Debt Finally Under $20K

I apologize again for the length of time between updates. I hope to get more detailed as I pay further attention to income and debt reduction. We went over-budget during the month of August. A large part of that was due to the purchase of school clothes and supplies, and the purchase of 2 new pairs of eye glasses. We also had most of the family's medical and dental check-ups in August- which ended up costing around $200 just for the co-pays. Despite all of that, we were able to make a hefty payment toward our debt on September 1st.

I am paid once a month, but my husband is paid every other week. It turns out that he had 3 paydays during the month of August. The entire third paycheck, and our other extra money (because we have no more daycare expenses) went to debt repayment. Our debt is now below $20K. $19,999.99 to be exact...I had to throw that extra penny in, and vow never to go above $20K again.

We're steadily working at the Bank of America credit card now...I hope it will be paid off by the end of 2008. We will then focus on the credit union credit card, and then finally the student loan. I graduated college 10 years ago, and hate the fact that I'm still paying for it!

This fall, we have a family wedding coming up, so that will cost us a bit (clothes, gifts, etc). Our daughter entered public school, so the money that was going to daycare will now go toward debt reduction...this will really speed up the process. I have a few items to sell on Craigslist, and we're all working to be as frugal as possible. I'm becoming a coupon clipper and being really careful about the grocery budget- which is one of our bigger expenses.

We were able to put $10K toward debt payoff since last September when I started this blog. I hope we will be able to put a lot more money into our debt reduction, and be debt free (except for the mortgage) in less than a year.