January Check-in!

Total of $444.03 paid towards debt this month. Looks like my federal student loan payments have been suspended due to economic relief from the pandemic, so I only paid on my private loan. I only have one, so the entire payment went to that instead of being split up across several different federal loans. I only have about $3000 outstanding on my private loan, so hopefully I can knock out most or all of it this year and then snowball that into the other loan payments!

Also, thanks to reading something that farfromtheusual posted I have decided to increase my monthly car loan payment from the minimum due of $213.27 up to a round $250. This extra amount should cover interest plus a little extra to the principal each month, allowing me to pay off that loan just a little sooner. 

All in all, a strong start to the year. Here's to many more months of progress in 2021! 😎

Violet Rain Woot!! That's awesome! Way to go!

February Check-in!

Total amount paid to debt this month = $442.08. Continuing to only pay towards the private student loan while the others are in forbearance. $250 going towards the car loan payment. Things are moving along nicely with debt payoff, despite it being a short month. According to the spreadsheet, I have paid off nearly 15% of my overall goal so far. Onward! 😁

Violet Rain wahoo!

March Check-in!

Another $442.08 towards debt payoff in the past month! I like that I'm paying extra towards the principal for my car loan and laser-focusing on paying off my one remaining private student loan. Right now my main financial focus is on putting as much as possible into my moving fund because our lease will be up at the end of June. After the move, I can begin to shift my focus more towards debt payoff and make up for lost time. Still aiming to pay off my private loan ASAP and snowball that payment into the car loan. Right now the spreadsheet shows me at 22% of total goal payoff. Onward!

April Check-in!

Bumping the private student loan payment up to $165 (amount due $118/mo) gave me a total debt payoff of $488.54 for the month. That puts at right around 30% of my overall payoff goal! My plan is to maintain this level throughout the year and come within 90% of my goal (not counting any extra cheddar I may throw at it throughout the year). Once we get settled into our new place I plan on taking any unused money (after moving fees, rent, deposit, utilities setup, etc) in the moving fund and applying that towards debt payoff to get a little closer to that goal. Overall, it looks like I'm right on track and hopefully I can stay there. Let's get it done! 😁

Violet Rain wahoo!!

BIG CHANGES for the month of May! 

I now qualify for a loan that will pay off the remainder of the existing car loan that is in my ex's name! Besides being a lower APR (9.79 vs 12.99) my monthly payment will be about $150 less than my current payment! So my plan is to put the difference towards my private student loan and pay that off as quickly as possible. Once that is paid off I can take the amount I was paying for my private loan and snowball it back into the new car loan to pay that off more quickly. 

Since my car loan has been the largest debt payment amount for me each month, this is a HUGE deal for me. My cc payoff is 0% APR, so once my car is completely paid off then my only interest-bearing loan will be my federal student loans. I can snowball everything I was paying into the car loan by that point back into those, and hopefully have those paid off in the next 5 years. Then my life will REALLY change for the better! 😎

Total amount paid towards debt in May was $488.54, which puts me at around 38.5% of my overall goal. Things are looking good, and that snowball is about to gain some massive momentum! Let's do this! 😁

Violet Rain Amazing!! I love your motivation here––you've got this. 🎉

Violet Rain how wonderful! YAY!

Violet Rain wahoo!!! That's awesome news! Congrats!

June Check-in!

LOTS of big changes this past month! Only $238.54 applied towards debt BUT I just scheduled an extra $150 payment to my private loan to make up the difference. We are moving next week, so things are rather chaotic right now - hence the "late" payment (not really late because it's an extra payment, but I had originally planned to take care of it in June and forgot to schedule it - whoops). But hey - better late than never, right? 😅

To help keep my eye on the prize, I got back on track with Undebt.it (I had registered there a few years ago, but hadn't really kept up with entering any payments or other info). Since there have been so many changes to my accounts, I basically did a "fresh start" on there by deleting all the previous payment info and transactions, and entered the current balances as of that day. Looks like I can have my private loan paid off in less than a year, and both my car loan and cc balance paid off in less than 3 years, leaving my federal student loans as my only non-mortgage debt. Having it all laid out like that really puts things in perspective!

More big news - later this month, I will be on a temporary training assignment out of state for my job. They are paying for all of the travel/lodging expenses, and I will be paid a per diem allowance for meals. I already know that my meal expenses are not going to exceed the per diem allowance, so I will have a significant amount left over after I return. I'm planning on using some of that as debt snowflakes and adding it to the snowball as well. I know that some of it will probably also get allocated to stuff for the new place, but I'm aiming for at least roughly half of it to go towards debt payoff. So that will go a long way towards reaching my smackdown goals too! 

All in all, I'm very excited about the upcoming move, the work trip, and the extra income. July is gonna be one heck of a rollercoaster ride, and hopefully I'll be able to sail into August in a much better shape than now. Fasten your seatbelts, because Here. We. GO!!! 😁

Violet Rain all good stuff!!!!!

