January 20, 2008
I was reading the DIS Budget Board and opened a thread called “Debt Reducers” I started reading and decided to make a list of all my outstanding debt for everything and everyone I owed money.
I wasn’t having trouble paying my bills I have/had always paid more than the minimum payments but I wasn’t paying them down either, I just kept charging away paying the interest, my highest interest rate was one card at 12.9%, two cards at 9.9% one card at 3.9%.
My four credit cards were nowhere near being maxed out because I have very high credit limits. Yet I started reading about the credit card companies going through and cutting customer’s credit limits and raising interest rates for no reason. I started worrying knowing that I was carrying way too much debt; if they razed my interest rates I would never be able to pay everything off.
On the four credit cards I owed $42,231.20 the highest balance was on the 3.9% card and that rate was good until it was paid-in-full. The next highest was on the 12.9% which was at the higher rate because I had consolidated two smaller cards six months before at 0% when the offer ended they raised my rate from 8.9% to 12.9% so now you know why I was so worried….
I also still owed $3,500.00 on my second DVC contract and as it was January, so I owed my DVC dues for 2 contracts total $1,700.00 added to my overall debt.
I was looking at a little over $47,000.00 in debt….I was paying $325.06 in interest each month.
What did I do….I FREAKED OUT.
I put everything down on Excel and started my journey to freedom from debt.
The first thing I did was to stop charging on all but one credit card with great rewards, I never charged anything I couldn’t pay off at the end of the billing cycle for that month. I didn’t stop using my cards I just didn’t want the credit card companies to use me. In fact this cut my spending because I was always checking my balances. I cut every expense I could; I washed dishes by hand, hung laundry to dry, adjusted thermostats, and replaced light bulbs. I tried every money saving tip I read about here on the DIS. It all helped.
I concentrated on paying off the 12.9% card because of the interest charges and my DVC contract. I paid my DVC contract off in November 2008 and at the end of 2008 I was down to $34,671.54 on my cards.
I just kept paying and charting my progress through 2009 didn’t make much of a dent the overall balance this year I just wasn’t adding any new debt…long and boring.
In September 2010 I sent my last payment on the 12.9% card, it took me 33 months but it was $00.00 balance…At the end of 2010 my debt was now down to $12,127.75 and my monthly interest was under $60.00.
In December 2011 I only had one credit card with a balance the 3.9% card balance $5,216.51. I should have had this paid off earlier in the year but my husband retired and in May we took a month and traveled. Trip was paid for with cash, we did use a credit card put it was paid in full before the monthly bill was posted.
In February 2012 I paid the last card in full. So after 3 years and 1 month I was completely out of debt.
Summary:
If it wasn’t for the DIS thread I’m not sure when/if I would have started working on my personal debt.
There were months when I really didn’t see much progress. (I just wasn’t adding new debt any longer)
It took 3 years but it was so worth it.
I now have to make sure I make purchases on my credit cards every few months to keep them active, I was lucky none of my credit limits were ever cut and none of the credit card companies raised my interest rates.
You are all doing great; you have acknowledged the debt and are working on becoming DEBT FREE. It might seem to take forever but remember you didn’t get into debt overnight, so just keep chugging along each month.
You can do this, I did.
PS: I posted the dollar amounts because they were so high. (My stupidity) I wanted to share because if I hadn't started working on this I'm not sure just how much debt I would have run up.
I'm looking for a second job though - something I can do a few days/nights a week in amongst my regular consulting job, and put all the money from it straight into my debt. 
I already have my budget and my debt snowball sheets printed and filled out, having them online too won't make much difference and honestly I'm more likely to remember to fill out the paper versions because they're stuck on my wall. That, and it seems a lot of people there are very... um... opinionated? 
SO mad at myself. Apparently when I did my bills a couple of weeks ago, I logged payments to my credit cards in my register, but then never went to actually make the payments (I do these online). It was 3 different credit cards. So mad at myself right now!
I even wrote to them & pleaded to lower it but I think I had missed a payment 6 mos prior so they really stuck it to me. Now I schedule multiple payments in advance in case life gets hectic. Right now all our payments (mortgage, truck, cc, 
