Debt-Free Days

In One Year I have accumulated 15,000.00 in debt; to some people it’s "nothing"; but to me it's a lot considering the only debt I had before was $300.00. Granted most of the debt about 12,000.00 is due to financing a car last December; however I could have just as easily saved up and bought a used car outright. Now I am trapped with car payments every month. The rest of the debt is credit card debt and I am determined to have 3,000.00 paid off in six months.

I became nostalgic this morning and remembered when I had 600.00 extra every month; I could go buy a new pair of shoes for myself if I wanted, or give my daughter an extra 5.00 in her “paycheck: for performing above and beyond her home duties. **SIGHS** Those were my care-free, debt-free days. Of course I also realized that that extra money came and went on frivolous things such as buying things that I did not need, but wanted and eating out. I have learned from my poor past financial choices and instead of dwelling on what could haves; I have moved on to make life better for me and my little one.

Although I cannot change what happened, I know that once the credit card debt is repaid, I will throw those combined payments towards the car to get that “monkey”After much reading and research (first step), from Suze Orman to Dave Ramsey, I have decided to use Dave Ramsey’s Debt Snowball Plan. With the Debt Snowball Plan, I will start off with paying each debt with the minimum payment, but will throw whatever extra cash I can scrimp together each month towards the smallest debt until that I paid off. Then when that debt is paid off, I will then use that minimum payment plus the extra cash and use that towards the next debt, and will continue with this cycle until the debts are paid off.

To demonstrate how serious I am about my debt reduction plan, the list of my debts, smallest to largest will be displayed here and updated every month.

Here is the listing of my debts after they have been paid on for the month of October:

Creditor Balance
Store Card 1 $ 142.08
Visa 1 $ 230.35
Store Card 2 $ 262.14
Visa 3 $ 288.44
MC 1 $ 319.37
Store Card 3 $ 493.38
Visa 2 $ 701.54 $
MC 2 $738.36
AUTO $ 11,981.96

Thanks for reading and I will keep on posting updates!