here we go!

As always we start with my debt:

Mortgage: $168,100

Car Loan: $26,500

Student Loans: $6,400

Credit Cards: $1,900

Grand Total of Debt: $202,900

My student loan balances

That’s $1,100 paid down during the month of June and we’re getting so close to getting below that nasty $200,000 figure. Yay!

Not much has been going on with my savings:

Savings account: $2,900

P2P Lending account: $100

Investment account: $1,800

Grand Total of Savings: $4,800

And by not much I mean absolutely nothing. That’s ok though. Hopefully soon I’ll be able to focus on my savings more.

Wish me luck for tomorrow! I have a feeling I’m going to need it.

Have a happy and safe Fourth of July!

As always -

Remember, we will get through this ❤️

It’s almost June but judging by the 40 degree rainy weather Mother Nature didn’t get the memo.

May brought a lot of change to our household. My best friend returned from Florida which makes me so happy to have her back and so much closer than she was before the big move even.

May was full of pool time (back when we were up in the 80s and nothing but sunshine!), driving around listening to our early 2000 playlists and so, so much laughter. Nothing is better than having your bestie back! It was a great start to summer.

Besides the return of an old friend, we welcomed our new best buddy into our life too. After losing our two old girls I was filled with anxiety about getting a puppy. How do you go from two well trained dogs to a puppy again? They’re cute but so much work!

And my anxiety was 100% justified, I have done nothing but pick up poop, get my ankles bitten and worry about our boy in some way hurting himself since we brought him home. I forgot how clumsy and curious puppies are! 

But even though I’m constantly saying “No!,” the smart cookie has learned to sit, shake, high five, lay down and speak (totally bragging because I’m pretty sure he’s rocket scientist material). Honestly even though he’s changed every thing about our life, I can’t imagine being without the little guy.

Here’s our new little man, Otto Stanley.

Our new addition - Otto Stanley

He’s a 12 week old Newfoundland and lover of pillows. He’s already over twenty pounds! Fun fact: he weighed the same that Sadie did at her first vet appointment.

Continuing the tradition started with Sadie, he was named after a family member and my mom was given the honor of choosing his middle name. Sadie was named after my dad’s grandmother, Otto was named after my grandfather’s uncle. There were seven boys in the family so we had some fun options to choose from! 

With all these happy changes going on it’s been a nice distraction from the world outside my little bubble. That bubble by the way will officially be popping come July 1st! 

That’s right, this girl is returning to the real world and going back to the office! I’m excited and nervous and feel like it’s the first day of the school year.. yeah, I’ll get to see all my friends again but I’ll also have to update my wardrobe and get up earlier. Can I handle it? Let’s hope so.

Leaving Otto won’t be easy but luckily I have my dad who happens to be the world’s best doggy grandpa. Otto got to stay with my dad and his Newfoundland Shel for a few hours the other day and everyone came out of it mostly unscathed. And Otto even got to eat a piece of hotdog so he’s already finding that grandpa is way more fun. 

Alright, enough of my ranting. Let’s get down to business! Before we get started maybe you’d like to check out my last monthly progress report?

My student loan balances

We’re trending in the right direction again! That’s $900 less than last month.

My credit card balances are a little higher this month but everything else is going down. But I’m happy with the progress I’m making on my student loans. I can even see the end nearing on one of them! Earlier than I expected too!

And here’s how my savings is looking:

Ugh what a month April has been.

We lost our dog Sadie this past month. 6 months to the day that her best buddy crossed the rainbow bridge. 

Sadie was my baby, it’s been a hard, hard month. But she’s no longer in pain and I’m happy the two of them are together again.

Alright, moving on to happier things - it’s finally officially spring time! The weather is beautiful when it’s not raining! Ha!

That’s ok though, April showers bring May flowers. And hopefully a renovated garden for me. I need to get to work remulching the flower beds. And pulling weeds. 

All summer long you’ll find me plucking weeds.

I also may finally be going back to work! How strange it’ll be going back to the office! But I’m ready, it’s lonely at home. Especially without the girls to keep me company!

Ok, let’s get down to business shall we? Check out my last monthly progress report.

My student loan balance

So that’s a $23,500 increase.

Yeah, you read that right.

The increase was because it was time to get a new car. Which is exciting! The debt that comes with it is not.

But I’m very happy with the car and everything. So I’ll take it as a win and just keep chugging away and paying down debt when I can.

