So last year started with mortgage debt of $640,000. Ended with debt of $587,296. 2021 stretch goal is to get mortgage below $532,000.

Aussie Beachlife That is AWESOME! Way to go in beating your goal last year! It's certainly some good mojo to carry you into 2021... 

Aussie Beachlife Wow!!! 🤯 You took a huge chunk out of that debt last year and I can't wait to see just how far you're able to push the envelope this year!

Rocket Queen Thanks! This thread certainly helps to keep the focus going! 😄

Faness It's certainly a stretch goal this year that's for sure! Here's hoping we make it 🤞🙏

January 2021 check-in (line ID #2)

Great start to the year with a 3 pay month 🤑

$587,296 January opening balance

$5,197 paid off principal

$1,303 paid in interest

$582,099 balance owing

2021 goal $55,000 off principal

Actual amount $5,197 off principal

9.45% of goal met

Aussie Beachlife 

Fantastic way to start the year! I LOVE 3 paycheck months :)

February 2021 check-in (line ID #2)

$582,099 February opening balance

$3,905 paid off principal

$1,295 paid in interest

$578,194 balance owing

2021 goal $55,000 off principal

Actual amount $9,102 off principal

16.5% of goal met

March 2021 check-in (line ID #2)

$578,194 March opening balance

$3,639 paid off principal

$1,160 paid in interest

$574,555 balance owing

2021 goal $55,000 off principal

Actual amount $12,741 off principal

23.2% of goal met - running slightly behind for the quarter but tax refunds in Jul/Aug should help

Fell off the budget bandwagon hard over the last few weeks but have dusted myself off, mopped up the budget carnage and am back on the wagon - giddy up! 😉

Luckily the mortgage payments are all automated from my pay so all good there - phew!

April 2021 check-in (line ID #2)

$574,555 April opening balance

$4,223 paid off principal

$1,277 paid in interest

$570,332 balance owing

2021 goal $55,000 off principal

Actual amount $16,964 off principal

34% of goal met

Aussie Beachlife Picking yourself up and dusting yourself off and getting back into the flow is the key. It happens to all of us at some point!

Aussie Beachlife I had a couple months like that... two significant, but irregular additions to my budget made it less painful - but it is all about picking up and just putting in the work.  You got this!

How quickly another month has flown by! 😯

May 2021 check-in (line ID #2)

$570,332 May opening balance

$3,172 paid off principal

$1,228 paid in interest

$567,160 balance owing

2021 goal $55,000 off principal

Actual amount $20,136 off principal

36% of goal met

 Yikes! Where are the weeks going of late! 😲 Thought I had posted for June already! We are in the process of refinancing our home loan to a lower rate so hope to see a saving in interest each month. Won't be huge but everything helps!

June 2021 check-in (line ID #2)

$567,160 June opening balance

$3,138 paid off principal

$1,262 paid in interest

$564,022 balance owing

2021 goal $55,000 off principal

Actual amount $23,274 off principal

42% of goal met

Aussie Beachlife Congrats on the refi! We just did that, too, and it lowered our payment by $250! And of course there's the lovely getting to skip a month in the payments, too! Hope that it makes it easier to pay down the principle!

Aussie Beachlife wow!!!!   👏🏻

Rocket Queen It may not be your total debt, but it's an impressive goal all the same! Looking forward to seeing you crush it! 😁

Gnarwhal We'll all be here to help you wave goodbye once it's gone for good! 🎉

Gnarwhal  that's awesome and I'm sure you'll smash it out. I'll be paying off my car loan this year too, going to be so liberating! 

January check-in

I paid $1,000 toward our car loan this month. After interest, it came out to $975.99 toward principle.

My goal is $10,667.01, which is what I have left in principle.

Progress: 9.15% of my goal 

Gnarwhal YIKES. principal*

Gnarwhal lol. I thought the same thing in my head! But knew not to be THAT person to correct it. 😉😄

Navy Blue Pegasus You're a gem

February check-in:

I paid another $1,000 toward the loan, which included $24 in interest and $976 toward principal.

Progress: 18.3% complete

I didn't mention this last month but now that I'm below 5 figures, it feels soooo clooooose. I love it.

Gnarwhal Amazing!!! Being below 5 figures deserves a celebration. 🎉

Gnarwhal wahoo!!! I hope you are celebrating! That's awesome!!

March check-in:

Paid another $1,000 toward the loan. This included $19.41 in interest and $980.59 toward principal.

Progress: 27.5% complete! 

April check-in

So far this year, I've been paying this loan in two payments of $500 each month. One is an automatic payment I set up when we initially got the loan. The other is an extra payment I make manually. This month I learned I hit a max with the bank that has my car loan, so I can't do any more debit card transfers without paying a fee ($8.50!). I thought about increasing the automatic payment to $1,000 but  decided I feel too uncomfortable doing that. I budget all this cash toward the debt each month but I like having the flexibility to change the plan really, really easily if something comes up. Like I-don't-even-have-to-call-about-it easy.

I'm still going to set aside the extra cash in my budget and, once it's a big enough pile, I'll pay off the loan in one go.

In April, I paid $500 toward the loan, including $20.30 in interest and $479.70 toward principal.

Progress: 31.99% complete

Gnarwhal dang, that is SO annoying when they make up rules like that!

Gnarwhal yikes, that's weird and shady of them. I don't (AFAIK) have a limit for debt transfers on my focus debt, but am taking a similar approach with flexibility. I like seeing my bulk payment category rise every month and knowing that I can use it for an emergency if need be. Luckily your monthly interest is not outrageous, and shouldn't prevent you from meeting your goal this year!

mandiferous Yeah, it really felt like it came out of nowhere. But since the interest I'm paying is so tiny, I think this is a good alternative. And I'm like you: I enjoy watching my true expense sinking funds grow and grow. It'll be satisfying to see this "extra debt payments" category grow to meet the debt I've got left.

farfromtheusual Yes exactly! I was scratching my head when I saw a note pop up at the start of the transfer form - I swear I've never seen that before. But it foreshadowed the fee they tacked on just before I hit the "submit" button. At least I'm grateful I figured it out before I paid that fee, which amounts to nearly half my monthly interest on this debt.

