October Debt Challenge Update: $170 Paid Off

I’m checking in with my October update on my 2018 Debt Challenge – you can read all about the challenge in this post!

I am trying to celebrate the fact that I made SOME progress paying down debt, even though it wasn’t as much as I had planned. The big impact on my budget this month was that we stayed an unplanned extra five days in Disney World last month due to Hurricane Florence hitting the day we were supposed to fly home.

You can listen to my podcast episode about the trip to get the details, but essentially we decided it was better to spend some extra money and stay safe than trying to get back home into what could have been a dangerous situation. Luckily the hurricane ended up just skirting our area and we didn’t have any damage.

The positive things about this situation were 1) we were safe 2) I got a LOT of content for The Budget Mouse, my Disney-only site, and 3) we had a ton of fun of course!

The downside was that I wasn’t able to pay down as much debt this month as I would like since I spent that money on staying longer in Orlando. I was able to pay down our debt $170 but fell way short of my $700 goal.

How I’m Cutting Costs This Month

My income from the blog has stayed pretty steady recently (read about how I make a full-time income blogging in this past income report) so I know about what I have to work with for the next few months. I am going to be staying on a tight budget in preparation for December.

Here is my plan:

• We are taking one more big trip before the end of the year, but luckily most of that was paid for with points and miles! I did decide to shorten our trip to Disneyland by one day, which will save about $300 from my expenses in October.
• We will have at least one no-spend weekend – get lots of ideas for having a super fun no-spend weekend with your family in this post!
• We ate out SO MUCH last month that I have little desire to eat out. I will be cooking at home for all of our meals until we leave for our trip at the end of October which will help keep the spending in check. I will be using the cache of recipes on my What’s For Dinner Pinterest board to stay inspired to cook at home every night.
• Our other extra fun thing to do this month is our annual visit to the North Carolina State Fair! I’m working on a post with a bunch of ways to save money at the fair so you know we will be going on a budget, ha.

How is your debt payoff going? Was September a good month for you or did you miss your goal (like me)? You can follow mine and other’s debt-free journeys on Instagram with the hashtag #debtfreejourney.

I’d love to hear how it is going and offer you encouragement, so please leave a comment below!