I need to get a job making more than $300/month to be able to touch my debt this year, but this "game" (every challenge is a game 😏) makes me a tad more motivated to get that job!!
I was actually ahead of the game by a few months in the beginning of 2017, but between losing work at the end of May, and a family loss in September, I fell behind again... and am still catching up.

I have 2 credit cards (plus one that I use and pay off regularly), and 8 student loans (okay.. it's more like 3, but the way they're broken down it's easier for me to track the 8 lol) totalling $23,593.69 (principal on loans, including interest on credit) as of January 1st.
 

My minimum payments right now are only $127.43 (a good chunk of the loans are in income-based repayment right now) so my minimum debt payoff would be $1529.16-- but I am trying absolutely everything in my power to not use those other 2 cards and to add income to help knock it down, so after accounting for time to find a job, I'm setting a goal to pay off $3600.00 this year to get it under or close to $20,000. I ultimately would like to pay off a LOT more but I have to be somewhat realistic haha.

Hoooopppeeefully I can remember to check in here (and to the doc) every month!! I added it to my calendar. Here's to hoping I pay attention to it. haha.

Good luck everyone!!!!
#78

I'm a little late getting here, but I've made it. This board is really hard to sign in to which is somewhat annoying, but I guess I'll adjust - but on days where I don't have time to figure out the rigmarole to get signed in my posts may not happen. Meh.

Current debt as at 1 Jan 2018 stands at:

CC (I'm still managing to beat the payment date, but this is not by any means PIF as I had hoped) $837.42

Personal Loan (interest-free thankfully) $2460

(Plus student loan which will not be part of this challenge, but payments get sucked out of my pay anyway)

My goal is to pay both of these off by the end of the year. I still have the deal with myself that if I can't meet the payment on the card to avoid interest then the card turns to confetti. I really don't want that to happen because I may need it to fund business expenses (which is why it is carrying a balance at the moment), so I'm doing my utmost to remain laser focussed with the debt.

Due to poor health (among other things) I wasn't able to pay the personal loan off in full last year as I'd hoped, and that hasn't helped the CC situation either. Aiming to clear them both this year. Possibly I could be able to do this after my tax return is done, but for now, I'm looking at things like selling off junk (I mean, other people's treasures) on TradeMe, and whether I can put together a side-hustle. Also hoping to spend a bit more time on my business, but I still seem to be procrastinating on that.

January and February will be pretty tight I think, income-wise. There are a few changes going on at work and this could impact me quite hard going forward. As there's nothing I can do to change any of it, for now, I'll just watch and wait.

As at mid-way through January, I have got my debt down to: 

CC $719.54 (need to pay another $666.61 by 8 Feb to avoid interest); and

Personal Loan $2425

Which means I've paid off 4.64% of my debt so far. I expect the payoff process to be done in fits and starts, so I'm not too discouraged that it's so slow for now. I may be able to squeeze a little more out for the CC before the end of the month, but I'm only including what's reducing the ongoing balance and there are still food and petrol purchases to be made.

Checking in with my first payment info. I'm putting $216 and $175 to each of my personal credit cards per paycheck, and $224 per month toward our joint central air pay off account. Personally, that makes $782 per month that I wish I could be budgeting toward something else. I am going to be SO EXCITED when I have that money in my TBB and it doesn't have to go to a credit card.  I'm updating my spreadsheet now!

January check-in.

Good first month. Just need to keep total payment for overall debt above $1,070 each month to stay on track of reaching my goal.

January Car Loan #1 Payment: $700.00 || Principal: $666.50 || Interest: $33.50 || New Total: $7,638.06
January Car Loan #2 Payment: $372.55 || Principal: $337.38 || Interest: $35.17 || New Total: $12,403.13
=====
Total Payment: $1,072.55 || Principal: $1,003.88 || Percent of Goal: 08.37% || Interest: $68.67

Current Debt Total: $20,041.19

• Starting 2018 Debt Payoff Goal: $12,000.00 (principal only)
• Starting 2018 Debt Total: $21,045.07
• Car Loan #1: $8,304.56 @ 4.75% (minimum payment $183.49)
• Car Loan #2: $12,740.51 @ 3.25% (minimum payment ($372.55)

Well, it's 18 days into the year, and I figured I'd give a bit of an update.  My goal was $6,500 of principal for the year spread between a car loan and a time share loan., and I think that might have been a bit conservative, but we'll see.  There's at least two changes coming this year.  The first is we have a baby due in August, and the second is that I'm planning to sell the car, because we simply don't use it.  I have a company vehicle that I drive all the time, and it just doesn't make sense to keep a third vehicle for the express purpose of maintaining and insuring it.

With that in mind, I've been concentrating on the Forester loan to get its balance down as far as possible and make covering the difference between the loan and the value easier when I actually get it sold.

I hadn't made that decision when I sent some money toward the principal of the time share earlier this month, but that's okay, the timeshare has a nasty interest rate and I won't miss the fact that there's a small chunk that isn't accruing more interest against us.

