I am debt free and still technically live paycheck to paycheck because i do a zero based budget filling any available money into a savings category. The difference is I’m paying myself instead of paying a bill. I feel like you’ll be even more excited to be saving!
Although we have a small amount of debt that will be gone in a couple months, I am with you on this due to zero based budgeting. I have a place for every dollar in my budget and even though we make good money and are saving a large amount, we still feel broke and we are far from it. How do we break this line of thinking? My husband and I talk about this -- but we think that since we grew up poor, we will always kinda feel that way regardless of how much our net worth is.
@@akbritn Do you have one emergency savings and then other savings? I think it has helped me to have “buckets” like with Ally so I can save for specific things I need. I save for home repairs, auto, healthcare, pets, vacations. I have my emergency fund separate but this allows me to have spending money saved so I feel I have money for things when needed. I refuse to touch my emergency fund.
I think you’re right! I’ll be more excited to save and invest and it will feel more like a positive thing. I guess zero based budgets do make us feel like we’re living paycheck to paycheck even more. I hadn’t thought of it that way, but it makes so much sense!
@@EmsFitVenture I actually just started having an account for quarterly, yearly, vacation spending separately from our EF a couple months ago. I do think that will help because right now, for example, we have a large property tax bill due in January I am paying down over a few months, but next year I will have all of it already saved. We could pay it out of our savings, no problem, but i hate dipping into that for ANYTHING!
I’m with Dave Ramsey on this one, aggressively paying off debt and then focusing on saving and investing and watching your wealth grow is truly wonderful. My husband and I came from modest backgrounds and married young (straight out of University)and also had children young. We both worked (no inheritances for us!) and saved and now have the security of owning outright our own home, retired in our 50s and have helped our now adult children through education and onto the property ladder and this has been so incredibly rewarding. You are doing a great job and fast forward 10 years, you will bless the day you sacrificed to clear debt. Best of luck to you and your family.
Thank you so much for sharing and for the encouragement. You sound like you have a background very similar to ours. It’s nice to know you guys made it on your own! We are definitely not expecting any inheritance from our families, so it’s all on us, but I know we can do it ☺️
I love that this is working out so well for you guys!! Perhaps sometime in the future I can do the aggressive payoffs, but for now it's the minimal that fit in my budget.
Great start Katie! One great month down. It’s so satisfying to have an end date and it definitely puts things in perspective. My goal is to be debt free in 2 years too. I’m starting my countdown in the new year. It may be a stretch goal but I needed to put a date on it. I want to enjoy my family and not stretch too much for the rest of November and also December. Thanks for sharing as always. 💜
Thank you so much! I agree that having an end date is really helpful. Before when I had no idea when we’d be done, it felt even more daunting. Here’s to us and being debt free in 2 years (or less)! 🎉🙌🏼
I love your videos and following your journey 💛 Sometimes replacing “bad” as a descriptor with “challenging,” can be helpful for mindset. “Bad” can imply it just is what it is. “Challenge” can imply that it is/was something to overcome, or it was something that we got through and maybe even learned how we want to move forward with what the challenge taught or is teaching us. Just a thought! Of course you can use whatever language is helpful for you! Excited for your next update 😊
Thank you, Stephanie ☺️ obviously I hope we are able to do it sooner! I’m hoping we can continue to send more than the minimum that we need each month, but I don’t want to get my hopes up yet. We all know life likes those curve balls 😅
Off to a great start! I’m looking forward to you crushing that debt free date goal, you’re already off and running. We’re suffering a bit of the overspending bug, I think because of buying the new car. For some reason, once I fall off the no spend wagon the pendulum really tends to swing in the opposite direction for a few months while I mentally adjust to being in debt again (the 0% doesn’t seem to alter my perception). I’m looking forward to a no spend January and hoping that gets us back on track, in the meantime just going to walk through it, enjoy time with the kids and grandkids and count my blessings to the best of my ability. It’s counterintuitive to me to be happy and in debt at the same time, even knowing how ridiculous that sounds. Time to get over it, enjoy the new car and the holidays and refocus for the new year!