May update

Paid $482.74 toward the principal this month, which puts me 36.48% toward my goal.

I also saved another $500 that I'll use to pay off the loan early. Right now that little pot has $1,000. By that reckoning, I'm more than halfway there.

Gnarwhal wahoo!

Buckeye By chance, are you a Buckeye? Asking from one student loan debt-crushing Ohioan to (possibly) another. 😉 Either way, wishing you all the luck and progress in 2021!

Faness yes! Born and raised in NE Ohio (Just A Kid From Akron). I live in Texas currently though ... thank you and good luck fellow Buckeye :) 

Buckeye University of Akron graduate here!

Buckeye Feb payment sent ... another $250 :) 

Buckeye March payment made: another $250 ... :) 

Buckeye April payment sent ... another $250 

I've also budgeted another $3700 to this category with the goal of funding it up to my payoff balance which is a bit over $12k 

Buckeye end of April / beginning of May check-in ... May 1st I'll send another $250 ... 

I've also budgeted an additional $11,350 to this category, so it's almost completely funded equal to loan payoff ... I'll finish that up in May and I'll be all done here, and essentially debt free (cash set aside for paying off this final debt). 

I hope you are all doing well achieving your 2021 goals :) 

Buckeye Wow!!! That's huge! 🎉

Lauren thank you 😊 

I’ve actually just found out that I qualify for a student loan payoff assistance plan from my new employer, so I’ll be able to rob from this digital envelope a bit each month as they send additional cash towards my balance, which I’m quite exited about ! 

Buckeye AWESOME!!!

Buckeye WAHOO! Even better!!

farfromtheusual thank you! 

Buckeye That's fantastic news!! Congratulations 🙂

Orchid Guitar thank you! 

Buckeye received my final moving $ today and have funded my student loan category equal to the payoff amount ... so I guess I can say I'm sort of officially debt free :) 

Pretty sure that between student loans + car loan + credit cards, I started out right around $77k in debt in spring of 2015. Long road but worth it. If you are reading this and in the same boat, I hope it helps to see that it's possible :) 

Buckeye AWESOME!!!!! Congrats!!!!

farfromtheusual thank you :) 

Buckeye Congrats!!!

Buckeye WOW! So good! 🎉Huge congrats to you!

Gnarwhal thank you :) 

Lauren thank you :)

Hot Pink Admiral good luck to you in 2021. I'm sure you have put some thought into this, but I thought it was still worth mentioning ... with that amount of debt, it might make significant financial sense to avalanche the debt rather than snowball. Odds are that your car loan has a significantly lower interest rate than the credit cards. If you are disciplined enough to be using YNAB, it seems worth consideration. Good luck whatever way you decide!

Buckeye Thanks for idea! I'll take a look in undebt it to see various scenarios.

Hot Pink Admiral Happy to see you joining us again this year! I'm doing the 34 Day Reset as well and my biggest objective is to stay away from fast food. Meal planning here I come! 

Tan Banjo (c031bfdaebb1) 

January 2021 Check-in: Paid off $1,830 as outlined below

CC1: $659 (Payment higher than original balance due to a purchase during the month)🤦🤦

CC2: $300 (Hoping to increase this in following months due to snowball from CC1)👍👍

Land Loan: $871 (Payment less interest)🤷🤷

Total debt paid down YTD: $1,830

Below are the remaining balances

CC1: Nil 🎊🎊

CC2: $7,850

Auto Loan: 61,000 ( first payment not yet due)💁

Land Loan: 145,000

Here's to seeing the total debt pay down get into 5 digits this year🤩🤩

Tan Banjo (c031bfdaebb1) That's awesome progress for January!

farfromtheusual 

Thank you. It was a bit of a bummer to increase the balance on the first CC but I'm still proud of the nil balance going into February.

Tan Banjo (c031bfdaebb1) You have to appreciate the wins when they come. Sometimes things have to move laterally before they move forward, and that's totally ok. I would LOVE to have the zero balance, too! That always makes me feel SO good!

Tan Banjo (c031bfdaebb1) 

February 2021 Check-in: Paid off $981 as outlined below

CC1: $110 (Annual Fee)🤦🤦🙃🙃

CC2: $0 (Bank offered a payment holiday to customers so redirecting this to true expenses)👍👍

Land Loan: $871 (Payment less interest)🤷🤷

Total debt paid down YTD: $981

Below are the remaining balances

CC1: Nil 🎊🎊

CC2: $7,738

Auto Loan: 61,000 ( first payment not yet due)💁

Land Loan: 144,000

The amount paid is a bit below plan and I think taking advantage of the payment holiday will lead to a higher interest amount. However, I am looking forward to having all my true expenses funded so that dipping into emergency funds and credit cards won't be needed. That way my budget gets a little future proofing even though right now it feels like a step back.

On a happy note though, no new debt added for February. So I feel like that is also a win.

Tan Banjo (c031bfdaebb1) Woot! Those are wins!! Congrats!

