The Official 2021 Debt Smackdown
Welcome to YNAB's 2021 Debt Smackdown!
Happy New Year! 2021 is going to be a good one, I can just tell - or we can will it to happen 馃槈
With over 500 participants and more than $4.2 million in debt payoff, 2020 was absolutely incredible for the debt smackdown group! I know some of us are still left with debt to knock out in the new year or you're joining in for the very first time. Either way, you've come to the right place. We'll use this group for accountability and support as we crush some (or all!) of our debt in 2021!
First, a quick shoutout to BritishMuseum - they have hosted our debt smackdown for the last few years and became DEBT FREE at the beginning of 2020! What an impact their work has made on this community!
If you want to pay off some debt this year, here's how it works:
1. List the amount of total debt that you owe.
This step is to give you an awareness of your current debt situation. Feel free to share, this forum is a safe and nonjudgmental place. You can also decide to keep this information private, you don't have to post your total here if you are not comfortable doing so.
2. Post in this thread the total amount of debt you would like to pay off during the 2021 calendar year. (This part is required.)
Feel free to break down the amounts by credit card/type of debt. Also, if you have a specific plan or some ideas on how you plan to pay down the debt, you can post that too. Maybe your plan will spark some ideas for others on how to tackle their own debts!
3. Post monthly on the 2021 Debt Smackdown Sheet to track your progress. (required)
Claim a line on the spreadsheet, and post your total debt to be paid off, and the monthly amount that you send off towards it. Some people track their total payments and don't account for interest, some people account for principal only. The method you choose is up to you!
4. Check in monthly in this thread and report on how your debt smackdown is going. (required)
We'll be testing out some reminders this year when the month rolls over because we want to hear everyone's progress! Bookmark this thread and sheet so you can find it quickly at the beginning of the month!
If you come across this challenge later in the year, no worries, you can always jump right in. Just put zeroes in the months where you had not joined the challenge yet, and start in the month you join in.
Pro-tip: You can use ctrl+F (or command+F on a Mac) to search the spreadsheet for your name when the sheet gets filled up.
Last year, we paid off over $4million! Let's make 2021 even stronger!
In the event you have any issues with the sheet - please tag or DM Veronica
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I've snagged line 121. Aiming to pay off the remainder of my non-student loan debt. Total is $3,790 ($1,900 on my car, $1,700 on credit card, $190 on cell phone). I paid off my bigger, higher interest credit card during the last debt smack down and have rolled that payment into this remaining credit cards payment. I also still have both of my stimulus checks ($1,800) tucked away for debt payment. I'd been holding onto it in case I was furloughed, but am feeling like it'll be safe to send towards debt. Looking forward to crushing this debt!
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Ashley WOW That will be awesome to crush your debt with the stimulus payments!! That will knock almost half of it out right there!
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farfromtheusual Yes! It's really exciting! It'll be even better if we get that $2,000 stimulus check! Then it'll all be gone!
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Ashley January Check-in. Paid a total of $538 towards debt!
(Credit Card: $323 payment; Car Payment: $195 payment; Cell Phone: $20 payment)
Slowly but surely on my way!
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Ashley Updated January check-in! Decided to use the money I'd been holding for future debt payments to pay off my car! Total debt payment for January was $2,273.79! Next up: Credit Card!!
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Ashley wahoo! Way to go!
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Ashley Forgot to update in February, but last month I paid $322 towards my credit card. This left me with a balance of $1194! (The $322 is my typical debt snowball.)
March payments processed today. I paid off another $574 ($554 to last credit card and $20 to cell phone.) This include my typical debt snowball and then some additional money I'd been holding on to for future debt payments. $620 balance left.
I CANNOT wait to get this done. I'm hoping that with some diligent spending this month I'll be able to demolish this last $620 in April! That would mean almost $10,000 in debt paydown in my first year with YNAB and the first time I won't have consumer debt since turning 18! 馃帀 I've still got those pesky student loans, but we'll save that for another day!
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Ashley that's awesome progress!
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farfromtheusual Thanks! Getting close!!
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Ashley After a crazy delivery debacle and terrible customer service, I got a $212 refund to my credit card! Only $301 left on that card. 馃帀馃帀
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Ashley wahoo!
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I'm on line 123. My goal is to pay off $20,340 of debt. The personal loan and one student loan will be paid off this year with the other student loan and the auto loan targeted for pay-off by Dec. '22. If I can accelerate things, I will.