I can 100% relate to that! I have definitely felt that if I slip up a bit or if something unexpected happens, it causes me to be a bit more lax on our spending and budgeting. I don’t know what that is. You would think it would be the opposite, but it’s as if discouragement finally settles in and you feel a little lost and hopeless. I think no spend January is a great idea to get you back on track! I’ve never done a no spend month before. I kind of want to try it, but I’m not sure the family would go along with it. Maybe I’ll ask Marc what he thinks! January would be a good time to do it for us because we don’t have a lot of birthdays or family things that month ☺️
I am so rooting for you to get your debt paid off. This plan sounds very realistic. I bet your husband is getting excited too. He probably thought the school loans would go on forever.
Oddly enough, it doesn’t really bother him. I mean I think he’ll be happy they are paid off when I tell him because he knows that will free up money for other things, but I don’t think he gets excited about it like I do. I kind of wish he did though 😂
Katie so glad to see this ! Two thoughts ! Yahoo ! What an awesome month to start off this series ! Second thought ! I believe in the power of DR and would pay off as much as you can each and every month ! Playing with the numbers can produce slower pay off and more frustration… I agree with your plan of enjoy the family time and holidays but keep that debt momentum up ! It’s a slippery slope don’t loose your focus !
That’s so true! We definitely have to keep pushing. I just mean that I don’t want to be stressing over it too much over the holidays. December might be a bit lower for debt payoff, but hopefully we can still at least put the minimum that we need 🤞🏼
Yes, yes, yes ... Im liking the new series. I like the Sept '26 pay off date coupled with your self imposed monthly minimum debt payment amount to meet that goal. I like that on the months you exceed your monthly (ie Oct '24 and this video) self imposed minimum, you adjust the monthly minimum down for the rest of the duration. Face it, even if you had three @$6k months in a row, there is likely going to be a month you dont make either the original or the adjusted minimum. Accounting this way helps bridge any lower months and still celebrate the higher months. I wouldnt adjust the end date any more than once every 6 months. However, you are working with financials which don't have to meet the American Accounting Association's standards. In business books, and a home is microcosm of a business, folks are allowed to see thier business cycles. Look over your records for the past year to few to see if there is a pattern of either reduced income or reduced debt payment. If there is, choose when you want to make any time line adjustments accordingly and formal (to your books) self imposed monthly minimum debt payment. I would choose AFTER a historical lull period(s) of time.
I’m glad you like the series ☺️ I love the idea of not making any changes in the goal date until it has been at least 6 months. I do enjoy when things go well, but I also know that you are right that there is likely going to be some “bad” or lower months in there as well, and I don’t want to get my hopes up thinking that everything will goes smoothly the entire journey.
@KatieoftheHouse You are enough out of the woods debt wise and have somewhat adequte sinking funds/ savings coupled with a proven discipline for progressing on your financial goals that you get to skip "bad" for "lower income" and "unplanned expenses".
I know I've shared my feelings on this before but I very much feel like you do with paycheck to paycheck because I'm sticking to a budget etc. I'm patient in general but with my own personal life, not so much lol
Congratulations ❤. You can do it, i follow dave BUT i am still doing my 401k and my regular savings...im single and i know it will take me a bit longer but i feel better doing it this way...i hope this makes sense 😊
It definitely makes sense! I don’t have anything against Dave. He’s helped so many people, but I think you can still be successful if you do things a little differently. And I love that you are still investing! I think that’s something you’ll be glad that you did ☺️
The zero based budget does lend its self to all the feelings that come with living pay check to paycheck whether you are paying for useless doo-dads or into some sort of readily accessible savings. Learned from my grade school allowance and then low income period augmented with variable tips - I try to do most of my discretionary spending at the end of a pay/ budget period. For example, if i know that buying an article of clothing is a part of the plan and also the budget, ill wait until the end of that budgeting period to start looking; unless some fantastic deal catches my eye, im not going go cut my nose off spite myself or some funny little self imposed rule. This msy mean that i dont actuslly buy until im in the next pay period or budget. What this does put more cash (or checking account balance) in my pocket most times which certainly feels better. It also gives me more options to re-allocate that money. Maybe i decide i truly all-but-need shoes over a jacket 'cause something happened. By spending towards the end of the budget period i have that option. Or the option to spend on something completely unrelated to clothing assuming i have the discipline to not buy a use-less doo-dad. This works in the food world as well. The world is full of end of the paycheck, no money for groceries, what do i do solutions. In general, I've always tried to keep a percentage or dollar amount for larder staples, spices, and great deals; good and great deals are purchased when i come across them, the rest at the end of the budget period unless needed. Unlike many, my bigger grocery shops are at the end of the budget period. Without even realizing it, my smaller shops have always tended to be smaller towards the beginning of the budget period. BTW Pay attention because the national and bigger chains seem to be going back to having thier best sales the last full 7 day week of the month. This used to be true and probably helped shape waiting until the end of a budget period to do a majority of my discretionary spending. That and the feeling of having options.
