Budgeting during the COVID-19 Storm

Mrs. Xennial

As of next week, it would be WFH week 4. I still love it, and I’m starting to use my “part-time extrovert” side to good use (hence I’m typing here). Being that I’m also the one managing our office’s Instagram, I actually did a live session with almost 12 students watching. It’s a trip; I tell ya. To be the person on screen talking and answering/responding to people’s questions or comments is so new to me. Our total income slightly got smaller due to Mr. Xennial’s hours cut, but he also said that the management just announced 10% pay raise for everyone who is willing to weather this shit storm with the restaurant, which is nice. I can say from my end, I’m budgeting to a T. Putting savings and setting bills aside, my monthly budget would preferably go down to $0 (with all the extra ones going towards paying off debt if necessary).

Update on the sale for the house in Hawaii: due to COVID-19 plus the island culture (yes, Hawaiian time is a THING), we had just signed an 10-day extension for closing, so now we are looking at April 23 (but hopefully sooner). It’s all because the lender wants some extra documents from the buyer, and everything takes even longer to process now. Thus the original 7-day extension may just cut it too close. I think the buyers want to close on the deal as much as we do, so hopefully no more hiccups after this.

I haven’t be up and clear about this, but here’s a layout of what we currently owe:

Debt Category	Amount
Car Loan	$6200
Credit Card	$5100
HELOC	$53700*

To further explain: the car loan I had was from my 2015 Prius, which is the only 4-wheel vehicle we drive (Mr. Xennial has a motorcycle that he purchased with cash out right; no further payment there).

The credit card here was a card I signed up for before our relocation used mostly for the move, and it is 0% for 18months (thanks to the How To Money podcast FB group suggestion). I’ve been paying minimum payment (or sometimes more if I feel ambitious), but ultimately we would pay off this along with the HELOC with the earning we get from selling our house. The plan is also to pay off the car loan at the same time, since that will save us $542.58 in interest for the two years (May 2022), and hopefully drop the insurance rate further as well. The thought behind this is also that we would be able to move what the bill amount would have been to better invest for return instead of paying interest to a bank far far away.

I do have three other credit cards that are not included up there because those three are much more personal than those ones:

Card Name	Amount
Chase Amazon	$215
Capital One Venture	$33
Care Credit	$28

**Not a credit card guru here; but below is my personal opinion toward my cards.**

If you’re interested about these… I got the Amazon card actually because I used to go to Whole Foods weekly for the Xennial Felines. (Yes, I was the ultimate cat lady that did homemade raw food for those BBs.) Now I kept it because Amazon, really. The perk of it is since I pay it off on a monthly basis (the remaining $215 is budgeted in for this paycheck; I just haven’t set up the payment yet), the reward system allows me to “buy some things for free/cheap” about every two to three month or so. I try not to burn the rewards every chance I got, just so when later on the money is tighter, I can use the reward to buy something we need.

Capital One venture card was… sort of a mistake from the past. It has an annual fee that I didn’t appreciate, but I just learned that I can apply for TSA Pre Check and get reimbursed, which in a sense pays for the annual fee itself. I’m still waiting to get that done since…welp, I’m in no rush flying anywhere now. I use it mostly for travel related expenses, which usually is then paid with the cash advance I get from work (or my own paycheck, if it is personal purchase).

Care Credit, I gotta say, was my ultimate SAVING GRACE. I started it with my Invisalign, but was actually more grateful because I can use it for the vet bills. The 6-12 months of 0% promotional purchase is the SWEETEST DEAL, which helped me budget accordingly even when the teenage Xennial Feline was costing me 1/2 – full paycheck for three days worth of his visits. I now use it mostly for vet visits, and it has worked very awesome for the most part. (Note: If you do apply for one, make sure that you use it at Care Credit approved vendors, or the promotional purchase at 0% doesn’t apply. Also, make sure you pay it off on time, or it is very likely something 26% crazy.)

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Starting next week, I’ll probably do a quick breakdown on how I budget (in a percentage analysis). Again, I’m in no way an expert, but thought I’d share my personal finance journey.

Until next time, hope you all stay safe and healthy!