A Satisfying Week

Yesterday morning I started my day by paying off two credits and putting a hefty “donation” into the kids’ savings accounts. That’s a satisfying way to start the day!

As you know, I’m on a mission to become debt-free. I’m not necessarily following the Dave Ramsay way of thinking, but rather am just concentrating on paying down debt and not charging stuff anymore. I try to pay cash or debit unless the purchase would gain me significant miles on my Visa. I started this new mode of spending in November or December of 2007 and it has worked well. I am not NEARLY the consumer that I was 2 1/2 years ago.

Denis and I each carry three credit cards of various balances. We came into some money last week thanks to a generous gift, and after some brief debate we have elected to put almost 70% of it towards debt. This will allow us to pay off the three lowest balances and 2/3rds of a fourth, which should be paid off by the summer.

I’ve got a financial spreadsheet that I have been using to calculation debt reduction timelines, and if we continue as we are, we should be completely debt-free (except for the mortgage) by July 2012. THAT is an exciting prospect!!!

I’ve NEVER been debt-free in my adult life. I made the mistake out of college of thinking that credit cards = free money. I also learned the hard way that it’s not (read: almost got my car repo’d, had a horrible credit report for seven years due to 9-10 months in a row of late payments). So to have the end in sight – 2 years! – is something I thought would never happen!