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Pay Me To Draw go get 鈥榚m!
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Just grabbed line 124. Goal this year is $17,000. I would like to have my husband's car loan paid down by $12-14k by the August if possible, since I would really like to refinance the loan. But we'll see. Good luck everyone! :)
My Student Loans $ 10,599.30 Husband Auto Loan $ 27,802.71 Husband Student Loans $ 29,587.13 2021 Starting Debt: $ 67,989.14 -
Joined last year's smackdown in the autumn -- super excited to be here from the beginning this year. Goal this year is $33,660. This is my total credit card debt (across three cards); it feels like a pie-in-the-sky goal, but it's also what motivates me the most: I'm just ready to be out from under this burden. The plan is to use a few recent windfalls to pay off the highest-interest credit card ($15,000) in the next few months and then snowball over to the others.
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Harriet
Somehow chopped a paragraph off when I went to post. So, here it is!
Joined last year's smackdown in the autumn, and realized that simply turning the ship around and not creating new debt was going to be my challenge. I'd say I did a fair-to-middling job on that. I also realized that the only way to live without the nagging weight of debt is to get rid of it. It's so hard for me to remember that; I'm the queen of "It's so bad -- a little more won't make a difference." So, this time it's all about fighting that combination of temptation and despair.
Good luck to all!
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Harriet Ohhhhhh I've been there! But I can tell you that when you put your head down, and hunker through it... one foot after another - you'll get there!! I promise!
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Harriet
I'm so excited for you! I bet getting about half of that debt paid off ASAP will be motivating. And, to be out from under a burden in about 1 year? That would be very freeing! Good luck :)
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This year's goal will be $4,000.00. Committing to this challenge helps to keep me focused and on track.
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Hello All!
I was part of this back in 2020 and managed to pay off all my consumer debt in January after I nice sized check came my way.
However, Covid happened and I am back in debt so I am back to this thread! I claimed line 127.Current Debts:
- BMO Credit Card: 4000
- My mom lost her job and gained custody of 2 kids under the age of 2 in the span of 3 months. I gave her this card to use to get food and other essentials. She will in theory eventually be paying me back but in the meantime I want to make sure my credit won't be affected.
- RBC Credit Card: 2,100
- My boyfriend lost his debit card and used his credit card for everything. Including things that were supposed to be in the joint account. So this card is just a mess of stuff that I need to figure out what the joint pays for and what he pays for.
- 2 Scotia CC's: 0
- Paid off and on Autopay!
- Student Loan: 14,190.31
- Was hoping to start paying it off this year, but so far no dice. I don't make enough money so the government pays my interest fees and I don't need to make monthly payments yet.
- Car Loan: 17,017.74
- Our car died in July and we needed to get a new one. We currently pay 122/biweekly.
That's it. Those are all my debts for a grand total of $37,308.05
If I want to pay it all off by end of 2025 which was original goal prior to Covid, I need to put $780 every month which is not feasible yet. Right now, I can put around $450 per month with the following breakdown.
1. $50
2. $150 - Payoff date of March 2022. All extra money will be used to pay this one off first and then snowball this into the BMO card.
3. $0
4. $0
5. $250Total pay off this year $5400.
Wish me luck!
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Ica Paige Just remembered another one that may or may not happen.
My boyfriend accidently took an extra CERB payment out last year and we had issues paying it back. Over time, the money got absorbed into our budget and now we don't have it anymore. So when we do our taxes, we will owe some money due to the CERB payments but are hoping we make enough back from everything else that we will be okay. If not, I will have to add the amount to this list! -
Ica Paige Luck!! But actually I believe you're making your own luck - you've got this!!
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Violet Yeti
Haha, I like that!
Thanks for the encouragement!
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Ica Paige
We've been paying off debt for a while now. It seems like some years hit us hard with having to cash flow needed repairs and such: It sounds like 2020 hit you hard.
However, overall we've noticed that most years we look back in gleeful astonishment at what we've been able to accomplish (including the cash flowed stuff). Most of this is from having a very streamlined budget and being disciplined day after day. But, just as there are unexpected expenses that have occurred, there are certainly times that windfalls have happened, too.
My dream for you is that -through hard work and/or windfalls - you look back on 2021 with astonishment at how much you've been able to accomplish!
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Ica Paige
Alright, I think that most if not all debts are now out of my bank account! This month went better than expected.- BMO Credit Card: 200 / 4000
- My mom surprised me with $200 to put towards the credit card. I wasn't expecting her to make payments for a few more months. She also gave the card back so the balance won't increase!