Tan Banjo (c031bfdaebb1) 

March 2021 Check-in: Paid off $3,087.89 as outlined below

CC1: $1,515.00 (All the pretty things)🤦🤦🙃🙃

CC2: $339 (Slightly above minimum... very slightly)👍👍

Land Loan: $822.72 (Payment less interest)🤷🤷

Auto Loan: $411.17 (Payment less interest)🤷🤷

Total debt paid down YTD: $6,248.89

Below are the remaining balances

CC1: $2,832

CC2: $7,595

Auto Loan: $60,442 

Land Loan: $142,564

So the overall lesson from March is that if you know that you like pretty things and Jewelry stores sell very pretty, very expensive things the best option is to stay away from them or else you add a 4.5K balance to your nil balance credit card. Despite knowing that your goal is get all the CCs to nil.

🙅🙅Don't be like me.

Also, interest is a B.

That is all.

Tan Banjo (c031bfdaebb1) 

April 2021 Check-in: Paid off $28,181.86 as outlined below

CC1: $260.84 (Slightly above minimum... very slightly)👍👍

CC2: $250 (Slightly above minimum... very slightly)👍👍

Land Loan: $847.22(Payment less interest)🤷🤷

Auto Loan: $26,823.80 🎊🎉🎊

Total debt paid down YTD: $34,430.75

Below are the remaining balances

CC1: $2,674

CC2: $7,464

Auto Loan: $33,619

Land Loan: $141,717

I cannot begin to put in words how good God has been to me in April and it wasn't until I totalled the numbers above that it settled in.

The month started off poorly with my sister and I under threat of being put out of our home. As it is our family home we were covering the utilities for the home but throwing the savings from not paying rent at debt paydown so that we could be in a position to build a home in the next 2-3 years. That went out the window and we had to consider how best to pay off the new car loan (2 months in) so that we could then qualify for a sufficient amount to build (Houses are expensive).

We brought the situation to our Aunt and she fantastically agreed to a 18K loan that we would pay back to her but would allow us to pay off the car loan with the Bank in May (scraping all savings and cannibalising my Age of Money) and start the mortgage process sooner so that we can be in our own home by the end of the year. This may be delayed or the situation may improve but we are definitely closer to our goal of home ownership than we were a month ago. 

We do want to ensure we make solid choices so that we don't leave a bad situation for a worse but we are also trusting that no matter the circumstances (even if everything falls through) we will be more than okay.

Tan Banjo (c031bfdaebb1) Congrats on being able to shuffle things around and make it work!

Purple Foal Love your artwork!!

Purple Foal Woot! Yay for crushing that goal for 2020 and here's to doing the same in 2021! I love how colorful your artwork is getting! 🌈

Faness Thanks! It's becoming a guilty pleasure! :)

Purple Foal This is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!

Wyvern Nick True is one of the nicest people I know - I had several personal calls with him last year when I was really struggling to understand YNAB and he was super sweet.

Oh maaan. Credit card payment plus interest _plus extra card fee plus annual fee_..... that means a reduction of a whole $30 for the month. This thing needs out of my life!!!!!! 😡😩

Better month. No hidden surprises. Another $240 or so gone. Nothing exciting but I am still working on consolidating my budget and getting ahead there; debt smackdown will be able to be prioritised after that. Also not going backwards yay!

Orchid Moose Not going backwards counts!  Even small steps move you closer to the goal :-)

Orchid Moose Small steps are STILL steps. Way to go!

Another $235 ish gone. Revising credit card goal to ‘this year’ rather than ‘six months’ - even that will need an increase on what I’m doing. Still, nearly a ‘3’ as the first digit of the balance owing instead of ‘4’ - very exciting! 

Orchid Moose I love this perspective - getting down to a 3 as the first digit, then 2 will come around before you know it. SUCH great motivation - keep it up! 

Orchid Moose it so is!! Enjoy and revel in your progress!

mandiferous Be gentle with yourself in the beginning, things do tend to crop up that you didn't remember only because you're not used to thinking about them in this capacity. But the clarity that YNAB gives you will enable to you to work it all out! Welcome to the party!

farfromtheusual fair points, and thank you! I'm sure I have forgotten some True Expenses simply because I don't have any history in YNAB to use for planning, though over the next month I'll be examining last year's statements to improve accuracy there. Honestly I will be happy to make any progress and to use this challenge as a historical record for me to compare my goals vs realistic abilities :)

mandiferous Yup, it happens to all of us, so I figured I'd warn you! Getting the first 3-4 months under your belt helps because then you can start to see trends in spending patterns, like how much groceries, fuel, and the power bills are averaging. 6 months is even better, and the first full year gives you LOTS of info. Just take your time and just plan on having forgotten some things! LOL

January Check-in: ✅Goal Met!

CC 1 is paid off. 2 and 3 are consolidated with a little bonus extra payment added on. Also paid the balance transfer fee, which I had factored into my total debt amount when starting the challenge. Accounting for interest accrued, I have paid off $1,180.69 of my debt this month - right on target for this smackdown.

mandiferous WAHOO! Way to go!

farfromtheusual thank you! I'm exhausted just thinking about how much of my monthly income is currently going to debt payment, but the flip side of this is the anticipation of getting to use that money for... literally anything else in about a year and a half (after snowballing this money into my car payment). Hope your paydown is going well!

It just occurred to me that it might be helpful, as the year winds on, to start this off by listing all of my debt here. On the spreadsheet I'm only tracking accounts I'm making more than minimum payments on, but it'll be nice to look back later and see how much of the total debt has been chipped away at while focusing on the credit cards. It also is giving me reason to question my aggressive paydown, as I reckon with the fact that it has been largely possible because of my COVID mortgage forbearance. While that is still in effect, I'll continue with the current plan. Then... roll with the punches?

