2018 was a year of growth and new blessings for our family. I quit my dead-end job, we went on our first real vacation and we paid off DJ’s last student loan. Financially, we were still basically at a standstill because we didn’t have much money to save. We lived on just DJ’s income and my sporadic independent contractor income for 75% of the year.
So, as a refresher for those who are new here:
We track our variable spending using the Goodbudget app and all of our fixed expenses/bills are on autopay. At the end of each month, we update our budgeting spreadsheet to track our performance. We have a 1-month buffer in our joint checking account and smaller buffers in our individual accounts.
Here’s a recap of what we accomplished financially in 2018:
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Fixed Expenses
Total = $35,485.69
As you can see, the majority of our money goes to our housing costs, just like most of the population. We live in Northern California and we’re living cheaper than most people in our area, surprisingly. I’ll be able to get rid of the last 3 bills in 2019 once I let my agents know that I’m going back to a full-time job. 🙌🏽
* This chart doesn’t include a few bills that we hid for privacy reasons.
Variable Expenses
Total = $29,076.34
Since these are the expenses we have more control over, we’ll most likely increase our budget for home expenses and allowances. The miscellaneous category consists of taxes, car maintenance, travel, and other one-time expenses/events. Check out our plans and expectations for 2019 to see more about the changes coming up for our finances.
Savings Contributions
Total = $21,541.23
I was initially disappointed that we were unable to save as much after I quit my job, but now I’m satisfied with what we were able to do during this weird year. If you would like to check out how we invest, read our post about what we did in 2018. We also wrote a very unsponsored review of our Marcus Savings Account simply because we love them so much.
* This chart doesn’t include our various buffer accounts
Debt Payments
Total = $17,009.29
Pausing our aggressive debt payoff last year to buy our first home and prepare for me leaving my job was the best decision we could’ve made. However, we got tired of looking at DJ’s last student loan so we used $6,000 of our savings to pay that bad boy off! We won’t truly reap the benefits until next year, but at least we can say that we are officially debt free (not including our mortgage). 🎉
Home Equity – +$40,000
So, this is weird, but the smallest home in our new home community is now selling for more than we paid for our home! Our model is now up to over $40,000 in equity and will continue to rise in 2019 due to San Franciscans waking up to the fact that there is more affordable housing in Northern California. Luckily, my new job is 100% remote so I don’t need to worry about my crazy a$$ commute in the new year.
Overall Net worth – $95,000
Y’all! This is crazy! I grew up being told that being broke was the only option. I thought living paycheck to paycheck was normal, so being able to become debt free in less than 3 years while also buying a home and doing life stuff is mind-blowing to me! We’d actually have a $100,000 net worth if the stupid stock market didn’t do a mini-crash, but hopefully, by February we’ll hit that milestone!
Okay… I have to stop typing now or I’ll seriously start crying fat tears of joy. 😭
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Welp, there ya have it PTW fam! That’s our full 2018 budget recap! Please keep in mind that we would not be able to put large sums towards our savings or debt if we didn’t have 2 incomes.
However, reducing our expenses, increasing our income and tracking our spending helped us tremendously while we lived on essentially one income. With me going back to work (and praying that it is the most awesome job ever), I’m excited to see what happens for us financially now that we don’t have any debt to worry about.
Have a great year and $tay wealthy friends!
— Dannie
Congrats you guys. Also, that’s a fabulous photo of the two of you. Who shot it?
One question–what do you include in miscellaneous expenses? That looks like the highest number in your budget after housing.
Happy New Year!
We shot it ourselves. We stopped paying to have our photos taken a long time ago when we realized we could just DIY lol. Those expenses in the misc. category were mostly random one-off purchases and expenses that we had throughout the year. We won’t have the problem going forward though because we’re creating more savings buckets to have ready for when those things come up. – DJ