- RBC Credit Card: 335 / 2,100
- Going through the statement, we found an $85 charge to the mechanic that I was able to pay off with our Auto category. Then, since my mom was able to make the payment on my BMO card, I used the 50 from that for this card. Finally, we sold my bar for $50 and put the money straight on to this!
On top of that, we discovered that Playstation was STILL taking out money for PSplus even though we haven't owned a PlayStation for 3 years. The worst part was I noticed it and have been harassing my boyfriend to cancel it, he has been adamant he has. So this month he showed me his account and low and behold, it was canceled. So he jumps on the phone to give them a piece of his mind only to find out - it was my account that was never canceled. 馃お My sister had used my account to play some of my games and had it set to auto-renew instead of a one time purchase.
- Going through the statement, we found an $85 charge to the mechanic that I was able to pay off with our Auto category. Then, since my mom was able to make the payment on my BMO card, I used the 50 from that for this card. Finally, we sold my bar for $50 and put the money straight on to this!
- Student Loan: 0 / 14,190.31
- Car Loan: 260 / 17,017.74
- I put aside $65/week to even out the payments (122.8*26/52 rounded up).
This means my grand total for this month was $795! (plus who knows how much savings since I no longer have to pay PS)
- BMO Credit Card: 200 / 4000
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Ica Paige wahoo!! It's always helpful to look for those little leaks that you didn't know you had. Auto renews are a pain!!
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farfromtheusual
the worst is that it feels like we deal with PlayStation at least once a year. And somehow it always seem to come back -_-.
Although I think (and hope) that it is the final subscription that is not budgeted for. It's hard with his credit card because it isn't on our YNAB budget since it is my boyfriend's personal card and we agreed that only our joints will be budgeted. So I have to remember to keep an eye on his whenever I get a chance to go through the statements. (I have a separate sheet for my personal spending but he isn't interested in having his own. Baby steps.) -
Ica Paige I hear you. It took me several years to convince my BF to let me budget for him, too. He finally let me, and every now and then when he actually looks at his bank account (馃檮) he's like WHOA! I have a lot of money!! I'm like yes, and don't think you can spend it because it's all ear marked for SOMETHING. LOL. But yeah, he's way happier with me budgeting than he was when I wasn't. Now if I can just get him to start contributing to looking at the budget and having an opinion then we'll be in even better shape!
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Ica Paige
February- BMO Credit Card: 290 / 6000 (+90)
Received the last statement and the bill was higher than I thought it was. 馃槩 - RBC Credit Card: 1,129 / 2,100 (+794)
Raided our piggy bank and found an extra $309 to add! - Student Loan: 0 / 14,190.31
- Car Loan: 382.8 / 17,017.74 (+122.80)
I messed up the goal feature. Will have to fix it next month.
- BMO Credit Card: 290 / 6000 (+90)
- BMO Credit Card: 4000
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Hi all, I'm excited to be joining. Claimed line #129. I scoured this page last year just never got my butt in gear to join! I'm coming in with $34,760 in debt. I am aiming to crush $20,000 this year! Fear of missing out has caused me to make some bad decisions over the years. Paying for trips when I do not have the money to do so. While Covid sucks, it has given me the time to focus on building an emergency fund, build a debt pay down plan, while not being distracted by trips, adventures, outings. I am currently doing the 34 day reset. No dining out, no drinking and only essentials! Hoping to be finished with the loan to my Mom at the end of this!
1. Mom Loan - $1250 ( - $400) = $850
2. Car Loan $4788.
3. Credit Card $7,548.40
4. Line of Credit $9,586.12
5. Credit Card $11,009.64
Jan (so far): $34,760/$34,360
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Heidi F I hear ya with the trips, adventure, outings pitfalls!! And that 2020 kept that in check for me (whether I wanted it to or not!!!) Good luck to you 馃榿
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Heidi F January Check in: Minimum payments on all my other debit except I managed to put $850 towards my Mom Debt. Only $400 left which I can take care of next pay day. Thank you 34 day reset! I'm taking this as a big win given it was a 2x 66hr pay period rather than 88/hr pay period. And no overtime hours on those paycheques. It makes quite a difference.
Total for January $1501.61!
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Heidi F
Feb Update: Mom Loan - COMPLETE!
