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Bye to loan; hi to home - what would you do?

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RollingGreen:
Hi, everyone.

This forum is a great resource, and I'm glad I've found it (first post here.) I'm not in the best of situations, but I guess that's why this forum exists. I'm currently not paying mortgage/rent, so that has been helpful. I like the idea of ER, but honestly that's not my immediate goal - My short-term aim is to pay off the student loans and purchase a home in the range of $180,000 to $200,000. A fixer-upper would be nice.

I'm looking to see what you would do in my situation. Also, going forward, I would like to know the best place to put my money in the future. Right now, I'm just using a Santander checking account. I like the idea of making your money work for you, so I'd like to optimize it.

The cash-flow spreadsheet, which I've filled out to the best of my ability, is attached. If I've forgotten anything or if you need further information, please let me know.

Thanks very much for the help you provide here. My details are below.



Life Situation: Single, no dependents

Gross Salary/Wages: $60,000

I'm contributing $46.16 bi-weekly to a 403(b) for now, as I am paying off a loan within the plan ($196.33 goes to this bi-weekly, and it should be paid off in six months.) I plan to bump up my contributions much higher soon.

Currently, the 403(b) balance is $15,072.06.

Other Ordinary Income: I am an adjunct instructor at the local university, though this is on an as-needed basis; I wish it were more frequent. The stipend is about $4,500 per course. Sometimes I have two courses in a semester; sometimes I'll go half a year without one. The extra income is helpful, though. This is not reflected in the spreadsheet.




Current monthly expenses:

Cell phone (AT&T) is around $315/mo. This is because I'm paying for three lines. I'd love to bring that way down, but I believe that could be approached in another thread.

I'm leasing a car (2015 Kia Optima) for $299/mo., and I'm looking into a buyout. The remainder is $11,400.

Credit Card: $1000. There is no monthly charge on this as it was a balance transfer. Hope to knock this off in a month.

Grocery purchases are about $250/mo.

Dining (umm... I like having a lot of beer with friends) is about $300. I get it - this could be cut out to get out of debt faster. I can feel the face punches already. Beer makes you fat and your wallet thin. :(

Student Loans: $11,672.70 remaining. I plan to attack this after the credit card and pay much higher than the minimum $112/mo. any longer.

RWD:
You're spending 11% of your gross income on food and alcohol. That is ridiculous.
Your cell phone bill is also crazy. We're spending ~$50/month for two lines.
$167/month is a lot for insurance on a 2015 Kia. We spend significantly less than that on two cars.

Your spreadsheet seems to be missing a lot of expenses. You're not buying any clothes? No gas for the car? No gifts? I'm assuming since you aren't paying rent/mortgage someone else is covering utilities and such?

RollingGreen:
Thanks for the quick response. Yes, rent and utilities are covered for now. I forgot about gas, which amounts to about $60/mo. I'm aware of the cell phone bill; I'm paying for three lines, and I'd like to get it down somehow. I realize that can be covered in another section of the forum, so I'm going to take a look to save from extraneous posts here.  The $300 is the extreme - it is often much less, but it fluctuates. I figured I would use the higher extent as a worst case. I agree about the insurance. Hoping to talk that down soon as I shop around.

DoNorth:
switch to cricket wireless.  uses the AT&T network but for a fraction of a cost.  We got on a family plan with my folks.  4 lines for $100/month and 5GB of data each with free calling to Canada.

yeah, I like beer and wine too.  Pre-game before you go out, drink more at home with friends, home brew, alternate between domestic and pricier craft drafts, hit the happy hours.  Plenty of ways to still enjoy time out with friend while keeping the costs down. 

Lady SA:
What is the reason you are paying for 3 lines? I see you are single, is there a reason the other 2 people can't have their own plan? Feel free to disregard/ignore if you are not comfortable responding, just thought I'd ask to see if a more radical solution to that line item was possible. If you only paid for your own line through Ting or Cricket, you would suddenly have $275 back every month, which would be really great when you are paying back your loan and saving for a house!

Do you track your expenses? Or use a service like Mint? I highly suggest tracking your spending (that means EVERY transaction) for a few months. This budget/expenses sheet seems full of holes (missing clothing, travel, medical, insurance, utilities, gifts, car maintenance, restaurants, personal items like shampoo and soap, entertainment, etc) so it isn't an accurate representation of your spending.
Once you know what you are working with, it will be much easier to see the fat to trim.

Agreed on the alcohol. Drinking less has really had a surprisingly big impact on our budget (I'm not proud of that fact...). When we do go out, we try to pre-game with alcohol at home (cheaper!) and then usually limit ourselves to 1-2 drinks at the bar. With dinner, I only have water and never get a drink. If I'm actually at a bar to drink, I usually get a flight and sip slowly so I can feel like I'm trying a lot of flavors but I essentially got the equivalent of a single beer, instead of getting a full glass of each flavor I want.

Grocery is actually pretty good for a single person!

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