The answer

While sitting at home last night in the darkness of the living room, the kids in bed and the man at hockey I could help but think about our debt and what we are going to do about it. I can't feel helpless because being a victim isn't going to fix it. I did what any girl of 2014 does and I looked up debt on Pinterest. There a found a link to this article. http://www.thedebtmyth.com/paying-off-more-than-147000-in-debt/. It explained the journey of Jackie, a woman just like me that was once in debt. Unlike Jackie I have a job and have had steady employment for over 10.5 years. If Jackie could pay of debt while unemployed at some points I could do this. Or should I say we could do it.  I understood her process because it mirrored Dave Ramsey's book which I read a few years ago. You pay the smallest amount first and put all extra money into that card. Once that card is paid off you take that regular payment and put it all on the next smallest card, once that card is paid off you take those 2 monthly payments plus all extra money and put it all into the next card. The process is slow at first but once you have freed up a couple items of debt you are throwing larger snowballs at the next item. I've done it before and it worked.  I'm going to do it again.

 

I downloaded the app and imputed all of our debt into the app. This includes car payments and all monies owed. It does not include his student loans or our home loan. Once we conquer these items we will focus on his student loan and then hopefully pay off our house!  I feel relieved to have a plan. And to have it all organized now. To be able to see it and know that it's actually not that bad. Credit card wise it's very manageable.

 

Step #1 was to organize it.

Step #2. Pay minimums to all debts except for the lowest. Put as much as you can into that card until it's paid off. That includes any photography money or side work Nate and I do. I have approximately $600 coming in on Oct 1st for photography. That will payoff card #1 and half of card #2..starting the snowball effect.

Step#3. Stop using credit. This was something I did before last year and a standard we lived by. If we didn't have it in cash we didn't do it. We lost sight of that and debt quickly built up.

Step#4. Cut out extras cost and put toward card #1. For example I sold our Jaguar tickets for the next game last night. $126 in our bank that I can pay towards that account. Nate also found some items around the house he could sell and I'm going to push photography more. I've enjoyed the time off but I need to hustle if I want to see these snowballs flying at this debt!

 

Nothing major has happened and my bank account has $29 until the first but the thought of having a plan now is a small life ring in this mess.