Now to try and tackle paying off my car loan early. I can already tell a few days into March this will be tough, as I am on my 66 hr pay periods (as opposed to 88 hr), so its a bit of a difference to what I can contribute extra. BUT, no excuse. I am working on it. No dining out again this month to try and achieve my goal!
Feb Total to Debt: $1024.56
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March Update: Just paid minimum on all of my debts. $824.
Just a slow month with my slimmer paycheques and deciding to take my days off as ACTUAL days off instead of working overtime. Mental health first. I have invested in my fitness & nutrition this month as well, with no team sports, I have been needing an outlet so I have no qualms about spending the money for that at the moment. I also bought an air fryer (on sale!!) . GAME CHANGER!April I am really digging in. With our province ( British Columbia!) going on a 3 week lockdown, and plans I had made are gone so focusing on work/paying down this debt! 3 paycheque month, my birthday and the sun is shining! Hope everyone's doing great on their journeys!
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Heidi F mental health is so important to prioritize right now, and minimum payments are still progress. Happy upcoming birthday and I hope next month is lovely for you!
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Heidi F Mental health means that you're able to handle working with the debts later, so that should be a priority! Good for you!
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Heidi F
April Update:
I paid off my car loan in full!! 6 months early! Pulled money out of my TFSA to get it done. Woohoo. Feels so good.
Mom Loan: 0$Car Loan : $3467.42 (PAID!) /$0
Visa : $7,657.83LOC: 9511.12
MBNA: 11.219.12
Start of the Year $34,760
Currently at $28,388
Hope to keep on this debt busting train!
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Heidi F Wooooo! 馃帀That's huge!
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Hello again,
The 2020 Debt Smackdown helped me pay off 拢17,321.51 between February and the end of the year.
This year, I claimed line 52 and then got busy so forgot to enter my details! I've sorted it now, and have a 拢4277.35 credit card balance to pay down over the next few months. I also have some student loan remaining, but this will keep getting its monthly payment without my going crazy.
While I'm paying this down over the next few months, I'll also be starting my savings goal for 2021. I still need to iron out the details for this bit. However, even being in the position when I can seriously look at savings, investments and a mortgage deposit is like a breath of fresh air.
I hope you've all had a good start to your 2021 journey.
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Chinese Orchid Go git'em!
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Ok, finally taking a look at this to get myself organized.
My car loan is currently $5396.87.
My minimum payment is $249.78, and I have been adding an extra $50.22 to make it an even $300 for the past at least 6 months, maybe longer than that.
So I'm going to make that the basic goal this year, and aim to tackle $3600.
However, interest on the loan is only running about $26.00 right now, and of course will continue to decrease each month. So my stretch goal is going to be to pay the interest in addition to the $300 each month.
Currently the payoff is August of 22, I would LOVE to see this GONE way sooner than that, I want to start building up a down payment for something else, and possibly trade what I have in on something newer and with a lower payment (obviously any down payment that I save would help that tremendously, too).So here's to digging in! My first payment isn't due until the 24th, so I'll update at the end of the month.
(and btw, yall, there has already been $83,700 paid this year already! That's insane!)
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farfromtheusual
Having a paid off car is such a sweet feeling. It's so exciting that you're almost there! Way to go!!
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Orchid Guitar Thank you!! I'm really intrigued by how much this will help get the total down. It's already blowing my mind to think that I'll be done with the loan by the middle of next year anyway.
The BF and I were talking about it, too, and I probably should double check what the value is of my car vs the loan amount, and also what I can get as an interest rate on a loan now. My car is JUST over the age for being able to refinance to a lower rate, so I'm stuck with the 5.89% on the loan until I pay it off. But the vehicle also now has 130k miles on it. I know roughly how many miles I'll add to it by the end of the loan, so I should probably double check some of those values. As crazy as it sounds, it might be worth it to actually trade it in on something else that's newer and lower miles again, and maybe lower payment since I'll have something to trade this time (I didn't when I bought it). Financial math is a lot of calisthenics! I love my truck, but having something newer would be even nicer (first generation blue tooth isn't all that great LOL), and a lower payment would enable me to keep putting the extra on it, too.
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farfromtheusual
I totally get the financial calisthenics w/an older car. My husband had a paid off Toyota Camry with 200k+ miles on it. Toyotas and Hondas can go forever. However, this one was starting to need repairs here and there. Each time, we had to go through the math and the risks of repair. It always felt like a gamble as to whether or not the repair would be worth it, or if it would be followed by another repair.
