Tell All Tuesday, the Thursday Edition
For those new to my blog, every Tuesday I write a feature called “Tell All Tuesday”, where I go through the progress we’ve made that week on reducing and eventually eliminating our debt. I talk about the different payments we’ve made, and some of the different savings and alternative income I’ve come up with to generate those payments. With being sick last week, and then my kids being sick this weekend (I like to share, what can I say) I haven’t had a lot of time to sit down and look at the budget and our debt payments. This weekend, I managed to do all the number crunching so that I knew how much I could send to debt this month, but I didn’t get a chance to sit down and write it all down until now. So welcome to Tell All Tuesday… on Thursday. At least it is still alliterative. 
This past month, we got an expected windfall of sorts, the rebate for our new furnace came from our utility company. I knew we were getting a $270 rebate for installing an energy-efficient furnace, but I didn’t know how long it would take. It came at the end of July, so that got to boost our debt payments up a bit more for August. I had planned all along to apply the rebate to my spouse’s student loan debt, and so I did. The state of our debt this week looks like:
Debt at start of blog (6/19/07) : $36,451.71
Current total as of 08/20/08: $16,458.76
Principal paid to date $19,992.95
Broken down into:
- Credit Card: PAID OFF 2/7/08
- Student loan (at 7%): $11,175.54 (paid $144.50 minimum)
- Spouse student loan (at 9%): $3686.59 (paid $1288.47)
- Car loan (at 4%): $1596.63 (paid $228.32 minimum)
NCN Network Chart: 54.85% of total debt paid off since start of blog.
That principal paid is ever so close to $20,000!! That is simply astounding to me. Twenty thousand dollars. That would be a pretty nice new-to-me car. Yikes. My spouse’s student loan has the highest interest, so our snowflakes all go there right now. Besides the budgeted minim of $437.59, I paid our furnace rebate to that debt, as well as money from taking surveys, money this blog earned through advertising, money I made tutoring, and some of my taekwondo income. Overall, we have been able to consistently pay between $1000 and $1500 total every month to that debt, and I am hopeful that if we can continue that for 4 more months, we will have that debt completely paid off before the end of the year.
The debate here right now is funding Christmas. My spouse is paid bi-weekly, so there are 2 months a year he gets 3 paychecks instead of two. In the past, we have used the one that comes near the end of the year to pay for all things Christmas. This year, however, we’d like to try and pay the majority of that paycheck towards debt (his 3 paycheck month is October). But then we’d have to use my alternative income in November to pay for Christmas, because we haven’t saved money for Christmas gifts. So it kind of amounts to the same thing. But if the October paycheck could push us over the edge to having the student loan paid off in October… well, that would be tempting. So, we’ll see. the “better” plan would have been to save up for Christmas gifts but – we chose not to do that because we knew we’d have some options. We’d rather have reduced our debt load now and deal with Christmas later. Scrooge, I am. 
August 21st, 2008 at 9:19 am
congrats on your great success! i’m already thinking about christmas — it’s one of those things in the past that ends up going on credit cards and wrecks us. this year i’ve already printed out my list and put it in my purse. we’ve gotten a few gift cards from different sources and they are in the envelope too. i’m hoping to combine them with sales to pick up some stuff. i’m also hoping my freelance photo income will be enough to cover everything.
August 21st, 2008 at 10:39 am
Looking at these two sentences always amazes me:
Debt at start of blog (6/19/07) : $36,451.71
Current total as of 08/20/08: $16,458.76
That is phenomenal, congrats! When do you think it will be 100% gone? At this rate, it won’t be long…
August 21st, 2008 at 10:53 am
@ David – without any major catastrophes, I am pretty confident it will be gone by December 2009. Unless something happens (which, somehow… something always does lol).
I am really really hoping though that it is in fact June 2009 that is is gone. But that would take NO more bumps in the road, and the likelihood of that is probably zero.
August 21st, 2008 at 11:35 am
Congrats on nearly reaching the $20,000 platform. I have never really had significant debt. I paid off my student loans the day before they started accruing interest. I have a low interest car loan currently.
I have been saving for a condo down payment recently and have been acting as though I am in debt and trying to snowflake everything into my savings account for my down payment. It’s always great to hear about others debt reduction accomplishments as it is very motivating for me to keep up the saving. Moreover I’m sure posting weekly keeps you accountable. Keep up the good work and good luck.
August 21st, 2008 at 11:42 am
Congratulations on your hard work and success! I think you totally made the right choice about saving for Christmas vs. paying down that debt. The extra money does so much more for you paying down debts that are earning interest than it would for you sitting in a bank account waiting to be spent on presents. Plus, I’m sure your family and friends really want for Christmas would be what is best for you guys in the long run.
