My Debt-Elimination Plan
When I got serious about paying off my cards at the end of February, I made a plan to pay all the credit card debt plus the $4000 for the wedding by May 2009. Now, four months later, I’m well on my way. In fact, I’ve made a new plan to pay off the cards and pay for the wedding by October 2008, six months early! Three cheers for the power of snowflaking! In four months, I’ve found $1445 worth of snowflakes by saving money in my budget, doing surveys, and selling things.
Here you can see both plans to see how well snowflakes are working for me. My new plan only has $390 of snowflakes built into it. However, I’m going to keep snowflaking as much as I can this summer. If I can pay off all my cards by September 1, then I’m going to give myself a $1,000 wardrobe bonus on October 1 for fall shopping. I think that will be a nice motivator to stay on track this summer. In fact, I may even start a wardrobe list to keep me going. Shopping will definitely be the carrot that I need to reach my goals.
Debt I’ve eliminated so far: $3621
March
$570: Budgeted payments
$329: Snowflakes
April
$720: Budgeted payments
$386: Snowflakes (some snowflake money went to the dentist)
May
$ 870: Budgeted payments
$ 480: Snowflakes
$ 600: stimulus payment
June
$ 620: Budgeted payments
$ 345: snowflakes
(The difference between what I’ve sent to the cards and what I’ve paid down includes wedding expenses and travel charges for work.)
New Plan to Eliminate $6030 of credit card debt by 10/01/08 (revised 4/30)
$1,000: June and July credit card payments (the other $740 is for the wedding)
$1,000: Reimbursement for conference travel
$3,000: Aug/Sept/Oct credit card payments (incl. $130 in snowflakes each month)
$ 400: $100 from fun fund July — October
$ 750: emergency fund money (if intact in October)
$6,150: TOTAL
Original Plan to Eliminate $8,770 of Debt Created 2/27/08
Card #1: $2800
$1680: $280 a month April — September
$ 600: tax stimulus
$ 520: travel reimbursement
$2880: TOTAL
Card #2: $2371
$1000: Parents’ wedding contribution
$ 300: Wedding savings
$ 630: September $370 payment + October $280 payment
$ 441: Yard sale earnings
$2371: Total
Card #3: $3600
$ 600: March — October minimum payments
$3000: January 09 — April 09 $750 payments
$3600: TOTAL
November and December 08 payments for Christmas ($1500)
May 2009 payment covers interest ($750)