July - September Update

Welp, I just realized that I haven't posted an update here in three months. LOL. That's because life has been hitting me pretty furiously, and it just hasn't occurred to me to post in here. Sooo...without further ado, I'm gonna provide a quick breakdown of the past three months and where I am in my debt payoff (hey, better late than never, right? I'm still making the moves even if I'm not posting about it, so I'm still very much in this thing!).

Total amounts towards debt paydown per month:

July - $659.89 (Woo!)

August - $344.89

September - $344.89

That currently puts me at about 65% of the way to my payoff goal. At this point I'm probably not going to reach my goal by the end of the year, but progress is progress and I'm still much better off than I was at the beginning of the year. Total amount paid off as of the end of September is $3,894.08, and that's nothing to sneeze at! 

The good news is that I received my first per diem reimbursement in September! Unfortunately, instead of using it to pay off debt like I had originally planned, the bulk of it went towards paying off unplanned medical expenses because my health took a turn for the worse back in late August. I'm doing okay, but I started experiencing relapse symptoms of what I went through last year, and that meant a lot of diagnostic tests, bloodwork, and procedures - in addition to a trip to the ER. So I had to put the brakes on any extra debt payments and instead funnel those extra funds into medical bills. Whee. 

HOWEVER - I still have two more per diem reimbursements coming my way in the next few weeks, and since most of my out-of-pocket costs have already been covered, I shouldn't have to divert too many funds to medical bills this time. So I'm not out of this yet! I'm hoping that I can use some of the extra funds to make some additional payments to that private student loan. The balance will be under $2000 after October's payment, and I just want it gone as soon as possible. I would LOVE to start 2022 with only my federal loans and no more private loans. I'm so close! 

Violet Rain Congrats on hanging in there! I hope you get all your health issues straightened out. Glad you were able to use the reimbursements to keep you from sliding into more debt, so that is a good thing, even if you don't hit your goal. Rule 3, right?

January 15: Check in - line 33! 🌿

We're doing a version of the 34 day reset - it's basically a no-spend January, to see just how much we can save to put towards our debt.  I have been really surprised by just how much we can do when we choose not to eat out or make spontaneous, unnecessary purchases. (though semi-budgeted for, thx Stuff I Forgot To Budget For category 😉) Some of this extra push came from a windfall too, of about $300.  While I've enjoyed seeing how much we can save without extra spending, I do miss some of those simple pleasures like not having to cook eating out... so no-spend January will definitely be ending with January. 😂

Progress so far:

Payments made: $1000

Balance remaining: $6000

---

Payoff Goal:$7000 

Paid so far: $1000

14.29% of goal met!

Lauren WooHoo! Go you good thing 🎉🔥

February 25: Check in - line 33! 🌿

February was just not our month. 😅 Between my husband's work moving offices and very cold weather, we were not having the best time...then, Murphy stumbled into the picture. A fender bender with our 2006 Pontiac G6. 😭So, this month's debt payment was WAMed for a shiny new bumper. 

Alas, not our finest hour, but we'll be back on the horse in March! We're hopeful for a decent tax return this year, so fingers crossed for an extra push next month!

No new progress, still sitting at $6000 remaining balance and 14.29% of our goal met. 

Lauren hang in there, Buckaroo 🤠 You’re doing great!!

Lauren not back sliding counts for a lot!

March 25: Check in - line 33! 🌿

Turns out, we had a big priority shift this last month! We live in an area filled with trucks and large vehicles, plus a longer winter...our little 2 door Pontiac just wasn't cutting it anymore. We started feeling quite unsafe driving it, so we made a big change and purchased a larger vehicle for winter/general safety and more space, should we decide to expand our family! It's made such a huge difference for us and it's going to be a good car for many years (knock on wood), so I feel good about the purchase. That said, we did end up further in the debt zone, but with a solid payoff plan thanks to a flexible budget! 

Update:

Payments made so far in 2021: $1000

New Goal balance remaining: $14,000

---

❗️New Payoff Goal:$15,000 

✅Paid so far: $1000

6.67% of goal met!

April 21: Check in - line 33! 🌿

We had a nice tax return helper to make some progress on our loan this month, which is exciting! We also have a pending sale on our old car, so fingers crossed that it goes through so we can make some extra progress on this loan. 🤞🏻

Progress so far:

Paid this month: $2000

Balance remaining: $12,000

---

Payoff Goal:$15,000 

Paid so far: $3000

20% of goal met!

Lauren Woot!

May 5: Check in - line 33! 🌿

Betty White, our beautiful, old Pontiac G6 convertible, has sold and gone to a good home. This was real good news for us, as we got a solid chunk of change for her and got to take her off the ole insurance plan, so we get a little extra savings each month as well! Because of this, we got to make a decent dent in our goal! This will probably (never say never? 😅) be the biggest payment of the year, but it feels so good to make some progress.

