I’m pretty proud of this.
On December 31, my husband quit his full-time job. He’d been in his industry for nearly two decades and was utterly and completely burned out.
When you have your eye on the end goal all the time, sometimes it’s nice to step back and pay attention to the present. Hubby wasn’t well. Many people think of saving up to buy THINGS, but for us, being able to support this month-long break was a big accomplishment.
I’m happy to report my husband is in a much better head space and is looking at all of the options for his next step. He was considering opening his own business, but has recently admitted that the thought of getting back into that industry makes him really stressed out. He’s picking up some side hustles for February and is putting the feelers out in another industry.
If we had too much house, car payments, credit card debt, no savings, etc. we would not have been able to do this.
Being a little “boring” has allowed us to do something that makes most people tilt their head… “You mean, you quit your job without anything lined up?”
Yep! And it was one of the best things we could have done. He’s refreshed and excited about the future. His health is more important than hitting some investing goals for a month or two.
And honestly, it hasn’t been that hard. I started a zero-based budget and we cut back on unnecessary spending. We’ve ordered out maybe twice and cooked everything else at home. We don’t shop for sport.
And sure, we went over the planned amounts in a few categories, but I’m still new at budgeting to this level. Overall, we haven’t even had to dig into savings. We’ve been able to live off of my income and hubby’s side hustles (the stimulus timing was also VERY helpful).
So here’s what January looked like:
Income was high this month because of the stimulus, a final check from hubby’s job, FSA payments, and a bonus for me. Plus, my husband maintained his part-time side hustle.
A fun little exercise I tried was removing the irregular expenses from this budget. I took out the yearly car insurance payment and my medical procedure (covered by our FSA).
What was left for expenses was around $2500-$2600. To be safe, we could round up to $3000. It’s good to know your “bare bones” number for expenses if you’re in the business of worst-case scenario. It makes me feel a little more secure, since that’s lower than I was expecting. Our usual monthly expenses are $5000 when we’re not budgeting intentionally.
Did you stick to your January budget?
-K