This debt update is based on our most recent credit card statement which posted on 10/16/23. . I do these mid-month because our credit card closes on the 15th. I can’t wait for the day when we are consumer debt free and I can do our financial savings updates at the beginning of each month and I don’t have to take into account when our debt cycle closes!
Although we are not paying off our debt as fast as I would like, I am happy to say that our debt decreased! It actually went down by a pretty good chunk! This was a fantastic month for our credit card debt payoff!
Here is our current credit card debt totals:
$11,907.49 at 19.99% interest
Our total credit card debt stands at: $11,907.49. That’s a lot of debt. All we can do is just keep plugging away. We dug our hole one shopping trip at a time and all we can do is pay it back one month at a time.
Plus side: Our debt decreased! By a lot! We have the least amount of credit card debt that we have had in several years! This is the first time our credit card debt has been below $12,000 since before we moved in 2017! That is a major plus! We were yo-yo debting for years and never got below $12,000. We paid off $2104.87 of credit card debt (after interest); that amounted to 15% of our current debt! And we have paid off 52% of our total debt from our high of almost $25,000! We did have some “help” this month in that it was a three paycheck month so we had an extra $1000 to throw at debt… but I’m happy because we did throw it there!
Down side: No matter how much debt we pay off, it’s never enough. Of course, I hate that a couple hundred dollars went towards interest on our debt instead of towards the principal! Lastly, it’s actually a little depressing to see how long we have been on this roller coaster called debt freedom. We made some poor choices and have been living in a debt cycle for too long! It’s all our fault and we don’t even have medical problems or emergencies to blame for it; we were careless and irresponsible, but we are on track now and making progress.
Looking forward to: getting our credit card debt below $11,000 by our next statement and keeping it that way. I’m also looking forward to staying on the debt pay-off and blogging band wagon! I was off it for too long and it feels good to be making progress again! I’m wondering/hoping if we will actually meet our goal of being under $10,500 in credit card debt by the end of the year! It’s going to be close and I’m going to keep chugging along and doing the best I can!
This was a good month and we are working a plan! Clearly, I’m not in an ideal situation. But if I have to get out of debt one baby step at a time, I can do that.
I hope your debt freedom journey is smooth, uneventful, and beyond successful!
Wish us luck!
October 18th, 2023 at 12:52 pm 1697633568
October 18th, 2023 at 01:45 pm 1697636757
I wanted to chime in and say that I set all my credit card due dates so that they close at the end of the month. Actually a few days before. So if they close on the 25th, I just pay the balance through the last day of the month. My accounting brain just can't deal with mid-month credit card cycles. Of course, this presumes you keep credit cards. Maybe in your case you want to cut them all up, I don't know. But if you do keep using credit cards long term, it's a trick to make life easier.
October 20th, 2023 at 09:20 pm 1697836844