Progress so far:

Paid this month: $4,500

Balance remaining: $7,500

---

Payoff Goal:$15,000 

Paid so far: $7,500

50% of goal met!! 🎉

Lauren woo!! That's huge!

June 2: Check in - line 33! 🌿

Another solid month! Got a nice little windfall that allowed us to put a bit extra toward the loan, which is always nice. I'm feeling really good about our progress to date. I'm hopeful that we may even be able to stretch our stretch goal!

Progress so far:

Paid this month: $1,000

Balance remaining: $6,500

---

Payoff Goal:$15,000 

Paid so far: $8,500

57% of goal met!! 🎉

July 19: Check in - line 33! 🌿

A pretty standard month for us, debt payment wise! Busy with life and work and family, but made our normal payment, which is still good progress.

Progress so far:

Paid this month: $600

Balance remaining: $5,900

---

Payoff Goal:$15,000 

Paid so far: $9,100

60.6% of goal met! 🎉

Missed a month! August and September check in - line 33! 🌿

It's been a busy few months, but we've been able to make our standard payment each month, so that's been good! We're hoping to make a larger payment next month, but we'll see how things go. 🤞

Progress so far:

Paid in the last two months: $1200

Balance remaining: $4,700

---

Payoff Goal:$15,000 

Paid so far: $10,300

68.6% of goal met! 🎉 I'm actually pretty excited that we've been able to pay off over $10k so far this year!

Lauren that's amazing!!! You're getting really close to your goal, too!

Lauren woot! Well done!!

October check in - line 33! 🌿

We were able to add an extra $100 to our debt payment this month, so that was exciting! More progress feels good. We won't make our final stretch goal of the extra $4,000 as our priorities have shifted, but I'm still very happy with what we've been able to do and still have a little more to go in the last two months of the year.

Progress so far:

Paid this month: $700

Balance remaining: $4,000

---

Payoff Goal:$15,000 

Paid so far: $11,000

73.3% of goal met! 🎉

A little late on the February check-in, but it's been busy!  2020 was full of financial drama for us, so thankfully there was not much of note in January.  Since the 0% interest on student loans was extended, we're only paying on the car loan and personal loan right now.  We're technically still making our regular student loan payment, but just keeping it in our account until the interest-free period ends.  The plan is to pay whatever we have saved right before interest kicks in and that will knock out a nice little chunk of principal.

Car Loan - $9,655.51/$9,461.37
Personal Loan - $27,433.00/$26,899.29
Student Loan - $36,846.61/$36,846.61

Hey all!

I haven't been doing a great job of keeping up on the updates this year, but I'll be better moving forward.  I delved into graduate school in January, which is what was eating up all my time, and quickly came to the realization that it was not the right path for me.  Between school and my job (which I love), I had zero time for my family and that wasn't acceptable.  So I dropped that weight off my shoulders and I'm back!  Good news on the financial front, though.  We'll soon have about $8k to put towards principal on the personal loan and that's a huge win!  We're still saving our school loan payments up and will pay a lump sum before interest starts again.  And now that we're a full month ahead, we can start throwing any extra at debt.  We might just hit our $20k principal goal for this year after all. 😎

Car Loan - $9,655.51/$9,068.63
Personal Loan - $27,433.00/$25,806.72
Student Loan - $36,846.61/$36,846.61

I'm late again, but happy May everyone!  Plugging right along and we did put a big dent in the personal loan principal last month.  Not 8k, but my husband and I decided to funnel some of that to our deck rebuild.  Our old deck was in serious disrepair (i.e. the people who flipped our house slathered on that thick deck paint over a bunch of water damage and it was rotting out).  We're rebuilding it ourselves and it's a ton of work, but that's saving some serious cash.  Plus that deck rebuild category is fully funded. 😉  Now we're finally in a spot where we'll probably have an extra 1k per month to put towards that personal loan, so that has us on track to meet our yearly principal payoff goal of $20k!  We've always wanted to pay this debt off as quickly as possible and it felt very stifling and stagnant for a long time.  We've hit a spot now where we're really making strides and seeing progress.  I looked at where we started in Jan 2020 and our total debt was $84k and now it's down to $64k.  And that was with several months of a seriously reduced income with my husband doing gig work after quitting his job and us not paying on student loans since April 2020 since interest has been 0%.  But it's back to normal now and we're saving up those student loan payments to make a big principal payment before the government reinstates interest.  Stick with it everyone, we're killing it!

Car Loan - $9,655.51/$8666.32
Personal Loan - $27,433.00/$19,083.72
Student Loan - $36,846.61/$36,846.61

Gfamily46 That's some awesome progress!! Way to go!!

