The quest for $1,500!
October is now here, and here at A Dime at a Time, we have officially hit what I refer to as our season of financial famine. While thankfully Hub’s income remains healthy, what I now bring home is anything but that. In all reality, the income from my seasonal position wasn’t all that great, but at least it was something!
Having left my nursing job two years ago, this is not our first rodeo going into a season of financial famine. It is, however, our first time around going into it while on a journey to get out of debt. While I do feel we are ahead of the previous years in that, we not only have less debt, but we also took care of our costly heating needs (wood and propane), I still can’t help but feel a little apprehensive. Much of this stems from knowing that with our decreased income we will be back to making barely above the minimum payments. I don’t want to lose our momentum! With that in mind, I am now looking for debt snowflakes.
What is a debt snowflake? Essentially, it is any little savings or found (or earned) money that can be used to pay off debt. Not spend all your grocery budget? Saved money! Make a little working a side hustle? Found money! A few days ago I received a $9.77 check in the mail. Lunch money? Nope! It is snowflake money! While sometimes these amounts can seem insignificant, they do add up!
Being the visual person that I am, I decided to take this a step further by printing a graph (free, online) of the debt we are currently snowballing. Our smallest debt is now an interest-free credit card with a balance of $1,500. Although there are a lot of fancy-schmancy graphs out there, I went with a very simple graph of 30 rows of 50 squares, equalling a dollar per square. Can’t get much easier than that. Every time a snowflake is earned and sent off to this debt, I cross off the corresponding number of squares.
Making this visual tool is a good motivator. It also serves as a means to encourage me to look for more snowflakes to cross off more of those squares. Just because we are now in a season of financial famine, it doesn’t mean we can’t keep pushing forward. Our quest continues, A Dime (or in the case of my graph) a Dollar at a Time!
Tell me about some ways you’ve used to find/create snowflakes.
What a fun idea, and it will keep you and hubby on the lookout for snowflakes.
Yes, it will! I am eager to continue knocking out our debt!
I have babysat for a neighbor in a pinch who insisted on the third day paying me. I have sold an item on craigslist that I did not use. I have turned in rebates. Asked the job service for day labor jobs. Put birthday money toward debt.. Sold eggs.
All great ideas Kim! I’ve also used birthday money for debt.