Due to CVID, he is working from home, so when another $1k repair came up, we decided to become a 1 car family. We actually got $2.5k from CarMax for it!
I hope you're able to come to a peaceful decision easier than we did!
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Orchid Guitar Wow, that's awesome.
And yeah, the last vehicle I had the BF drove into the ground to avoid a car payment. He literally drove home an automatic transmission manually. 馃お Thankfully he's talented enough to do that, but STILL. The KBB on it was actually only $75. I got a whopping $300 from the junk yard for it, and that was good with me! I don't ever want to run a vehicle that far into the ground again. -
farfromtheusual I've been jumping through this mental calculations on the car things right now too. I just paid my car off in January. It's an older prius, so approaching the age where repairs will pop up, but still has a decent trade-in value. I'm trying to hold out until the end of the year in order to save up a decent down payment (been socking away my old monthly payment.) I also read that prices on used cars are up because of low-inventory because of the pandemic. Hoping that'll change eventually!
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Ashley Ohhh that makes sense. Maybe I'll hold onto it, of course, that means the resale value is higher right now, but trying to replace it will be more difficult right now. Boo. I'm thinking if I can get it paid off before it hits 200k then I should be alright, it won't be worth much, but I don't really want to keep it much longer than that I don't think. So many decisions!
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I remember someone shared a tip last year that we could bookmark the spreadsheet in such a way that your line would always be visible when you logged on (so you don't have to scroll to find your name or use Ctrl + F) - does anyone know this trick?
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Orchid Cup
Open the spreadsheet. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pUGeChEBdnV7JiRVBXa4N3JZL2xqnNmMzEMzwIkuCOU/edit
Scroll down to your row. Right click on your Row # all the way to the left (in column A).
Select 'Get link to this range'. It will copy the link to your clipboard. Then you can put it in a browser tab and bookmark the link.
When you click on that link, it will open the spreadsheet like normal and move to the specific row you selected.
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Peripherie YES!!! That worked brilliantly! Thanks so much
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Peripherie Veronica pin tip to top please (if not done already).
https://support.youneedabudget.com/t/m1ht109?r=g9hts38 -
MXMOM done!
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Peripherie Thanks a bunch for that tip! I can now go straight to my row at a click on my bookmarks bar 馃榾
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Last year I actually made a huge amount of progress and realised just how possible it is to make progress against debt! I manage to pay off a massive NZ$11,244.13 from my Student and Car Loans in my first working year out of university 馃帀. This was a bit short of my goal, but still a big encouragement and has me excited for this year!
This year, I'm aiming to make more progress while also consistently funding an emergency fund and my True Expenses! Of a total debt of NZ$44,482 ($11,277 SL, $31,705 CL, $1,500 overdraft) I'm aiming to completely pay off my overdraft, $4,200 of SL, and $8,454.96 of CL (=$14,154).
Just a quick shoutout to the Debt Smackdown community - it's so encouraging to not do this journey alone - you all are awesome and I wish you the best of success this year!
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Lionel Congrats!! That's awesome! You're really set in the right direction getting started so early with YNAB and paying down debt! You will avoid so much stress this way!
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Lionel July Update:
After a stellar start to the year, I moved out of my parents' home in April and things went rather off the rails. 馃殏 While I continued to make my monthly car and student loan payments, I had to take on a short-term debt and haven't managed to fund an emergency fund. To date I've paid off NZ$7,297.34. This should be +$2,000 if not for the short-term debt I've re-entered into.
This extra debt came from buying a few big-ticket items; after a great start in Jan to March I think I felt indomitable and 'free' to do anything. There were a few things I signed up for and overall became a bit too flippant, right before moving out and the increase of living expenses and rent that came with that.
This has been quite discouraging to take a few steps backward, but at the beginning of this month I reached out to a friend for some financial advice and we were able to identify some unhelpful habits and patterns, and some ways to bring in some additional income.
This has me hopeful to get back on track and blow my goal out of the water by the end of the year - but I'm more excited about fixing the bad habits that got me off track - and originally created my debt to begin with:
- not checking the budget before spending,
- borrowing to buy things I can't afford (read: needing debt to by something means you don't have the money for it, me!)
- not embracing my true expenses - they are expenses!
Better late than never to learn these things - and it's not to too late to turn this thing around!
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Lionel Ehh, we all do those sorts of things, getting back on track is what counts!
