June 2018 Extra Debt/Loan Repayment + Side Hustle Cash-Flowin' Report

Hey hey! It’s halfway through July, but you know what, who cares? You’re getting the June extra payment report anyway, because this month was a lot different than last month, both in good and bad ways, and I want to tell you about it. So let me break it down a little bit:

Last month, I redeemed some money that had been sitting around, like my forgotten CommonBond refinance bonus ($150) and a couple of years’ worth of half-hearted UPromise cashback efforts ($185). I also had a great month (for me) on Poshmark – I sold around $70 worth of stuff! In June, I sold $0 on Poshmark, and as of publication date, I have sold $0 in July. All of this despite ~500-1000 new followers and 5-10 new items posted. Seriously, does anyone have the key to consistent Poshmark success? I sure don’t!

All of these one-time “windfalls” meant that my June extra payments were from less varied sources than May. That said, I received a HUGE side hustle payment in June, which allowed me to make a big dent in payments on my favorite – the Discover Card. I also used it to cash flow a bunch of stuff, like my trip to Hawaii, my laptop repair, and a couple of other big purchase. I’ll include a rough total of the side hustle with a breakdown of what * actually * went to debt paydown vs. what went to cashflowing expenses or trips or whatever.

A note about my unspecified side hustle: I won’t talk specifics because the amount plus the specifics would make me somewhat easy to identify. It is totally legal and not sketchy though, I promise! Basically, it was a commission for helping someone land a client (not related to my day job i.e. not business I could have referred to my firm in any way).

For a review of my (Ms. C&CG) debt load and more side hustle information, check out my May 2018 extra payment summary. 

So here are June’s extra debt payments and side hustle cash flow payments in all their glory:

1. Extra Payment: $18.65 | Source: Discover Cashback Bonus | Recipient: Discover Credit Card Balance

This was basically May’s total cashback earned. Discover did 5% cashback at grocery stores through June 30, so I did pretty well considering I bought almost exclusively groceries (and household items you can buy at grocery stores) on the card during this quarter. I haven’t gotten into the “buying gift cards at places that give 5% cash back” stacking game yet, but I want to try it sometime in the near future for sure! i am so ready to get this card paid off, but it's going to take longer than expected because I have so many expenses this year. At least it's not really costing me anything while I'm paying it off...

2. Extra Payment: $29.10 | Source: Skincare Company Payment/Commission | Recipient: Discover Credit Card Balance

Although this wasn’t a huge payment, anything makes a dent, right?! I have been putting absolutely zero effort into this side hustle, because I’ve been focused on other things. That said, my best month of sales so far was on the heels of posting a few times about specials and such, so I probably should commit to doing at least something with this each week or so. I don’t have major goals for this except to cover my product usage; however, if I do make more money, that would be awesome too! Just don't expect much based on how much I'm putting into it.

3. Extra Payment: $1,069.28 | Source: Side Hustle | Recipient: Discover Credit Card Balance

This was the extra amount I put specifically towards debt from my side hustle windfall. Obviously the rest of it went toward paying my credit card bills from May and June, which technically was debt, but since it was current-period, that doesn’t count as outstanding debt and will be described in the cashflowed breakdown below!  

Things I Cashflowed with my Side Hustle Money

Cashflowed: ~$4,000 Source: Side Hustle Recipients: Emergency Fund, Hawaii trip, MacBook repair, Unexpected Medical Bills

May and June bills were DOOZIES. There were so very many expenses, many of which I did not anticipate, and that is why much of my side hustle money went to the v expensive current expenses column.

Payment: ~$175 | Recipient: Emergency Fund

I accidentally overpayed to debt in April or May (I allocate almost all of my money out of my checking account pretty quickly these days) and had to move money from my emergency fund back to my checking account to cover an auto-drafted bill. Oops. So I brought my emergency account back to my comfortable minimum. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I use a Discover savings account for my emergency fund, which currently pays 1.75% APY interest.

Payment: $847 | Recipient: Apple (MacBook Repair)

This one hurt. That said, I was originally going to use my emergency fund, and then this side hustle payment cleared. While I’d rather have used the side hustle money to pay down some debt, this expense wasn’t really optional, and they money had to come from somewhere. The additional cash flow allowed me to pay the bill while maintaining the habit of avoiding dipping into my savings account *unless absolutely necessary* and that habit is both super important and one I haven’t really learned well yet. So all’s well that ends with a full emergency fund, I guess.

Payment: $200 | Recipient: iPhone Repair Lady

Ugh. My phone screen has been cracked for awhile, and I was putting off the repair since I had the expensive laptop repair this month also. Then I dropped the screen (again) and the display actually broke. The phone was worthless. So I had to go get it repaired. The good news is that this lady (a licensed iOS repair tech) did the repair quickly and at a lower cost than Apple. The bad news is that (1) the display still doesn’t work properly all the time and (2) I dropped it the next day (again…I KNOW. and it had a screen protector on it!) and now the screen is cracked again. Fortunately I think she’s going to do the repair again for free because the underlying display issues will require it. Anyway. This super sucked.

