November 2017 Debt Repayment Recap

I AM SO EXCITED TO POST THIS! I feel like I’ve waited for EVER to get back to my monthly debt repayment posts! I started my debt-free journey 2.5 years ago, and this is the first month that it’s been done as a team with Justen. We’re learning how to budget and have chosen to be a little light on our debt repayment right now because we’ve had to get a few more things for our apartment (like a printer and a Christmas tree!) and didn’t want to be tempted to put any Christmas gifts on a credit card.

All of that considered, we dropped our debt by 4% this month – we paid roughly double the minimum payments. We’re doing this in true snowball fashion so we paid off our smallest debt, the rings and then moved on to the Disney card. We creeped up on paying off half of the Disney card! Unfortunately,  our Southwest card also creeped up a little bit because there are some recurring payments that are processed there and since we were focused on the Disney card, they didn’t get paid off immediately. That’s the danger of putting those things on a card! Once we have a $0 balance on our cards that will be easier to manage.

I’m really excited to pay off Justen’s car. Having my personal debt repayment journey be $1000 credit card and then a $15,000 car payment was daunting because it’s hard to feel the power of a snowball with a debt that big, but now we have one right in the middle of the two! Plus Justen’s interest on that is BRUTAL. The minimum payment of his car would nearly double the payment on mine, so by the time we get to my car we will have 1. a smaller hole and 2. a much bigger shovel.

To see the plan we’re using at a glance, check out this post I wrote about Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover. 

You know what feels SO GOOD, though? Having $0 to pay on our wedding. We do have some of the honeymoon reflected on these cards but it’s not going to linger with us very long.

Rings: $416.39 $0 {-100%}
Disney card: $984.24 588.48 {-40.20%}
Southwest Card: $1,012.89 1,229.35 {+21.37}
Justen’s Car: $6,533.46 6356.62 {-2.70%}
Stephanie’s Car: $14,820 14,595.50 {-1.514}

Total Debt:  $23,766.98 $22,769.95 {-4.19%}

Okay so here’s a question for y’all! Do you ever get overwhelmed with Christmas spending? Does it kind of creep up on you or do you enter into the season with a plan of what you’re getting and how much you’ll be spending?

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