As of Jan 1, I was at:

CC 1: $700 (now clear)
CC 2: $5,120 (consolidated into CC 3)
CC 3: $8,400
Auto: $15,926
Mortgage: $28,075.01 (currently deferred, will resume payments later this year)

Total: $58,221 (as of Jan 20, I'm at $56,775)

mandiferous YES! I had that realization as I gained a little more breathing room at the end of this past year. I was sort of surprised at the fact that I had extra money and then it was like well what do I do with this?! This is new!

mandiferous I did a bit of the same time. I know how much my goal is to pay off this year, but that's not the totality of my debt. It will be interesting to look back and see how much of an effect this year has!

mandiferous Oh my goodness, your mortgage is so close! Add a 7 in front of yours and that's how far I have to go, ha!

farfromtheusual a few years ago (2015 I think?) I paid off my car and credit cards, and it was the weirdest feeling in the world. What do I do with it?!? I'd never really experienced a month where I brought in more income than I needed to spend right then. I wish I'd had YNAB at that time to help me figure out all these other hidden expenses. It would not have helped me stay out of debt entirely, but it might have minimized some of the damage I incurred from an expensive move and some damaging decisions I made to help out family members. I've lurked in your journal a bit and it seems like you've made amazing progress over the last few years - really amazing!

xgirlmama oh my!! For a few years I lived in an area where houses were minimum $700k, and could not have dreamt of owning a home there. Pre-payments make such a big difference though - you will get there!

mandiferous you don't want to know how much housing in CA costs. Let's just say there used to be another digit when we bought it. gasp

mandiferous I felt the same way when I was able to reshuffle my finances so that I did have a little extra. It was wild! I look forward to doing that more!!
Yes, we have made some pretty big steps forward in the past few years. I have to keep reminding myself of that because sometimes it feels like we are going nowhere fast. Thanks for the encouragement!

February 1 Check-In: My focus CC is due on the 6th and it was driving me crazy seeing the payment sit in YNAB, soooo, I went ahead and paid it. $870.16 down, including the interest payment.

After thinking more about what farfromtheusual said early in January, I attended the YNAB debt bootcamp and started considering a slower paydown to build up true expense categories. I also did the 34-day reset and have really, truly combed through my expenses to cut back. It was an exhausting process and I hope I am not spending this much time on my budget every month, but thanks to January's triple paycheck I am fully budgeted for February and have TE categories topped off for auto maintenance, insurance deductible, and vet bills. About 40% funded on a home maintenance/deductible category, and am also socking away money for an escrow payment I'll owe in April. It's driving me bonkers that I don't know exactly how much it'll be, and my mortgage escrow agent hasn't been responding to my calls or emails.

Most months will not be so flush, but since I'm no longer starting from scratch on several large true expenses, I think I can continue budgeting one month ahead. Current payment goal is $867 per month on the focus debt, for a payoff date of April 2022 - one month before the promotional rate ends. For motivation to speed it up, I created a separate category for a CC bulk payment due Dec 31st; at the end of each month, anything that did not get spent from my flex funds ($18.65 from January 😆) will go in there, along with any overages after budgeting my other categories. It'll be fun to watch that build up to a final "SEE YA!" payment when it reaches that golden tipping point.

mandiferous I have a similar account!  It is looking quite flush after the reset - so I'll be paying off a loan one month earlier than I was planning to.  It's a good feeling to build that up only to watch it go bu-bye (but for such a satisfying reason!)

mandiferous That's huge progress! Way to go!!

February EOM check-in:

Focus CC payments: $920.34 (adjusting for calculation error sometime earlier this year), $12,144 balance. 14.75% progress!

Total Debt: $55,729.42 (including car and mortgage)

This month I got some "windfalls" from refunds and reimbursements that YNAB has helped me track and organize; these are going into my debt repayment holding category. I also had a huge win in being able to WAM any category overspending this month from other monthly flex categories without using my "forgot to budget for" funds. My cc payoff date is now March 2022 instead of April. I'm itching to dump this right away into the debt, but it helps to see the $ as working a temp job as an emergency fund on top of my TE, and also as practice for the mortgage forbearance repayment that I need to negotiate next month - this will probably end up being tacked on to the end of my mortgage as a lump sum payment that I'll need to save for over the next 4 years.

March EOM check-in:

Focus CC payments: $866.67, $11,266 balance. 20.91% progress!

Total Debt: $59,415.97 (including car and mortgage)

This month was a financial rollercoaster.

Bad Stuff:

• Oil change turned into tire and back brake replacements. This lady did not check the car inspection at purchase to see how badly worn they were when I bought the car a year ago, or factor in winter road conditions that were not an issue in the warm climate I had moved from.
• My mortgage actually went up because my COVID deferral wrapped up this past year of escrow into the lump sum payment due at back end of the loan. Hence, a total debt increase of ~$4,000 this month.

Good Stuff:

• My CC bulk payment category got to work its temp job to pay for the tires (I had $500 in car maintenance and that did not cover the whole amount)
• I had been socking money away for the escrow shortage I assumed I'd have to pay in April. Now that it's wrapped into a lump sum end-of-loan repayment (zero interest), the whole category got repurposed for my car maintenance, refilling TEs, and adding money back to the CC bulk payment category. So...
• New CC payoff date: Feb 2022 (two months ahead of schedule)
• Because YNAB has helped me stay more organized and assertive of my financial needs, I had the wherewithal to dig through my car purchase documents, find a tire warranty policy I added, and apply for reimbursement. I'm not sure if they're reimbursing the total expense but I should be getting a check in the next week for... some amount of money, which can go directly to cc payoff.

Next month my main financial goal is to get my taxes straightened out, because I haven't been able to receive stimulus payments and should be eligible for them... what a boost that would be.

mandiferous Wow, what a roller coaster, so glad that you have the warranty, though, and will be able to get some money back! We've got to put tires on our pickup truck, too, which is going to cost around $800, but thankfully with the tax returns and stimulus we'll be able to handle it without any real struggle. I'd rather put the money towards things that are more fun, but tires are pretty important, so it is what it is...
Kudos to you for being able to come out ahead in the long run!

