IT’S THE FIRST DEBT REPAYMENT RECAP OF 2016!!!!
Y’all I am SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS!!!
My goal, by the end of the year, is to be halfway out of debt from where I started last May.
That means I only have TWELVE posts in which to bring my debt down by nearly 40% of where it was at on the last day of 2015.
Can I just say how much I LOVE the way you guys rally around my posts focused on being financially free? When I read someone’s blog and they say they were inspired or challenged by my transparency in my financial posts, I literally want to throw confetti in the air and eat a whole cake (literally a whole cake!) and hug the world. We can do this.
But let’s get on to the fun stuff, shall we??
December 30, 2015
Car:Â $18,190
Dental Credit:Â $0
Credit Card #1:Â $1,566
Credit Card #2:Â $23
Combined debt of $19,779Â
January 29, 2016
Car: $17,638 (-3.03%)
Dental Credit: $0 (after this month, I’m taking it off!)
Credit Card #1: $1,778 (+13.53%)
Credit Card #2: $0 (-100%)
Combined debt of $19,416 (-1.83%)
Here’s what happened this month.
I got a FaceTime call from Lucy and Layla. You know them. They’re these two:
They called just to say hello. As we were talking, Lucy said “you’re coming to our house for Valentine’s Day!” To which I laughed and said “No, I am not.” she mentioned it a few times.
Then her mom texted me and said “Lucy said you’re coming for Valentine’s Day??”
and I said “I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE SHE GOT THAT FROM!”
Three days later, I bought a plane ticket to Nashville for Valentine’s Day because LOOK AT THIS FACE:
HOW do you say no to that face? Like seriously.
I thought “this is a 3 paycheck month, so I’m fine!”
Wrong. So wrong. Yes, It’s a 3 paycheck month, but there weren’t 3 paychecks in-between my car payments. So the wiggle room I thought I had… was gone.
I’ve figured out where I need to be at the end of each month in order to be halfway out of debt by the end of the year. How lame that I missed my first month’s goal, but so long as impulsive Nashville tickets are kept to a minimum, I’ll be okay. I was only $300 short of my goal this month, which is that extra paycheck I thought I had.
I’m also going to start being diligent about any extra money I earn (through Swagbucks, blogging campaigns, babysitting, etc) goes directly towards paying off my credit card.
To help us all stay accountable and honest about our finances this year, the Final Friday Finance linkup is back. Katie has been so busy with her move to Seattle (I MISS OUR MONDAY BLOGGING DATES!) but Emilie is joining the team. Emilie’s been posting about her finances and debt repayment so it is a no brainer.
We encourage you to link up any posts you have written about finance – even if you’re just stumbling upon my debt repayment recaps for the first time and decide next week to start posting about your finances! Come back here and link up so we can encourage you and celebrate your successes!
[inlinkz_linkup id=603071 mode=1]
Bummer about the miscalculation! I’ve definitely done that with our car insurance and ended up overdrafting. i hope you’re able to recoup from that, but you still cut your debt down which is important to note too 🙂 I definitely think your goals is achievable by mid year.
We have a house and car to pay off so we’re constantly using extra money to that instead of ourselves, but I do buy clothes for myself too. We hope to pay off my car completely by this July.
liz @ j for joiner
I need to start posting this to keep track of my massive student loan debt and motivate myself to pay extra money on it every month!
My fiance and I are thinking about taking out a loan for our wedding…. and after spending the last 15 months paying off 17k I cringe a lot thinking about it!
that is one thing I insisted to my husband that we don’t do. our wedding and my engagement ring had to be paid for loan free, otherwise everything would end up costing double and we would be starting off our marriage with debt. not fun
Ideally we wouldn’t be taking out a loan to get married, but due to his deployment schedule we would either take out the loan and get married now while he has over a year off from deployment or go to the courthouse before a deployment or wait and get married in another year after deployment.
It’s so difficult to not just want to spend for something like a plane ticket to see loved ones
You go girl! you know I’m inspired!
You cannot say no to those faces!
How could you say no to that sweet little face?!
I have similar aspirations for debt this year. Snowballing it the best I can! Keep up the good work!
I am so excited to find a money link-up! I usually do mine the first week of the month, due to how our billings work, but I am excited to find like minded people.
Sucks that the three paycheck thing didn’t work out the way you wanted but sounds like a trip was needed!