Someone else commented that zero based budgeting lends itself to the paycheck to paycheck feeling. I hadn’t thought of it that way before, but that definitely makes sense! I like how you try to defer your spending to later in the pay period. That’s smart!
Something tells me you will have this knocked out way sooner than 24 months. One question -- How are you accounting for your husbands employer paying toward the student loans? Love your channel! -Amanda
Thank you, Amanda! I really hope you are right about that 😃 I am just counting how much debt/principal we actually have to pay off each month, not necessarily how much is put toward it. So when I do my debt update and count up the total we paid, I just count everything, not matter where it came from. I hope that makes sense! ☺️
Hi, love this series ❤. How do you calculate the interest for this project? Do you calculate it into what you have payed or calculate by how much the debt has gone down by?
Exactly what arh1234 said! I know I need to decrease my total balance by a certain amount each month, but in reality I actually have to send more to debt each month because some is lost to interest ☺️ if you’re interested in seeing the difference, I can definitely show both the amount we sent to debt and the amount that was actually paid off in the next one!
I just consider how much we have to pay off, not how much we have to out toward debt, so in reality we’ll be putting more to debt every month than what we actually pay off of the principal. Does that make sense?
I am debt free and still technically live paycheck to paycheck because i do a zero based budget filling any available money into a savings category. The difference is I’m paying myself instead of paying a bill. I feel like you’ll be even more excited to be saving!
Although we have a small amount of debt that will be gone in a couple months, I am with you on this due to zero based budgeting. I have a place for every dollar in my budget and even though we make good money and are saving a large amount, we still feel broke and we are far from it. How do we break this line of thinking? My husband and I talk about this -- but we think that since we grew up poor, we will always kinda feel that way regardless of how much our net worth is.
@@akbritn Do you have one emergency savings and then other savings? I think it has helped me to have “buckets” like with Ally so I can save for specific things I need. I save for home repairs, auto, healthcare, pets, vacations. I have my emergency fund separate but this allows me to have spending money saved so I feel I have money for things when needed. I refuse to touch my emergency fund.
I think you’re right! I’ll be more excited to save and invest and it will feel more like a positive thing. I guess zero based budgets do make us feel like we’re living paycheck to paycheck even more. I hadn’t thought of it that way, but it makes so much sense!
@@EmsFitVenture I actually just started having an account for quarterly, yearly, vacation spending separately from our EF a couple months ago. I do think that will help because right now, for example, we have a large property tax bill due in January I am paying down over a few months, but next year I will have all of it already saved. We could pay it out of our savings, no problem, but i hate dipping into that for ANYTHING!
I am “debt free” (excluding mortgage), but don’t feel paycheck to paycheck anymore. I keep $5k in checking at all times. 💜
I’m with Dave Ramsey on this one, aggressively paying off debt and then focusing on saving and investing and watching your wealth grow is truly wonderful. My husband and I came from modest backgrounds and married young (straight out of University)and also had children young. We both worked (no inheritances for us!) and saved and now have the security of owning outright our own home, retired in our 50s and have helped our now adult children through education and onto the property ladder and this has been so incredibly rewarding. You are doing a great job and fast forward 10 years, you will bless the day you sacrificed to clear debt. Best of luck to you and your family.