AaAHhhhHHH reimbursement check arrived today!! They paid for over 75% of the bill, and because I was able to cover my car maintenance TE and the upcoming brake replacement through the escrow  "windfall" I got to move that money right into my cc payoff goal. New CC payoff date: Jan 2022 (three months ahead of schedule).

 Plus I sent in my April CC payment, bringing that account to $10,399.99. Tantalizingly close to four digits...

mandiferous wahooooooo!!!

April EOM check-in:

Focus CC payments: $866.67 + interest, $10,399 balance. 26.99% progress!

Total Debt: $58,318 (including car and mortgage)

CC-free date: November 2021

Recap: I got some overtime pay this month, plus the refund check from my tire warranty - all went into my bulk debt payment category and has me five months ahead of schedule for cc payoff. Also finally faced my student loan balance, which is not currently reflected in the total debt above. Now I know my monthly payment, starting in October, and took some time to consider how that payment will fit into my future budget. Definitely frustrating to realize that I'll just be trading one debt account for another, but the past few months have been proof that I can and will tackle it. Having an end in sight has made it a lot easier to say "no" to purchases that don't meet my payoff goal; I even kept myself within budget for my first vacation in the last year - serious achievement unlocked there!

Looking ahead: Tomorrow my cc debt will drop below five digits, which I haven't seen in years. The next few months will probably not be as flush with cash; my mortgage forbearance is over and payments become due on May 1st. That said, my leftover money each month has reliably been greater than my mortgage payment, and I met my bulk payment goal so early that I'm going to use it to increase my payments to $1,500/mo. I'll continue adding surplus to the bulk payment category and see how much more I can squeeze out before November. It would be really nice to have a break from aggressive paydown to increase my true expenses before 2022 Smackdown: Car Payment.

mandiferous Congrats, that's awesome! And not over spending on vacation is a huge achievement unlocked!!

farfromtheusual Yes!!! This is my first real budgeted vacation (I've traveled a lot but always kind of just... winged it before). Because I had specifically put money towards things like food and gifts, I actually felt like I had more money to spend, which was so nice.

May check-in: Credit card and mortgage payment paid, bringing my cc debt down to $8,900 🎉and my mortgage down by a whole $80 😂In March I said I was going to do my taxes in April. Well, I didn't, but I did finish filing them yesterday! I should be receiving my stimmy along with a general refund as long as the IRS accepts the filing. It was even more than I had expected, and I'm still reeling a little bit. I can either dump all of it into my credit card payment along with the rest of my bulk payment, and zero the card out by July, or I can bulk up more of my true expenses and be done by August without stealing a penny from other categories. I'm leaning towards the latter, because I'm trying to schedule a July trip back to the city where I went to grad school, and am not yet sure about housing or transportation expenses yet. July is a triple paycheck month and I have plenty of PTO built up, but, I know - budgeting good, forecasting bad.

mandiferous Awesome! My BF is still waiting for his fed refund... I have no idea what's taking them so long but it's taking forever!

May EOM Check-in: Banner month!

Focus CC payments: $2,500.00 + interest, $7,899 balance. 44.54% progress!
Total Debt: $55,546 (including car and mortgage)
CC-free date: October 2021

Recap: Tax refund unexpectedly dropped before May 17th. After taking a few days to mull over, I reserved some of the money to fund my first IRA account before the 2020 deadline. It felt really great to take care of my future self for the first time in a while. Most of the rest went to padding true expenses. Then... my stimulus hit - which I thought was included in my tax refund. A good chunk of that went into a second snowflake payment at the end of the month, bringing me well below the 5 figure mark.

And... my on-budget accounts are officially in the black (positive net worth). That hasn't happened in years, and the best part is that it would have happened this month even without any of the government checks. It's incredibly difficult to see that positive number and choose to continue with the payment plan rather than just dumping it all onto the balance, but... I will stay the course.

mandiferous Wow!!! So good!!!

mandiferous CONGRATS!!!

Thanks folks!!!

June EOM Check-in: So. Freakin. Close.

Focus CC payments: $1,200.00 + interest, $6,699 balance. 52.97% progress!
Total Debt: $53,987 (including car and mortgage)
CC-free date:  whenever I want?!?!

Recap: Last month I negotiated a substantial increase in hours at one of my jobs (starting this week!), a small pay raise at the other job, and also picked up a one-time side gig that bumped my payoff category to within *checks notes* $15 of my entire credit card balance. July is a triple paycheck month so after I receive my last set of checks and pad out true expenses, I'm probably going to drop my final payment on the card.

Feels good, man. I will probably take a break from extreme paydown after then to re-examine my priorities and make a plan that balances the rest of my debt (also a deferred student loan that is looking less and less likely to be forgiven) with other needs and goals. 

mandiferous wahooo!!!! Congrats!!!!

July EOM Check-in: 🎉GOAL MET 🎉

Focus CC payments: $6,699 + interest; $0 balance. 100% progress!
Total Debt: $47,000 (car and mortgage)... plus $11,400 in student loans I've been ignoring due to deferral...

Recap/Reflection: I did the thing. I did the thing. It still doesn't seem real. Paying off over $14,000 in debt in just about seven months - actually about $16,500 including minimums on other debt. After debating how to proceed for the rest of the year, rather than increasing my 2021 goal I'm going to focus on other priorities that may free up more cash flow for 2022 and generally increase my quality of life. My other loans are fairly low-interest and not going anywhere in the next five months - though this challenge truly has taught me that I can tackle much more than I thought.

