Debt Payoff, April 2018: $3,600

A lot of people these days are doing income reports for the money they make online. Personally, even though it maybe benefit me in some ways, I don’t want to share my income for the whole world to see. However, I have spent a lot of time thinking about how I could motivate people and encourage them through our financial experience a little bit more. Then I thought about doing an income report in reverse! Instead of sharing how much I make each month, I will be sharing a debt payoff report showing how much money we put toward our debt payoff each month. You may already be following my final $10,000 debt payoff journey. If you are, these reports will go hand in hand with that. I will take you through the steps we take to plan for this money, where it comes from, and the strategies we have implemented that are working to get us out of debt. So let’s take a look at our debt payoff for April 2018.

*This post contains affiliate links through which I may make a commission. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

If you’re in debt

If you are currently in debt, there are a few main options that you have to help dig yourself out. My first tip, would be to find extra money in your budget. Do all that you can to start finding or making all the extra cash that you can in order to help you tackle your debt as soon as possible. On top of creating extra debt payoff money, there are a few other options.

• Credit analysis – You can get a free credit analysis to see if you qualify for help in disputing some of your debt. Get a free consultation with the Credit Assistance Network and you may be able to have them do all the disputing for you!
• Consolidate – Take out a loan to pay off your multiple debts in order to get one lower monthly payment. You can even apply online for loans bigger than $7,500
• Get a lower interest rate – This is what we did. After trying desperately to tackle a big credit card debt, we felt like we weren’t getting anywhere! The interest was really kicking us in the butt at around 25%!! So, we took out a loan that lowered our monthly payment and had a lower interest rate. That is the debt we are currently attacking with everything we have! If you know you are stuck with a high interest rate payment, it might be worth looking into The Loan Exchange. They have interest rates as low as 16% and monthly payments starting at $94.40!
• Get a plan – The last thing to do is get a good plan in place!! Start coming up with your best ideas on how to pay off debt as fast as possible! For us, we chose the debt snowball method.

The Debt Snowball

We started paying off our debt with the debt snowball method. Paying off debt this way requires you to come up with an additional $200 each month. Here is a quick rundown of how the Debt Snowball Method works; or You can read in more detail here.

1. You will need an additional $200 per month. I have been able to come up with this money and more each month through blogging. Start a blog here.
2. Start with your smallest payment. For example, a $20 credit card payment. Apply your $200 to this $20 each month until your debt has been paid off.
3. Once you have paid off your first debt, you will now apply all of this money to your next biggest payment. For example, if your next credit card debt is $30, you will take the $220 you were paying and now apply it here.

On top of following these basic Debt Snowball rules, it is a great idea to take any additional income that you can and begin to pay off your debt aggressively. This is the best way to quit wasting money on useless debt payments and start building wealth.

Additional income ideas

For me personally, I have used the blog as my main source of debt payoff income. If that sounds right up your alley, you can read all about how to get started. Otherwise, here are some fast start up, easy ways to start making money as soon as possible.

• AirBNB – Rent our your home, room, apartment or loft at AirBNB to easily bring in a passive income stream!
• Sell on Amazon – Check out this beginners guide to learn how to get started selling with FBA.
• iSay – iSay is a survey company that gives you rewards just for voicing your opinion! Collect points and redeem for gift cards or shop at the iSay market. You can even create your own polls!
• Springboard America – Springboard America is a survey company that is interested in the learning more about the values, attitudes and taste of Americans. By signing up you will even be entered to win $1,000.
• Stella & Dot – A company designed for women who want to be entrepreneurs. Sell unique, fashionable jewelry and accessories from home or on the go.
• Uber – Become a driver with Uber. Get paid up to 5x daily with Instant Pay.
• UberEATS – Earn extra money when you need it, day or night. Deliver food instead of people
• VIPKid – If you have a bachelor’s degree you can make between $17 and $22/hr by teaching English online in over 32 different countries!

