August Debt Update

The last few months have not been kind to our budget but as I’ve been saying, I am recommitting to getting out of debt. I’m actually afraid to find out what our credit card debt stands at. For the last two months, I have been sticking my head in the sand and figuring if I don’t check it, I can play ignorant for a little longer. I know that is no sort of plan!

The debt we owe our children has continued to (ever so slowly) decrease. We borrowed almost $1500 from each child and have paid back $1000 to each of them, which means we are two-thirds of the way through paying them back! Although once we have fully paid them back, we will continue to deposit $50 into their bank accounts, I will be so happy when I can no longer consider them a debt! Our car loan has continued to decrease as well. We have a 0% loan so it’s nice to see the payment actually affect the bottom line.

Our constant struggle is our credit card. I have only been trying to do a cash only budget for 3 weeks and The Husband is not on board, but I’m hoping to see some slow progress. Our credit card debt had increased mightily since my last debt update, but our loan to our kids and the car loan are slowly decreasing. However, the decrease is definitely slower than the increase, hence the overall debt hike!

Here are our current debt totals:

            $20845.56         Credit Card at 15.74% interest

            $500                 The Girl

            $500                 The Boy

            $6510.00           Car Loan at 0% interest

Our total debt stands at: $28,355.56. YIKES! I can hardly wrap my head around that number. I absolutely HATE seeing a 2 as the first number on our credit card and that is my first priority… get that number back under $20000. In the grand scheme of things, the actual amount of debt is not that much less but psychologically there is a huge difference!

Obviously all my financial goals for the year have been thrown out the window. There are only 4 months of the year left and I’m nowhere near where I wanted to be. However, I can’t change the past, all I can do is improve my future. Since our credit card debt is nearly $21000, my goal for the end of 2018 is to be under $18000 in credit card debt. My other debts will continue to decrease at their slow and steady pace, but I am going to payoff $3000 in credit card debt by the end of the year. That’s my goal. This is another one of these realistic stretch goals.

In order to be successful, some things will have to fall in place for us. My raise and retro pay will have to go into effect as that is how I am planning to pay for Christmas this year, coupled with some Amazon gift cards. November’s three paycheck month extra check will be able to primarily go towards credit card debt. And The Husband will have to fully max out his 401K two weeks into December as we are anticipating so we will get extra money in his paychecks in the end of December.

Obviously, I’m not in an ideal situation. But if I have to get out of debt one baby step at a time, I can do that.

Look out goal #1: below $18000 in credit card debt by 12/31/18… I’m coming for you!