Debt Payoff Update for February

It’s been a rough month for the budget. Even though it was a short month, I found myself with three visitors and lots of social activities that added up. I wrote about staying in budget with visitors, but still ended up spending more money than I wanted! I am human and I had a great time with my friends and family that visited. I spent almost $400 on going out this month, which is about 4x what my monthly going out budget is. My partner thinks my budget is too low, but I want to try and spend only $25 a week on ‘going out’. We’ll see how I do for March, which I am really excited about it.

It’s a new month, a new start and new opportunities. I have gone to a lot of events, met a lot of people and am trying to hustle. I want March to be just as fabulous as February, just without spending so much money. I want more side income, a permanent job and continue to network, create, have fun and live life to the fullest (Do you hear that universe? Yeah, I’m talking to YOU).

Although my spending was unusually high this month, so was my income! Cha ching! *High Five*. My take home pay from my job is roughly $1,300 per month. This month with my tax refund, side hustles and some payments I was waiting on since December, I took home roughly $2,300 this month. I cannot tell you how elated I am! This was about what I was making at my career job in LA, except now I am in Portland living a much cheaper lifestyle. As promised, I put every penny of my extra income towards debt.

This month was another awesome month for debt payoff. I paid a total of $1,830 on my graduate student loans! This leaves my graduate loans sitting at $44,759.62. So much better than 58k when I first started paying them off. I am not really counting my undergrad loans, as I pay only the minimum on those because their interest is sitting pretty at 2.5% while these monstrous loans devour everything at 7.9%. My undergrad loans are less than 10k and I want to focus on the higher interest loans for now.

Crunching the numbers, I’ve paid off almost 4k in 2 months. I hardly can believe it. I don’t know how long I can continue doing that either, given my contract is up in two months and I should start putting a little more in savings. But I am inspired to work harder, hustle more and get this shit done!

I am now realizing how important it is to have a plan, stick to it and put your mind to it. Before I was so miserable and overwhelmed with everything. I was constantly depressed and thought I could never get out of debt. I still have many years to go, but I can see my debt going down, which is a huge start. I am finding where I can cut back and where I can make more money.

Cheers to paying off debt! How did everyone do for February? Are you feeling excited about March?

• Author
• Recent Posts

Melanie

Melanie Lockert is the founder of the blog and author of the book, Dear Debt. Through her blog, she chronicled her journey out of $81,000 in student loan debt. She is also the co-founder of the Lola Retreat, which helps bold women face their fears, own their dreams and figure out a plan to be in control of their finances. She is passionate about empowering women, helping others get out of debt, and focuses on the intersection of debt and mental health. Every September she organizes a Suicide Prevention Awareness Blog Tour, to help share resources for those struggling with debt and suicide. In addition to her love of personal finance, art and music, she is also a karaoke master and a cat mom to Miles and Thelonious.

Latest posts by Melanie (see all)

• Talking About Money and Mental Health - September 12, 2022
• Dear Debt, We’re Better Apart - June 27, 2022
• Announcing The Mental Health and Wealth Summit - May 4, 2021