Pretty soon (hopefully within this next month or so), CP and I will be able to say that we are credit card debt free. It has been a long road. We have both learned a lot about budgeting, our spending habits, what we prioritize and what we (still) need to work on.
Over a year ago, CP and I sat down with the program Quicken. We entered in ALL of our bills. Rent, cable, telephone, insurance, etc. We estimated what we spend on food, entertainment, household, personal care and other categories. After the first month we adjusted the budget based on our expenses the previous month. We have had to adjust a couple of times since then to add or subtract categories based on what is going on in our life.
Every week we sit down with Quicken to see how we are doing. If we know that we are going to spend more one month on a specific category (for instance: the month we put the raised beds together we knew we were going to spend more in the household category), then we do our best to decrease our spending elsewhere. Then at the end of every month we sit down and figure out how much money we have left over to throw at our credit cards. Some months it is more than others. And on the months where we can throw a bunch of money at our debt? It feels great.
Buying our house almost a year ago made paying off our debt a bit harder. Our mortgage payment is more than our rent used to be, but at least we are gaining equity.
So what are we going to do once we have our credit cards paid off? We are not headed off on an expensive trip to celebrate. We are going to put together a plan to build up some savings. We are going to put more money into our retirement accounts for the future. We are going to think ahead to future needs (Kids? Home improvements?). We are NOT going to get into credit card problems again.
How do you handle your finances? Are you also trying to pay off credit card debt?
3 comments:
As you might've read, we paid off all our credit card debt this year. I think right now as it stands, we have about $250 on a card, but we've been paying it off at the end of the month if we use it. I have contributed more to my 401k since then, and we're on track to have about $20+k in savings by the end of the year. I personally LOVE not having credit card debt...it's such a pain in the ass. Congratulations!
Congrats! We too are paying off our debt. Should be done by Feb!
This post is just what I need! I came into some money and I really haven't been tracking a whole lot of spending....I need to get back on track!
Post a Comment