Debt Free Journey May 2020 Update

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Welcome to our May 2020 debt free journey update!

Don’t forget to check out our debt free journey on YouTube as well.  I’d love to see you over there!

In May, we continued to work hard at our side hustles (Amazon and Door Dash).

We picked up our extra jobs during the Coronavirus shut down to ensure that we could pay our living expenses.

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    Fortunately, we were able to remain open at our office (although our hours and patient population was extremely reduced).

    We also received various stimulus and aid from the CARES Act to keep our clinic afloat during this difficult time.

    By the beginning of May, we able to pay ourselves again from our office, and we continued to work our extra jobs.

    Because of all of these different factors, we were able to save over $12,000 from all of our efforts!

    We set a goal to make $4,000 doing Door Dash and Amazon, and we exceeded that!

    Also, my husband was able to secure extra work with another doctor that he was covering call for. This is going to cut our debt free journey time in HALF! We are so excited and feeling extra blessed.

    We are still cautiously holding off on making any large debt payments, due to all of the uncertainty in our lives (including our impending move to a new office in the next couple of months).

    We did resume our minimum payments, and so we have been able to reduce some debt here and there!

    Keep reading to find out more about our May 2020 budget and debt pay off!

    Want to go back to the beginningStart here.

    How much debt did we pay off in May?

    Debt Payoff Total for May:  $4207.60

    Total Debt Paid to Date:  $78,691.06

    I resumed our minimum payments, and the Small Business Administration continues to make the minimum payments on our SBA backed loans for the business which is helping tremendously!

    We did not pay an “extra” debt this month, and simply put everything in to savings to hold until our lives return to “normal”.

    Here is how we were able to pay off $78,691.06 in 11 months.

    After cutting out our car payments, downsizing our home, and getting on a super tight budget, we are able to live on well under $4,000/month. Which is more helpful than ever in these difficult financial times.

    More on our Debt Free Journey:

    These are our basic “necessary” expenses that do not change (much) each month:

    Rent:  $1,325

    Water: $113

    Electricity: $134

    Home Security:  $44

    Internet: $68

    Cell Phone (Tello Mobile): $10

    TV:  $54 (We now use YouTube TV and love it!)

    Netflix:  $14

    Groceries:  $400

    Gym: $22

    Giving:  $250

    Dan Fun Money:  $100

    Shannon Fun Money:  $100

    Child Care:  $0 (Corona)

    Contact Subscription (Hubble Free Trial):  $36

    Health Care: (Health Sharing Ministry) $234

    Auto Insurance: $102

    Renter’s Insurance:  $17

    Identity Theft Protection: $13

    Total “Bare Bones” Monthly Expenses:  approx. $3500 each month

    We use our income that we bring home to pay off our “personal” debts, and then we also have debts at our medical practice.

    The ability to live on less than $50,000/year gives me security, knowing that even if our medical practice closed tomorrow, we could quickly find work to support our family.

    Which wouldn’t you know….IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING RIGHT NOW!

    Where does the money to Pay Debt come from?!

    We own our own business and pay ourselves an income from the monthly business budget.

    After taxes we bring home about $6000/month, sometimes more with our side hustles, and sometimes less.

    We try to keep our miscellaneous expenses low, in order to pay more debt!

    We always plan how we spend extra money…EXACTLY…down to the penny.

    RelatedHow to do a Zero Based Budget

    In May, we did not spend any money on miscellaneous spending or fun money. We were in TOTAL survival mode!

    We will continue to pile up any extra money we make until the Corona virus lock down settles.

    Our medical practice has suffered as well, but it is improving as things slowly begin to reopen.

    Since it’s a medical practice, the expenses are very high, and we struggle to figure out the best way to budget the super inconsistent income.

    The plus side, is that we have a 4 year history of practice financials to go by, so I look at our worst income month, and have reduced our office spending to be about equal to that.

    This means that if we have a great month, ALL of that extra money is available to go to debt!

    We do one giant debt snowball, that includes our home and business debt all together, but I’m considering changing this and tackling the business debt first.

    May Debt Pay Off

    Total minimum debt payments April:  $ 4207.60

    Total extra debt paid April: We did not pay off any debt in April, but we were able to meet all of our expenses for home and office, and even saved a little over $2,000 despite all the Corona madness!

    Debt Payoff Total for April:  $ 4207.60 (includes SBA payment aid)

    Total Debt Paid to Date:  $ 78,691.06

    June Goals:

    • Continue to Pause the debt snowball and save money due to COVID-19, and our move coming up.

    Side Hustle Income Sources

    My blog is making money! You can read more about that here.

    After working for over 3 years on building my online business, it’s finally starting to make a profit!

    I am now able to contribute $600-800/month consistently to our monthly budget, and that will grow as my blog continues to grow.

    Check out my first blogging income report here, if that’s something that interests you!

    I have a lot of ideas to grow my blog, and help others pay off debt! I’m so excited to see what God has in store for my blog and our finances in 2020!

    We continue to work at Door Dash, but we did quit our Amazon jobs as our office picked up.

    Related: How to start a blog, How to Make Money Blogging

    Are we on track with our Debt Payoff Goals?!

    This might seem like a lot of debt to pay off in such a short time, but don’t forget how much we started with.

    Our plan is to be debt free in by Summer 2022, which means we will need to pay off closer to $17,000/month!

    COVID-19 will undoubtedly slow down our progress, but I’m hoping that we will be able to make enough money in order to prevent us from creating further financial damage.

    It might slow us down, but it definitely won’t stop us!

    With the combination of controlling our spending, and increasing our income I am still confident we will do this faster than three years.

    See you next month!

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    Shannon-Author-Test

    hi! I'm shannon

    I’m a wife, mom of three, doctor, and blogger! In 2018, I decided to turn my mom blog, into a personal finance blog so others could follow along on our journey to pay off over HALF a MILLION dollars in student loan and practice start up debt. I hope you enjoy following along, and maybe even find some inspiration along the way.