I have been following the financial advice of Dave Ramsey after reading “My Total Money Makeover“, and “Financial Peace University“. I began working this plan around October 2010, and it went really well. I paid off $9,200 in credit card debt and the $8000 remaining on my truck.
Before we bought a house and got married Amy and I took the Financial Peace University Class together at our church. Following a budget and sticking to it got a lot easier once Amy was doing it with me. Since nearly anytime we’re in a position to spend money we’re together, we could always keep each other accountable to stay within our budgets. Unfortunately with the added expenses of a new house and a wedding coming up fast we started contributing less and less to our debt snowball as we diverted the money to our wedding savings. As the wedding neared we realized we wouldn’t quite have enough to pay for all that we wanted for our wedding. We ended up using one of our credit cards that we had already paid off to pay for part of the wedding and our trip after.
We got a bit undisciplined and jacked our credit card balance back up to $5,000 in just 4 months! We quickly realized this lifestyle could not continue. Not again!
We decided to get back on track. We redid our budget, trimmed the extras, and found other ways to save money. Now we are diligently following our budget, we’ve paid off the credit card (again!), and are making headway on our student loans. We’ve done a lot so far, and we feel pretty proud of ourselves. There’s still a long ways to go though, but at least now we have it mapped out and can see the light at the end of the tunnel!
Assuming I can remember to update this page regularly… I’m going to use it to track our progress on this journey to eliminate debt. Hopefully it will provide you with some reassurance that you can be debt free too!
Our Progress
Vehicle 1
Debt: $8,000
Current: $0!!!
Vehicle 2
Debt: $4,500
Current: $0!!!
Credit Card 1
Debt: $7,200
Current: $0!!!
Credit Card 2
Debt: $5,000
Current: $0!!!
Credit Card 3
Debt: $2,000
Current: $0!!!
Credit Card 4
Debt: $1,500
Current: $0!!!
Student Loan 1
Debt: $2,624
Current: $0!!!
Student Loan 2
Debt: $3,465
Current: $1,362
Student Loan 3
Debt: $3,500
Current: $2,122
Student Loan 4
Debt: $4,653
Current: $2,646
Student Loan 5
Original Debt: $25,984
Current: $24,779
JoshMartell.com 