Thank you so much for sharing and for the encouragement. You sound like you have a background very similar to ours. It’s nice to know you guys made it on your own! We are definitely not expecting any inheritance from our families, so it’s all on us, but I know we can do it ☺️
Love this new series, Katie. The reflections of "good month/bad month" feel valuable.
What a fantastic month!
Thank you so much, Jessie! I’m glad you like it 🥰
Hello Katie, so glad to be able to catch up and watch this video. This series is such an awesome idea.
Thank you so much, Dee! I am excited about it 😃
Great update and definitely enjoying the new series!!!
Thank you, Jay!
Love this series, you are an inspiration 🎉 I know you can def hit your goal!!!
Thank you, Brooke! ☺️❤️
Good morning❤ awesome video. Hope you enjoy being with your family during the holidays. Have a wonderful weekend
Thank you, Eva! Have a happy Thanksgiving! ❤️
I love that this is working out so well for you guys!! Perhaps sometime in the future I can do the aggressive payoffs, but for now it's the minimal that fit in my budget.
Thank you so much, Mel! You gotta do what works for you 🥰
Gains, gains, gains. Keep pushing!
Always! Thank you
Great start Katie! One great month down. It’s so satisfying to have an end date and it definitely puts things in perspective. My goal is to be debt free in 2 years too. I’m starting my countdown in the new year. It may be a stretch goal but I needed to put a date on it. I want to enjoy my family and not stretch too much for the rest of November and also December. Thanks for sharing as always. 💜
Thank you so much! I agree that having an end date is really helpful. Before when I had no idea when we’d be done, it felt even more daunting. Here’s to us and being debt free in 2 years (or less)! 🎉🙌🏼
💜 this series. Great job in October. So happy for y’all 😊
Yay! I’m glad you like it ☺️ and thank you, Cat! ❤️
Hello Katie! Great series! It’s is so helpful to reflect on the month! I often can get obsessed with things too. I feel ya. 💜🌷🌻
Thank you, Imani! I annoy myself when I get obsessive, but it does help me make progress so I guess there’s a plus side to it 😆
AHHHHHHHH LET'S GO!!!!! I am SO excited to countdown with you Katie!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
💃🕺💃🕺
Yay!! Thank you so much for the encouragement! 😄
I love your videos and following your journey 💛
Sometimes replacing “bad” as a descriptor with “challenging,” can be helpful for mindset. “Bad” can imply it just is what it is. “Challenge” can imply that it is/was something to overcome, or it was something that we got through and maybe even learned how we want to move forward with what the challenge taught or is teaching us. Just a thought! Of course you can use whatever language is helpful for you!
Excited for your next update 😊
Thank you so much! I appreciate you being here ☺️
Oh, I do like “challenge.” Maybe I can change it to challenge/triumph instead of good/bad.
@@KatieoftheHouseooh! I like the addition of “triumph!” 😄
@ thank you for the idea! ☺️
🔥🔥🔥🔥- Amazing progress. The end of debt is in sight!!!!
Yes!!! Can’t wait 😄 thank you!
Great video ❤❤❤
Thank you, Shannon!
Great ❤ video
Thank you, Heather! ❤️
Hi Katie, great job for the 1st month, your well on your way! Itll be exciting to see if youre able to finish before sept 2026.
Thank you, Stephanie ☺️ obviously I hope we are able to do it sooner! I’m hoping we can continue to send more than the minimum that we need each month, but I don’t want to get my hopes up yet. We all know life likes those curve balls 😅
@KatieoftheHouse def life be like you're having a good time, here ya go! Lol
Off to a great start! I’m looking forward to you crushing that debt free date goal, you’re already off and running. We’re suffering a bit of the overspending bug, I think because of buying the new car. For some reason, once I fall off the no spend wagon the pendulum really tends to swing in the opposite direction for a few months while I mentally adjust to being in debt again (the 0% doesn’t seem to alter my perception). I’m looking forward to a no spend January and hoping that gets us back on track, in the meantime just going to walk through it, enjoy time with the kids and grandkids and count my blessings to the best of my ability. It’s counterintuitive to me to be happy and in debt at the same time, even knowing how ridiculous that sounds. Time to get over it, enjoy the new car and the holidays and refocus for the new year!
