Goodbye July. See ya next year. Moving on. Five things about this month’s debt repayment!
ONE //Â
This month is awesome in terms of months and debt repayment schedules because there were 3 paychecks, not just 2. In the past, I’ve used an “extra” paycheck to stay consistent with putting $200/paycheck towards my car. But these days I’m wising up. I paid $200 with my first and last paycheck, but the one in the middle I put that $200 towards my dental first payment. I’d texted Ernie that I was pretty certain I could pay that off in 8 months, which would be February 2016 but now I’m determined to pay it off at least by the end of the year, if not sooner. How about next month? Sounds like a good plan to me.
TWO //Â
There was a sketch payment on my credit card, and they caught it and so I had to get a new credit card… which I haven’t yet put into my wallet. and I think I’ll keep it that way, because sometimes I forget that the opportunity to spend a couple hundred dollars doesn’t mean it’s a good decision. Still changing my thinking.
THREE //Â
Let me be honest and say that I absolutely sucked at the cash-only thing. I think right now I’m spending SO MUCH MONEY and ENERGY on putting a large chunk of money aside to repay my debt, and so I’m not really worried about what I do with the little bit that’s left over. I think that will happen once I get rid of these two smaller debts.
FOUR //Â
I drained my savings account (not completely, but to the point where it makes me a liiiiittttlllleeee bit nervous) to help me get rid of my Dental First debt, which is the debt I HATE WITH A FIERY PASSION.
FIVE //Â
I decided that I wanted to create longer than a month goals that weren’t “PAY OFF THIS DEBT.” In the Mint app, it shows you how much of your credit you’re using. It says you should keep that down below 30%, so that’s my goal. I started the month at 64% and I’ll start August with that number being 42%. Slowly but surely.
Cool. You know, blogging about this has been really helpful and kept me accountable. Plus you guys are really encouraging to me. I recommend that if you’re attempting to pay off your debt, you start blogging about it.
NOW ON TO THE FUN STUFF.
June 30, 2015
Car:Â $20,074
Dental Credit:Â $1,368
Credit Card:Â $1,495
Combined debt of $22,937
July 31, 2015
Car: $19,733 (-1.69%)
Dental Credit: $365 (-73.31%)
Credit Card: $1,441 (-3.61%)
Combined debt of $21,539Â (-6.09%)
Um… I’m sorry WHAT, do you see that I almost killed 75% of my dental credit debt!? I have to be honest about this, though. In addition to a really GREAT decision, I was reallllly careless. With my second paycheck, I accidentally scheduled TWO payments for my dental credit account and one morning I woke up and realized I’d almost exhausted ALL of my paycheck on that. OOPS.
I’m SO incredibly excited that my dental credit is SO CLOSE to being gone.. and then the credit card is not that far behind and then I’m coming for you, car loan.
Past posts on Debt Repayment:
Past posts about Finance:
I LOVE talking about finances. I am totally fascinated and motivated by other people who post regularly about tackling their debt. Congrats on ALMOST paying off your dental debt! That is amazing.
i’m so motivated by it, too!! i try REALLY hard to read blog posts about it – even if they’re able to approach it in completely different ways… it’s just SO encouraging! and it has made me realize how many people truly don’t really tackle their debt… they just kind of put up with it and i’m hoping that by being open about it, the people in my life will be encouraged to be mindful with their money!
This is AMAZING! Also it cracked me up that you accidentally made two payments. I did that exact same thing on Friday night! I made a student loan payment. Then thought it didn’t go through and made another one. Luckily it was a smaller one but I had to charge a big car service on my credit card because of it. Blah. We will be happy for that double payment one day!
dude this past week has been SO ROUGH, and the double payment was REALLY frustrating because i had to pull a little bit out of the savings i’d already drained this month.. AND i randomly had a NEW dental bill pop up separate of that debt, so it’ll be a less comfortable few months in order for me to be really intentional about getting rid of that but you’re so right… ONE DAY i’ll be glad that i struggled through a week without being able to buy my $5/day mochas. ;D sometimes it feels like by putting a lot of our income towards paying off debt we run the risk of basically just transferring our debt to a new area (like a credit card or whatever) but i guess it’s just a slow and steady thing, you know? bleh.
I LOVE THIS. I kind of want to do a post about my debt but really all I have is student loans and I think people (including myself) would get bored with that. Hahaha. And YOU GO GLEN COCO with that HUGE slash to your dental credit!
YOU SHOULD TOTALLY DO IT! even if you do it maybe on a quarterly basis? you could also be creative about ways you’re paying extra payments or changes you’re making to your finances to get out of that debt faster. i realized for myself that while i’m not a financial genius or guru, the fact that i’m just going at it AT ALL is encouraging to other people, you know? i think you should do it!!
Hi Stephanie! Found you via Pinterest… I love reading real-life finance stories from others. Congrats on almost paying off your dental debt!
yo bailey! thanks for following my blog! i checked out your blog… so much congrats on paying off your car!! i’m definitely hurting because of the weirdness of last month’s last paycheck… i can’t wait to get paid SO I CAN PAY SOME BILLS!! haha. #grownupstuff 🙂
Thank you! It’s so sad, but payday is my favorite day of the month, second is the day I pay on my bills.
ugh. being a grown up is awesome, right?!
I LOVE reading debt re-payment posts. You are making great progress!
ME TOO!!! thanks!!! <3 july was awesome and august has been a major set back so far. sigh. oh well. #life.