Welcome To Frugal June
Inspired by Refinery 29’s “Money Diaries”, The Financial Diet and Angelica Florio’s mission for a “Frugal June,” I will be documenting my own attempt at curbing my budget this month for Foray. I believe that honest conversations about money are just as important to Foray’s mission as the other post we’ve featured so far. Please feel free to submit your own Frugal June posts to foraysubmissions@gmail.com (either with your name or for me to post anonymously) or comment below! You can also tweet using #FrugalJune.
A Summary
Savings: non-existent
Credit Cards: LOL
Medical Bills: don’t ask
Student Loans: #blessed
That basically summarizes how I’m starting Frugal June. For the first time since becoming full-time at my job, my June rent has completely wiped out my savings and my credit cards are in a dismal state. For privacy’s sake I’m not going to share all these numbers, but it ain’t good. I’ll mention that a lot of it was graduating with no savings and then moving to New York with literally about $700 dollars to my name (courtesy of my last deposit) after about a month of unemployment freelancing at home. I was not smart about planning ahead in college. For the sake of transparency I will share everything else I spend and key monthly expenses. (I’m too embarrassed to admit I have a Tinder plus subscription. Oops.)
Monthly Costs
Rent+Utilities: $1,000 for a large bedroom in a 3 bedroom in Bushwick. This is one thing I’d like to spend slightly less on but I’d rather not go through the roommate search again this month and also pay for movers and a new deposit.
Income: $2,250 after taxes + whatever freelance checks show up that month.
I do not receive any support from my family. This feels important to mention not because I judge people who do but because it does influence finances for many of my peers. There is a huge difference between your parents paying your phone bill or helping with rent and having to help your parents with money.
Regular Medical Bills: $320 for my therapist+ $270 on months where I see my psychiatrist. My insurance is $50 a month but is deducted from my paycheck.
Subscriptions: $35 (-$5 when I remember to charge my sister for sharing Netflix). She lets me use her HBO for free.
Transportation: $116 a month for a New York City unlimited pass. I almost never take cars.
Right now I am also paying off some other bills from bladder/sinus infections I had in the winter (totaling about $500). I spend about $30 a month on prescription drugs (thankfully my insurance has good coverage of medicine). I do not see my psychiatrist again till July but I am setting aside the money now.
Student Loans: $120/month — I am very lucky and went to a college that is over 60k a year on virtually full financial aid. Most of my loan debt is from working unpaid summer internships and studying abroad in Russia.
Phone: $90/month. This includes the cost of having purchased my first iPhone in September.
If you do the math here, the monthly charges I’ve included (minus the psychiatry) total $1681. Which gives me about $569 to pay for food, miscellaneous purchases and pay off any other debts I have.
Yikes.
Goals
Pay off 50% of my credit cards
Save $500 dollars ($270 for next medical bill)
Pay off one medical bill
So what’s my plan:
- Up my freelance game
Right now I’m waiting on $800–$1800 dollars from publications. Realistically it’s $800 but I have a $1,000 dollar story that has been in limbo since January (one can hope right?) I expect to get the $800 by the end of the month. Any money I earn this month I won’t see till July at the earliest but at least I’ll know I’m closer to my goals. I have a few big expenses (friend’s wedding, concert tickets, new glasses, help my mom with a large purchase) that I specifically want to make up/save for. So my goal for this month is to sell $1,000 in stories. Given my normal rates this is 2–3 moderate-effort pieces, so totally reasonable even if I slack.
2. Cut back on therapy
Medical care is generally the last thing I am willing to compromise and I heavily suggest that if you’re considering this route, you talk with your doctor first. Unfortunately, if you have lackluster health insurance like me you’re probably already used to not going to the doctor as much as you should. I’ve been seeing my therapist for half a year now and both she and I feel comfortable cutting back to every other week. This will save me $160 a month.
3. Stop eating out/drinking as much
This is a no-brainer. Luckily given my office’s recent move to a qualified lunch-desert, it should be easier to not eat out. But we also now have a worse kitchen and terrible coffee. Buying out lunch is both a nice break in the day and a way to bond with co-workers, so it’s not going to be easy. But I eat better and save money when I do. (Your $12 salads are an outrage, Sweetgreen). Same goes for drinking. It’s hard to resist patio bar season but I think my waistline will thank me. I’m not going to completely cut out these kinds of purchases but I will try to curb them.
Tomorrow I’ll be reporting back with a report from my first week. Can you think of any frugal tips I should know? Chime in!
