REAL total. Am, mad, sad, etc.
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REAL total. Am, mad, sad, etc.
| Thu, 07-10-2008 - 2:58pm |
Good afternoon ladies. Well, it has taken me most of the morning to go thru ALL of the online statements, figuring out interest rates, amounts owed, what stupid moves we have done,

If I had 3,000 to put on bills this is what I would do.
(13) DH home depot 500.00 You never put the payment down but guessing at
I totally agree with Mary Ann. While I was reading your post, I wrote down the same bills that she is suggesting you pay with the $3,000. By eliminating those smaller, higher interest bills, you'll free up extra money for the BIG one. If you cut up those credit cards to eliminate the temptation to charge more them, you'll have fewer bills to open, statements to file, and checks to write!
Mary Jo
It's easier to read if put into a spreadsheet like this:
I estimated your net income at 7,500/mo.
The way I see it is that if you can free up the funds from some payments by clearing the debt, its going to have a better impact long term than lumping all of the money into one debt that still wouldn't be paid off.
Ultimately, you need to decide which order you'd rather pay the debts in size or interest rate.
At this point in your lives, I think I would move to a joint account. You both deposit ALL you salary into the account. AND move on from there. You are married, so there really isn't an amount of debt for you and an amount of debt for your husband. You are in this together.
Decide together how much to save.
Decide together which bill to attack first.
Decide together how much each person will get each month for "blow money".
Then you are both working to a common goal, not just you worrying about it all.
HTH,
Megan
Hi and thanks for how to do it. Update:
l) Paid ahead on the car payment thru Sept '08
2) Paid off DH Kohl's.
3)Waiting on updated statement for the student loan so I can get payoff figure (there is no online link)
Most of the interest rates are fixed, with the exception of DH CC. I dont know the amount of the interest rate until next statement.
The one with the highest that I see is the DH Chase and Cap one, then my SL at 11%, so I want to get those paid off. That would free up $99 +$112 +100 (the Cap one is $100/month), or $300 I could put toward the others.
4) For now, I am only saving $400 per month not attempting $1000/month, so am trying to encourage DH to add to the joint account, since I addec $8K in the first place, and it is down to $1000. Thank you so much for setting up the sheet. I am a visual person and this really helps. WHIZ:)