Kninja Knitter

I’m still baffled as to how it’s already the last day of February. Yes, it’s the shortest month, but I just feel like it zipped by faster than usual. Still, I’m excited by the progress I’ve made, particularly toward my financial goals for the year!

Goal: Debt Reduction

As I explained last month, I’m on a mission this year to really hack away at the debt. For the first quarter, my goal is to pay down 15% of my BOY debt balance. Excellent news: as of today, I’ve paid down over 10%! And in the next few weeks, that will grow. My current projection is a 19.5% reduction, though I might be overstating a bit.

I had a small setback earlier this month when my car started acting up. That resulted in a repair bill that ate into my discretionary funds. But there’s still time to make up some of the loss before the end of March.

Extra Income

My DoorDash gig work has generally been going extremely well! This month I managed to take in almost $700 over three weeks! Consistency in working played a big part, as I managed to hit the Platinum Status level inside my first thirty days of Dashing. That has gotten me higher paying offers a good part of the time. This week hasn’t been quite so lucrative, but I’m planning to work over the weekend, so I hope to make up the difference.

My other side gig has given me a little more boost. This month I took in over $300 after taxes there, and my expectation is that will continue at least for a couple more months. March will be lower-paying since I’ll be gone for more than half the month. But April, with the extra efforts around Easter, should be busier which translates to a little more money.

Lastly, I closed out this month with my annual corporate bonus. It was a bit higher than last year, which is excellent and is what is making that sizable debt reduction possible! When I got the details about the bonus, I also learned that I’m getting a small pay raise which takes effect on April 1st.

One of my tasks during March is to take a closer look at how I want to allocate that increase. With DoorDash going chiefly toward paying off debt, I’m thinking I can put some of this extra pay toward my retirement savings. I’m thinking through the options right now, and once I take a closer look at the numbers I can make decisions. Paying less in interest to lenders is a priority. And getting the credit card debt neutralized will give me a better feel for my true discretionary income.

Now my head hurts, lol. I’ll get to bed and dream of spreadsheets. But it’s so calming to know that the looming shadow of debt has shrunk a fair amount this month!

Knit on. 🧶