How much more? I back-dated old statements in a tracking account to see just how much of difference YNAB made - this is a net worth report of my on-budget accounts (so, bank + credit card debt). Granted, stimulus checks and my tax return helped a lot, but I was already on-track to a positive net worth without them, and the majority of it actually went into funding my first retirement account (not reflected here). I was "paying off" just as much every month in 2020 but making no progress. The only reason I wasn't absolutely drowning was 1) I received a windfall in 2019 - and drained most of it by the start of the pandemic, and 2) I put my mortgage in forbearance for a year to keep me from going completely underwater. 

This isn't the first time I've paid off a significant amount of credit debt, but it does feel like the last. Keep on keeping on, folks - looking forward to smashing more debt with you all in 2022!

mandiferous Way to go!!! That is awesome! Congrats! I feel the same, the difference between before YNAB and after is pretty stark. 🎉

mandiferous That's awesome! Congrats! I totally know what you mean. I've paid off credit cards before only to rack them up again. The difference now is the mindset and YNAB. I think it's a long-term versus short-term mindset. It's the planning and YNAB!

Michelle Thank you!! And yep, night and day for suuuuuure.

pinkml87 100%! Both mindset and the tools are necessary for me.  Digging around yesterday I found an old "five year plan" spreadsheet made right after my first CC payoff, that included estimated IRA balances. So, I know I had the mindset previously... just not the tools to make it happen. Six years later, I finally started that IRA and I am NOT looking back!!

 August EOM Check-in: Just updating here for accountability and to keep debt paydown in mind. I did not add to my debt, and just paid minimums on remaining loans; even just doing that dropped my debt $320. It feels weird to only pay those minimums but the lowered expenses is helping me feel more confident in dropping hours at work to focus on other projects that will improve my financial well-being in the long term. And, the remaining debt doesn't feel bad. It's all stuff (and education) I bought intentionally and that brings value to my life. Would I like for it to be gone? Sure, of course. But is it ruining me? Nope, definitely not.

mandiferous Nice! I like that you're thinking about your debt in such a nuanced way - it really isn't simple, is it?

mandiferous That attitude is key to making it disappear! Way to go! (and the american credit system is so stupid that if you eliminate all your debt it actually hurts your credit score... so there's that 🙄)

BritishMuseum Congratulations on clearing your balance sheet last year!! Thank you for leading the charge on this for so long.         

BritishMuseum Thank you for all of your work last year in the challenge!

SapphireSweetie January check in: $1645.02 sent to my private student loan this month. I have a goal of paying 5K for the year so this puts me about 32% of the way there. I recently switched careers and took a significant pay cut in the process so this will be the most I send to this loan all year. My most recent payment puts the  balance of this loan at around $2300.

SapphireSweetie Congrats! That must feel good to get that much of a jump on it right now!

SapphireSweetie February Check in: ZERO dollars sent to my student loan this month. Unfortunately my husband had an $1800 car repair and then our sliding glass door shattered which resulted in an $800 repair. Life sure comes at you fast! I'm thankful that I'm currently in school so I did not have to even put the minimum payment towards it, b/c let me tell you, I needed all of my free cash flow this month. Hopefully March brings no unexpected financial events b/c I'm ready to get back on track.

SapphireSweetie Not going backwards, and that means a lot! Great job 

SapphireSweetie Yikes! Feels good to be able to move the money around, even if you aren't making progress on your debt, you're not going backwards, either!

SapphireSweetie March check in: A whopping $60.30 sent to my student loan. Very underwhelming but it is something. Was able to cash flow a vacation and some other things though so I'm grateful for the flexibility of not having to pay this right now. Hoping to have a better April. 

SapphireSweetie Not accruing new debt is worth a lot in my opinion, so an underwhelming payment is not a bad thing. :) It's still progress!

SapphireSweetie April check in 351.27 to debt. Student loan is finally under 2k. Also built up a bit of a balance on my Amex card *face palm* buying a flight for me and my husband. Luckily it is 0% until October so I am rolling that into my debt payments this year. Good news is I have an interview for a remote part time job coming up. Hoping to secure that so I can use that money towards the student loan and Amex payment.

SapphireSweetie Student loans under $2k?!?  I'm so thrilled for you! 🎉👏🎉 

Orchid Guitar I wish! This is only my private student loan! One day though! :-)

SapphireSweetie May check in. 625.85 sent to debt this month. My focus has been paying down my private student loan and  Amex which is unfortunately at about  $900 for flights I bought (0% interest but still).  The private student loan is now at about 1570 and im hoping to get it knocked out in a few months. Being in this challenge for the third year, I can tell that a  lot of my steam is gone but giving up is not an option. See you all in June! 

SapphireSweetie I definitely understand that losing steam feeling - I've soooo been there. I'm inspired by your will, and am rooting for you! You've got this. 💪🏻

SapphireSweetie one foot in front of the other is the only way to keep going. If it is a 0% balance transfer, I always treat those like a flat bill, and don't send any more than I have to towards them because it's not costing me anything for them to be sitting there. Then I just ignore it, LOL, and just toss the money at it, and focus more on making sure all my other stuff is funded. It gets to be a drag, but slowly it disappears, and that does feel good!

farfromtheusual You are such a gem! I really appreciate your positivity! 

SapphireSweetie aww, you're so sweet, thank you!! ❤️

SapphireSweetie June check in. $250 sent to the private student loan today. $54% to goal. Hoping to have a better July! Cheers everyone!

SapphireSweetie 54% is still over half way and we just hit the half way mark for the year, so that's awesome!

SapphireSweetie July check in. $125.36 sent to the private student loan. Balance is around $1200. With back to school and some vacations ramping up, I am happy to have paid anything towards it. I hav been shifting my mindset a bit so as long as I am done with this by the EOY I am happy! Here's to August!

SapphireSweetie August check-in. 335.09 sent to the private student loan. Balance is about 726. Things are moving slow as I have had so many expenses creep up these last few months. New goal is to just get this student loan paid off by the end of the year and just survive without taking on more new debt. 

