Thursday, August 21, 2008

Third Week of August Update

I’m both excited and disappointed with this week.  If we hadn’t gotten our unexpected check, we might not have put anything against debt, with the extra trip out of town, etc.  Of course, my wife didn’t work last week, so that means that this week, there was no money to send from her income.  And even though the Revolution Money Exchange money came in, we had several expenses that required attention – gas, eating out, etc. took a lot more than I thought it would.

So, here’s our progression so far:

August Start:  $6,551.07

1st week: $6,107.07

2nd week: $5,662.07

3rd week: $5,019.13

So, total progress made:  $1,531.94, or $72.95 per day.

Without the extra $600, our debt would have decreased by less than $43.  I also thought that I was going to make the $5,000 mark this week with the extra, but it didn’t quite make it.  A statement came out, charged me interest, and pushed me just over the mark.  Next week’s update should have us down below that, although I’d like to see next week with somewhere in the range of $4,500.  My wife will get paid on Monday for this week, so that will help.  and I’ve got another week’s worth of debt reduction to go against it.

When we started, back in January of 2007, we were paying very, very little more than the minimums.  Since that time, We’re now in a position where we can make payments at about $100 per week over the minimums.  That means that our total debt reduction strategy is somewhere around $300 per week.  If we stayed on this plan, we could be out of debt in just under 3 and a half more years, making my $78,000 debt paid off in a 5 year plan, or at a rate of over $15,000 a year.

Of course, the house, if it goes through, will change all of that.  But still, it is exciting to see how close we are right now…

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