I am by no means a master of budgeting. I am sharing my journey with you as I get my life together. Looking around the internet, it is easy to find people on a who have already started their journey, finished their journey, or who have embraced the techniques and who have gotten off to a good start.
This is not that journey, and this is why I am sharing it with you. So you can see that it is not all rainbows, and is by no means easy. Also, many people start off their debt-freedom journey with a seemingly scorched-earth policy – I am not about that life. Some would say I am not fully committed; I would counter that I do not want to jump into a metaphorical deep lake to begin my journey. Doing that would just leave me face down in a pile of debt, unable to face it all. As a matter of fact, despite this platform, I still struggle with sharing so much because I know I need to do better. It is hard to get these posts up because I do not want to share. But I will.
Here we make no judgment AND celebrate each and every victory, no matter how small.
Miss C
My cover photo this month is an overview of my monthly budget. This is mostly real numbers, with a handful of wishful numbers thrown in. This budget leaves me with an expected monthly deficit of $1144.78.
Now obviously this is not sustainable, but this is where we are. Keep checking back to see what happens and how I work through it.
Before we get into the paycheck budget breakdown, let’s talk about a few recent wins:
- This month my Amazon Prime annual fee is due. Rather than charge it to a credit card (past behavior), it felt really good to simply change the card to the account where I have been keeping my sinking funds. Paying for this transaction caused me ZERO anxiety and I did not give it another thought. This was such a freeing feeling, I cannot wait until I get to have it with every purchase.
- It feels good to have a card paid off. I paid off Store Card 3, and it feels GOOD. I am still riding the high. Using the snowball method, as the smaller debts are paid off, it will be longer between payoffs, but keep pushing. It is completely worth it.
I am ecstatic over these wins this month!!
As of July 1, my non-student loan debt total is $50,509.35. My minimum monthly payments are $2,067.47.
This paycheck’s deficit is $403.47. 
I will obviously tweak this and see how it goes.
It won’t always be this way.
Have you done your budget for July yet?