SapphireSweetie You're so close to getting that paid off! That's awesome. You can do it. 

SapphireSweetie Wow!!! You're so close!!!!

Charlotte Web awesome!! Sometimes looking at the numbers gives clarity which can help to move forward and get unstuck! Way to go!

Booth Family January check-in. Is this where we do this?!?!? Anywho, husband couldn't help this month,  as he used this month's debt payoff $ last month to say buh bye to his CC!! Paid off $1047 this month (2 minimum payments, 1 snowball). We have $200 in our reset ready for debt next month. It will be exciting to see if it stays there and goes towards it!

Booth Family 

Like you've done, I tend to post my check-ins as replies to my original posts. That way as the year progresses I have a single thread. It also helps at the end of the year when scrolling through your posts to see just how much progress has been made.

DeerMountain & Booth Okey dokey. February Check-in. Husband used his sprint for our Florida trip instead of debt. TOTALLY WORTH IT (woot woot!). Paid off $1420.36 ($277 interest). Small victories! For tracking purposes: Current debt payoff timeline (July 2024. Blue Dec 2021, Red Jan 2023)

DeerMountain & Booth  DeerMountain here: March check-in! (one day late). Paid off $1,095.05 ($193.69 + Saphira {not tracking} interest). Didn't add any debt! Started side gigey cleaning houses. I have one house so far at $200/month (8 hrs) which is all going to debt (unless i need to buy cleaning supplies). Have 2 more houses interested.

Current CC timeline:  Blue -Sept 2021. Red-Aug 2022. Saphira - Dec 2023.

Worked the budget (thanks raise!) to put $141 extra/month. That brought down the timeline 7 months.  Booth and I are doing a reset again in April (we both did bad in March) so super excited to see what side gigey, resets, and normal payments brings us down to at the end of April! 

DeerMountain & Booth Hiii! Paid off $2,024. 😱 Cut down almost HALF of Blue! 

Current Timeline: Blue - Aug 2021 Red-Jul 2022 Saphira - Dec 2023  

It's hard to stay motivated when you pay off half of a card, but it only changes your debt timeline by 1 statement. 😟 Hopefully next month will show a better timeline. 

Since my motivation dropped a little this month, I took some sheets off debtfreecharts that I can color in anytime I make a payment. It's taped next to my front door. Hopefully it helps with the motivation! It is really cool to look back on this thread and see that I made the largest payment this month! 

Booth is using his CC on some small recurring charges for 3% utilization. He's hoping it will help him boost his credit. Since those are on-budget things and there's no interest, I'm not counting them as debt. Hope everyone is feeling great about their progress!! 

DeerMountain & Booth Congrats!!! It is frustrating when it feels like a big effort on your part doesn't actually move the meter a whole lot, but hang in there, it will come through!
I agree - having reoccurring charges that are budgeted for doesn't count as debt. Using credit to pay for things that are funded isn't debt, it's credit utilization. And it's also a smart thing to do, too!

DeerMountain & Booth Okey dokey here we go. $1210.50 this month.  $7.63 more than my monthly idea (DeerMountain's term for "goal"). 

Current Timeline: Blue - Aug '21  Red - Jul '22 Saphira - Dec '23

We didn't put any of my cleaning job income towards debt this month. Used it for our garden instead. Which we hope will save our grocery bill. I've got another cleaning location so up to $300 extra income. The chart for Blue is definitely helping the motivation. I can't wait to color it in today! Booth's score has gone up and mine is the highest it has been since September. He got approved to upgrade to a card with a higher limit, no annual fee, and cash back. Thank you YNAB! We are also officially ahead on monthly bills. Thank you again YNAB! 

DeerMountain & Booth WAHOO! Congrats!!
And enjoy the garden! I do the same thing, nothing like having fresh food!

farfromtheusual Thank you! The woman I clean for gave us free reign of her HUGE garden. It's 32 feet x 15 feet. They pay the water bill, we do all the work and split produce. It's a pretty great deal! But definitely a lot of work!

DeerMountain & Booth WOW! That's an AWESOME deal!! Lucky you!!

DeerMountain & Booth Helllloooo! June check-in. The check is in the mail and it's not the end of the month but I CAN NOT WAIT to share this month! $1,813.91 paid off. 

I have to give a big applause to my partner, Booth. With my normal amount and the money saved from my cleaning jobs I had less than $500 left. I wanted to pay it now and WAM later. However, I gave the numbers and scenario to Booth. Booth took a few days to ponder our situation. Then told me to go ahead and pay it off with some extra cash we had. I definitely would have taken the money out of our deductible stash, ope fund, annual expenses fund etc. But Booth helped me see the whole scenario rather than hyper-focused on getting my debt gone. Smart rather than immediate. SOOO we used a reimbursement, my office cleaning income, some money we got from dog/housesitting plus my regular payments.

Y'ALL BLUE IS $0 BALANCE❕❕🎉🙌

Remaining Timeline: Red - May '22 Saphira - Aug '23

I can't believe in February my timeline was Blue December '21 and Red January '23...this is WILD!! 

DeerMountain & Booth I love that you described your decision making: zooming out to see the whole picture helped you both see what made the most sense. Woooo! Congratulations to you both!! 🎉

DeerMountain & Booth WAHOOOOO!! Congrats!!!

DeerMountain & Booth July Check-in. This month is weird. Since my payments cleared June 30th i didn't have one for my CCs this month. Yes, I could have paid August's bill early, but some things went down and I was scared to let go of the $. So $381.99 (min auto payment) happened this month.

