By virtue of working on second shift, the shift where we work until the work is done, we are pretty much guaranteed overtime every week. Sundays tend to be short, maybe 6 hours at the least, 8 hours at the most. Mondays are always at least 10 hours, and then every other day is right around 9. After breaks, it tends to work out to an extra 4 or 5 hours or so. From what I’ve been told, after the show later in the summer, we’ll be pulling 50-60 hour weeks.
In my budget and my snowball spreadsheets, however, I’ve only been accounting for 40 hour work weeks. So last night, I calculated the average of my paychecks so far. There’ve only been two, so it’s not an accurate dataset, but I plan on updating it after every paycheck. I also calculated my weekly allowance and my monthly bills (insurance and cell) on a true average monthly basis, rather than a 4 week basis.
Result? My monthly payments and snowball have been increased by almost $100 to $1,295.34 ($457.39 snowball). Doesn’t seem like too terribly much, but that extra $95 reduces my total payoff time by an entire 5 months! That’s not reflected in just one or two debts, either – every single debt is repaid at least 2 months faster. My expected payoff date dropped from February 2014 to September 2013, which is well, well ahead of my May 2014 goal. Seven months!
In other news, a collection agency just decided to report my Comcast debt to Experian. The report date is an entire week after I had paid it off. A dispute has been filed.
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Heck yea dude, I tend to budget around my fixed income and then all extra that comes in (overtime, 2nd job, gifts, etc) I just throw immediately at me debt. I generally do this because my grocery, cable, insurance, etc should be no more expensive just because I made more money. It sounds like you’re killin it and pretty soon that debt will be no more.