Budget of 29 Year Who's paying Off $100,000 Student Loans

[rgregory]

I thought this girl's budget was pretty impressive. Would you recommend any improvements to her budget?
http://www.businessinsider.com/budget-paying-student-loans-2016-7?yptr=yahoo?r=UK&IR=T

[Warlord1986]

"I'll live the same way to make sure I save for retirement and don't ever get back in debt again."

This chick is badass. Sure, there's stuff she could cut, but that doesn't mean she's not a bamf. She'll be fine.

[talltexan]

Her debt consolidation basically saved her $1,000/month in interest payments. Identifying steps like that can really help. Credit to her!

[HairyUpperLip]

a line item for pizza, i like her.

[Trudie]

Anything I could add would be nit-picking.  She's impressive.

[FausseBourgeoise]

I like this and it has me considering adding line items to hold myself more accountable.

[Travis]

Congrats to her on aggressively getting out of debt. That being said, she's missing out on some free chicken by choosing a less-than 3% loan over a nice 401K match.  I'm also curious about her accumulating $100k in student loans for a degree that didn't pan out into her intended careeer.  It doesn't say what her degree is other than it has something to do with the music industry and she abandoned that in favor of a corporate sales job to pay for the loans.  It's good that she figured out how to live way below her means to pay it off, but this story could have just as easily been about her expensive education that initially had no ROI that we've seen here so often.

[johnny847]

a line item for pizza, i like her.

Haha yeah I was amused by this.

[tralfamadorian]

Her budget is awesome.  But it's a shame that when she pays off her loans, her next steps are going to be to quit her side hustle and buy a new car.

[Travis]

Her budget is awesome.  But it's a shame that when she pays off her loans, her next steps are going to be to quit her side hustle and buy a new car.

She's following the Dave Ramsey program to the letter. He's religiously (no pun intended) against any form of debt.  Cash is king in his program.  Her spending plans aren't optimal, but they're better than most folks.

[tralfamadorian]

She's following the Dave Ramsey program to the letter. He's religiously (no pun intended) against any form of debt.  Cash is king in his program.  Her spending plans aren't optimal, but they're better than most folks.

No doubt.  But I still think it's a shame to kill the savings momentum she has.  ymmv

[arebelspy]

She could trim the restaurant spending.  The only egregious thing I see though is the cell phone bill.  $83/mo is not efficient at all.

Good for her for setting a goal though, I hope she is able to follow though and kick that debt's ass!

[johnny847]

She could trim the restaurant spending.  The only egregious thing I see though is the cell phone bill.  $83/mo is not efficient at all.

Good for her for setting a goal though, I hope she is able to follow though and kick that debt's ass!

And the restaurant spending is a little deceptive because she separates it into 3 categories - restaurants, at work, and pizza.
I think she separates out at work spending because she perceives a (almost always false) sense of inevitability of spending money on lunch at work.

[bgsnyder]

Her spending is pretty good, but it seems like she has a lot of redundant categories. For me, Groceries, Restaurants, (Food) While at work, Bars/Alcohol out, Uber and parking (For me it's only from being out drinking), Pizza, Alcohol for home/trips, Fast Food, and Coffee all come from my same Food budget. I also don't feel like I should specifically set money aside for things that have no good purpose (Alcohol/Bars/Restaurants)

[marty998]

Her spending is pretty good, but it seems like she has a lot of redundant categories. For me, Groceries, Restaurants, (Food) While at work, Bars/Alcohol out, Uber and parking (For me it's only from being out drinking), Pizza, Alcohol for home/trips, Fast Food, and Coffee all come from my same Food budget. I also don't feel like I should specifically set money aside for things that have no good purpose (Alcohol/Bars/Restaurants)

Come on now... a good bottle of Scotch, Gin, Tequila, whatever your tipple has it's place...

[clarkfan1979]

She could trim the restaurant spending.  The only egregious thing I see though is the cell phone bill.  $83/mo is not efficient at all.

Good for her for setting a goal though, I hope she is able to follow though and kick that debt's ass!

And the restaurant spending is a little deceptive because she separates it into 3 categories - restaurants, at work, and pizza.
I think she separates out at work spending because she perceives a (almost always false) sense of inevitability of spending money on lunch at work.

I counted $385 on food/alcohol. She separates them into almost 5 categories. I was really impressive when it said $150 on groceries, but her total food and alcohol is much higher. My wife and I spend $650 on groceries & alcohol at home and another $100 on restaurants. As a result, we are at about the same. We are going to try to reduce by $50 on groceries and alcohol at home.

[bgsnyder]

Her spending is pretty good, but it seems like she has a lot of redundant categories. For me, Groceries, Restaurants, (Food) While at work, Bars/Alcohol out, Uber and parking (For me it's only from being out drinking), Pizza, Alcohol for home/trips, Fast Food, and Coffee all come from my same Food budget. I also don't feel like I should specifically set money aside for things that have no good purpose (Alcohol/Bars/Restaurants)

Come on now... a good bottle of Scotch, Gin, Tequila, whatever your tipple has it's place...

Oh I agree, if I have money left over from my grocery budget I'll get myself a nice six pack, or a good bottle of booze, but two separate categories for alcohol every month doesn't make any sense to me. If I meet up with friends at a bar and I decide to spend $75 drinking and taking an uber home, I know I'm going to be eating rice and beans for a week. Hey, sometimes it's worth it. :-)