Other than giving a total of where our debt stood, I missed my last update. This post shows where we stand as of today.
Debt July 1 July 15
Discover $8075 $7.97500
car $5,912.39 $5,912.39
Citi $6,680 $6,680
Visa $9,305.46 $9,164.81
Total $29,972.85 $29,751.39
1-1-2017 $55,749.69
1-1-2018 $46,408.39
7-15-2018 $29,751.39
To spare you the math:
Our total debt reduction for July so far is $221.46
Our total debt reduction for 2018 is $16,657
Our overall debt reduction since our start in 2017 is $25,998.30
Not much change this month. We will be making more payments on all but the Visa (yes, I’m keeping the car payment a month ahead) but need to wait until we get paid before deciding how much more we can send to our debts. Having used a significant chunk of our sinking funds to pay for our driveway, it will be a lean month for our debt snowball. I anticipate that we will pay down at least another $575 which would bring us to $796 for the month. For now, I am setting a personal goal to stretch it to the thousand dollar mark for July. Not the $1,500 I like us to hit, but progress is still progress-and we should have a nice paid for driveway at the end of the month!
Isn’t it awesome not to add to your debt to get the driveway fixed? Yay!
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It is certainly a huge change to how we would have handled this a few years ago.
You are just ROCKING this debt payoff – to be able to pay down debt, take a trip, AND repair your driveway while not going into more debt is just AMAZING!!!! We are currently putting money aside for 2 new computers (dh’s already died, mine is ready for hospice), and, after Friday, a new microwave 🙁 Oh well, as long as we pay cash and save up for it, it will be ok.
Thanks. Unfortunately, all these things will make for a couple months of very anemic debt payoff. Right now, things aren’t looking favorable for getting the beast (aka Discover) paid off before the promotional rate expires. Sigh.
Proud of you for cash flowing the unexpected expenses that are coming your way.
Sue – I echo Lucy… so proud of you!
Lucy – well done! It’s gonna be a banner year for all of us!
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I agree, Rhitter! Excited about the progress we are all making!
Hi, Lucy! WOW! You are doing great with your debt payoff. I understand about the driveway, from your other posts, it sounds like it really needs to be done. How wonderful that you are using cash to pay for it! I am tickled to death for you, I know you have been working so many extra hours to do this, and I think it is really paying off. Do you realize that you have almost paid off half of your debt in 2.5 years? That is HUGE! Woo Hoo!
I wanted to report that we are still working on paying off our mortgage early. As of when we made the July payment, we have only 27.7% to go. We are still on track to get it paid off a year from now. Our son who was in college got his PhD recently and started his new job as a research scientist, so the few expenses we had helped him with in grad school are no more, it will save us about $1000 per year.
Keep up the great work. I love following your progress.
Actually, we are only 1.5 years into this journey! My best guess was that it would take 3-4 years to clean up our mess. We are on track.
Oh, my! Only 27.7% to go! That is fantastic! I am so excited for you. Congrats on your son getting his Ph.D. Such a huge accomplishment!
What you can pay off ebbs and flows month to month, that’s life. Keep on keeping on!!
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Very true. I’m just pleased that even with using some creative financing (aka borrowing from our sinking funds, cashing out vacation pay) we are able to cash flow the driveway. As for the debt, we will keep chipping away at it.
Isn’t it a great feeling paying cash for the driveway. the important thing is you didn’t add any debt this month.
It does feel good! We will have a couple of tight months ahead of us, but not adding to our debt is worth it!
Wow, you are doing fantastic! Already in the 20s is amazing progress. For me, the best feeling when I was paying off debt was being able to cash flow something without having to resort to a credit card. I’m sure you feel that way too! When do you estimate that all of your debt will be gone?
Cash flowing the driveway (almost 5K) does feel good. Had to get a little creative (borrowing from our sinking funds and slowing down the snowball) but paying cash and not going further into debt, is worth it! The goal is to have this debt gone before 2020 rolls around, giving us 17 months to finish cleaning up our mess.
You rock!
Thanks! It’s important to handle your finances right 😉