Debt Totals

Okay, here goes… I’m going to let the world (even though nobody reads this) in on my debt totals.

Each month, I’m going to do a debt update, obviously starting with September. I will have to decide if I will do 
this at the beginning of the month, the end of the month, the middle of the month, or just when I feel like it 
each month, but it’s going to happen!

I have been hemming and hawing on putting my actual debt on the blog, but only because I’m ashamed 
and embarrassed. Putting it out here, on the world wide web, makes it real. (I know it’s real, but now I can’t 
take it back. It will always be here.) I am embarrassed that we have debt! No one really knows we have credit 
card debt and one of my biggest fears is that someone I know will find out. I really don’t want that to happen!

At least for right now, I’m only going to include my credit card debt and my car loan. I’m not at the point where 
I’mre ady to put my mortgage on my debt totals. Baby steps. I’m also not going to include the credit card we
pay off monthly. Because it’s paid off monthly, we haven’t carried a balance over on that credit card in going 
on 5 years so we don’t consider it “debt”.

Here are the numbers:

Credit Card 1:     $5709.92 at 9.24% interest ~ the current minimum payment is $177

Car Loan 1:          $14470.25 at 0% interest ~ payment = $345

                                _______________________

                                $20180.17 Total

That’s depressing.  :(

Knowing I have debt is one thing. Actually seeing the numbers in black and white is quite another. Seeing the
number, $20000+ is very daunting.  I’ve known I had debt, but I never sat down and actually added those two
numbers up, but they hurt!

Right now, because of the kitchen remodel, paying down our debt at any significant rate is hard, so I just keep
plodding along.  On our credit card, we are paying more than the minimum, but not by much. A few months 
ago, we were paying between $600-700 a month; that number has dropped to only about $300 a month now. 
Currently, any extra money we have is going towards paying off the credit card we pay off monthly or towards 
paying for something for the kitchen remodel… needless to say, progress has been S.L.O.W.

But I guess the takeaway here is that there has been progress. I’m already looking ahead to my next month’s
debt update because I know I will be under the $20000 mark – so there’s my first psychological boost!

The worst thing about our debt, particularly our credit card debt, is that if we would curb our spending for just a
short period of time, we could be credit card debt free. But we don’t. The balance on Credit Card 1 is very close
to the balance I pay off monthly on our other credit card, yet we still have a balance.  For just one month, if we 
could truly have a no-spend month, we could be credit card debt free, but we aren’t.  I guess that’s because 
we aren’t gazelles.  I say we want to be debt free, but I don’t pursue that freedom with intensity.  We still buy 
stuff and go places so we are still in debt.

I’m trying to keep my head up and remember that our total debt load decreases every month, if only by a little. 
I try to remember that we haven’t added to our debt total in 9 months and that we are better off now than when
we started 2016. I try to remember that we choose to not let debt dictate our life or to punish our kids for our 
poor financial habits/choices.  That’s it in a nutshell, I’m trying.

Someday, I might start doing net worth updates, too.  We do have a home, in which we have some equity. We 
do have 3 fully paid for cars. We do have retirement savings. We do have some (not much) cash money in the 
bank. It’s not all bad.