But God, being over $200,000 SUCKS. I’m going to do all that I can to make sure we get below that number and soon!

Both March and all the snow on the ground are history!

We made it to April. I feel like I’ve been waiting for spring since the leaves changed last year. And it’s been taking for-freaking-ever.

But I can see my lawn again, I ordered my first batch of materials for the remaining renovation projects (we’re almost there! The finish line is in sight!) and life is good!

I received my first vaccine shot a few weeks ago and will be going back for the second soon. Mike is getting his one shot today (he’s very happy he only has to get one!). 

I’m just so glad we’re seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. Here’s hoping it really is light from the end of the tunnel! 

Of course, we didn’t get this far without our first COVID scare! Mike had to quarantine but luckily he made it through without any symptoms. I also made it through mostly unscathed - I’m kidding, of course, but it was a stressful week!

I really feel for anyone going through the quarantine process right now. It’s a scary time. And I won’t lie, it’s also a frustrating time. 

Ok, enough about that. I’m sure you’re as sick of hearing about COVID as we all are.

If you’d like to get all caught up, check out last month’s progress report. 

My student loan balance

Ok, so that’s an $800 reduction over the month. Not bad.

As you can see my student loans look a little different this month. That’s because they were sold. I was expecting that to be a hassle but it was a relatively pain free experience! 

I’m more upset about losing a nice summary page. So since they lump them all in together I figured it’s time to give up on the $50 increments and start rounding them up to the next hundred like the rest of my debt.

Besides that I was given some unfortunate news about my car this past month so in all likelihood it’s time to find a replacement. Which of course means more debt. Just when I thought I was making some progress!

It’s a bummer but there’s been some signs so it wasn’t totally unexpected. Still, adding more debt... ughhhh!!!

The good news there is I still have some money from the latest stimulus check and my tax return. But this time I did spend some - I bought a new treadmill and a mattress! 

My old treadmill somehow didn’t want to move without beeping and since she was a hand me down from my mom it was definitely time to replace her. As for the mattress, it lasted ten years and had seen better days so Mike and I went 50/50 on a new one. 

Can you tell I usually feel guilty about big purchases? I’m always justifying them! But I do have some money to put towards a new car or towards some debt once I have this all figured out.

Well, February has been a pretty crazy month for me.

First, my best friend moved to Florida. I’m so happy for her and excited to go visit her! But also low key jealous of the fact she’s talking about bathing suit shopping and we have three - yes, three! - feet of snow on the ground.

This has been the craziest winter in recent memory. I don’t remember getting this much snow in my adult life. You know, since I became entirely responsible for removing said snow. Truth be told, Mike takes care of all of it but I like to chip in by shoveling off the back decks. Hey, it makes me feel like I’m doing my part.

And what happens when we got the monster storm? Our dang snowblower gave up. Luckily it was an easy fix but in the time it took to get the part we ended up getting at least another foot! She’s all patched up and ready to go now - now that it’s finally warming up and we probably won’t see snow for another nine months. So it goes.

Of course, now that I said that we’ll probably get another 3 feet. Ugh. Upstate New York does have some positive though, right? I mean, we have the best summers ever but dang does winter make it so miserable it’s hard to remember what July is like.

Alright, back to my crazy month. The other day I was surprised with a promotion. I’m sure I’ve said this before but - I absolutely love my job. I kind of stumbled into it and it’s been one of the best things to happen to me.

That’s the good news. The bad news is my class is seriously kicking my butt. It seems like nonstop case studies and long boring legislation. Believe me when I tell you I’m counting the days until May when it’s all said and done. Luckily I’ll get a little break over the summer before the final stretch.

My student loan balances

I paid off $1,100 in February. That’s a good month. And my student loan balances are below the $8,000 mark again! I think that’s reason enough to celebrate.

I’m making good progress paying off my most recent loan. I love to see progress!

Yay! After two years I think I finally have the numbering of my monthly progress reports right!

I can’t believe we’re already a month into 2021. And what a crazy month it’s been.

So far, 2021 doesn’t seem much different from 2020. I mean, we went from the Tiger King to the Jason Collier drama (seriously, don’t start reading unless you have time to go down that rabbit hole). 

But we do have a female Vice President. And I think that’s amazing. It’s not a Democrat vs. Republican thing, it’s the fact that little girls everywhere see a woman as the Vice President. That’s freakin’ awesome.

My student loan balances