Paid off Debt #1!

We got our tax refund this morning, and it’s already spent. I spent it to pay off our lowest balance credit card. Normally our refund would just get eaten by the checking account. (you know what I mean) I can’t wait to log into Wesabe later and see my total debt balance has dropped.

I was so motivated last weekend I made a chart of our debt. Kind of like a fundraiser goal chart only I put it sideways and started with a negative number and ended at $0. It was great to go upstairs this morning and black out a chunk of the chart!

We decided to follow our own modified version of the Debt Snowball.

We are paying off our Chase cards first due to our recent, negative experience with Chase, and then we will tackle our largest and highest APR card, followed by 3 with smaller card balances that are at 0% for the next 9 months.

It’s sort of like NCN’s Debt Deluge.

Finding extra money in the budget has been tough. We’ve slashed most of our expenses to the bone, with the exception of our cable bundle (we need to work out alternatives for our TV needs before we eat the $150 cancellation fee), and I feel like I’m doing a good job of managing our money, but we just needed more. I didn’t want it to take 2-3 years to be debt-free, you see I’m sort of impatient. So I did what one of Ramit’s readers recommended recently, I got another job.

I have the job of being primary childcare, household manager, house cleaner, and errand runner as a stay-at-home mom. The 2nd job I have is here as a blogger, and my own small business (more details here). My 3rd job is on Sunday mornings at a lovely Church in the nursery. (2 hours a week) Now, I have a 4th job working in the evenings and weekends at the new, local Target that is opening less than 2 miles away from our house. I’m still looking for something I can do from home during the day (and assistant type job would be ideal), and trying to find a better paying position to replace Target. Can you tell I’m motivated, yet? 😉

My goal is to try to get everything paid off in a year (or less). It seems daunting. I want to focus on abundance in our lives, instead of lack. I adore organizing, so I’m trying to look at this like organizing a closet. Right now my financial closet is full of old, worn-out, out-of-season, and trendy items with a few classic, timeless pieces squeezed in. There are things on the floor of the closet; the shelves are piled with moth-eaten and worn out pieces, and random stuff that has no business in the closet.

I’ve spent some time looking through our financial closet, and found some of the nice pieces, but it’s time to clear out the junk. It overwhelming, so I’m doing it in bits and pieces. I have a trash bag in my hand, and an image in my mind of an organized, clean financial closet where every dollar has a place, and it’s easy to find any information we need. It’ll get there, but it will take time. I just have to put one foot in front of the other and keep moving ahead.

What would you do with a lump sum? If you have debt how are you tackling it?

Kelly

About Kelly

Kelly Whalen is the founder and editor of the Centsible Life blog. She started the blog 6 years ago as her family faced a mountain of debt. The blog became a resource to readers and a hub for everything you need in life for less. Kelly lives in the Philadelphia area with her superhero husband, 4 awesome kids, and one adorable dog. She still believes you can have it all....just not all at once.

• View all posts by Kelly →
• Blog
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Google+