Oct 23 2008
Debt Reduction Step One
I have taken a big step in reducing my debt. I have looked over my expenses and chopped off a few I do not need. First to go was Netflix. I enjoyed the ease of having DVDs shipped to the house but we were not watching them very quickly. It was almost a crunch trying to find time to watch them. That reduction was $9.69 a month.
The next expense I worked on was that dreaded telephone bill. I reduced my Verizon Freedom package which was $49.99 a month to a regional package which cost $35 a month. We maybe make 100 minutes of long distance calls a month so I went with a long distance plan which cost 2.9 cents a minute. This is a reduction of around $14 a month.
These minor amounts may not seem like much but it adds up. You figure $23.96 a month adds up to $287.52 a year. That is an extra payment on our debt.
Now to the big things. We started the beginning of the month with a credit card balance of $4900. We took some from our saving and crimped for the rest and as of Friday the one and only credit card will be history. If I can find a reliable full time job, we should be able to crush and pay off our $49,000 student loans off in two years. This will take some sacrifice but in the long haul, we will be DEBT FREE except for the house! The home equity (we have no other mortgage) will be paid off in another year if all goes as planned.
For the first time, Karen is totally on board and as excited as I am to get all debt gone. I could not imagine how it will feel to owe no one. Of course, once that happens, we plan to buy a new house but not till we save enough to have a emergency plan in place and have a nice down payment.
Anybody else debt free or working hard on? Share your story by leaving a comment here!
