Ah – the tides are changing and I can feel it! March was a month full of fortuitous moments that enabled us to make progress toward paying off our debt while also handling extra personal needs. We stayed mostly on plan and you can see the impact of it in the summary below.
If you missed out on our full plan for ditching our debt, you can catch up here.
Some things that went particularly well this month:
- My business continues to do really well and gave us a good boost in Snowball Ammunition.
- Snowball Ammunition is the term we’re using for extra payments to debt. We decided it was more fun to make the payments if it sounded like we were winning a snowball fight.
- Hank officially started working for FedEx. Right now, his full paychecks are being used to pay off Credit Card 2 since it’s the highest balance and highest interest rate.
- We covered ALL credit card charges with cash!
- Thanks to the stimulus check, we finally got a king-size bed… and it’s glorious! We were able to use leftover funds from the stimulus for additional Snowball Ammunition.
- Our overall debt total has dropped below our 2021 starting balance and that feels fantastic.
Some things that didn’t go well this month:
- The stimulus money and big payouts from my business gave me too much of a “treat yo’self” feeling. We got a little carried away with extra spending this month but thankfully, the overall impact was minimal and counterbalanced with cash. So kinda bad – kinda good.
So here’s where we stand:
| Debt | Balance: February 28 | Balance: March 31 |
| Student Loan 1 | $0.00 – YAY! | $0.00 – YAY! |
| Student Loan 2 | $1,487.30 | $1,397.91 |
| Credit Card 1 | $2,670.99 | $1,079.61 |
| Student Loan 3 | $5,375.54 | $5,281.67 |
| Personal Loan | $9,625.08 | $9,517.70 |
| Renovation Loan | $11,253.73 | $11,094.68 |
| Credit Card 2 | $23,836.94 | $23,252.39 |
| Credit Card 3 | $18,500.00 | $18,000.00 |
| Total: | $71,117.96 | $69,623.96 |
Things that are keeping us motivated:
- Being able to plan ahead! With Hank’s new job and everything starting to settle, we’re now able to anticipate income, buffer our budget (short-term, we’re working towards 30 days of expenses built up), and make extra debt payments.
- You Need a Budget (our budgeting software) facilitates allocating cash we already have to future expenses and needs. We love this because not only can we “set aside” money for next month’s mortgage or preschool costs, we can also save money for fun things throughout the year like birthdays and holidays.
- Making big chunky payments to the debts is sooo satisfying!
- Being able to cover all credit card charges with cash really put a light on how much money we make every month and how comfortable we can and will be once this is all paid off.
You Need a Budget continues to be an amazing tool for us to plan ahead and ensure we can continue on this path. When you use this link to sign up, we’ll both get a month free!
Until next month!
xo,
Jen
