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Time is slipping away from me and by the time I get around to writing my monthly updates…we’re half way through the month!
October was VERY expensive for me, but somehow I still saved a pretty solid amount.
In regards to general life things…it hasn’t gotten easier. I would say October was actually a pretty bad and very tough month.
I’m still just taking everything day-by-day, because that’s all I can do. My finances are still very important, but there are also more important things going on.
General $ Updates
I reached over $10,500 saved for my student loans
Over $10K!! Yay!
I now have over $12K invested
Another month of going up by $1K!
I cancelled my Life Insurance Policy
Finally!! If you’ve been following me for awhile you would know that I was paying $90 a month for a Universal Life Insurance Policy. I opened this when I was 22 or so and I THOUGHT I was investing. I was advised incorrectly and have wanted to cancel this for years. I should have done it years ago, but I was upset that I would be losing all the money put in.
I decided to just pull the plug and take the loss. I have put in over $6,600 that I will not get back, but it feels good to not keep adding $90 a month.
I’m basically ending my No Spend 6 months
In October I did some emotional shopping. I bought mostly clothes. I’ve decided I won’t really be doing my ‘No Spend 6 Months’ for the rest of the year.
Debt
I started the month of October with my official debt at $36,000 and ended with $36,000. However, I technically started at $26,375.06 if you consider the money I have saved to pay those loans down.
In October I saved an additional $899.06 for my student loans (bringing my total saved to $10,557.36) so my final debt for October would be $25,442.64.
I still have paid $0 in interest 😊
Spending
Some main things to point out about my spending in October:
Groceries: WAY over budget. I honestly don’t even know what happened. Grocery prices have gone up, but I definitely don’t usually spend this much.
Food Out: Also way over budget on food out because I paid for food for another person 2x. I really want to avoid going out to eat in November.
Health/Beauty: Over $2,000 😭 My health issues have been VERY expensive this year and it just is what it is. This includes 12 acupuncture/cupping sessions, co-pays, medication, supplements, etc.
Netflix: I knew I was going to subscribe to Netflix but I forgot to include it in my budget!
Personal: I bought mostly clothes and a lot of it was simply because “I wanted them.” It was definitely very emotionally driven.
Project $0 to Profit: You can watch Episode 1 for this here.
Home: I bought a broom lol. I would usually put home purchases under groceries but I decided to put this separate for some reason.
M1 Invest: Since I am no longer contributing to my Life Insurance Policy, I decided I would invest that $90 into my M1 Brokerage account instead (all in VTI).
Coinbase: I also decided to start investing in some Crypto! I decided to go with Coinbase because I got a free $10 of BTC.
Income
Full-time job (microbiologist): $5,134.44
ONLINE/BUSINESS INCOME
Google AdSense (ad revenue from YouTube): $475.73
Financial Coaching: $350.00
Buy Me a Coffee/Venmo: $225
Mediavine (display ads on LivinglikeLeila): $172.32
Teachable: $29.81
Etsy: $4.55
Affiliates: $1.50
Online/Business Income Total: $1,258.91
EXTRA INCOME
BOA Cash Rewards: $5.40
Chase Cashback: $38.40
Discover Cashback: $17.76
Fetch: $15.00
Flip: $70.00
Nielsen Research Study: $100.00
IBotta: $21.99
Extra Income Total: $268.55
Pre-Tax Total Income: $6,661.90
Net Worth
As of October 31st my net worth is -$1,430.88!! Sooo close to $0!
Roth IRA (VTSAX): $8,538.39 (up 7.4% compared to last month)
M1 Invest (VTI): $3,695.05 (up 12.7% compared to last month)
Coinbase: $56.94
Sinking Funds:
- Taxes = $2,403.07
- Emergency Fund = $3,852.76
- Gifts = $423.38
- Medical/Dental = $1.00
- Car maintenance = $1,039.07
- Travel = $184.33
- Car insurance = $180.20
- Project $0 to Profit = $14.01
- Phone = $422.14
- MacBook = $601.42
Credit Score
My VantageScore increased by one point to 767.
October Goals Update
- Reach over $10,000 in my student loan savings CHECK
- Make over $1,000 online CHECK
- Put in more effort this month to make over $1,500 in November Maybe…but I don’t think so
November Money Goals
- Reach at least $11,200 in my student loan savings
- Make over $1,000 online
- Put in more effort this month to make over $1,500 in December