Our debt payoff summary

This month our family was able to put $3,600 toward our final debt payoff!! For us that means that our Amazon credit card is officially paid off, and we have started putting all our money toward our final loam payment!

After downsizing 2 years ago, Tom and I got serious about getting ourselves out of debt. Downsizing freed up a huge amount of money for us each month by reducing our monthly mortgage payment. Then, when we paid off $6,000 of debt, we also gained an additional $800 per month! Instead of continuing with our debt payoff, we decided to start saving, improve our budget, and get better about our sinking funds. Then, at the beginning of this year we joined Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University and have really kicked our finances back into gear. We are determined to get ourselves completely out of debt!

3 Major changes we made

• Stopped paying off medical bills – This sounds so terrible (at least to me) because we have really had a lot of medical expenses in the last 12 months.  The thing is, we would pay them off instantly even if it meant taking money out of our savings just to be done with these bills. After going through Financial Peace, we realized this wasn’t the smartest method. Not only were we taking away from our security funds, but we were also letting major interest rack up on our debts by not using our extra funds to pay them off. We now do our budget each month, get at least $200 set aside to put toward our debt on top of our monthly payment and then budget a certain amount to put toward our medical bills.
• We started doing more than $200 – When we did our first debt payoff, we stuck with Dave Ramsey’s suggested $200 per month on top of our minimum payment. This time, we decided whatever extra we could get, we were throwing it right at that debt! The major money additions have come from me working from home on the blog. Find out how I make money from blogging here.
• We stopped saving – Yikes! This one made us nervous, for sure! But, we had already built up our savings and in following Dave Ramsey’s methods, after $1,000 in the bank, you should start paying off your debts! So, we again went to our budget, shifted some things around, and started taking the money we usually put into savings and started adding it to paying off our debt and adding to our sinking funds.
  • Why add to sinking funds? –We had major repairs we had been putting off on our vehicles and wanted to make sure we didn’t have to dip into our savings in order to get them fixed. To prevent this, we chose to set aside more money each month to get our cars fixed up as soon as possible.

• Related posts

  • Pay off $6,000 in 6 Months with the Snowball Method
  • What to do When Budgeting Goes Wrong
  • Should I Save Money or Pay Off Debt?
  • 12 Ways to Save Over $1,000 Fast

Where the funds came from

• $30 – Our original minimum payment due on the Amazon credit card.
• $200 – This was $200 we decided to stop putting into our savings while we worked toward paying off our debt. We added this $200 in addition to our minimum payment of $30 just like the Snowball Method suggests!
• $50 – I made a quick purchase with our credit card last month for some theater tickets and used $50 of my budgeted “fun money” to pay that off!
• $264 – This was our original loan payment amount. Starting next month we will be taking our $30 from our credit card payment, plus our additional $200 for the Snowball Method and adding it to this amount for a total of $494!
• $387 – Starting a blog has been one of the biggest helps in putting extra money toward our debts month after month! This was actually a slower month, however I was still able to put $387 toward our debt and we also used more money to get some home repairs done!
• $2,700 – Yup, we took our taxes money and applied it to our debt! This is something we have definitely never done before BUT we are really serious about no longer being a slave to debt!

If you feel like you are a slave to your debts, I highly recommend checking out these 2 companies that offer free debt analysis: CuraDebt and Credit Assistance Network. Because they both offer free consultations, it would be a good idea to get information from both to make sure you are making the best financial decisions for you and your family.

Where we’re at

We are officially done with our credit card and have just our final loan to tackle!

The Goal: A big goal (that seems tough) for us is to try making a $1,600 debt payoff for the month of May so that we are officially at the half way point of $5,000 left of our final $10,000!

If you personally are struggling to pay off debt as well, you can get access to my personal budgeting tools as well as my totally FREE, private Facebook group. In the group, I try to ask questions to help everyone get ideas from each other, learn better ways of budgeting and all around get support when it comes to personal finances!

I hope you found this post helpful and if you have any questions please leave them in the comments below!

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