I get so excited leading up to payday. I start playing with my spreadsheets to see how much I can eek out to get us just that last little bit to pay off these bills. Do I want to round off each debt to a nice, even number? Or should I round off the total of the credit cards since that's our current "racing" debt? Oh, but rounding off that number only leaves me $3.48 over the next big $1,000 increment on our overall debt.
So many decisions!!!
Right now I have been rounding off our credit cards. One is technically a loan with a set payment (and no pre-payments allowed unless it is paid off completely). So that balance is always an odd amount - which bugs the heck out of me. I make the minimum payments to all the other cards, and then take our snowball and apply it to our smallest card. Then I see how much extra we need to get us to a nice, even amount. Sometimes it is $5, sometimes it is $45. But I like to leave it on even $50 increments for the overall total. I guess it is good because it has me squeezing out just a bit more each time.
Here's where the numbers stand this month:
This time I was able to squeeze out $800 towards our cards! WOW! This snowball power is really rolling :) But the first update (check) of the month is always the biggest. The second is usually smaller, maybe a couple hundred. Those updates are not nearly as fun. And notice that number on 1/20 - somehow I mis-calculated my rounding and ended up with an extra $.24. That was so annoying!!!
But now the payments have been made and the spreadsheets updated. I don't get to do this again for another 31 days. Kind of disappointing. I do have some smaller updates throughout the month on our overall debt (student loans and car loan) that give me an excuse to peek at my spreadsheet before next month. And then there's the dreaming & planning for how I can get down to that next incremental milestone.
I can't wait to get these cards down under $20,000. Going to try and see if I can't make that happen by the end of the month some way. DH didn't get the cases closed that he wanted to this month but the good news is that they are not lost, just delayed due to paperwork processing. Maybe next month we can pay off a nice big chunk of debt when he gets paid. Keeping my fingers crossed!!
So many decisions!!!
Right now I have been rounding off our credit cards. One is technically a loan with a set payment (and no pre-payments allowed unless it is paid off completely). So that balance is always an odd amount - which bugs the heck out of me. I make the minimum payments to all the other cards, and then take our snowball and apply it to our smallest card. Then I see how much extra we need to get us to a nice, even amount. Sometimes it is $5, sometimes it is $45. But I like to leave it on even $50 increments for the overall total. I guess it is good because it has me squeezing out just a bit more each time.
Here's where the numbers stand this month:
Start 1/1/2013: $24,500
1/20/2013: $23,300.24
2/5/2013: $21,550
2/22/2013: $21,300
Current 3/7/2013: $20,500
Difference: $4,000
This time I was able to squeeze out $800 towards our cards! WOW! This snowball power is really rolling :) But the first update (check) of the month is always the biggest. The second is usually smaller, maybe a couple hundred. Those updates are not nearly as fun. And notice that number on 1/20 - somehow I mis-calculated my rounding and ended up with an extra $.24. That was so annoying!!!
But now the payments have been made and the spreadsheets updated. I don't get to do this again for another 31 days. Kind of disappointing. I do have some smaller updates throughout the month on our overall debt (student loans and car loan) that give me an excuse to peek at my spreadsheet before next month. And then there's the dreaming & planning for how I can get down to that next incremental milestone.
I can't wait to get these cards down under $20,000. Going to try and see if I can't make that happen by the end of the month some way. DH didn't get the cases closed that he wanted to this month but the good news is that they are not lost, just delayed due to paperwork processing. Maybe next month we can pay off a nice big chunk of debt when he gets paid. Keeping my fingers crossed!!
2 comments:
Very nice payoff! You are making great progress.
Thanks :) We are working hard! Nice to finally see some progress.
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