Sunday, September 26, 2010

Consumer Debt Free by November 2011?

I was playing around with Bankrate's debt pay down calculator yesterday, and it looks we just might have ALL of our consumer debt gone by November of 2011. This requires us to pay $800 extra EVERY month to it. $800 is a stretch some months, other months not so much. It just depends on how much overtime DH has, what project I am working on, and how much we are spending elsewhere.
I am going to be honest. DH and I spend WAY too much on vacations, eating out, and gifts. For our week long cruise we went on this year, our 3 day beach trip with my mom, and our 5 day beach trip, we spent about $3700. Yeah, that could have more than knocked out a credit card! Even as I write this though, I just can't say I regret doing it. We had a fantastic time on our cruise, and it was our last big vacation for a while with just the two of us. I have a lot of great memories from it, and I would definitely do it all over again. The cruise is where about $2500 of our vacation money was spent. The two beach trips were much more frugal and again, we had a blast both times. Next year, I am setting the annual budget at $2000. This can pay for a 5 day cruise and a beach trip.
Anyway, here is the budget I am looking at from October 2010 to November 2011.
Mortgage 855
Power 129
TV/Internet 133
Phone (includes my Dad's line) 90
Car Minimum 285
Citi Minimum 150
BOA Minimum 100
Sallie Mae Student Loan 100
Wells Fargo Student Loan 130
DH Student Loan 129
Food 400
Gas 140
Eat out 100
Vacation 167
Gifts 150
Fun 100
Misc. 150
Extra to debt 800
IRA for Me 129
Life Insurance 15
Water Bill 20
Campus Loan 80
Car Insurance. 95

4447


I don't think I forgot anything. We've just got to stick to the numbers, and I have to be faithful about tracking everything.

No comments:

Post a Comment