Payment: $137 | Recipient: My Dermatologist

After-the-fact medical bills drive me crazy. I have a pretty high deductible, and I know if they do any extra procedures, I’ll have to pay the entire amount out of pocket (less the negotiated discount from having insurance), but for some reason most offices say they can’t estimate anything at the time of appointment except for my co-pay. This probably isn't true, and I believe I will start pushing more in the future. I like to pay and be finished as much as possible. Anyway, I received this lovely little bill in the mail in June, so lucky for my side hustle income, it got to pick up the tab. Side Hustle is probably going to start calling me during my main hustle and asking it to Say My Name if I don’t stop treating it this way….

Come on, that was funny.

via GIPHY

Payment: ~$625-725 | Recipient: Hawaii

This includes around $425 for the hotel, parking, on-site dining, a mini-massage, and other direct hotel charges, $200-300 of dining, off-site activity charges, and souvenirs (what’s UP pineapple shortbread cookies and Kona coffee!). Not bad for 5 days and 2 nights on Waikiki (the other two nights I stayed with my friend). We really only ate a few meals out. All worth it, though! I mean, LOOK AT THIS PLACE! 

Payment: ~$600 | Pre-Hawaii/summer shopping

I honestly haven't shopped much at all this year, and I generally live by the "high quality investment" shopping strategy (i.e. I buy fewer things because what I buy is more expensive but will last a long time). This includes $300 for an ill-advised stop at Lilly Pulitzer the week before the Hawaii trip (then again, I have worn all 3 items multiple times in the month since they were purchased, so really how ill-advised was it? Like seriously I want to wear those 3 pieces all. the. time.) and another $200-300 on a couple of other multifunctional items and 3 swimsuits (I haven’t purchased a single swimsuit in 4 years, so I bought 3, 2 of which were a little pricey, but are SUPER CUTE and will last a long time).

See said swimsuits so you can appreciate how #worthit they were! Ooh, ahh:

If you want to purchase my Frida swimsuit, it's sold on Revolve HERE (don't forget to sign up for email notifications to receive 10% off!), and my Maaji Andalusia Frills swimsuit is sold at Nordstrom HERE (I actually went hunting online for the non-thong bottom because, um, no...which if you would also like to purchase, look for the "Signature" cut bottoms from Maaji, which usually won't be pictured but IS NOT A THONG.* I bought mine on SwimwearWorld - which is having a 20% off promotion as of the date of publication! - the matching bottom is sold out, but THIS ONE has the same fabric as the top and has normal bottom coverage). My Happy Thought Swimsuit from Lulu's was only $36!!!!, is available HERE and you can always sign up for their emails to get a 15% discount code. I will caution that the Lulu's suit is NOTICEABLY lower-quality and worse-fitting than the more expensive ones, and I don't see it lasting nearly as long (and this is why I employ the High Quality, Low Quantity shopping strategy - which obviously isn't possible for everyone -or me- all the time, but is definitely my preference)

*WHY IS THIS A THING?! WHO DECIDED THONG BOTTOMS ARE "IN"? Look, if that's your jam, you go for it. Be free. But when NORDSTROM doesn't offer a more "classic" bottom cut of a swimsuit, it's a bridge too far. A BRIDGE TOO FAR, I say! 

annnnnddd....Ms. C&CG the fashion blogger: out.

The last few hundred of the side hustle money just went to regular bill payment.

I think this month’s bills included a $100 ticket to Jersey Boys (a Broadway show about Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons), and to be honest, maybe my $189 FinCon registration. I haven’t done the deepest dive into the details. I'm also avoiding exact numbers on my cash flowing to keep with the vagueness of its total amount. Anon blogger life, ya know?

I don’t keep a specific budget at the moment, which is on my to-do list...I do track my fixed expenditures and estimated variable expenses. But mostly I just spend less than I make and pay off the credit card bills at the end of the month after 401k, investing, savings, and monthly expenses, then throw the additional extra at debt. I believe Tread Lightly was doing something similar when she first started blogging, as she mentions near the beginning of her ONE YEAR POST! (it’s basically staying on top of your spending but not getting ahead very quickly) and *ahem* I’m going to improve. I’m here to be honest with you as a work in progress, not to be the perfect example :D

Total Extra Debt Payments: $1,117.03

Not too shabby, all things considered! I paid down more than $1100 extra, avoided using my emergency fund on a big repair and a few small, unexpected expenses, visited a friend and had some fun in a tropical paradise, and bought a few key summer pieces I’ll use for years to come. With a side of showtunes!

What would you do with a huge side hustle payment? How do you guys track your expenditures? Do you do a hardcore budget, or is that on your To-Do list like it is for me? Share in the comments!