Three months almost gone this year....how is everyone doing with their debt?

**homesteadmamma** · 03-20-2006, 10:30 AM

Are you where you want to be, struggling to get it paid off, paid off any or.....

We are doing okay, not where I wanted to be at the end of March though. This month is going well and by the first week in April we should be back on track to our goals. It's been a bit of a struggle considering dh isn't working very many hours at one part time job. Hopefully that picks up.

How are you doing?

**Dedlered** · 03-20-2006, 10:40 AM

I have paid off 2 credit cards, working on 2 more and then... the home equity loan...

Slow going but still going

Like the energizer bunny

**thrifty gal** · 03-20-2006, 11:04 AM

We are doing really well, considering that we have been really unfrugal. We have paid off some cc debt, and I'm very proud of that. But, we still have a ways to go.

**frugalfarmwife** · 03-20-2006, 11:11 AM

I'm FINALLY getting things in line, we refi'd the mortgage around the first of the year and we're suprised the end of Feb with a 2 month interest bill

I should have known and we were alright, but to make matters even more fun we had 4 days from the day it was recieved to pay it, yikes!

So I've started really throwing the money at the mortgage by selling some of hubbys railroad collectables on ebay, I've already paid 570.62 extra to the mortgage this month, I won't be able to keep the high payments up long term but want to get as much off and shorten the loan term as much as possible.

So, finally inline and poking along, bit by bit, I WILL pay that mortgage off in 15 years instead of 30!

kj

**McD** · 03-20-2006, 11:13 AM

This year isn't going so well for me. I paid off all but two of my cards with a loan from my dad. So now I owe my dad money, which he has put on hold until I start working again. I am doing well with my Helzberg card....I paid 80 on it this month instead of 50. But VISA is a whole other story. The balance in my siggy isn't current as of this weekend. I got bit by the shopping bug and I did badly.

**McD** · 03-20-2006, 11:16 AM

The car loan is going well though. I've always paid extra on it and I will continue to do so. That and my interest rate is like 4.9 percent or so.

**FrugalMomof3** · 03-20-2006, 11:21 AM

I can honestly say I am doing good, we paid off a bunch of CC's in February and 2 in March, we have 4 more to go (3 with small balances) but we've been putting double payment... meaning if min. payment is $15 we put $30 and we're doing ok.

I sold a few things on ebay and put that money in the bank, got my emergency fund being added to weekly (I pay in about $70 a month).

We did the Angel Food Ministries this month so I've only spent $35 on food so far (we pick up our AFM food on Friday 3/24).

Our bills are on-time as always and we still have a little bit left over every 2 weeks so we're doing good.

I feel confindent in my frugality and I am proud of myself, we haven't eaten out for a while I think only once in a month and a half and it cost us only $10 for the 2 of us (Chinese food).

I am still trying to figure out ways to continually cut costs but for now we are ok... not rich and no where near it but ok.

**KKCondrey** · 03-20-2006, 11:42 AM

I'm paying more than min. on my one and only credit card each month, I've been rounding my car payment up to the nearest whole amount, and as for medical bills I now only owe $150 and since I pay $50 on the 10th of each month that one will be gone as of June 10th (may try to do $75 and $75 and have it paid off in May.)

**nodmicks** · 03-20-2006, 11:50 AM

I did excellent in jan and finished wiping out the cc and Dh's car. I got 200 extraon my car in jan, 100 in feb but so far no extra this month. However I still have a few days yet!

**Valerie in WA** · 03-20-2006, 12:10 PM

I'm doing well. I've paid $2,093 on the van ($970 above the minimum).

I've paid $1,528 on the CC, but I'll be making the March payment next week of at least $1000. I may pay even more as I did a ton of OT this month. I still need to look at the other bills. So my end-of-March total will be at least $2,528 (which is $2,093 above the minimum).

Total debt reduced 1/1 thru 3/31: $4,621.

**freedeal** · 03-20-2006, 12:33 PM

As of today, I am about $200 short of where I wanted to be by March 31st. But this isn't bad considering we had a higher tax bill than was expected and Uncle Sam doesn't like to wait. Also, we had to do monthly orthodontists payments (used the orthodontist money for the tax bill) so we can still make it.

I think with my eBay stuff doing pretty well, I should be right on target starting April.

**AmyBoz** · 03-20-2006, 01:14 PM

Well, I'm still paying a little on the mortgage each month, and we have decided to up our car payment by $100 toward principal each month, even though things are about to be tougher. Next months mortgage payment will wipe out our savings, and I no longer am getting paid, so it's going to get interesting.

I've been doing some stockpiling of things we'll need over the next few months, so I should be able to bring the grocery budget way down in April and May. I've never REALLY tried to live out of the pantry and freezer completely, so that will be my challenge in April and May.

Anyway, back to debt. As I said, we are hoping to knock off another month from our van payments by adding $100 per month. We have about 6 months left, and are hoping to knock it down to 5 with the extra payments. We want this debt eradicated by August, because that's when Rob will need to get a new car, because his truck won't hold all three cars seats, and he is the one who drops the kids off in the morning. We can't switch cars, because I'm the one who picks them up in the evening. So, van debt...BE GONE!

**pammy** · 03-20-2006, 01:58 PM

Think we're doing pretty good. Sold a toy and eliminated about 10k in debt. We put about 2k on our car note, reducing it to where we had equity, traded down to an older car, reducing that debt to half. Somehow we managed in the process to pay for an old rv in cash without going into debt. And we've kept on our cash only basis very well. Have the emergency fund back in place.

In all we started with about 40k in debt at the beginning of the year and it's now down to 24k. Only the small car note (which should be gone by June of '06 at our current rate) and my student loan left (which we're hoping to pay off at the end of the year). Our shovel is about the $1,400 a month range if everything keeps going smoothly.

Funny how when we decided to get out of debt things just start turning for the better.