I can 100% relate to that! I have definitely felt that if I slip up a bit or if something unexpected happens, it causes me to be a bit more lax on our spending and budgeting. I don’t know what that is. You would think it would be the opposite, but it’s as if discouragement finally settles in and you feel a little lost and hopeless. I think no spend January is a great idea to get you back on track! I’ve never done a no spend month before. I kind of want to try it, but I’m not sure the family would go along with it. Maybe I’ll ask Marc what he thinks! January would be a good time to do it for us because we don’t have a lot of birthdays or family things that month ☺️
Excited for the updates! I totally get the pay check to pay check feeling though
Thank you, Ang! I guess it will just feel like that until we are debt free…
I am so rooting for you to get your debt paid off. This plan sounds very realistic. I bet your husband is getting excited too. He probably thought the school loans would go on forever.
Oddly enough, it doesn’t really bother him. I mean I think he’ll be happy they are paid off when I tell him because he knows that will free up money for other things, but I don’t think he gets excited about it like I do. I kind of wish he did though 😂
Katie so glad to see this ! Two thoughts ! Yahoo ! What an awesome month to start off this series ! Second thought ! I believe in the power of DR and would pay off as much as you can each and every month ! Playing with the numbers can produce slower pay off and more frustration… I agree with your plan of enjoy the family time and holidays but keep that debt momentum up ! It’s a slippery slope don’t loose your focus !
That’s so true! We definitely have to keep pushing. I just mean that I don’t want to be stressing over it too much over the holidays. December might be a bit lower for debt payoff, but hopefully we can still at least put the minimum that we need 🤞🏼
@@KatieoftheHouseI want your holidays to be wonderful ( Katie my budget is 7 k so yeah I know about holiday 😂overspending )
@ haha you put me to shame! 😂
@ way way way too much extended family and friends buying !
@ but if you can afford it and it brings you joy, that’s all that matters ❤️
Nice 👍
Thank you!
Absolutely amazing! Hoping to be debt-free before the end of 2025 that is our goal currently sitting at just over 15,000 3:16
That’s a great goal!! You can do it ☺️
Yes, yes, yes ... Im liking the new series. I like the Sept '26 pay off date coupled with your self imposed monthly minimum debt payment amount to meet that goal. I like that on the months you exceed your monthly (ie Oct '24 and this video) self imposed minimum, you adjust the monthly minimum down for the rest of the duration. Face it, even if you had three @$6k months in a row, there is likely going to be a month you dont make either the original or the adjusted minimum. Accounting this way helps bridge any lower months and still celebrate the higher months.
I wouldnt adjust the end date any more than once every 6 months. However, you are working with financials which don't have to meet the American Accounting Association's standards. In business books, and a home is microcosm of a business, folks are allowed to see thier business cycles. Look over your records for the past year to few to see if there is a pattern of either reduced income or reduced debt payment. If there is, choose when you want to make any time line adjustments accordingly and formal (to your books) self imposed monthly minimum debt payment. I would choose AFTER a historical lull period(s) of time.
I’m glad you like the series ☺️
I love the idea of not making any changes in the goal date until it has been at least 6 months. I do enjoy when things go well, but I also know that you are right that there is likely going to be some “bad” or lower months in there as well, and I don’t want to get my hopes up thinking that everything will goes smoothly the entire journey.
@KatieoftheHouse You are enough out of the woods debt wise and have somewhat adequte sinking funds/ savings coupled with a proven discipline for progressing on your financial goals that you get to skip "bad" for "lower income" and "unplanned expenses".