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Lionel omigosh... that totally happened to me. I did awesome with the 34 day reset and as soon as I moved into the next month, I went a little 馃お. But six months later I鈥檓 pretty much back on track even with some unexpected blips in May/June. The important thing is that you鈥檙e re-focusing and re-committing! You鈥檒l get to where you want to be... believe it!
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I picked line 134! This is my first year doing this and I'm pretty excited about it! My goal is to pay off a chunk of my mortgage to get me closer to removing PMI. This year, I want to pay off 30k. Looking forward to joining all of you!
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January check in. I smacked the debt in the mouth to $1,018.55 this month. I also revisited my budget, and was able to change the goal on paying off on my cards from August to July.
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Check in for January! I am aiming to clear 拢5000 of my debt this year, which will completely clear one credit card and pay just over the minimum on the other two. This month I have paid 拢261.66, which is the minimum payments on all three.... However, I am taking part in the 34 day reset and have a category that is building very nicely indeed to throw at the first credit card, so I'm looking forward to seeing February's payment totalling way more than that!
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lowdenclear
I'm so excited to hear that the 34-day challenge is working for you! Here's to a nice fat snowball in Feb!!
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Okay, I couldn't hold out any longer, lol! We had 拢1500 of our reset money earmarked for our smallest card, and other plans for anything above that... So I just made the 拢1500 payment on our card, reducing the debt left on it to only 拢1000. 馃槏
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January Check-In
Loan #1 that I'm working on is down to $16,831.
I had a Qoins payment of $75, the minimum payment of the loan which is $554, and then the cash back bonus from my new SoFi CC of $34.
Which comes out to $516 having actually gone to the principal.
I'm working on trying to better handle true expenses and getting those covered before I get more aggressive on the loan. I'm realizing that I put more money to debt than I should have in the past which ends up counter productive if you're getting into debt because of it.
Really hoping for a decent tax return and hopefully a raise next month.
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Green Cleric Yup, pushing the debt payments at the expense of true expenses = more debt. Not fun! Glad you're figuring it out! When I figured out how to use the reports to look at spending averages it was a total game changer for me! That helped me to actually fund what I was spending and I was able to put so much more into my debt safely because I knew I had everything else covered.
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farfromtheusual yes, it really is such a paradigm shift when you get your head straight on what true expenses really are and mean. I'm trying to use the reports more and more. I feel like all the times I did a fresh start, I messed with being able to hold myself accountable on how much I was really overspending in the past. I'm sticking to it as is for a while to get a better backlog of data going.
In classic fashion, I had a real roll with the punches moment this weekend. I had just moved money out of a car repair true expense fund to cover a few of my bills that were larger that I anticipated and of course I ended up in an accident (deer in the middle of the road, swerved but not quite enough, still clipped the side unfortunately for me and the deer). So now I have to move everything around again to cover the deductible and everything.
True expenses are so easy to feel like they're not true when it's far off or just an in case fund, definitely learning the power of keeping the long term in mind.
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Green Cleric I agree, it's hard to value the long term, but when I need it I've been SO relieved to have it. And I've noticed that the more builds up in categories and sits there the less I want to spend it. We just replaced the water heater, we had the funds, actually from back in Feb last year from the tax returns. We hung onto it instead of doing it then because we were a little unsure with the pandemic what was happening. Now that it's sat in the account for that long I don't really want to see the account drop! We HAD to replace it now, though, so it was important at this point.
Glad your car wasn't THAT damaged and you were ok!
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farfromtheusual thank you! yes, so glad that it wasn't a worse situation.
I hope to get there soon, where I have a big chunk I don't want to touch! It makes so much sense with how last year was as well, the unknown/uncertainty was really scary and the weight of debt just makes it worse.
I feel like I always dip into funds to cover things and I'm not holding myself accountable to my real priorities. Having a few instances of the money being there waiting and that feeling of relief I'm really hoping is a huge motivator to stick to the crux of how to stay/get out of debt, gotta always handle those true expenses!
It's been a world of difference in my mindset this year already.
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Green Cleric That's awesome!!
