Welcome to my October 2020 financial progress!

If you are new here, every month, I post the progress I’ve made on paying off my student loans and on my savings. I’ve done this since I first started paying down my loans in July 2017 and it has been so worth it.

I do this to hold myself accountable and to share my progress with others who are also facing debt payments of their own.

Debt paid this month: $880.77

Debt remaining: $47,963.69

I house every month’s debt progress from the very beginning here if you want to check out the progress so far.

Updates for This Month

I think I’m probably going to sound like a broken record now. But just as it has been since March 2020, I have only made the minimum payments to my private loan while making no payments to my federal loans thanks to the COVID-19 deferment. This will likely continue to be my strategy till the end of 2020 as I work to beef up my savings account.

I broke the news in my previous post, but October was quite an exciting month as I started a new job that allowed me to work from home (at least for the time being). So far, it has been a good change and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll continue to like this job.

October Budget

Fixed Spending

Nothing much here, just the usual expenses. I live at home but pay rent to my parents and am also paying back my personal loan to them at $500/month.

Other than that, my cell phone bill and Netflix make up the rest of my fixed spending.

Variable Spending

Gas – Under budget. My gas spending has essentially been halved since I started my new job that comes with the perk of working from home (at least while COVID-19 is going on).

Entertainment/dining out – Over budget. The culprit is an expensive dinner to celebrate a friend’s birthday.

Groceries – Under budget. Just bought the usual necessities.

Shopping – Bought a gift for my friend’s birthday and helped my mom purchase an item online that I’m not going to charge her for.

Miscellaneous

Provider Insurance – Renewed my provider liability insurance. It’s not necessary, but I think $111 is a reasonable price to pay for the peace of mind.

Savings

Thanks to October being a 3 paycheck month and overlapping with my new job, I actually was able to double my savings (and paycheck) for the month. 

I contemplated giving my 2-weeks notice earlier to give myself a couple days of rest before starting the new job but with all the travel restrictions surrounding COVID-19, it didn’t seem like I would be able to go anywhere anyways. So I ended up giving my manager a 3-weeks notice, offering to stay till I have to start the new job and forgo any vacation for the year. Definitely no regrets, especially as the paychecks come in.