13 Month Debt Elimination Challenge

Today, December 1st I have challenged myself to by December 31st of next year to have any non-mortgage debt eliminated. The debt comes from you guessed it, credit cards and a line of credit. This is a tall order you see as I have $12k in debt almost $5k of that is remaining student loans that I should have had paid off years earlier. This is now out in the open in the world wide web so I have to do this.

So where to start…..

Write it down

A good first step is to write everything you have down. That way you have a really good idea of where to start. 

Here’s my starting point:

Yes that is ledger paper and yes it does not look good at all, mainly because I took the photo with the webcam on my laptop.  So I highlighted my high debts as to show their importance. 

Stare at the list

In order to have the reality of your financial situation to give you a wake up call you need to examine it.

Stare at it often, several times of the day if needed. Look at it when you get up in the morning and before you go to bed. 

Come up with a realistic strategy

My strategy right now is to pay off the small debt first and work my way towards slaying the bigger debts. 

As you can see one of my small debts is almost gone. After that I will not use that card, ok I will solely use it for gasoline purchases. Which equal to about twice a month now and no more than $100 so that will be manageable and paid in full every month. Also I am done all my Christmas shopping so I get a one month head start on paying those off. 

Do not let points/rewards tempt you

So easy for this to happen, this is part of the reason I am feeding the debt monster. All the cards on that list have some sort of points or rewards attached to them. The programs lead you to buy things you don’t need. This is why I am going to stop until these are paid.

So I plan to update with the progress every month and let you know of any time I can get extra money to pay it down and any setbacks I encounter. The ultimate goal is to bump up the savings. Are you also coming to a point where debt is becoming too much?  I would love to hear your strategies, good luck to all of us!

~B

 

 

 

 

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