I still have the regular monthly payment to go on the time share.  I also am considering cashing out my CC rewards.  The original plan had been that that would be supplemental Christmas money, but it's so much  fun to see debt numbers go down...  I'm refusing to make a decision on that today though.  Anyway, here's the mid-month report:

• Item/Paid this month/Paid this year/Starting/Remaining/Interest Rate
• Time share/169.71/169.71/7,885.24/7,715.53/15.9%
• Forester/507.16/507.16/17,511.99/17,004.83/6.11%

Discovered this forum a bit late, but I think I'm still on time to start in January. :) The spreadsheet is awesome and I'm excited for this year! We've been YNAB users since Classic and my husband wasn't really "on board" until last October. Something changed in him and he immediately got us on the right track. I'd been tracking all the spending, but could not stay within budget to save my life :( we ended up accruing CC debt and although we had "extra" money for payments, we'd pilfer it on food or trips, instead of paying down debt.

We made the decision in December 2017 to take a risk and got a 2nd 401k loan to pay off a debt consolidation loan, car loan, and 0% interest CC (promotional rate was expiring Feb 2018) to save interest and have more available income for debt (even after 401k loan payment payroll deductions). We are currently using one PIF CC to earn rewards, and we are now taking free money from the CC companies instead of paying interest!

WE'RE LINE 77 ON THE SPREADSHEET

So, here's what we owe as of today, in the order we'd like to pay it off:

1) Car loan $11,317 ($255.47 monthly pmt)

2) Bank of Dad loan $5,000 (no payment)

3) 401k loan #1 $6,166.16 ($77.38 biweekly pmt)

4) 401k loan #2 $12,306.38 ($109.43 biweekly pmt)

TOTAL DEBT: $34,789.54

My entire paycheck will go to debt payment, along with any extra income we get, and we have the goal to pay $20k total (includes interest, not just principal) toward debt this year (if my calculations are correct; also, this includes minimum payments). So we will focus on paying off the car loan first (goal: June 2018), then my dad, then the loans. Hopefully we can get through the first 3 debts and annihilate the 4th one next year :) #goals Long term goal is to save up 20% dp to build a $100k home.

So excited to find this thread! I'm a little late to the game, but want to jump in anyway. 

Total debts
Credit Card 1: $3541.81
Credit Card 2: $257.42
Student Loans: $48,446.65

Goals
Credit Card 1: $0! I want to be able to PIF each month.
Credit Card 2: $0! I will continue to PIF each month.
Student Loans: $35,000

Plan
Increase Income:

• I will begin managing people in my current role, plus I recently finished my Masters degree, so I'm going to leverage both points to request at least an 8% raise rather than the standard 3%. 
• Side hustle harder.

Credit Cards:
I have about a year for my larger balance card to remain interest-free, so I'll be chipping away $300/mo as I focus on higher interest student loans and keeping my other CC at a $0 balance.

Student Loans:
Pay the minimum across all 8 of my loans (on auto-pay for a decreased interest rate), but attack the highest interest loans full force. I will shoot for $1000 per month toward student debt. My bonuses and PTO payouts will go straight to student debt.

I am so tired of paying on student loans that seem never to go down. I have deferred, gone back to school, acquired more loans, and barely made payments for the last 20 years. This year I'm tackling half of my student loan which is: $31,610. This is the only debt that I have and I'm ready to be totally debt free.

I make monthly payments of $458. I will track my principal paid and snow balling of the 11 loans. 

I paid 3 loans off this month!

I claimed line 86.

Our debt is currently $255,538.44.  This includes credit cards, student loan, and mortgage.  The goal for 2018 is to pay down about $8,500.  This will leave us with one credit card, the student loans, and mortgage.  Hoping to get student loans gone before the end of 2020, but that's a goal for another day (year).

My total paid for January is $1017.22. I was not able to pay any extra on debt. January was my first full month using YNAB to it's fullest potential (I am a very slow convert). Every bill is now paid for the month and in February I hope to fund my baby EF to $1000. Then, I am hoping by March to get my snowball rolling. 

I paid $1,712.88 in January - I'm tracking principal only so $1,400/$40,000 or 3.5% done! January was a slower month but I'm planning to ramp things up!

I'm going to try to eradicate one CC a year.  I have two left.  2018 is the year to smack down Citi Bank. 

My current balance is  13,168.15.  I plan to pay $1500 a month which will have it paid off by November.  I'm going to try to snowflake any extra which will hopefully get it paid down even sooner.  

Credit Card 1: $11,297   2018 Goal:  $11,297

Credit Card 2: $8,192      2018 Goal: $8,192

Credit Card 3: $1,379      2018 Goal: $1,379

Car 1: $15,700 @ 2.25%   2018 Goal: $5300

Mortgage: $416,755 @ 4.25%  2018 Goal: $5200

2018 Goal:  Pay off all 3 CC's and pay normal monthly payments on car/house.  Total Goal $31,502

January Check in:

Debt:

117.89 on credit card (dog needed very expensive surgery)

397.59 Car loan

100 on furnace loan (Bank of Mom).  

for a total of 615.78, 10.35%.  Off to an ok start! 

I am having knee surgery soon, hopefully, which means $$$.  So, we shall see how it goes with debt repayment.