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January payment: $9368.80 sent to my high yield savings account waiting to pay down student loan (currently at 0% interest). This represents loan #1 being DONE. It was the one with highest interest (7.6%) when not under CARES Act. The majority of this payment came from my yearly pay-out of unused PTO, with the remainder coming from some I had begun socking away end of last year ;)
Now, to tackle loan #2! I will have to research the 34 day no spend challenge many on here are doing...looking back over last year, my biggest weakness in spending was in my Christmas category (it is still in the red at present)...I debated on clearing that category versus sending the amount to student loan, but just couldn't bring myself to do it. I do have a plan over the next month to have that category back to a 0 balance. Goal for 2021, fund it more fully ahead of time! Still, overall I feel much more freedom due to YNAB and the debt challenge. See you in February!! ;)
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I claimed line 136. Goal set for $50,000 - working on one income at 85%; reach-out goal is $75,000 in the hopes that my salary increases to/toward 100% and my spouse finds a new job sooner rather than later in the year.
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January check in - line 44
Paid off $1895.74 - 31.6% done of my 6000
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Turquoise Griffin WOW! That's awesome!
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Hey all! I鈥檓 back for my second year of the YNAB Debt Smackdown!
You can find me on line 137 as The Penny Drops.
My name is Emilee, I鈥檓 married with 2 (soon to be 3!) kids and live in the Alaskan Bush!
Last year we were able to eliminate a whopping $38,367 of our $132,144 in debt (this included credit cards, a car loan and RV loan, medical debt and student loans) and we documented the last 4 months of budgeting our actual finances with YNAB on my YouTube channel!
We are going into 2021 strong, so far we鈥檙e funded a full month ahead in YNAB and are getting ready to aggressively pay off about $12,000 in medical debts! Then we鈥檒l start cracking down on our $80,000 in student loans. We are hoping to hit at least $40,000 in debt reduction this year, as well as starting to save for retirement (starting small - 5% - so we can keep focused on our debt) and cash-flowing the birth of our third baby (funded this goal in 2020!)
I鈥檓 so excited to be a part of this community, YNAB has absolutely changed our lives and I can鈥檛 wait to see what progress we can make in 2021!
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HOLLANDROAD Awesome!! Looking forward to watching your progress!
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Hello from line 138!
I found YNAB last year and it's helped me so much already. I'm finally in a position to properly (and safely!) start attacking my credit card debt of nearly 拢13k. My goal is to wipe it out by the end of the year.
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Hello from Line 139!
Thanks to the 2020 Debt Smackdown and the April Debt Bootcamp, 2020 was financially empowering. We hit our goal of paying off $30,000.
Our current total debt is $76,654. We hope to pay off $48,000 this year. I am so happy to be hitting the ground running this year.
Good luck everyone!
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Farmgirls I love seeing those big jumps in the line! Way to go!!
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farfromtheusual Thank you!
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January check-in:
Well this year is already kicking my a**. I'm rolling with the punches, no matter how painful those punches may be.
I had a couple big expenses come up, but at least I had the money available in my budget. I'm definitely going to want to refill those categories fairly quickly, so I only put $1000 toward my credit card debt this month. It's only about half my goal, but at least it's progress.
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MoneyMonster Any progress is still progress. Kudos to you for hanging in there!
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Line 140 this year. Did amazing last year (157%) and now we are down to the last bit of consumer debt. Already threw an extra $400 in January from the car replacement fund since we bought a new (to us) vehicle in December so the pressure is off on that. That extra payment changed undebt.it payoff date to December 2021! If things work like they did last year, we will be there sooner than projected.
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MXMOM wahoo!!!!!
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Line #6
Total Amount of Debt: $9771
2021 Debt Pay Off: $9771
This is "technically" the last of my private student loan debt which I moved to three 0% balance transfer cards. (As I was paying down this debt in 2020, the lower my balance got on the Discover Student Loan, the higher my interest percentage became.) This plan of moving debt to CCs isn't the safest way to mange this but I hate seeing interest charges on my account more than anything else.
January Debt Payoff: $141
Remaining Debt:$9630
In January, I am just paying the minimums in order to have money on hand for taxes. I also started a new job late last year and am trying to use that new income to build back my emergency fund. Once that is set, I plan to put around $2k/month towards the debt.
I paid off almost $24k in the 2020 Debt Smackdown, so I know I can do this!
I can't wait for this debt to be gone so I can put all my efforts toward saving!
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Little Green Ghoul I don't blame you on the interest. The good news is that there are almost always 0% promos out there, so if for some reason you don't pay it off, you should be able to find somewhere else to roll it without too much of a fee.
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January check-in (line 74)
Discover and Apple entire balance paid off! Paid not quite half of Best Buy, goal is to have it paid off in February. The rest of the payments I made in January were minimum payments.
