2nd Week Check In

Well I've had my first emergency already and am only a few weeks into the plan. I had a relative, my Aunt, pass away and had to take myself and two of my kids to the funeral out of area. I only spent $400 of the Emergency Fund which will need to be refilled but at least I didn't add to the debt so the fund is working the way it should. At least that is what I am trying to tell myself. It's just a bit frustrating to finally feel like I'm making a tiny bit of progress and have this set back.

At any rate, I should have the EF refilled with my first pay check this month which will come next Friday and then will return to the debt repayment. So back to BS 1 for this week and next.

BS 1 - $1600/$2000.00 - $400 to refill fund.

And the weekly update, as always any increase are due to interest

Current/Beginning

Cell Phone; $0.00/$343.50

CC # 4: $0.00/$5,423.06

SL # 2: $5,323.41/$5415.83

SL # 1: $5,489.11/5,489.11

CC # 3: $8,571.00/$8,794.50

SL # 3: $12,372.76/$12,585.56

CC # 1: $13,000.61/$13,444.25

CC # 2: $16,027.91/$16,131.48

Total: $60,784.80/$67,721.50

Total Decrease $6,936.70

I am very grateful that February is over as it was bad month for me overall. While I made some steps towards getting my finances under control, it just kind of felt like the rest of my life was spinning out of control. I am looking forward to a better March.

I have committed to a $200 grocery budget which is really tight but I have a very large stock of pantry and freezer items at my house so we should be able to eat on that and not have to spend much at the store.

My health insurance for my new job kicked in so I will be cancelling the health insurance that I was paying for on my own which will free almost $200 every month.

In addition I received my new cell phone on Friday, since it is a work cell phone I was able to cancel my personal cell phone service which is freeing up $100 a month.

So March is looking pretty solid for cutting back on expense. Those were just the low hanging fruit so to speak. I will start giving the rest of my budget a closer look at what can be cut back on in order to throw even bigger snowballs.

Hope everyone has had a good week.