Well here goes, the debt mountain that must be climbed to get us to the Promise Land :)
Visa #1: $4,000
Personal Loan: $1,200
Visa #2: $910
Visa #3: $290
MasterCard: $280
On top of this, I am 1 month behind on my car insurance, we will be making a double payment at the end of this month. I also have a $211 speeding ticket that I got while we were on vacation in sunny Florida (apparently sunny skies increase the weight of my foot and makes the car speed without me noticing), I also have a $55 parking ticket, a $35 parking ticket and a $75 ticket that I got on the train for crossing in between trains.
I just paid off a separate $110 dollar parking ticket and my utilities were 2 months behind but I paid them and they are now up to date. When I tell you things got bad, I meant horrendously, kick me in the wallet bad.
The tickets kill me because it feels like a waste of money. I have vowed that I will not get any more parking tickets this year.
To make things worse, our savings are down to basically zero (not counting any piglet funds) which really hurts because I worked so hard to build them up to a respectable level.
The plan of attack is your basic snowball:
MasterCard 1st
Visa #3 2nd
Visa #2 3rd
Personal Loan 4th
Visa #1 5th
I will pay the minimums on everything but the MasterCard until that is paid off, then I will apply the MasterCard payment plus the minimum I was paying before to Visa #3, and so on down the line.
The personal loan carries a large minimum payment so I am considering using my income tax money to pay that off completely.
I know this may not seem like a lot of debt, considering you have folks out there who are working on paying over $20K in credit card bills, but this is huge for me. More so because I have already been down this road and vowed to never travel it again, I didn't like the scenery or the food, you can only eat Ramen Noodles so much :)
What's happened has happened so no sense in crying about what should have been. I will climb this mountain again with the wife and McNugget by my side.
Sometimes life happens, but you can't let it get the best of you. If you fall into a pity party and look for someone to blame, you'll never get out. That's not my style and I don't want my child seeing that.
Another option may be to get another personal loan, especially with the Fed's recent rate cut (speaking of which, how exactly is an $800 tax rebate and cheaper money supposed to boost our economy? Once everyone borrows up to their eyeballs for new cars/clothes/houses, aren't we just setting ourselves up for another collapse? Does this country ever learn, just ride out the recession and let people figure it out; Ill save that for another post), but that isn't too attractive to me and I'll save that for a last resort.
Some of you will also be happy to know that I am trying the budget thing out again, just to get a better handle on our expenses. You ever notice that when your broke you have no idea where the heck your money went, during prosperous financial times you know where the bulk of it is going, give or take $50.
I am putting away $15/paycheck to rebuild our emergency fund, just because I still think savings are important even if your reducing debt. If you have an emergency while paying off debt, where will you get money? If you use the cards again your back at ground zero. Just my opinion. $15 is all we can afford for now.
Thanks for reading guys
Love You Babe
Labels: Personal Finance
Do your wife work? If so, you both can knock that out before the year is up
The wife is a stay at home mom, although we are in talks for her to get something part time. I do still have my 2nd job (weekends) taking real estate photos. This will go completely towards getting us back in the black, it used to be saving/spending money.
your plan of action sounds good and i think you can do it!
I agree with moneymonk. There are opportunities out there where you wife can work from home. I would look into that and if you can't anything definitely look into a job outside the home for her. You have a good plan down. You have been here before and gotten out so this will be a piece of cake.
Would your wife be willing to do babysitting for family friends, church members, and/or your coworkers? Just taking on a couple of kids to watch could do wonders for paying off those debts. Best wishes! You're using the same debt-payoff plan I would in your case!
I m really impressed with your efforts and approach. And I also feel that savings are important even if your reducing debt. Keep up the good work and all the best.
I want to appreciate you for your positive approach. And I feel that savings are really important even if you’re reducing debt. All the best!
that’s really true that savings are really important for reducing debt and properly saved money will only help u in your future a nice post thanks.
The plan u have made is good u have to just implement It now that to with some good efforts.