End of April Update

The end of April, the end of the semester, the time for single people to pack up and head on the road to see their friends who can't travel because they all have toddlers :) Aside from a massive student loan payment, my biggest expenses this month were all travel-related: lots of gas from driving around to see friends and family and to a conference, and booking plane tickets for a trip to California I'm making next month. This month doesn't look so awesome from a net worth perspective because of how much is currently sitting on the credit cards (plane tickets, moving expenses) but I'm majorly excited anyway because of one big goal met:

That right there is student loan #1, showing a balance of $0 yesterday! The gory details of its history:

I started making payments on it two months before it came out of its grace period. In total, I ended up paying only $161.88 in interest on a $10,197 loan! That's even better than I thought I'd done when I ballparked it yesterday for Girl Meets Debt.

To be continued with student loan #2, currently sitting at -$5086.47....

So, April spending:

Student loan #1: $2418.48
Student loan #2: $88.34

Car expenses (gas, oil change, tolls): $482.35: OUCH. Wow. So, uh, I traveled a lot this month. All by car. It added up. Eesh. Luckily about 1/4 of that is reimbursable and I've already submitted the receipts and everything.

Rent and utilities: $1061 -- this includes buying a new smartphone to replace my four-year-old flip phone and get on a much cheaper plan (if it works) by joining Republic Wireless -- we'll see how this goes; there's a 30-day-back guarantee so I might end up returning the phone.

Travel and entertainment: $392. Not bad for a round trip to Los Angeles, another RT from LA to San Francisco, and a concert ticket. It all has to go on the 0%, cash-back credit card and be paid out of later paychecks because of the debt payment...but I just wasn't willing to not make this trip.

Food: Well mint.com says $171. Hah! If only! Since I'm not yet tracking every penny (I am going to start in on that once I've moved, started my new job, and have paid off the student loans) I have no idea how much went out in cash that isn't covered by that figure. I'm guessing that the real food costs for the month were easily $400 and that's what I'm going to count here.

Misc: mint.com says $146. This includes a tax bill, the pharmacy, and some money withdrawn for cash spending. Seems about right.

Totals:

Money applied to debt: $2506.82
Money spent on everything else: $2481.35

Grand total: $4988.17

And...yeah, that's more than came in this month, which explains the state of the credit cards, currently sitting at -$1794. (Some of that is reimbursable and -- I'm reminding myself -- all of it is at 0%, so <i>focus on the student loans</i> remains my plan.) A budgeting revolution is definitely on the horizon.

<b>Debt total: -$6834, a change of +$870 from last month

Net worth total: -$3343, a change of +$1177 from last month</b>

This being honest with yourself financially thing is exhausting! So much math!