Okay…I know this post is late but this Monday was a holiday in the U.S. and blah, blah, none of that really matters, I was just procrastinating putting this up because I am ashamed of my progress. 😔 But I decided to be a grown a** woman about it and post it it anyways. Ugh.
September Student Loan Balance(s): -$131,848.28
August Student Loan Balance(s): -$132,084.30
This is a difference of $236.02, which is significantly less than the minimum payments of $1,342.73 because interest still sucks AND…
1) More accrued interest – When I transition from University A to University B, I went from being paid biweekly to monthly. This meant, if I had a student loan payment due on August 1st, it would have been paid on July 15th under the old pay schedule. Under the old pay schedule, the next time I would have paid it would have been August 15th and approximately only 30 days would have passed. However, because I now get paid on the 1st of each month, I made the payment on July 15th which meant the payment due on August 1st was satisfied. However, I did not make a payment on August 15th as I no longer get paid biweekly but instead made a payment September 1st. This meant, 45 days have lapsed between the payment I made on July 15th and the payment I made on September 1st. While it doesn’t seem like this would be that significant, the 15 additional days of accrued interest over the amount of debt I have really adds up. Next months debt update will be more “normal.”
2) Balance transfer fee – If you read the post about my self-refinance, you’ll know that I incurred a $295.00 balance transfer fee when I transferred Private Student Loan 1 balance from the originating lender to two credit cards offering 0% from the next 12 months with a balance transfer fee of 3%. While I had lofty goals of paying off the fee by September 1st so that my balance on the loan didn’t rise, it was obviously a fail.
3) No side hustle – This was also a goal for August and I didn’t really make any progress. I would like to say that that I was still “transitioning” into my new role and trying to “understand” my new schedule a bit better but these would be lame excuses. I really just wasn’t as aggressive as I needed to be. I have also become hesitant to take low paying side gigs like I used to (ala $7.50/hour) because I feel like my time is worth more than that. And it is, I guess. But given the amount of debt I have, $7.50/hour is better than nothing so I need to get with it and either find something at a better hourly rate or suck it up because doing nothing is no longer an option.
Okay. That’s it. I’ve used up all my pride to make this post.
Ms. Afro Penny 
I know it's super disappointing when you can't make big progress. Ugh, I had one debt payoff month when I think I paid $100 or something because I had big bills in other areas of my life (dentist? car repairs? Can't remember anymore) and it was SUCH a bummer. That said, you're still adjusting to the new job and new city, and you are making moves. And that personal loan is pretty close to being paid off, so you'll be able to redirect that money fairly soon. On the side hustle front, honestly I don't know if $7.50 an hour *is* worth it. Even babysitting should pay more than that, if you can deal with kids at all. I'd put up an ad on the faculty/staff listserv if you're looking for that. Or Rover or something, where you can set your own rates. Or poke around for retail/grocery store/whatever jobs that pay more than minimum wage, I guess. Good luck!
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As always, thanks C. I think it wouldn't be so demoralizing if I actually only paid $100.00 on my debt. It's the fact that I paid $1,342.73 in minimum payments on my debt and the balance only dropped by ~$200.00. Yes, you hit the nail on the head in that I had to cash flow a few things.The personal loan will be paid off on December 1st. I can't wait. And of course the plan would be to start chucking it at the federal loan at the first of the New Year. Unfortunately, my federal student loans will come out of their current deferment at that time. However, my current university currently pays 100% tuition on in-state coursework up to 6 credits…so if I took two courses on the side, in anything, my loans would go into an in-school deferment… Part of me is like nah, the time you would have to spend on classes could be better spent on a job and making more debt payments, and kind of want to start paying on the Federal Loans. The other part of me is not looking forward to that at least $700.00 per month payment while I am still so deep in the hole. Decisions…As for the side gig…I mean…accurate. I just need to bust my arse and get something better than minimum wage.
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Correction, it should have said, \”And of course the plan would be to start chucking it at the Private Student Loan 1 at the first of the New Year.\”
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I know you maybe decided not to continue, but I was thinking about you and thought I'd throw a comment out. How's it going?
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C, you are the best. I didn't decide not to continue, life just got complicated and busy. You actually posted this on my birthday. 🙂 I'll have something up on January 1st.
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