December 2019 | Debt Update

Hiya, welcome back to my Debt Updates!

This is December 2019 Debt Update

This months we've paid $1,000 towards debt so far. This is by far the hardest month to save money because I love giving gifts. There are a lot of gifts I'll be giving this year that are close to free or made from things I already have, but there are also a lot that I wanted to buy for people - which is okay as long as you have the money to do so!

By the end of the month, we will have also contributed $250 as a minimum payment towards the debt as well. We keep our minimum payments on while we pay things off because it just keeps us going with a little more gusto!

Thinking about more ways to make more $$ while we continue through this journey - what are ways you make extra income?

- Emily

Painting Wood Paneling

Last year around this time, Tom and I started painting our (now) rental home. It is owned by my parents and at the time, the previous tenant had just left and they need to do some fixing up. This is very common with rentals and since my parents have had rental properties my entire life, I've been a part of this process plenty of times. I was itching to quit my job and get out of that area for a fresh start with something new. We saw the door open for this home and knew we'd like to have a go at freshening it up.

For us, this meant painting everything white. Sorry, painting everything all the wood paneling white.

So how did we do this?
It's pretty simple and I know there are a ton of online resources that are probably better than this but, this is our experience!

We ended up sanding the walls from the top to the bottom. This was brutal to the arms and we definitely skipped some corners and edges. This was a big mistake. Obviously, 70's wood paneling is like plastic material and paint will come off plastic pretty easily. We found this to be true in the many places along the edges of trim that we did not sand. The paint started peeling off immediately. At this point, since we don't own the home and it's a true 'don't upgrade anything' rental - we decided to let it be and just live with a few peely-spots.

After sanding we did a basic primer and then a basic white paint from Lowes.
We did 3 rooms and one hallway all white. I think we'd like to touch up the trim and doors at some point, but for now, we are content with how things are.

Nov. 2019 Debt Update

This month did not go as planned!

We wanted to put $2,500 towards debt but only ended up paying our minimum payment of $250/month. #reallife If this isn't real life I don't know what is.

Honestly, I'm very discouraged and more upset with myself than I think Tom is.
Reasons why we fell short this month
 1. Our New Credit Card
We are currently using a special credit card that is supposed to boost credit scores. Why are we using this after we cut up our payments? Because we want to be able to buy a house within the next few years and after Tom's unfortunate pay-back history and then paying all of Tom's debts off at once his score was really low. We needed to raise the score but we didn't want to take out a loan just to do so. Our best option was this card. You need a refundable down payment for the card itself and can only spend that amount of money. Well the card is working and Tom's credit score has risen significantly since we've been using it, but we haven't been as careful as we should've been. I honestly don't like having it AT ALL but at this point we need it.

 2. Copeland's School & Kennel Cough
So we knew we needed to invest in puppy school for Copeland and we found a really great place in town to do so BUT it was pretty expensive and after the two-week program, they wanted us to bring him back for additional training work. Unfortunately, after we wend home on Friday, we notice Copeland started coughing. Of course, it was kennel cough. *Que additional doctors visit and medication expenses* We always want to make sure Copeland is ok and has what he needs

 3. The Farmers Dog
While we do want the best possible food for Copeland, the Farmers Dog is just too expensive to maintain - for our size dog, it's about $138/month. When we could easily be paying about $50 for kibble instead. I think we'll be doing more research on it before we switch, but for now I think we'll make that change.

 4. Friendsgiving
Almost every year, we host a Friendsgiving dinner with all of our friends. This was way more expensive than I thought it would be. We ended up making all of the food while everyone else brought dessert, appetizers, etc. I thought this would be a good idea but honestly, it wasn't. It was a lot of stress trying to cook everything and get it warm at once and then to also buy all of the ingredients. Next year we will only be cooking Turkey and it will be BYOB lol.