I’ve talked the talk, but have I walked the walk?
With a name like “Debt Destroyer” it’s kinda implied that I’m spending my waking hours destroying debt. I wish that was the case. But I have to admit that I spend much more time watching “Arrested Development” on DVD, than I do destroying debt.
But before I declare myself a fraud, I thought I’d take a second to check if my six months here at The Happy Rock has lowered my debt.
Back in July of 2008 we owed:
- $95,108 – Mortgage
$11,843 – Car Loan- $6,130 – Student Loan
For a total of $113,081*
*I originally included a credit card balance in my initial debt total. But I always pay off the balances, so I decided to not include it as debt in this recap.
And as of today we owe:
- $94,274 – Mortgage
- $5,350 – Student Loan
For a total of $99,625.
That means that we’ve paid off $13,456 in the last six months.
Not too shabby.
Of course that total is misleading because $10,992 of it came in the form of a gift. You long time readers out there will remember I was the benefactor of a personal bailout. But the other $2500 was all us!
But DD, didn’t you say that you took out an additional $7750 in student loans to go back to school?
Um…yeah I did. Thanks for paying such close attention.
But as of this writing I haven’t been granted those funds yet, so I didn’t include them in my debt total. I wanted to savor the feeling of owing less than $100,000 for a little while. I should be getting my grubby little hands on that money in a very short time, once again putting our debt in six figure territory.
Of course I shouldn’t have expected to make great strides in the beginning of this journey. Heck I’m still trying to get our expenses under control. In fact, I’m tickled pink that we paid close to $2500 ourselves during this time. When you consider that I no longer work full time and am going back to school, I’d say we’re off to a good start.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that I’m not alone in my debt reduction journey. How are you doing? Are you pleased with your progress? Have you come across any unexpected roadblocks?
Remember, we’re all in this together!
Until next time,
-DD
Taxes – Love’em or Hate’em, You Gotta Pay’em
5 Creative Ways to Reduce Your Debt
Congrats! We started this journey about the same time and you are so much further than I am! I’m still playing ostrich, allowing my fear to control me instead of controlling my fear (and my money!). Of course, being unemployed and without a paycheck for a while dug deeply into the money I had on hand. Kudos to you DD and Mr.s DD, keep on working your plan!
Sounds good – I can’t wait to start making a dent in our debt. I mean, we are working on it, but it’s not showing up much right now. Hopefully that will change if my husband takes a recent job offer that will double his bring home pay each week. Time will tell – I just need to be patient and keep doing what we are doing…. right? 😛
I did kind of imagine you with a laser gun at night attacking debt built out of Tetris shaped blocks..
You did fabulously, and with such great momentum it’s going to keep you on the right track for 2009.
Fabulously Broke in the City
“Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.“
Any time you can take it off the bottom line you are doing good. Congratulations, it seems as if you are well on your way.
Beau
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
@celticbuffy – You started on a lot of journeys at this same time. So don’t get too down about not getting very far in this one. But at the same time, there’s no time like the present to do something about it 🙂
@Amber Jones – Good to hear that your husband has a job offer, that’s saying something in todays economy. Hopefully it’s a job that he really wants.
@Fabulously Broke – Actually what I use it more like a “Freeze-ray” than a laser. But then Dr. Horrible stole my idea so now I just watch Arrested Development.
@ Surviving a Recession – Thanks. Hopefully we are on a way. My goal is to have less debt when I get out of school than I had when I started.
Doesn’t it feel amazing to hit below a certain number? We just started our debt journey (at over 100K), and we’re slowly creeping towards the 80s…I can’t wait!!!
It’s been helpful for accountability to start blogging – which I am painstakingly doing at http://www.betteroffdebt.com 🙂