Making moves.....debt snowball

[sofocused978]

Hello everyone. A while back I made a thread posting my idea on how I would start to reduce my debts. Here it is for reference A lil idea I'm working with About 2 weeks later I was fired from my job and put my idea on hold until I found out if I would be approved for unemployment benefits and if not I would have a little bit of cash behind me to carry me until I located a new job. After dealing with UI for a couple months my checks started rolling in finally. That was back in January.

At the time my expenses/debts looked something like this.

Debts

Credit Card 1- $19460 @5.9%/ $300/month
Credit Card 2- $440@ 9.9% = no finance charge yet plan to pay off once bill arrives
Car Loan- $4695 @8.5%/ $290/month
Bike Loan- $4360@8.9%/ $157/month

on top of that I have rent and insurance which equals $470

Total bills=$1216

At the beginning of this month I decided to set forth with a newer revised plan and start tackling this debt before something horrible happened and caused me to lose the funds in my MMA. Credit Card 2 was paid off prior to this month. On March 10th I paid off my car in full. Yesterday I took a ride up to the bank which held the loan on my bike and paid that off in full aswell. So now I have titles in hand for both my car/moto and one of the original credit cards is paid off. I made a mistake back in January though and purchased a laptop on my circuit city card with 0% interest for 18 months for $999 so that will be added to my debts.

Here is my newest debt list-

Credit Card 1 = $18434 @ 5.9%
Credit Card 2 = $0 balance
Car loan = Paid off
Bike load = Paid off
Circuit City= $950.99


As of today I have the following in savings

Checking Account= $400
MMA= $3350

My latest plan is to let the money in the MMA serve as an emergency fund and only touch it if need be. By the end of April I will pay off my circuit city card and only be left with Credit Card 1 and rent/insurance. At this point I will start sending extra funds to my insurance company to do away with that monthly bill and only be left with Credit Card 1 and Rent. Fortunately I still live at home basically(rent an apt from my mother) and since she has recently found a new tenent to help with the mortgage in a vacant unit she had, she has allowed me to slide rent free for a few months.

I have made her aware of my plan and told her once I get the next credit card out of the way I will get back to paying her rent. Luckily she doesn't seem to mind or hasn't made a big deal out of it.

It feels so good to see progress being made and to have the two loans off my back. I am looking forward to the day the my only monthly bills are the one credit card and my rent giving me the extra funds to hammer away at the credit card.

So thats my lil plan and a lil bit of progess I have made while out of work. I will update in a couple weeks once I get the Circuit City card paid off.

[faithman1012005@yahoo.com]

Hey congrats on the debt tackling! I know a couple years ago I had 3 credit cards and 2 car loans, ouch. I soon heared Dave Ramsey's debt snowball plan and soon sold 1 car, paid off the other, then paid off 2 of the 3 credit cards last year yay! unfortunately I had to take out another credit card around Christmas as my car broke down and I was stranded on my way home for Christmas with no way to pay for the repair. And also since I'm graduating college I bought a school ring which set me back a little but the debt snowball plan definately works and it's great to hear others are kicking debt in the rear as well!

[Granite]

that is great, especially the free rent part !! hope you get a new job soon !

[creditcardfree]

Very impressive that you have made such progress, even while unemployed. Good luck with the job search.

[sofocused978]

Alright a few weeks ago I got around to paying off the Circuit City card so that is a zero balance. I did buy a plane ticket though on my discover card so I have a balance on there for the moment and will be paid off when it comes due. Down to 2 bills

Credit Card 1- $18218
Credit Card 2- $340

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Sell the motorcyle and get debt free faster?

[techguru]

Don't fall into the trap of getting rich quick. Very dangerous. Now is a bad time for you because you are vulnerable. Be careful.

[sofocused978]

Thought I would go ahead and update this thread. Still out of work, thank god for UI. As of today I have paid off everything except for Credit Card #1. I really need to start hammering away at that and get it behind me but it's gonna take a lil while. Still feels good to have made quite a bit of progress here though.

I'm still sitting on a about $3k in an emergency fund and have another $1k kicking around in my checking account.

Credit Card #1- $17499 @ 5.9%

I will more than likely be selling my motorcycle in the fall.

[creditcardfree]

Great job on the debt pay down, even while unemployed. I wish you luck in finding employment soon, too.

Wouldn't the motorcycle sell faster and for more money while the weather is warm? It may depend on where you are located.

[elessar78]

You rock! Paying down debt while you're unemployed is truly amazing. Your story motivates me to keep focused, so keep sending updates!

[anonymous_saver]

I like the idea of selling the bike and use the proceeds to pay down the credit card debt. Especially because I'm sure it's hard to be unemployed and knowing you have $17k CC debt.

Or even better, sell the car and the bike, and take public transportation. It's very cheap, and worth it if you have that available!

[sofocused978]

Time for an update

I response to your post anonymous_saver there is no public transportation in my area so selling my car is out of the question. I did go ahead and put my motorcycle on craigslist but it seems like people are basically giving their motorcycles away due to hardships and selling for alot less than I am will to part with my bike for. Also my post didn't make it sound like I was very motivated to sell so I haven't reposted in the classifieds.

The other day I decided I would do away with my cell phone contract with Sprint/Nextel(been more than 2 years so no cancellation fees). I rarely use my phone for more than 20 minutes a week so that $50 bill every month is a waste of cash. I did some research and it seemed like a T-Mobile prepaid would be the way to go. Went to a local kiosk at the mall and they wanted to charge me over $100 for a stupid prepaid phone that was only $19 on the TMobile website, so I went home and ordered the phone from the web and it included 3 months of $10 refills, with free shipping. Also got it thru Bing so getting 35% cashback on that purchase. Score. Should be here in the next couple days so once it arrives I will have my # ported to Tmobile and close my Sprint account. Buh bye cell phone bill.

Unfortunately I am still unemployed....freaking only had 2 interviews since the beginning of the year. Nice huh? As it stands right now here is what I'm working with.

Checking- $2800
Emergency Fund- $3000

Credit Card 1- $17286

Monthly Bills

Credit Card 1- $263(been shipping 300/month)
Insurance- $160
Rent- $300


I really need to start hammering away at that friggen last credit card thats on my back. The $100/month in interest is killing me.