You could plug in the cc balance on an interest calculator and see how much interest you'll pay in the next X months (time you'd spend paying it off without paying it off with short term savings). If the interest amount is something you'd happily pay to keep your short term savings available, then don't pay off the card. If it's more than you're willing to pay, pay off the card and build up your savings with the cc min as you mentioned.
, etc. Anything that ends up being cheaper than expected will go to pay the ccs more quickly.
a little stuff for the new house (renting though so no big purchases planned) - door mats, curtains, plants, etc. - I'm selling tons of stuff on facebook so I'm thinking I can only buy new stuff with half the money from the junk I sell that I must have "needed" at one point.
I just figured out that we can pay off our nearly $18K credit cards in 5 months!
I checked and rechecked and rechecked then held my breath and made a $1260 payment to each of my 3 ccs.
1K mini emergency fund - funded just now!
Car loan - paid off this week!
March extra cc payments - done!
I left about $500 wiggle room in our budget each month since we just moved and I still need to register our cars, pay double price for car insurance
We "need"
The other half of the money will go toward our as-yet-undecided-upon summer vacation, plus DH's 3rd check in May will go toward vacation.
I just figured out that we can pay off our nearly $18K credit cards in 5 months! I checked and rechecked and rechecked then held my breath and made a $1260 payment to each of my 3 ccs. 1K mini emergency fund - funded just now! Car loan - paid off this week! March extra cc payments - done! I left about $500 wiggle room in our budget each month since we just moved and I still need to register our cars, pay double price for car insurance
I love this thread. It's so inspiring!
So sorry to hear this princess. We are all here for support - whatever you need (or venting support!). Maybe you could stay with someone for a while? Atleast till you find something. Is he atleast being reasonable and not kicking you guys out on the street?
I have a question for all of you doing the snowball thing. When you first set out a plan, they recommend you make minimum payments on all bills except the one you're currently attacking, the one with the smallest balance. As time goes on though, the balance on all of them lower, and then the minimum payments continue to lower also. Do you adjust your minimum payment down lower and put the difference toward the bill you're attacking or do you keep paying what you originally listed as the minimum payment? For example, when I first started my Disney visa minimum was $132. Now it's only $99 but I won't start attacking that card until late May. So should I stick with sending $132 consistently every month? Or send $99 and send the other $33 to the card I'm paying off now? Late May isn't very far from now but I won't start working on my other card until Oct and the last one next March. This doesn't apply to dh's truck payment of course, that stays the same throughout. I hope I'm making sense; it's getting past my bedtime.
I have a question for all of you doing the snowball thing. When you first set out a plan, they recommend you make minimum payments on all bills except the one you're currently attacking, the one with the smallest balance. As time goes on though, the balance on all of them lower, and then the minimum payments continue to lower also. Do you adjust your minimum payment down lower and put the difference toward the bill you're attacking or do you keep paying what you originally listed as the minimum payment? For example, when I first started my Disney visa minimum was $132. Now it's only $99 but I won't start attacking that card until late May. So should I stick with sending $132 consistently every month? Or send $99 and send the other $33 to the card I'm paying off now? Late May isn't very far from now but I won't start working on my other card until Oct and the last one next March. This doesn't apply to dh's truck payment of course, that stays the same throughout. I hope I'm making sense; it's getting past my bedtime.