I got charged $7.68 interest on Blue. Which is slightly annoying, but no big deal. Finally set up my 3rd location to clean! But with Booth losing one of their jobs (local biz, COVID shut it down 😔), I'm thinking that money may need to be used for gas/groceries instead of debt payoff. We shall see. 

Remaining timeline: Red- June -'22 Saphira - Oct '23

Hope everyone is doing great on their timelines! 

DeerMountain & Booth August check-in. Total paid $1461.95.

We didn't do all of the money we had set aside to debt this month. We decided to use it to get Booth caught up on being a month ahead. Probably go that route for a while. DeerMountain had some work expenses come up so have more on Blue to pay off than we wanted. But rolled with the punches! The third location to clean fell through, again. At this point I give up. 

Timeline now is weird because we took out the extra $ we were throwing at debt out of undebt it.  Red - May '23rd. Saphira - Nov '24. 😎

DeerMountain & Booth you're still chugging along and that's what counts! Being a month ahead is SO helpful!!

January check-in (complete): Paid off $1,034.72 as outlined below. 

• Credit card = $650.00
• Auto loan = $384.72

Total debt paid down YTD: $1,034.72, which is 5.87% of total goal.

Below are the remaining balances for these consumer debts:           

• Credit card = $12,350.00 (0% promotional APR for balance transfer ending December 2021). 
• Auto loan = $13,029.95 (3.24% APR).

February check-in (complete): Paid off $734.72 as outlined below.  

• Credit card = $350.00
• Auto loan = $384.72

Total debt paid down YTD: $1,769.44, which is 10.04% of total goal. 

Below are the remaining balances for these consumer debts:            

• Credit card = $12,000.00 (0% promotional APR for balance transfer ending December 2021). 
• Auto loan = $12,680.87 (3.24% APR).

March check-in (complete): Paid off $1,384.72 as outlined below.   

• Credit card = $1,000.00
• Auto loan = $384.72

Total debt paid down YTD: $3,154.16, which is 17.9% of total goal.  

Below are the remaining balances for these consumer debts:             

• Credit card = $11,000.00 (0% promotional APR for balance transfer ending December 2021). 
• Auto loan = $12,327.45 (3.24% APR).

April check-in (complete): Paid off $1,384.72 as outlined below.    

• Credit card = $1,000.00
• Auto loan = $384.72

Total debt paid down YTD: $4,538.88, which is 25.76% of total goal.   

Below are the remaining balances for these consumer debts:              

• Credit card = $10,000.00 (0% promotional APR for balance transfer ending December 2021). 
• Auto loan = $11,976.44 (3.24% APR).

May check-in (complete): Paid off $1,384.72 as outlined below.     

• Credit card = $1,000.00
• Auto loan = $384.72

Total debt paid down YTD: $5,923.60, which is 33.63% of total goal.    

Below are the remaining balances for these consumer debts:               

• Credit card = $9,000.00 (0% promotional APR for balance transfer ending December 2021). 
• Auto loan = $11,622.33 (3.24% APR).

June check-in (complete): Paid off $1,384.72 as outlined below.      

• Credit card = $1,000.00
• Auto loan = $384.72

Total debt paid down YTD: $7,308.32, which is 41.49% of total goal.     

Below are the remaining balances for these consumer debts:                

• Credit card = $1,250.00 (0% promotional APR for balance transfer ending December 2021). Used a balance transfer offer with $0 fees to move $6,750.00 to a new card, which gives us breathing room since we are still down 1 income. 
• Credit card = $6,750.00 (0% promotional APR for balance transfer ending September 2022). 
• Auto loan = $11,270.41 (3.24% APR).

Ivory Tiger That's awesome progress!

Ivory Tiger So good. Keep it up!!

July check-in (complete): Paid off $884.72 as outlined below.       

• Credit card # 1 = $250.00
• Credit card # 2 = $250.00
• Auto loan = $384.72

Total debt paid down YTD: $8,193.04, which is 46.51% of total goal.      

Below are the remaining balances for these consumer debts:                 

• Credit card # 1 = $1,000.00 (0% promotional APR for balance transfer ending December 2021).  
• Credit card # 2 = $6,500.00 (0% promotional APR for balance transfer ending September 2022). 
• Auto loan = $10,915.48 (3.24% APR).

Ivory Tiger Great progress for July!! 

August check-in (complete): Paid off $884.72 as outlined below.        

• Credit card # 1 = $250.00
• Credit card # 2 = $250.00
• Auto loan = $384.72

Total debt paid down YTD: $9,077.76, which is 51.53% of total goal.       

Below are the remaining balances for these consumer debts:                  

• Credit card # 1 = $750.00 (0% promotional APR for balance transfer ending December 2021).  
• Credit card # 2 = $6,250.00 (0% promotional APR for balance transfer ending September 2022). 
• Auto loan = $10,560.58 (3.24% APR).

Ivory Tiger That's some awesome progress!

September check-in (complete): Paid off $884.72 as outlined below.         

• Credit card # 1 = $250.00
• Credit card # 2 = $250.00
• Auto loan = $384.72

Total debt paid down YTD: $9,962.48, which is 56.55% of total goal.        

Below are the remaining balances for these consumer debts:                   

• Credit card # 1 = $500.00 (0% promotional APR for balance transfer ending December 2021).  
• Credit card # 2 = $6,000.00 (0% promotional APR for balance transfer ending September 2022). 
• Auto loan = $10,204.70 (3.24% APR).

When you're in it for the long haul, it doesn't feel like a lot of progress. I have to remind myself that the credit card debt is half of what it was at the beginning of the year ($6.5k paid off) and the auto loan is making slow and steady progress ($3k paid off)...

Ivory Tiger  It can feel like such a slog when you're still in the middle, but I love that you're reminding yourself of how far you've come. Slow and steady progress is still just that - progress! And you've made a heck of a lot of it so far this year 💪