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CC #1 paid off!

November 17th, 2014 at 05:54 pm

My Chase card is completely paid off and now I am working on the Discover card. I have about $1700 in monthly charges that go on that card (daycare, gas, home security and home warranty, etc) but I am paying just over $3100 on it each month. The Discover card and the Chase Slate card will be paid off in April, then the Bank of America card will take another year. Then the Capital One and Citibank cards will take another 8 and 9 month to pay off, respectively, with $75K of credit card debt paid off by January 2017.

DH has about $15000 on credit cards in his name, which all have pretty low interest rates, so those will take another 6 months after that, and then the pop-up camper will take 3 more months.

So by the end of 2017, we'll just be left with mortgage, car loans (DH's truck will be paid off by then though), and student loans. Still seems so far away, but this past year has gone so fast and has really motivated me to keep at it!

Also, my youngest will start kindergarten a few months before my CCs are paid off, so that will be extra money to throw towards the rest of the debt as well.

Paying off 1st credit card Friday!

August 19th, 2014 at 03:50 pm

I have $89 left on it and that will be gone with Fridays paycheck and then on to that Discover card with the highest interest rate! I can't believe I have paid off over $8000 since the beginning of January. According to my debt avalanche spreadsheet, I will have the Discover card paid off next September. A year sounds too long to wait, so I will do everything I can to get it paid off sooner Smile I have been selling a lot on Ebay, and I may be able to cash in some PTO to put towards the card as well. Feels great to make progress!

Clarinet sold on Ebay for....

August 1st, 2014 at 02:08 am

$711!! Holy crap! Pardon my French Smile I'm unbelievably excited. I was already going to have the Chase card paid off in the next 2 or 3 weeks thanks to the insurance payment for the camper, and now this extra $600ish (after Ebay fees) will be a great start paying down the Discover card!

Decided what to do with our snowflake

July 3rd, 2014 at 01:13 pm

So of the $5400, we are going to take about $1000 to do some thing around the house (gutters need to be cleaned, house needs powerwashing, etc). We've been in it for 6 years and have done little to no maintenance because of finances, so this is badly needed. Then I am going to take $2K to get my Chase card paid off, and hubby will put the rest towards his credit cards. I am so excited to get the first card paid off! Not sure when the money will come, we have to get the check from the insurance company, send it to the lienholder of our camper for them to sign, and then we can deposit when they send it back. And since it's such a large amount, I anticipate the bank holding it for a while (do they still do that? I had a bonus check years ago that I had to wait 10 business days for it to clear.) I would think by the end of August it should be all set!

HUGE snowflake!

July 2nd, 2014 at 05:50 pm

So almost a month ago we had a storm and a branch fell on the roof of our popup camper, making a little hole in it. We got the insurance estimate yesterday - $5400. For something that we can patch ourselves with no problem. My husband asked them if we were allowed to keep the money and fix it ourselves, and they said absolutely. %5400, I can't believe it! Now what to do with it...

My list of credit cards on my sidebar are just the ones that I pay and are in my name. My husband has about $18000 of credit card debt in his name. A good chunk of his debt is at low promo rates, and even the part that isn't, is at lower rates that mine, so we haven't been putting any extra towards his cards yet, which is stressing him out. I really wanted to use that $5400 to pay off my Chase card and then put the rest towards the Discover and get that going, but there's only a % or two difference between my cards and his, and if it will make him feel better, then it's worth it to just let him use it all for his cards.

At some point (as we get things paid down) I'd really like to combine everything, but we'll see how it goes and who has the best rates and balance transfer deals.

Excited to pay off that big chunk though!

Had a backslide this month :(

June 18th, 2014 at 05:55 pm

I knew I wouldn't make any progress, since I had that $1100 personal property tax bill to pay, but I didn't think I'd go backwards! I owe $1700 more in my credit cards than I did last month, so I charged $600 in random other "stuff" in the last month. I know $200 of it was Fitbits for my husband and I for our birthdays, the rest was gas and groceries that were more than what I had on the debit card I've been using for it.

After my minimum payments, I have $412 a month left for gas and groceries, which is impossible to do for a family of 4. I can barely keep us under $400 for food alone, and my gas is typically just over $200 a month.

The good news is that before having my 2nd job, I was in the same boat, and I was building more and more credit card debt. At least now I am making progress (most months). All in all, I have still paid off $4300 of credit card debt since January. I just need to get back on top of it and make some more progress! I have some BIG paychecks coming up from my 2nd job, I'm working 3 out of the next 4 weekends, 4th of July for holiday pay, and a few evenings. That should really help make a dent in it.

First blog ever - thanks for joining me!

May 14th, 2014 at 05:04 pm

So about 4 months ago I added up al of my credit card balances (5 of them) and the number was SOOO much bigger than I thought it was - to the tune of nearly $75,000. I don't even know how it got that bad. DH and I have great jobs, a nice house, drive nice cars, and have 2 beautiful little boys. We never had any problem paying the minimum payments on our credit cards and still covering the rest of our bills. Until one month my daycare payment didn't go through because I didn't have enough credit available (it gets charged to one of my cards so I can get the cash back). For several months I had to ask our daycare provider to wait a week to charge me, or to lower the amount and only pay what I could. Luckily for me the woman is an angel and has no problem that I am $3500 behind on payments now. She told me to pay everyone who is charging me interest first and worry about her later.

So after I added up my credit card debt and picked myself up off the floor, I knew things had to change. I got a 2nd job where I bring in an extra $700 a month on average. I have started couponing like crazy and have drastically cut our grocery bill (almost in half!) I lowered our cell phone plan, saving $20 a month. I have sold tons of stuff on mom's groups on Facebook and on Ebay.

I am doing the "debt avalanche" with the extra money and have paid off nearly $5000 of credit card debt in 4 months. I finally feel like this isn't hopeless and there is an end in sight. Estimated payoff date for all my credit debt is fall of 2017, which doesn't seem so far away!

Of note, this is just the credit card debt! I still have a pop-up camper payment, student loans (at extremely low interest rates, thank goodness), 2 car payments, and a mortgage. But by the time I have the credit cards paid off, I will have so much "extra" money that the camper will be paid off in a matter of a couple of months, and the cars will be almost paid off by then as well.

So I am here to be an example to any of you who have debt above and beyond what most people consider a "huge" amount of debt. So welcome and thanks for joining me as I chronicle my progress!