Project 2020 - January 2020 Review | Progress, Not Perfection

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I didn’t hit my goal for the month. In fact, I was 89% higher than my goal which is pretty shitty. I spent $6,518 when the goal was to spend $3,450. I knew that I wouldn’t hit it perfectly right off the bat, and so I’m focusing on the progress that I made rather than the lack of perfection. Here are the key highlights:

  • Month over month, spending was down 51% - from $13K to $6.5K

  • Compared to the average for July 2019 - December 2019, spending was down 21% - from $8.3K to $6.5K

  • Top categories that I identified for savings were reduced and nearly met goals:

    • Clothes and other random crap was only 11% over goal, coming in at $278 ($250 goal)

    • Food and Entertainment was 15% over goal, coming in at $288 ($250 goal)

    • Groceries were 40% under the goal, coming in at $422 ($750 goal)

So where did I miss the mark?

  • Personal Care - I was off from work for the first few weeks and indulged in a few massages plus had my quarterly hair appointment. So my $400 goal was blown out of the water and I came in at $779

  • Healthcare - I had some last expenses that I had to pay for Levi’s birth, so I ended up at $986 compared to my $100 goal

  • Car - I had some repairs come up for my car that cost $495 compared to my $0 goal (which is probably unrealistic and needs to be revisited)

  • Subscriptions - I switched my phone from Verizon to Mint mobile - which will save me $600 per year, but requires that you pay the full year contract up front, so the cost is front loaded. I spent $677 on subscriptions compared to the budgeted $250, but this should come down drastically in future months. I also canceled our JCC membership, but that won’t come off our bill until March (60 day notice required)

  • There were also nearly $500 in expenses for Travel and Work. The Work ones will be reimbursed (yay!), but the Travel was totally worth it. I got to take Levi to see my grandmother. We used points for most of it, but paid to rent a car seat and stroller once there and had to pay the airport fees.

I am choosing not to get discouraged by this. There were some huge strides made - cutting spending by 50% month over month is no joke. I have put in place some changes that will have long term savings (cancelling subscriptions, switching mobile providers, etc), but those weren’t realized in this first month. And I did all this while switching jobs, and going with one fewer weeks of salary than I normally have.

Goals for February:

  • Reduce personal care expenses to less than goal

  • Reduce healthcare costs to less than the previous month

  • Keep the Food & Entertainment and Clothes/Other Random Crap categories to within the same range or lower than January

  • Keep groceries super low again - use our pantry to make dinners

  • Stop extra savings in the short term and redirect it to debt repayment

  • Be conscious of Amazon purchases - I had a good handle on them in January but started to slip towards the end of the month just mindlessly ordering things that I didn’t need

  • Pay 10% of your car loan

  • Make sure gift giving stays in line - with Valentine’s Day, kid’s birthday parties, and Renato’s birthday coming up I can get carried away. One small thing is more impactful than a ton of useless crap.

I will be debt free by the end of 2020. I am making good progress on a daily basis and I will continue to put all my efforts into this project.

Debt Project 2020Meaghan Danielson1 Comment