For all the readers who have been around a while, you probably remember my debt snapshots… an update to the outstanding debts. I did this as a motivational tool to help keep us on track in paying everything off. In the last several months I have been busy and Momma has graciously taken over most of the day to day posting, bringing you all the great deals and freebies she finds.
So, in keeping with the “debt-free” theme and in order to once again help motivate ourselves to reduce and eliminate expenses where possible so we can put that money towards paying debt off, I have updated the spreadsheet.
For those who aren’t up to speed with our tactics in this war on debt, we have been using a combination of the debt snowball and debt snowflake methods.
(Click on the pic to enlarge)
The good news… We are FINALLY more than 50% paid off from our starting point. WOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Only 48%/97k left to pay off… LOL… looks like we still have a lot of work to do.
Since paying off the truck on New Years Eve, we have been putting every spare penny towards paying off our remaining mortgage and have made some great progress. With a lot of hard work and frugal living, we have managed to not only add an extra 650 bucks a month to our principal with the debt snowball, but also snowflake two 1000 dollar payments on top of that. As usual, it seems like all those 5 dollar surveys, online money making activities, free coupons and frugal lifestyle choices don’t account for much individually. And… as usual… we are surprised by the amount saved up by adding up the survey checks, savings from couponing and reduced expenses from living frugally over a couple months.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Great job! They key is to not spend that extra money from surveys, etc. We've been paying extra toward a second mortgage and it is nice to see the balance drop more precipitously.
Yeah I know it. It's easy to start to thinking "oh we can use some of our survey money for pizza" and then it just goes on until all the snowflake money is gone.
Staying motivated is not as easy as one would think.
Here's our deal:
We go out every other week (as a couple). Our drive is 45 minutes one way and we drive 5 miles over the speed limit there and back to save gas. When we eat, we ask to half the meal and we get one tea (to share) and one water, spending half the money we normally would.
Try planning ahead for that day, setting aside a few bucks here and there. When your day comes and your money is right, go get that pizza or whatever you decide to do and enjoy it.