Gfamily46 Wow, amazing progress! I love hearing this! Also, please post photos of your deck when it's done. 💪

 Hello all!  Another check-in and I can't believe we're already halfway through the year.  The deck rebuild continues, but we are almost done.  I never thought we'd be able to cash flow an entire deck, but here we are!  We've gone over budget quite a bit, but that was mostly because we decided to add a 6' x 16' extension.  It's taking us a long time, but that's mostly because it's been stupid hot around here and we can only put in a few hours on the weekends before we risk heat exhaustion.  And Lauren, I haven't forgotten about you!  I will post pictures once we're done. 😀  Even though we're over budget for the deck, we're still throwing a little extra at debt.  But now that we've pretty much bought everything we need, we'll be able to start earmarking the extra that has been going to the deck back to the personal loan.  We're 54% of the way to our yearly goal.   Stay cool!

Car Loan - $9,655.51/$8,496.64
Personal Loan - $27,433.00/$17,601.59
Student Loan - $36,846.61/$36,846.61

Gfamily46 Isn't it amazing that through the support of YNAB we can do something like pay for a big thing like a deck up front AND still put "extra" funds towards debt? Congrats on your wins!!!

farfromtheusual Yes it is and thank you!! 🤗

It's been a while, but I'm back.  My husband and I finished our summer project (deck build) and it felt so good that no debt whatsoever was incurred.  We cash flowed the whole thing, along with new furniture, a new grill, a new umbrella and base, and a fire pit table!  My husband's overtime paid off in a big way and the military discount from Lowe's didn't hurt either.  We did take on some more debt at the end of July in order to downsize our cars.  We previously had a SUV, car, and my husband's work truck, but now I'm permanent work from home and it made no sense to have three vehicles when I barely drove one.  So we traded in both of our old vehicles for a 2017 crossover.  Insurance is lower and the gas mileage is better.  Plus, the extra room in the garage is a huge bonus!  Not ideal to take on more debt, but we did get a great rate through our credit union.  Now that all the deck purchases are done, we can really start throwing money at debt.  Plan is to go hard on the personal loan ($750/mo) and knock it out as soon as we can.  Can't believe it's October already!

New Car Loan - $18,315.69/$18,063.04
Personal Loan - $27,433.00/$15,849.09
Student Loan - $36,846.61/$36,846.61

Lauren Check it out!  Here are some solicited deck pics. 😄

Gfamily46 That deck looks amazing! So exciting to see the project come to fruition. 

Gfamily46 Those are some huge accomplishments, congrats!!!

Gfamily46 Gorgeous pictures too!!!

farfromtheusual Thank you!! 😄

Coral Mare Mortgage balance between 1/1/20 & 1/1/21 decreased by $3,872.42.  This includes rolling the refinancing costs back into the loan.  Let's see if bi-weekly payments help the balance drop, even when the house isn't the focus debt.

Coral Mare So awesome that yall are team driving. My BF has suggested that before, though I don't know that I could get my CDL. He's an amazing driver, though, but he only does local stuff. My mom had friends that got deep into debt, and decided to sell their house and get a rig and their licenses and they paid off their mortgage and debt within a few years, and then stopped driving to settle down. It's a really powerful tool if you choose to leverage it! Kudos to yall!

Orchid Guitar 

January Check-In: $1,855.67

Orchid Guitar 

I forgot to make one point for clarity and for others who are in this complex time of student loan debt payoff... We have been holding back the cash for our student loan debt payoff until the interest begins again. It's safely stored in its own bucket. The amount I will list in the debt smackdown is the amount placed in the bucket each month.

Our Thinking

We decided with the uncertain times that we would keep the cash as long as possible. We both are disciplined and know that it would be a true emergency for us to spend the money. It allows us options, though. We're a one income family, and while that job seems secure, we'd rather have the options as long as we can.

Orchid Guitar that sounds really wise. And it will be fun when you can make one giant payment when the time comes!

farfromtheusual 

So, so true! I am very excited to see the drop right before interest starts up again! I think that's part of the difficulty of waiting is I don't get the satisfaction each month of seeing the principal go down. But, when it does, it will be fun!

Orchid Guitar you're right, but just think of how big of a drop it will be when you make that huge payment!! THAT is going to be awesome!!!

farfromtheusual 

Yes, I have dreams of that day :)

Rachel January check-in: $917 down!

January always feels easier to fund than other months. My partner typically gets some kind of end of year bonus and we also have Christmas gift money to work with! 

We've got a privacy fence project in the works for February or March, so we're toying with the idea of a no-spend Feb to make sure we can keep meeting all of our goals in addition to paying down these cars. 

We're also toying with the idea of becoming a one-car family - would love to hear from folks who've done this. Was it an easy change? Were there unexpected downsides? 

February check-in: another $917 down! Slow and steady and boring 😆

Rachel Slow, steady, and boring is good, right!?

farfromtheusual 100% absolutely!

