Small update for me. Got my new zero transfer card. Got our largest balance transferred over and I started the process to transfer over our next largest. We'll pay the balance for two months, then transfer the balance of our last card over and all our balances will be on that card. My husband is continuing to use his high limit card (the largest balance card) but that is budgeted as thought it's being used from our debit card, lunches and gas) and will be paid off each month). Once the balance is under 50% on the zero interest card, we will pay off the balance again on his card and move all regular spending to the zero interest card and leave that as our primary card because of the lower interest rate.
I also paid off a credit card in full yesterday. Balance was 704. Our total credit card debt is down now from $11,400 to $10,900.
All cards but my debit cards have been out of my wallet for over a week now and I'm OK with that. I want this so bad. Once the balance is at 0 I can use the money I was using trying to keep the cards under control to finish paying for our Disney Christmas 2019 trip and then an emergency fund. But you guys have me nervous about tax time!
I went back through my posts to find my last update since I am ready with a new one and I guess it's been a while, but it's also kind of nice to see that even though in this time lapse we have back slid and had a few issues come up (sick kid - not sick sick just a visit to the IMM care and some meds, car issues and a bit of over spend) we still come out a little ahead.
Our total credit card debt is down from 10,900 to 10,600
Current balances are
300/8800 (this is my husband's regular use card, we pay this off each month)
7800/10000* Int free until 12/2019
2500/12500* Int free until 5/2020
*Interest free cards that we have transferred all balances to from previous higher interest cards. I used them to meet the spend bonus by using them as debit cards and then paying them from our budget line items from our account. I am no longer using them for daily use).
I'll remind you of my goals (not necessarily in any specific order, but if I have to pay for the trip out of paychecks or bonuses before all the CC debt is paid off for example, I am fine with that).
Pay off credit card debt
Have emergency savings
Pay for 12/19 Disney trip without incurring new debt
Buy house in 2020/2021
Build longer term savings (several months of expenses)
This was bonus time (quarterly) and it was large so I actually have an additional $2,000 in play.
Should I use that money to...
1. For my emergency savings, and have a small piece of mind that I have a little safety net just in case.
2. Throw the extra at the credit cards (I am not using the no interest cards while dumping debt).
We usually make a $1000 dent a month on our balances when things are running mostly smoothly, and we do have about 3k coming in April from our taxes as well. I am pretty confident that we'll have our credit card debt eliminated by July, and that's if we continue two steps forward one step back. It could be as early as May if we do very well.