The current status of our “Debt Free by 40” goal. We are following Dave Ramsey’s 7 Baby Steps to Financial Peace. We are working on baby step two: pay all off debt but the house.
Each month I write our total up on a white board so we can see how much remaining debt we have. I also keep up our beginning number, 45,158, so we can see how far we have come!!
Debts as of April 2018
Excluding our mortgage our total debt number is 25,476.54
Doctor Bill – ZIP
Credit Card – ZERO
Orthdontist – NADDA
Personal Loan – 2410
Car Payment – 2747.57
Student Loan – 20,318.97
Total – 25,476.54 (which excludes our mortgage)
Debt Musings
WE ARE CREDIT CARD FREE!!!!!! It feels so awesome to say that. That has’t been the case for about 17 years considering we got our first credit cards in college
Since January, we paid off our doctor bill with our debt snowball and with our tax refund we paid off our credit card and orthodontist bill. Our insurance doesn’t cover orthodontics so we had to pay for it out of pocket which we financed with our Care Credit line of credit.
Along with paying off debts, we used our tax refund to fully fund our auto repair, couples weekend, and clothing envelopes, bought the kids new winter gear, a laser printer for our homeschool, hard drive, kennel for the dog, birthday lunch and goodies for my husband, and blacksmith supplies.
My husband got a bonus at work which we lumped in with our refund money so he bought a forge and a hammer. He also cash flowed an anvil by selling some of his stuff on eBay. I’m so excited seeing his dream come alive. He has always supported me with this crazy blogging dream of mine.
Debts as of January 2018
Excluding our mortgage our total debt number is 29,850.24.
Doctor Bill – 201.90
Credit Card – 936.61
Orthdontist – 1841
Personal Loan – 2650
Car Payment – 3390.80
Student Loan – 20, 829.93
Total –29850.24 (which excludes our mortgage)
Debt Musings
We broke 30,000!!! I don’t care if it’s just a smidge under. Every little step towards your goal is amazing.
May have it in the budget to pay off my doctor bill this month! An indescribable feeling. More on my reasons for my near $2000 medical bill in this post here.
Seeing the difference in my daughter’s smile makes every penny of that orthodontist worth it.
Car payment. Blah. Our car has a few basic maintenance issues, which makes it frustrating to see how much we have left to pay.
Tax refund is coming, and this is the first time we will be able to spend a large chunk of it on paying down our debt! Woohoo!!
Debts as of November 2017
Excluding our mortgage our total debt number is 31,164,66
- Doctor Bill – 381.90
- Credit Card – 958.06
- Orthodontist – 2061
- Personal Loan – 2810
- Car Payment – 3814.26
- Student Loan – 21139.44
- Total – 31,164,66 (which excludes our mortgage)
Debt Musings
We only have 380 dollars on our lowest debt. So close!! When it’s paid off we will be tackling a credit card where the balance never seems to go down because of high interest and fees. We will totally be having a drink to celebrate paying that sucker off!!
Our debt doesn’t seem so overwhelming when you consider 21,000 of it is student loan debt.
I’m so happy with the car we paid for with CASH this spring. It was a bit of a chore for my husband but not seeing an additional car payment in our debt breakdown makes it totally worth it.