Rachel March check-in: another $917 down! I'm SO motivated by the idea of getting this monthly amount back to work for us in other areas. A more official update: 

Starting Balance: $11,000
Paid off in 2021: $2751
Remaining: $8249

Rachel April update! We used part of our stimulus to up our car payment to $1500 this month - woo woo!

Starting Balance: $11000
Paid off in 2021: $4,251
Remaining: $6,749

Rachel wahoo!!

Rachel May update! A small but unexpected tax refund and a three paycheck month meant a boost in our payoff category this month. 

Starting Balance: $11,000
Paid off in 2021: $6,251 
Remaining: $4749

Rachel Great job! You're over halfway there!

Rachel Love those unexpected boosts!

Rachel Steady goes it. Another $917 down for June! 

Rachel Unexpected update! TL;DR is 🎉Goal Met 🎉

After realizing the remaining balance on my car's loan was less than expected (plus some other stuff - see below!), we decided to go for it and crush the remainder. 

Part of this was spurred by so many conversations around emergency funds here in the Forum that I've been a fly on the wall for. My partner and I regrouped about what our emergency fund was really for and realized that most of the things we’d have formerly called “emergencies” actually have funded categories now.

After months of telling YNABers that “income replacement” is a better and more specific job title for such a category, we finally made the decision to rename our own. In the process, we adjusted the amount and used the extra to crush the debt! 

Rachel Whoo hoo! Very exciting! And very exciting that you were able to identify a thing you'd been telling others as something to do yourself!

Rachel Get it!!!!!

Rachel WAHOOO! Congrats!!!

Cinged aww, I do remember your lizard purchase :) How is the lizard doing??

farfromtheusual Combo Panda is doing great! We watched Wonder Woman 1984 last night after his bath and just chilled out for half the night. I've let him run around my son's room, and likes to find the smallest spaces to fall asleep in where it's difficult for me to reach or even find him, lol. He's shed around 3 times in the last 6 months and getting big! He doesn't pancake as much when I pet him, and even ran to me this morning when I went to feed him; usually he waits on his hammock until the bugs are in, but today ran up and waited for them. He really is an awesome little guy. 

On a side note, I totally just realized I can add pictures on here. 

I also just learned about the Community Journals, so I started one. 

Cinged OOOoO!!! SO cool! That's awesome that you are finally developing a relationship and some trust! That has to feel so good!!

Cinged Merit increase hit this month, and I got a 2.5% increase, so pretty close to what I was hoping for. I also forgot to check in last month, so this is two months in one. 
Capital One started with $383 in January, is now at $280.98 = $102.02 pd off
Chase started with $324, is now at $157.47 = $166.53 pd off
Discover started with $5519, is now at $4924.34 = $594.66 "pd off" (I just made a payment to cover spending on this card, so most of that "payoff" is current usage and interest).
Grand total of pay off: $863.21

Happy to report Capitol One is now paid off: $280.98 pd off!
Chase is paid off again: $166.53 pd off!
Discover was at 4924.34, now at 4539.43 = $384.91 pd off!

That makes $832.42 pd off, so I'll add that to last check in since they're both in March. 

Cinged Checking in for April's Finances. 

This month I opened a new credit card with Citi and did a balance transfer to move most of the balance transfer from Discover to Citi to reduce interest charges. Once that clears, I'll have $642.40 on Discover and $4017.00 on Citi; this did add $117 transfer fee, but I think it'll be worth the change. 

And I did over kind of spend a little extra on an investment just before the round closed, which I did choose to float with, so I'll be up a little bit this month. 😬  But I think the future-me can handle it. Especially since I'm in the process of starting an online course to allow a big career change and hopefully double my income by this time next year!!

My last months CC debt was $4539.43. This month it is at $4659.40 = $119.97 debt added since last month, though I do have $130 sitting idly by waiting for Citi to finalize the transfer so I can pay it, so that will be added to May's payments. 

Cinged Wow, I completely missed a few months. I felt like I was doing great, and even received a $4 raise with a career progression I just made at work, but I also feel like I crashed and burned a bit with overspending last month. I got myself a new piercing that I didn't plan for and all the groceries and activities for camping went on a credit card without the cash to back it up, ugh. Camping was a blast though, and we went kayaking for the first time ever, so I love the experiences!

I also had some issues with the car, unfortunately. I had some money set aside for auto maintenance, but the $100 that was built up barely touched the $650 repair bill. So while I had Discover down to about $350, it's, um, not anymore. 

Last check in I had $4659.40 in CC debt, I'm now at $6214.85 🤦‍♀️
$1,555.45 increase in CC debt added to the June column in the tracker. 

Glad you're back, Cinged ! Way to hold yourself accountable. 

