Thriftism

Happy Half Year! With a new month rolling around, that means we need another budget update. For a quick reminder, we run our budget solely on my income of $2,400/month which gives us a gross income of $31,200. We do not include health insurance in our budget as ours is currently covered by our jobs, but if this was our household income we would also be taken care of by insurance subsidies. We do not include all discretionary spending such as traveling or major home renovations, but we do include all entertainment, grocery, dining out, and every day expenses. It is our essentials budget that we live on before adding in trips! If we can do it, so can you! The Budget Our goal budget is balanced with total income minus expenses equal to zero. Numbers in red are expenditures, while black is income. The green background indicates under budget. Red squares point out our overspending.  We did change up the budget a bit to reflect that the student loan is paid off. W...

May is long gone and we were slow this month getting our monthly update out, but here it is (finally). We did get the video out quite a bit sooner, but never got around to this post. Here is a complete update of our 2018 goals as of June 1, 2018. Financial Goals Gain Employment (Race) ☑ Done - Race started working in February. Save 50% of our income We are back on track with this goal. While April was a rough month, in May we were able to save 74% of our income bringing us to around 61% of our income for the year. I am not posting both with and without mortgage anymore as the extra payments on the mortgage are increasing our net worth and should therefor count as savings. We are also planning on paying off the mortgage this year and will then start putting money back into our regular savings.   Increase passive dividend income by 25% We are on track for 24% increase this year - slightly below our goal. We haven't been contributing to dividend earni...

Happy June! With a new month rolling around, that means we need another budget update. For a quick reminder, we run our budget solely on my income of $2,400/month which gives us a gross income of $31,200. We do not include health insurance in our budget as ours is currently covered by our jobs, but if this was our household income we would also be taken care of by insurance subsidies. We do not include all discretionary spending such as traveling or major home renovations, but we do include all entertainment, grocery, dining out, and every day expenses. It is our essentials budget that we live on before adding in trips! If we can do it, so can you! The Budget Our goal budget is balanced with total income minus expenses equal to zero. Numbers in red are expenditures, while black is income. The green background indicates under budget. Red squares point out our overspending.  We did change up the budget a bit to reflect that the student loan is paid off. We split t...

Hard to believe we're already 1/3 through 2018 and that it's time for another Goals Report. Here is our update from April. Financial Goals Gain Employment (Race) 🗹 Done-Race started working in February.  Save 50% of our income We have been trying to stay on track with this one, but tax season was not favorable for us this year. Race's previous company had many mix-ups regarding tax withholding and also withheld money from his final check. So after months long battle, I think we are finally through with them. That being said, we didn't save as much in April, but we were still able to make extra payments on the mortgage. We are currently saving 52% with mortgage, 17% without, and are on track for 52% with mortgage and 6% without. We changed this goal slightly to be aimed at paying off the mortgage rather than putting money into an investment account.  Increase passive dividend income by 25% Right on track for 25% increase. Apri...

It's that time of the month... time to check in on goals you know? :) Have you been sticking with it or have your goals fallen by the wayside? Here's where we at Thriftism stand: 1. Take 6 Courses Online (4 of 6) Teach English: Foundational Principals (Completed FEB 2016) Teach English: Theories of Second Language Acquisition (Completed MARCH 2016) Teach English: Lesson Design & Assessment (Completed MARCH 2016) Seeing Through Photographs (Completed NOVEMBER 2016) Check out  Coursera  for a wide variety of free courses or  Duolingo  for language learning. 2. Install Kitchen Backsplash and Cabinet Pulls✔ INSTALLED!!! We finally put our backsplash up in May. We have to grout one more section, but it looks pretty sweet. See the how-to videos below if you're looking to put up backsplash in your home.  We also put in all the cabinet pulls. It sure is nice to have a handle on the drawers. :)     3. Construct Ca...

It's that time of the month... time to check in on goals you know? :) Have you been sticking with it or have your goals fallen by the wayside? Here's where we at Thriftism stand: 1. Take 6 Courses Online (4 of 6) Teach English: Foundational Principals (Completed FEB 2016) Teach English: Theories of Second Language Acquisition (Completed MARCH 2016) Teach English: Lesson Design & Assessment (Completed MARCH 2016) Seeing Through Photographs (Completed NOVEMBER 2016) Check out  Coursera  for a wide variety of free courses or  Duolingo  for language learning. 2. Install Kitchen Backsplash and Cabinet Pulls✔ INSTALLED!!! We finally put our backsplash up in May. We have to grout one more section, but it looks pretty sweet. See the how-to videos below if you're looking to put up backsplash in your home.  We also put in all the cabinet pulls. It sure is nice to have a handle on the drawers. :)      ...

It's that time of the month... time to check in on goals you know? :) Have you been sticking with it or have your goals fallen by the wayside? Here's where we at Thriftism stand: Take 6 Courses Online (3 of 6) Teach English: Foundational Principals (Completed FEB 2016) Teach English: Theories of Second Language Acquisition (Completed MARCH 2016) Teach English: Lesson Design & Assessment (Completed MARCH 2016) I still need to look at more courses. Check out  Coursera  for a wide variety of free courses or  Duolingo  for language learning. Install Kitchen Backsplash and Cabinet Pulls INSTALLED!!! We finally put our backsplash up in May. We have to grout one more section, but it looks pretty sweet. See the how-to videos below if you're looking to put up backsplash in your home.  We also put in all the cabinet pulls. It sure is nice to have a handle on the drawers. :)     Construct Captains Bedframe  ...