Monthly Progress Report #21

 Hey y’all! It’s fall!

The leaves are all sorts of pretty shades and starting to fall. My Facebook feed is nothing but folks apple picking in flannel. Ugh - summer is definitely gone.

So much has happened in September - I turned 31 (yeah, still getting used to that).  Kids went back to school. The neighbors closed their pool. 

September also brought about my much needed staycation. I happily binge watched Married at First Sight through the first four seasons (seriously, does anyone do it for the marriage or just the possibility of being on tv?) then switched to Pen15. Which I thought was ridiculously hilarious and was sad to see filming of the second season was delayed due to COVID. 

I even interrupted my binge watching for a bit and went on a mini road trip with my mom to buy second hand pool floats. Because pool floats are ridiculously expensive.

Then I went back to work and have since been trying to catch up! Ha!

And while all that was happening there’s been an awful lot of work going on around the house. And I’ve been super stressed about every little decision and every check written. Honestly, how do people come out of home renovations okay?

Which brings us to the main event. Unless you gotta go pee and grab some popcorn? Or maybe you’d just like to check out last month’s progress report?

 

Ok, now let’s do this!

Let’s take a look at my debt:

Mortgage: $145,500

Car Loan: $4,600

Student Loans: $7,000

Credit Cards: $1,950

Grand Total of Debt: $159,050 

My student loan balances

Including my renovation fund:

Renovation fund requirement: $8,300

New Grand Total of Debt: $167,300

It wasn’t an awful month. My debt went down $850, $1,000 including money I put towards the renovation fund.

But.

There’s always a but isn’t there?

I don’t expect things to look this good for long. I’m expecting my renovations to be more money than I anticipated (that’s even with me padding the initial estimate) and I’m thinking about taking out another student loan. Just as I’m about to be done with one!

Ugh. Finances are frustrating.

But this is the biggest expense I even anticipate going through. And I’m happy to start seeing some real progress. Even if unfortunately some of that progress is things I didn’t anticipate nor budget for. 

Internally I’m freaking the heck out. Externally I think I’m faking it pretty well.

When all the renovations are done and things are back to normal maybe I’ll refinance if the rates are still hovering around the 3% mark. Maybe I’ll look into doing so sooner rather than later.

But for some good news, last month I fully anticipated the majority of the work to stretch on into next year and now I think only a little bit will be left over. 

Yeah, check me out - looking on the bright side!

Now, let's take a look at my savings:

Savings account: $2,500

P2P Lending account: $200

Investment account: $550

Grand Total of Savings: $3,250

Unfortunately nothing to see there.

Anyone have any advice for keeping my sanity through the renovation process? How’d everyone do compared to my their initial estimates? I can’t be the only one who has had some unpleasant surprises along the way.

Please tell me I’m not the only one!

Here’s hoping the next time I talk to you I’m about done with this renovation mess and I’ll have some progress pictures for you!

As always -

Remember, we will get through this ❤️