Cinged you're here, though, and that's what matters. It's interesting to me that whenever we have an expansion in available finances it often comes with over spending. It's this odd psychological thing where we can't handle the increased money, so we blow it all, and then some. But knowing that is the first step to getting out of that pattern. And you're here, so that's what counts!

farfromtheusual Yes! The thought is always "well, my next paycheck will be bigger, so I can handle it, no problem!" And sure, if it was just my awesome new piercing it would have been fine. But life will always throw extra expenses at you at the same time you get more pay, without fail. I was not expecting to have to replace my alternator, I had just replaced it myself last year! At least at the shop there's warranty for parts and labor, which is good, but man, the part was double the cost of what I could have bought it myself at the parts store!
Actually, this kind of makes me wonder what the heck is going get thrown at me when I switch careers for double the money, holy moly. 🤔😬

Cinged ugh, was there a warranty on the alternator that you bought originally? I think we've had a warranty on parts that we purchased ourselves before, but I don't totally remember. The BF is the one that keeps up with a lot of that stuff, and then I use YNAB to figure out when it happened (yay for memos!)

Ehh, you'll eventually settle in, but yeah, income expansions often cause bumps in the road 100%!

Cinged I use to work in spare parts for a car dealership (In Australia). All parts sold came with a 12 month parts warranty, you had to return the faulty part along with the original receipt (or if we could look up the receipt and reprint it). 
If the dealership didn't completed the repair then labour was not covered by the parts warranty. 

Cinged So I attempted a Fresh Start about two weeks ago, and honestly, I did not like it. Somewhere between before and after one of my credit cards was off: actual balance was $360 more than what my budget showed (EEK), even though I reconciled before I made the change, so not too happy about that. After I assigned all the dollars again, transactions that were pending before came through that didn't get accounted for, which threw the new budget into the wretches, lol. 

I think it's finally starting to settle though. I honestly probably won't do a fresh start again though. But my debt balance went down a bit these last couple months, so that's good. However, with a death in the family, I'm driving for a couple days straight and will probably be living off my credit card (ugh). At least I'm halfway through schooling now, so will need to start looking at job prospects for UI Designers and see where I can get my foot in the door!

Last check in had all credit debt at $6214.85, today $5751.34 = $463.51 pd off (though really, I'm questioning this... maybe some of that $360 discrepancy or something?? But it's the last thing on my mind, so reconcile amount and away we go to tomorrow!!).

Cinged Fresh starts can be helpful, but they can be a bit messy, too, sometimes. I hope you got everything all worked out!

Cinged Yup, totally lived off the credit card: food, gas, funeral expenses, Uhaul, you name it. I thought I was going to be gone for a week, and it turned out to be an entire month from the day I left home to the day I got back! The good news is just about everything I spent on my card was less than the amount received by life insurance, so I just paid off the card that got maxed and the one I started using thereafter, and I think that $360 found it's place, since it looks good now. 
Last month was $5,751.34 total CC, this month $3,705.49 = 2,045.85 paid off overall. 

Another financial note, updated all beneficiaries on all investment/retirement accounts and started a will. It's never too early to make sure all your ducks are in a row, lol. 

Cinged I am NOT a fan of the fresh start. I like having all my history in one place. And I find YNAB to be flexible enough for me to move categories around as required. 

Cinged 

Cinged said:
Another financial note, updated all beneficiaries on all investment/retirement accounts and started a will. It's never too early to make sure all your ducks are in a row, lol. 

 absolutely!  I started a challenge to get people motivated to get their financial house in order. Pop on over if you are interested.

MXMOM Right? I'm glad I'm not the only one. I was trying to remember what company I paid for something last year was, and it took me forever because I forgot I did the fresh start and it wasn't in my history anymore. 
Glad I'm not the only one, I feel like it's put there a lot that it's a good thing. 

MXMOM 

MXMOM said:
absolutely!  I started a challenge to get people motivated to get their financial house in order. Pop on over if you are interested.

Awesome! Do you have a link to the challenge? 

Cinged You can find MXMOM's amazing challenge here: anyone interested in doing a challenge to get our legal/financial house in order?

Marisa thank you so much!

Veronica Thank you so much!

mander82 I always feel like I have tiny goals compared to so many - but debt is debt, and what is a lot for some may not be for others, and that's ok. I haven't posted my numbers yet, but I'm only going to be paying about $3600 toward my debt this year, and it will actually be a bit less than that due to the interest. You can only work with what you've got, and every little bit is important! You're in good company!

mander82 any intentional goal is a good goal! I accrued CC debt quickly around 2016/2017 due to a variety of life circumstances, and it was only until about midway last year that I could pay more than the minimum payments (I usually tried to at least throw a hundred extra dollars or something to make a dent in interest). Last time I went (non-mortgage) debt-free I also did the snowball method; getting that first card paid off felt painfully slow but once each debt disappeared it was so freeing to see progress accelerate.

