The WilliamPaid Challenge, a three-month long challenge designed to help renters find extra money in their budget to put toward their student loans, has officially come to an end for our recent college grad, Katya. Was she successful in saving, you ask? Read on to find out.
In August, WilliamPaid challenged Katya to take a second look at her expenses to find extra money in her budget to put toward her student loans. We recommended she use the Simple Savings Calculator and the Student Loan Calculator to get started and figure out how much she could save.
She found that her extra unnecessary expenses added up to $370 a month, and that if she put even just $75 of that $370 a month toward her student loans, she could reduce the life of her loan by over 2 years and save over $2,700 in interest.
Therefore, she set the goal to save $500 over the three-month period and began slimming down her budget. The first things to go were the snacks, coffee and dining out. Next came changes in her shopping habits and canceling her unused memberships, cable and home phone.
Some of these adjustments proved tougher than others. For example, she found cable to be difficult to cancel; however, Katya justifies the sacrifice when she says, “…the challenge pushed me to try new ways to save money. I do miss it [cable] once in a while, but I realize that it’s not worth the cost.”
At the end of the challenge, Katya actually exceeded her original goal of $500 by $150. She ended up saving a total of $650, and put this newly found cash toward her student loans on top of her monthly minimum payments. Katya was pleasantly surprised by the difference it made.
While Katya admits that she may not keep all of the changes she made (a.k.a. snacks and dining out), the incentive and potential savings are well worth practicing tighter budgeting practices in the future.
Here is what Katya had to say about the WilliamPaid Challenge:
- “…I am very proud of having such a successful savings journey. WilliamPaid’s resources were always available and the support I received was very encouraging. I truly believe that these small but meaningful changes will impact my financial future by allowing me to pay much less in interest and minimizing the life of my loans.”
To read about Katya’s experiences during the WilliamPaid Challenge, go to MakeCollegeReality.com and read all of her posts. And, don’t forget to check out the WilliamPaid Simple Savings Calculator and Student Loan Calculator to see how much you could be saving. Do you think you could take the WilliamPaid Challenge?