I know I've shared my feelings on this before but I very much feel like you do with paycheck to paycheck because I'm sticking to a budget etc. I'm patient in general but with my own personal life, not so much lol
😂 patience is hard! I definitely thing I’ve improved my patience in a lot of ways, but definitely not with finances. I’ll keep trying 😉
Congratulations ❤. You can do it, i follow dave BUT i am still doing my 401k and my regular savings...im single and i know it will take me a bit longer but i feel better doing it this way...i hope this makes sense 😊
It definitely makes sense! I don’t have anything against Dave. He’s helped so many people, but I think you can still be successful if you do things a little differently. And I love that you are still investing! I think that’s something you’ll be glad that you did ☺️
So far my goals are going ok. Always wishing to win the lottery though!
Haha, that would certainly speed things up, right?! 😆
👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Thanks for watching! ☺️
The zero based budget does lend its self to all the feelings that come with living pay check to paycheck whether you are paying for useless doo-dads or into some sort of readily accessible savings. Learned from my grade school allowance and then low income period augmented with variable tips - I try to do most of my discretionary spending at the end of a pay/ budget period. For example, if i know that buying an article of clothing is a part of the plan and also the budget, ill wait until the end of that budgeting period to start looking; unless some fantastic deal catches my eye, im not going go cut my nose off spite myself or some funny little self imposed rule. This msy mean that i dont actuslly buy until im in the next pay period or budget. What this does put more cash (or checking account balance) in my pocket most times which certainly feels better. It also gives me more options to re-allocate that money. Maybe i decide i truly all-but-need shoes over a jacket 'cause something happened. By spending towards the end of the budget period i have that option. Or the option to spend on something completely unrelated to clothing assuming i have the discipline to not buy a use-less doo-dad.
This works in the food world as well. The world is full of end of the paycheck, no money for groceries, what do i do solutions. In general, I've always tried to keep a percentage or dollar amount for larder staples, spices, and great deals; good and great deals are purchased when i come across them, the rest at the end of the budget period unless needed. Unlike many, my bigger grocery shops are at the end of the budget period. Without even realizing it, my smaller shops have always tended to be smaller towards the beginning of the budget period. BTW Pay attention because the national and bigger chains seem to be going back to having thier best sales the last full 7 day week of the month. This used to be true and probably helped shape waiting until the end of a budget period to do a majority of my discretionary spending. That and the feeling of having options.
Someone else commented that zero based budgeting lends itself to the paycheck to paycheck feeling. I hadn’t thought of it that way before, but that definitely makes sense! I like how you try to defer your spending to later in the pay period. That’s smart!
Something tells me you will have this knocked out way sooner than 24 months. One question -- How are you accounting for your husbands employer paying toward the student loans? Love your channel! -Amanda
Thank you, Amanda! I really hope you are right about that 😃 I am just counting how much debt/principal we actually have to pay off each month, not necessarily how much is put toward it. So when I do my debt update and count up the total we paid, I just count everything, not matter where it came from. I hope that makes sense! ☺️
Have you posted the link to the new monthly tracker ?
The monthly budget one? That’s coming Monday ☺️
@@KatieoftheHouse yay thank you so much
@ you’re welcome! Let me know when you use it if you find any issues with it ☺️
Hi, love this series ❤. How do you calculate the interest for this project? Do you calculate it into what you have payed or calculate by how much the debt has gone down by?
She typically reports how much she decreases the debt - usually has to pay more than that
Exactly what arh1234 said! I know I need to decrease my total balance by a certain amount each month, but in reality I actually have to send more to debt each month because some is lost to interest ☺️ if you’re interested in seeing the difference, I can definitely show both the amount we sent to debt and the amount that was actually paid off in the next one!
@@KatieoftheHouse Yes, I am interested to see that in the next update. Thank you
How do you calculate your monthly payment when considering interest that accrues?
I just consider how much we have to pay off, not how much we have to out toward debt, so in reality we’ll be putting more to debt every month than what we actually pay off of the principal. Does that make sense?
@@KatieoftheHouseyes thank you
Then we your TH-cam family will do the jumping up and down down.
This community is the best! I appreciate age that, Debra ☺️
Hi Katie 👋 great job working on your debt 😊🩵
Thank you! 😄
Great video 💗
Thanks, Izzy! 💕