Our last
debt update wasn’t as good as I’d hoped, but we did make continued
progress on our debt and our total debt did decrease. Last month we paid off
over $400 in debt and only about 1.8% of our total debt. It wasn’t the best
month for debt payoff but we did keep our debt going in the right direction. This
month is much better and the reasons are twofold: we spent less money on our
credit card and The Husband had a bunch of overtime that we were able to send
(mostly) towards debt.
The debt we owe our children has continued to (ever so
slowly) decrease. We borrowed almost $1500 from each child and have paid back
$1300 to each of them, which means we are almost there! I’m so happy that I can
see the light at the end of that tunnel! 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; to that end, I don’t really focus on paying extra
towards our car payment because it’s at 0% interest. I know that goes against
what Dave Ramsey teaches, but I can’t see paying more interest on my credit
card balance just to get an interest free loan paid off quicker.
Although we are not paying off our debt as fast as I
would like, I am happy to say that for the sixth month in a row, our overall
debt decreased! (I am so happy to get to be writing that instead of having to
say that our debt went up!) We are not making giant leaps and bounds in our
debt repayment, but slow and steady wins the race. In our last debt update, I explained how we
had to borrow $1100 from our savings account to send towards our debt to make
sure our debt didn’t increase, but due to The Husband’s overtime, we have been
able to pay it all back and continue to make progress on our debt!
Here are our current debt totals:
$17,931.62
Credit Card at 16.24% interest
$200 The Girl
$200 The Boy
$4435.00 Car Loan at 0% interest
Our total debt stands at: $22,766.62. YIKES! I can hardly
wrap my head around that number. I absolutely HATED seeing a 2 as the first
number on our credit card and I hate seeing a 2 as the first number of our
total consumer debt! I’m so happy that our credit card debt is back under
$20,000 and at least our credit card debt only has a 1 in the front and I can’t
wait until I can say the same thing for my total debt!!!
Plus side: our debt decreased! We paid off almost $1500
of debt in actual dollars, which amounted to about 6.1% of our total debt. We
finally broke the <$18,000 threshold, which seemed to take forever! Mostly unexpectedly (and excitedly) skipping
the $23Ks altogether and falling into the 22K-something range! I mean, I knew
it was possible, but I didn’t really think it was going to happen! We continue
to make progress on both our car loan and the loan to The Kids and the fact
that we haven’t borrowed any more money from The Kids is a plus. All the hours
of overtime really contributed to debt payoff and to paying back our savings
account. Overall, a good month!
Down side: all The Husband’s overtime couldn’t go towards
debt as we had to pay back our savings account and cover the extra for his
tires that we didn’t have in our car repair envelope. L Of course I also hate
that several hundreds of dollars went towards interest on our credit instead of
towards the principal.
Looking forward to: getting our credit card debt below $17000.
Making continued progress on our car loan and decreasing our overall debt from
22K-something to 21K-something. I’m also looking forward to fully funding our
envelopes and continuing our use of a cash only mainly budget! I see a
tiny glimmer of hope of reaching a total “debt worth” of less than $20,000. I
know I’m still a few months away, but I can see us creeping up on it.
I posted my 2019 financial goals. They are all doable if
I work at them. And if I am successful with each one, I will definitely improve
my financial situation by the end of the year. Getting out of debt is such a
gigantic goal of mine! Debt affects almost all of my decisions: food, vacation,
transportation… it’s crazy how much our past mistakes are affecting our future
choices.
Clearly, 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.
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