Keep up the great work and I’m glad you and your family are feeling better!
August 21st, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Congrats! It’s inspiring to see your progress.
Since you’ve started thinking so far ahead about Christmas, you’ll be able to round up gifts, whatever, out of your regular budget, AND prep the “kids” for toned down gift giving this year?? I do know our food budget, for one, goes out the window from the end of November until after New Years Day!
August 21st, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Congratulations on all of the progress that you have made thus far! It is both impressive and inspiring.
Focus on your debt elimination rather than on Christmas. It’s far more important in the grand scheme of things. People who love you will understand. Make agreements with people to not buy each other gifts or do a family grab bag/secret santa.
August 21st, 2008 at 3:22 pm
aka Totally Honest Tuesday
So great that you are able to keep attacking that debt no matter what the setbacks have been! Great job! Luv hearing the thought processes that go with it. And I agree – debt paid now causes less interest in the long run, and you know you have Christmas $$ covered later on… Good choice!
And I know that the closer you get to the end of that 9% loan, the more you are doing to really scrounge that last month to finish the thing off! What a relief that will be
And when you’re all done with all of them – next June or July
just keep that snowflaking going – only into your savings/retirement accounts! That’s where all my extra windfalls go! Faithfully!
August 21st, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Wow. I am so jealous. I hope we can have similar numbers someday!
I get paid every other week, and we live on two, so that we also have an “extra” paycheck. I love it. This month I got mine, and we took part of it as Christmas presents, paid for our home warranty, and put the rest towards debt. I hope next year to have enough wiggle room in the budget to save $15-20 a paycheck for Xmas and traveling. I am also looking forward to my Christmas bonus. That one is specifically earmarked for furnishing (frugally of course) the baby’s room and getting anything else before our first arrives in Feb.
It’s always so hard to decide what to do with a windfall for me, because I want so much to just put it to debt, but it seems that there is always “something else”. (We seem to have a lot less “extra” in our budget then you guys do. But we do what we can.)
August 21st, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Congratulations! It’s so wonderful to see your progress!
Remember, if not for the students loans, you wouldn’t have as many snowflakes, lol.
I’m hoping you can zap DH’s loan and the car by the end of the year!
August 21st, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Another thing I wondered: once you’re down to just your SL, would you ever consider putting it on a credit card to get a lower interest rate? (Not that 7% is bad.)
August 21st, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Oh so close to $20,000 paid off! That is amazing!
I think using the extra paycheck in October to pay off the loan (or come closer to it) and use your alternate income to pay for Christmas. This is purely from a number standpoint, in that you’ll pay less interest if you pay a larger chunk of the loan in October.
August 22nd, 2008 at 3:33 am
I totally agree with previous posters — put that “extra” paycheck toward debt. And keep in mind that Christmas (or bdays or any other gift-giving holiday) doesn’t have to cost a lot when you’ve got debt to pay off. Sit the kids down and explain the circumstances that Christmas is going to be scaled back this year (and maybe forever? it’s always good when you can make holidays less commercial!) and that they should start thinking *now* about their wish lists. If you know now what they’re going to want in December, you can watch for good sales and not wait until the last minute. (Although sometimes the best sales ARE at the last minute … )
I’m Jewish, and therefore don’t celebrate Christmas, but my family keeps gift giving to a real minimum. I don’t think we spend $300 total on Chanukah, and bday gifts are $40 or less. (My husband and I don’t even do anniversary/valentine’s day/etc. gifts, although we sometimes splurge on something for the house that we’ve been wanting and saving for and call that our anniversary gift to ourselves.) For relatives outside your immediate family (spouse, kids, you), let them know now that you’re cutting back on gift giving and don’t expect gifts from them either. Or work on a family craft project — like baking cookies, making fudge, etc. — that you can give to other relatives you want to recognize on the holiday but can’t afford big expensive gifts for anymore.
I’m very lucky (but also was intentional about it) that we have no debt other than our mortgage. The luckiest part is my husband and I are both savers (me a bit more than him, but him too) so we’re always squirreling money away for retirement and college savings for our daughter. But part of the way we stay out of debt, especially that nasty credit card debt, is that we don’t go overboard on gifting within the family, except for very special occasions, like weddings, bar/bat mitzvot, etc. And we do budget so we’re putting money away every month, but I totally understand your choice not to this year because you’re concentrating on getting that debt paid off.
I gotta say, you really are awesome for the progress you’ve made in such a short time. Keep it up, and once all that debt is paid off, loosen the purse strings a small amount, but keep paying as much as you can into savings of all types!