Gold Projector Are your student loans a mix of subsidized and unsubsidized? Mine is a mix, so some of interest and some don't. I have each one added individually in a tool called Undebt.it, and it shows all the different payoff types so you can see how much you'd be paying off overall and how much paid in interest. If you have some that are non-interest, maybe doing snowball with the interest loans first would help cut down on the interest you have to pay?

Congrats on your progress thus far, and good luck on your goals this year!! 

Cinged I also have a mix! You're right, I should prioritize those. I'm applying for an income driven repayment plan so I'm thinking FedLoan will take that minimum payment and allocate it as they see fit. Past that any additional snowball money would be best used to knock out the unsubsidized loans. Great idea, thank you!!

Gold Projector January check-in:

Chase CC: paid $1,490.93 (PIF)

Student loans: paid $100 to the smallest loan

Total paid in January: $1,590.93

Beginning 2021 debt: $119,156.55

Current debt: $117,565.62

Gold Projector Belated February check-in:

An unimpressive month. Paid 305.29 to my smallest loan. Trying to remind myself that progress is progress even when I can't throw a bunch of cash at my debt.

Total paid in February: $305.29

Beginning 2021 debt: $119,156.55

Current debt: $117,260.33

Gold Projector March check-in:

Well I definitely managed to make up for last month! I knocked out my smallest two loans out of 16, which is an amazing feeling. I'm paying for the rest of my master's as I go, which slows down my repayment of older debt. My employer offers tuition reimbursement though so hopefully that will be an extra few thousand later in the year.

Total paid in March: $1,258.33

Beginning 2021 debt: $119,156.55

Current debt: $116,307.29

Gold Projector Correction, because basic math is apparently beyond me: current debt is actually $116,002. Even better!

Gold Projector WOOT!!

Gold Projector April check-in: Nothing exciting, but still a decent little chunk! I'm planning to knock out the rest of my smallest current loan ($800) in May. This will be the first year I actually owe taxes so I'll need to balance that along with loan payoff. I've had 16 loans hanging around my neck for so long it's actually a weird feeling having less, like someone made an administrative mistake? But it's not! I'm just finally paying them off!!

Total paid in April: $572.45

Beginning 2021 debt: $119,156.55

Current debt: $115,433.55

Gold Projector WOW, congrats!!!

Gold Projector Great progress!! What a good feeling to knock those loans out, one by one! 🎉

AmandaCham Welcome to the party!

farfromtheusual thank you. It does seem lovely here.  

Opal Freshness Gotta start somewhere! Welcome, and good luck on your goal!

Spider Plant Still paying off student loans after retirement?? Oh man, that is a wake up call, isn't it??  Congrats on your progress last year, and Good luck this year!!

Cinged Right? I was already putting extra towards them by the time I learned that, but it gave me even more drive and helped me shuffle my budget for even more ways to push for these to be done. I just started year 11 of paying mine (they were 25 year loans) and I should finish at a little less than the halfway mark, hopefully. Thanks for the luck and cheers for your goals this year too!

Navy Blue Pegasus 

First month we have successfully made the planned repayments. I am quite happy as the balance is under $3k on that particular card. We are hopeful that next month we will be able to pay it off if we can scrape together an extra $588 (psychological for me to pay off the card, not a big change in the grand scheme)

Start $35,687.66

Current $33,380.28

Interest Paid $201.77/$201.77

Navy Blue Pegasus I did the same thing with my CC this month. I had to reprioritize some funds I would've used to getting a full month ahead, but paying off the CC felt better and a bigger accomplishment.

Navy Blue Pegasus I am very excited to announce that our credit card is paid off!! Woohoo! 😄🎉🎉 There may be a small amount of interest next month but it is out of here! Now we are onto our final credit card for payment. Based on our current plan, we will have it paid off in Feb 2022.

Start $35,687.66

Current $30,484.22

Interest Paid $166.47/$368.24

Navy Blue Pegasus WAHOOO!! Congrats!!!!!

Navy Blue Pegasus So, it was an interesting Saturday budget exercise for us. I had broached the topic of looking at delaying some of our debt repayment in order to get a month ahead because I have heard really great things about it (thanks dakinemaui WordTenor Move Light Sound Life MXMOM for various tips in posts). And part of the reason it became easier to have the conversation is my LOC sent me an offer of 1.9% for six months on any balance transfer. Strange how that happens when you pay it off......like in February and the offer came March 1. 😂😲

Wow! I did not expect it to A) take so long to do or B) be as successful as it was. While we will be delaying the debt repayment slightly, we should be a month ahead by August at the latest and it is a game changer. It took a lot of math, a lot of discussion on reasonableness and a lot of making sure we were on the same page. The math part was because we had to do conversions from biweekly to monthly and vice versa for various expenses and income to make sure we were on a level playing field. Because we are both paid bi-weekly, we figured out our average monthly income and then how much of a buffer we had to build that we could draw down until we got to the three paycheque month to build it back up and repeat the cycle. It became like variable income in a way. We decided that any reimbursements from medical and children would all go to debt because it makes sense to us. I

I will be updating our new numbers on the spreadsheet for our debt repayment after our next paycheque. I may have some math issues and we may be further ahead already than I thought. 

