April check-in: A underfunded significant other’s birthday this month means that my $878.80 debt payment only resulted in a net $326.21 going towards debt, but that’s still going in the right direction! In non-numbers based wins, I’ve managed to keep the card that I use online under $100 balance and the other (that I’m focusing the chunk of repayment towards) under $1000. I’m so close to being able to snowball some of my payments towards the installment loan and watch that balance go down!

Just saying hi - still plugging along.  Will update April's debt payments after we get paid this week.  We go on vacation at the end of next month so some of our extra money is being held on to for spending money so not much more than the minimums going out this month.  After we get back from vacation, we will get cracking on paying some things down again.  I'm debating on a balance transfer but I haven't decided yet. Holding off until the car is paid off and we have that money free.  With that extra $450 a month, we can make a lot of progress towards some other things so the light at the end of the tunnel might seem a little brighter.

End of April update, also covering March, since I didn't post anything, even though I kept the spreadsheet up to date.  March was big because of the tax refund and my wife's pay schedule, and therefore car payment schedule.  April wasn't so amazing.  Normal payments, and a little extra on the Citi card, but not much - a whole $16.48.  Next month looks like it'll be similar, but I get three checks in May, so June should jump a little bit.  The normal payments are telling me that we'll far surpass the $7,500 goal, so I think I'll go ahead and change it on the spreadsheet to $10,000, and we should still surpass that.  $12,500 still feels like quite a stretch to me though.  Guess the next 8 months will tell the story on that one.

March:

Car loan: 545.22 - Paid bi-weekly, so this was a month it got 3 payments - Woot!

Citi Card: 3,375.14 - Let's hear it for tax refunds!

Total Paid: 3,920.36

Cumulative total: 5,867.97

% of 7,500: 78.24%

% of 10,000: 58.68%

% of 12,500: 46.94%

April:

Car loan: 364.54

Citi Card: 166.48

Total Paid: 530.96

Cumulative total: 6398.99

% of 7,500: 85.32%

% of 10,000: 63.99%

% of 12,500: 51.19%

So here's April's update:

                            Original Bal     Pmt               Interest       Final Balance

Mastercard: $1193.31         $71.33          $22.48           $1144.46

Visa:                     $355.42                                                                 $674.41

TOTAL:            $1718.70                                                              $1818.87

Lots of fun numbers in that one! I was able to add a tiny amount more to the payment, which is awesome, so that got it down a wee bit more than my norm. AND I didn't add to the debt this month, either. I was able to cover my over spending from the middle of the month with my final pay check and I had enough that I should be covered until I get paid again. So that's helpful!

I also am going to be able to move this debt over to a zero interest promotion, which I'm really grateful for, so then ALL of the money will be going towards the debt and none towards interest! I'm going to stretch it out for the duration of the promotion, so it won't be paid off by the end of the year, but I really don't mind when it's at zero interest. I'd rather focus on building up some buffers elsewhere and just keep paying it down a little at a time. So I'm a bit bummed, but at the current trajectory I wouldn't have it paid off by the end of the year as it is anyway.

So yay for a bit of good news this month!

April check-in.  Paid $830.  So close to paying off that 3rd card I can taste it!  First payment on my student loan since I consolidated them, and the required monthly payment is less than half than it was prior to consolidation.  It's actually closer to 1/3.  Which is great; I should be able to throw the difference at the credit cards.  Just chugging along 🙂

April check-in: Paid $2,253.29 toward debt this month. We have completed 42% of our yearly goal of $30K! We are just chugging along. This would go so much faster if we didn't have so much dental work due, but such is life. We are not taking away from our debt snowball category, so I am grateful for that. 

Got 1/3 of the money owed, so was able to clear my cc of the petty cash amounts. That means all cc are cleared and now have to figure out how to pay the loc, with the additional expenses that I'm going to incur this year. Also, will I be willing to increase my debt for some medical expenses...

In April I paid $298.59, only $50 more than the minimum payments. I had a trip to LA/Long Beach from April 22nd - April 25th. I'm waiting on my expense reimbursement and my payment for a video shoot I did on the trip. Once I get that I can figure out how much I can pay on debt. I'm happy that I paid even $50 more on debt last month. I did add some temporary debt but I will pay it in full when I get paid for the video shoot. I'm glad to get back on track this month. It's going to be a busy month though and I have 4 trips up to Denver. I'll have to watch out of pocket expenses closely. I'll have some expenses to be reimbursed so I'll need to keep track of that too. I have kept the spreadsheet up to date (#21).

I thought I'd done an April check-in, but I didn't. I payed $1568.26 toward debt in April, but increased it by $24K. State Farm royally screwed me and my 2006 Honda Odyssey just had to go. We bought a 2016 to replace it. I'll be paying off about half of that before the end of May. May payments are currently at $1966.00. 

May check-in: I made my snowball payment of $725.04 to my private student loan and the auto payments are set for both my private & federal student loans for the month.  So I've made it another month on track to my stretch goal. Fingers crossed this can continue with all the new baby expenses. One month at a time.

May Check-in I Paid €778.12 towards my credit card & Personal Loans... Around 30% complete for my 10 K goal  :)

April - $1077 paid towards debt.  Was pretty much only able to manage the minimums and that will be the same for May and probably June as well.  End of school year stuff, summer camp payments and pending vacation have all our extra money spoken for.  So far I've been able to avoid taking out new debt though to cover everything.  I'm hoping to be able to continue that but I'm not sure.   We're either going to have to pull some from savings or add it to a credit card for a couple of months, I think.   Hubby's car is down to 2 payments!  So once that's gone, we can have quite a bit of breathing room and can pick back up on the debt snowball and some savings so I'm tempted to just take the money from savings knowing we should be able to replace it by end of summer.  Waiting for hubby's pay next week before I make any decisions as he should have a little overtime on it as well.

April Check In

I only paid $505. Even less than last month.

Remaining balance is $8,484 and I am 31% of the way to my goal. 

BUT May is shaping up to be a much better month. I already paid $800 towards the CC today and there is a lot of month left. So fingers crossed I can get back on track.