After a week of living in my new apartment, I've created an entirely new budget that factors in living expenses that I didn't have when living with my parents. Needless to say, money is a lot tighter than it used to be. But thanks to my year of living in New York City, this is all too familiar territory and I know it's manageable.
So my full-time job covers my expenses: rent, utilities, student loan minimums, food (only $35/week!), fun (also only $35/week!), gas etc. There is not a penny left over after these expenses and it does not include any savings. My salary is very small but I'm working to grow it.
I earn extra income by babysitting, dog sitting, my resume business, working over time, and absolutely anything else I can do (within reason) to earn money. At the end of each week (roughly), I split the fund into 2 categories: 25% into savings and 75% into additional student loan payments. The faster I can pay off $60,000 in debt, the faster I can use my full-time income to my advantage.
Here's the dirt on my debt:
Student Loan 1 $14,387
Student Loan 2 $20,587
Student Loan 3 $24,783
Credit Card Balance (no interest) $3,400
Normally, I'd pay off my smallest debt first and snowball it into my next debt, but with my credit card not having any interest until May 2014, I will be focusing on the $14,387 loan as much as possible. My goal is to get this under $10,000 by the end of the year - ambitious to say the least!
I'll definitely be writing about my strategies and progress here - stay tuned!
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