Thanks to everyone for sharing their successes and challenges! It helped us have this tough conversation.

MadDog So with the end of the month i am happy to report that other than one payment to our debt that we had intended to hold to help build up our buffer, we are on track. I just budgeted almost a half month's pay all at once! I can see the game changing coming. We are confident because this is a three pay month to help boost the next month income.

MadDog wahoo!!

MadDog 

So, we only made the interest payment on our debt this month (which is the minimum - nice way to keep you in debt for forever). But, it is part of our new master plan of getting one month ahead and then restarting the loan payments which we believe will be June. In addition, we had a great bonus in that my line of credit gave us a promotion of 1.9% on any balance transfers for six months. So, we transferred the debt from the higher % LOC to mine. Onwards and upwards.

MadDog 

We only made the minimum payment on our Line of Credit now while we continue to get a month ahead. I think that we are there but nervous that my calculations are incorrect. lol. Great to see the progress that all people are making on their debts which makes it feel great to keep going.

MadDog 

So, it has been an interesting couple of months. I keep seeing the posts here and meant to update on our progress but it has been rather hectic. But we are now getting things sorted and settled back. 

Good news - We are officially one month ahead! We accomplished this in May. Then in June , we loaned a friend a decent amount of money ($3k) to prevent her from getting evicted. We thought it would take a couple of months to get ahead again but we are now ahead in July. Not sure what magic we did of less spending and rejigging but it worked! I think I was being overly cautious. We also adjusted our budget to live off of two bi-weekly paycheques and use the third one direct to debt. It is working surprisingly well. 

In other news, my daughter and fiance bought a home so we are now in the process of selling the mobile home that they were living in. It is one of those long stories with great promises made and not really kept up. There is some work to do on it and we will likely take a loss on it which is unfortunate since it will add to our debt. But, we have decided to take the slower and steadier approach as we can handle that and still have a life then. I think we attacked our debt well in the past couple of years but it has left living on the short end of the stick. 

On the plus side, my LOC sent me an offer for 6 months at 1.9% once I paid it off. 😂 But, we used it to transfer another higher interest LOC so that will help. I am going to see about extending it once we are closer by playing the old "well, this card offered me the same or lower interest rate promo". Maybe it will be successful, who knows?

In the end, we are now making regular, automated payments to the debt and see ourselves out of debt in about a year or so. Much will depend on the loss on the mobile home. 

MadDog 

Okay, August was again a wonky month. We are in the process of listing and selling a mobile home in a mobile home park. Let's just say it has been interesting as there is new ownership and they like to use a hammer approach for compliance issues. Think bold and all caps in letters and the rules for the park. 😑 We are hoping that the sale will be a net zero or small loss. We are not expecting any kind of gain at all. 

We switched to the LOC with the 1.9% interest so our interest costs have gone down quite a bit. We were able to make our regular payments for this month and I have again set them up as auto-pay to keep us on track. The modified payment schedule and fewer payments as we sorted things out will take slightly longer but I think that we are set up better now. And we have more wiggle room on the budget overall.

Payments - $840/$7,198.44

Interest - $79.98/$992.13 (we budget for this separately, I track it as a good to know and see that our interest cost is getting lower)

Percentage paid off 21.35%

MadDog 

PS - Don't go searching for your interest category in All Accounts. It leads you to calculate things like the average interest you have paid on debt since you started in YNAB. Mine is $365 per month from Jan 2016 to Aug 2021. Yes, over $24K in interest. And that is simply consumer debt. It does not include mortage or car loans. 

Do not recommend.....But we are moving up and it is getting less on average since we are actively paying it down but amazing to think of what we could have done with the $365 a month in different way. Live and learn. And pass those learnings onto others if you can.

MadDog sometimes a restructure is key to keeping with the plan! Good for you for adjusting things!

Slate Blue Cartridge I am actually line #56  

Slate Blue Cartridge   My goal this year is to start attacking our (almost maxed out) LOC.  It is at 96,696 with a $100 K cap.  This is obvi not great for credit utilization data that feeds our credit scores.  I have been paying only the minimum payments(interest only) for years... and it is time to get serious and pay this off before the end of my draw period in 2025.  If I can pay $2000 a month for the next 54 months it will be paid off in full by 6/2025! Let's go !!!

Maroon Sloth We'll help you stay motivated so you can meet your goals. This is my second year doing this and having to be accountable each month for what I've done even if it was just the min that month I was excited to see my goals balance dropping each month. And the rush you will get when you get that first thing paid off will also help. Best of luck to you. :)

Maroon Sloth My goal is to reduce debt by 36k this year!