October 2023: Holding Steady
Main goals
Keep paying down those loans, baby!
Major developments
We finally got all the income driven repayment loan details, and thankfully in sum they were all lower than what I had initially projected, so no issues there.
On the other hand, a lot of new potential travel expenses came up for 2024-2025 and it's a bit tough for me to figure out how to navigate this! I guess moving to the Midwest makes cost of living very attractive for us, but since we're far from everyone, it's tough to balance wanting to see people for major milestones in their lives (as the travel expenses are mostly related to weddings and such) versus paying down the student loans once and for all.
The numbers
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Net worth | -$7k | +$2k increase from last month - not bad |
| Rent and utilities | $1.2k | |
| Groceries | $0.5k | |
| Medical and health-related | $0.01k | Bought a barbell but mostly just been working out at home and playing tennis. |
| Transportation | $0.01k | Lower since we're entering winter season and therefore not going out as much? |
| International / visa-related | $0 | |
| Home maintenance and supplies | $0.01k | |
| Pets | $0.2k | |
| Dining out | $0.4k | Kept it at the same range as last month, woo hoo! |
| Entertainment | $0 | |
| Gifts | $0.4k | Oof, didn't really plan for Christmas gifts this year but ended up buying some... |
| Miscellaneous | $0.3k | Mostly clothes for work and other random items. |
| Total | $4.0k |
