Monday, July 6, 2009

I've paid down almost 20k in less than a year

Yes. It's true. As much as I have regressed and spent money on things that I didn't need I have managed to pay down almost 20k since October of last year. To be precise, my total balance on October 6 2008 (when I started tracking my debt) was $75, 142.37 and the current balance is $55, 632.60 which i $19,509.77. Granted, I got some money from my parents but that's amazing. I only figured this out because I wrote a guest post at debtkid.com which should be posted soon and I had to add it all up. I am floored. This is the kind of motivation I need to keep going. Every penny towards debt counts. I have already exceeded my 2009 goals which was to have my CC debt at under 35k by the end of the year. Right now it stands at $27, 603.37. We're only in July.
This weekend I got $300 from my mom. I debated with myself about what to use it for. I have my car insurance that just started up again that I forgot to budget for at the beginning of the year. I had to insert it into my budget and play around with some numbers to make it work. Basically, I'm back at having only $10 a week as "mad money". I wanted to put the $300 towards my car insurance so that it would be paid of faster and I could have more wriggle room in my budget. In the end, I put it towards my ML card because it doesn't financially make sense to pay down something that's not being charged interest when I have so many debts I'm being charged interest on. It would have been a psychological boost to pay the car insurance because it would be eliminated a lot faster (like in 7 months) whereas it will take me about 3 years to get rid of the ML balance. Sometimes, you can't follow emotions and just have to look at things logically.

I need a new debt goal since I've already met my previous goal. I'm still aiming for 3k in savings but now I want my Credit card debt to be under 25k by December 31, 2009.

Remember, every penny counts. Keep snowflaking.

4 comments:

  1. awesome! I love reflecting on our accomplishments! Keep it going!!

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  2. Congrats!!! I hope you had yourself a little happy dance to celebrate :)

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  3. i just found your blog through debtkid. it is a very inspiring read! thank you for sharing.

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Hit me with some tough love