Let’s just start with
this: our summer was EXPENSIVE! Between buying a new house (and all that
entails) and going on vacation, we spent a lot of money. In fact, our debt
technically rose in July, but that was only because we were on vacation and I
was unable to estimate what our bill would be. (I had the money in the bank to
pay for it, I was just waiting to see how much it would be.)
Since we got back from
vacation, we are adjusting to our new normal. The mortgage is more expensive,
the utility bills are higher, and we need a whole lot for this new house!
Unfortunately, it’s our debt payoff that has taken the biggest hit. We just
don’t have as much to throw at our snowball as we have in the past.
Our debt pay has been
pretty stagnant over the last two months.
As of my last update
in June, we owed a total of $23,246.17.
Here are our current
debt totals:
$10218.38 Credit Card at 15.74% - current minimum
payment is $256
$1150 The Boy (To pay off our other
credit card, we borrowed from him.)
$1100 The Girl (To pay off our other
credit card, we borrowed from her.)
$10650.25 Car loan at 0% - payment is $345
Our current debt
stands at $23118.63
Debt payoff over two
months was ABYSMAL!!! The only plus side here is that there was a decrease. It
wasn’t much, it was actually less than 1% if you can believe it. This was
definitely an expensive summer. In fact, our credit card balance went up… UGH!
It’s a losing battle. I know we need to stop using credit, but we don’t do make
that commitment. And what’s even worse about all of this, is that our credit
card keeps sneaking up our interest rate a little at a time. We have got to get
this card paid off!
Looking at the
numbers, I’m hoping to keep decreasing. Ideally, we’d be able to get under
$20000 in total debt owed by my next progress update. but I know that is a huge
stretch. There really isn’t anywhere we can find an extra $3000 from right now.
I will continue to be hopeful, though, and hope that we can throw extra money
towards debt when we get into September because we are leaning towards not
funding our envelopes because we aren’t going to be spending any (much) money
so that money can be funneled towards our debt.
My main goal for next
month’s debt progress report is that our credit card is below $9000 after
stupid tax. I know that doesn’t seem like much, but we are struggling and that
means we would have at least have a new first number. And, in truth, I’m not
sure we will be able to find the extra cash laying around to get us there. It’s
actually a stretch goal, but a goal nonetheless! Credit card debt is killing us
right now!
With all our new
bills, there isn’t a lot of money left over for debt pay off, so any progress
is progress. Next month, we will have exceeded our point balance to get the
maximum reward on our credit card, so I will redeem our points for a credit on
our card. That should be a little over $300. That will help us to put a dent in
our credit card.
Overall, our debt
decreased. That is a trend we hope to continue. But most importantly, I want
our credit card debt specifically to decrease! I am sick of the increases! I’m
counting on No Spend September to help us out here!
We are continuing to make slow progress every paycheck, one per month for me and two per month for The Husband, towards savings and paying our children back. We put $50, per paycheck, into savings. We are ever so slowly building our emergency fund and adding money to The Kids’ accounts. At this rate it would take forever to pay them back, but at least we are making strides. Once our credit card debt is cleared out, we will be able to pay them back quickly. Our emergency fund currently stands at a little over $2000 with slow growth each month. It’s not much, but it gives us some peace of mind. That $2000 is above and beyond what we have left over from the sale of the house. That money is still earmarked towards home improvements in the new house and things we still need to furnish it.
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