Another Snowball from Another Newbie

[Another Newbie]

Okay, I have not been winning my battle fighting debt over the past couple months. I think it is harder to stay inspired since I am single and don't really have anyone to share my little victories. So I am hoping to track my journey in this message and hopefully this will keep me on track. I am always up for suggestions. Here is my info:

 

Gross Income: $48K (I got a new job last Aug and it came with a big raise. I haven't always made this much money)

 

USAA loan: $1260 (APR 10.9, $78 mo)

Chase: $7,925 (APR 1.9 until April, I think 10.9 after that; $159 mo)

NFCU car loan: $5,645 (APR 4.9; $265 mo)

Total Debt: 15,320

 

Target dates:

USAA: 3/1/07

Chase: 7/1/07

NFCU: 11/1/07

 

My goal was to get a house in November, but I think I may wait until May 2008 since I got off to a bad start.

I plan to update my progress on the 15th of each month.

 

I know with my small debt (at least compared to my income) this post will not be as exciting as others, but if it helps me get out of debt I hope you guys can tolerate my boring journey. I got the idea from a post on page 26 of Money Management forum.

[LuvingMomof5boys]

snowball is working for us and our debt is much bigger..

 

i feel ur pain about not sharing victories dh i

could care less and its so frusterating.

[Another Newbie]

Well when I was married the ex did all the finances, and at the time I could care less about debt and such. After the divorce, which led to a lot of trips to bars that were put on the credit cards, I had to care. I wish I had taken a more active role in the finances and tried to do it as a team. I disagree with a lot of Dave Ramsey stuff, but I love listening on Fridays to hear couples who worked the finances as a team to conquer the debt. IMHO, having someone to keep you focused on a shared goal seems easier than doing it alone. I wish you the best with your snowball. BTW when will be done with your snowball?

[LuvingMomof5boys]

Well if I can keep dh reigned in (its very difficult- I could live on 5$ spending he needs 100 and blows on BULL- but )))) if I can keep him on track we could have all but one card paid off by Fall.. and that card our biggie will be paid off by hopefully end of this year.

 

I think our main problem is we WERE both spenders and we had some tragedies (we lost a child and put the entire funeral on credit which we both regret) but we knew things were getting out of hand and we didn't try to stop it until one day I woke up and went WOAH! this is way more then we can do in a few months.

 

So I took over all finances and read up on the snowball approach and started it immediately- so far we have done pretty well- we slipped back a bit during my maternity leave (only got 60% pay) but we are making head way.... I am not closing all my accounts but I have been paying all that have annual fees off little by little and closing them .... when its all said and done we will have about 50K in credt and 0 balances which will be so comforting....

 

I just wish I could get dh involved in the finances - I gave him bills to pay one month and they were not paid by the day before so I took them back... (I am a bit controlling I admit but I cannot let things go over due)....

[Another Newbie]

I read an interesting post on the MSN message board about how to deal with getting the other half on the same page. I really liked answer #9. Here is the message:

 

http://moneycentral.msn.com/community/mess...agestyle=money1

[texastech97]

Congrats, you should be out of debt in no time. Also, if you are not already contributing. Don't forget to put money into your company's 401K up to the matched portion (if they match).

[Another Newbie]

Thanks Texas Tech, I am currently contributing the max matched (5%) to the Thrift Savings Plan, and "my company" will start matching that this summer. Should be a 5% match.

 

That is one of those areas I disagree with "what's his name".

 

Today I also signed up to journal my February for an MSN article, where I will try not to spend any money on non necessities for the entire month. I think this will give me a great boost and keep me in line. Well I look forward to reporting lower balances on the 15th, until then...