While I’m writing this post in September, by the time it’s up, I’ll have been living in Vermont for the past 5 days. Over the summer, my best friend and I decided to take advantage of this whole virtual teaching thing and spend the month of October somewhere else. With gorgeous fall scenery and contained COVID cases, Vermont seemed like the perfect choice to get away for a bit, all the while continuing to teach our classes and earn our paychecks.
You might have noticed my travel fund deplete rapidly in August, because we booked our AirBNB that month. The total cost was $1,312, or $656 each. While this came directly out of my travel savings, for the rest of the trip, I’ll just be living on my typical October budget. Here’s the birds-eye view:
The main item to note is that my take-home income is a bit less than I anticipated, as more money is being funneled from my paycheck into my 457 than I originally thought. That being said, I’m going to try to make the small take-home amount work for a bit, only adjusting if I decide I need a little more wiggle room month-to-month.
I’m feeling the decrease most severely in my savings; I’m saving a significantly less for travel, business, and my car fund rebuild. I’m not planning any big trips that will require lots of money from my travel fund, so I’m comfortable with this for the time being. My business savings, however, I’m not sure if I’m okay with. I pay $29/month from my business fund for my ConvertKit subscription, so I’m only ultimately saving about $13 a month for Teachers Talk Money things. For the time being, it’s not a huge deal, but I don’t think it will be sustainable in the long run. As for my car fund, I’d rather build it up a bit faster, but I’m on no strict timeline. So I may lower my 457 contributions slightly in the future to better save money, but I want to try and see how it goes first.
My fixed expenses are the same. The only change in my variable expenses is that I lowered my “other” fund to $150, which should still be plenty of money for most months.
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