A Debt Repayment Swoon

For those of you that have been reading for a while (thanks!) I’m sure that you’ve noticed I haven’t been making that much progress with my debt, at least compared to what I was doing before hand.  From December – March (4 months) my total debt paydown was $2,573 and for the 4 months prior to that, it was $4,053.

This is a really interesting development, and one that I have been feeling a bit and noticed recently.  I’ve been really looking at it and while there have been a few things that I’ve spent money on (birthday gifts for my special someone, H) and a bit more commuting to wrap everything up at both of my other jobs, most was just plain me playing fast and loose (and sloppy) with the procedures that I had been following.  In my own defense, I have been saving more

As of right now, that time has ended, and I’ve been trying to think of ways to get back the excitement that I’ve had in the past for paying down my debt.  I think that a large amount paid down will be the success that I’d need to get motivated again.  Thankfully switching jobs provided me with just an opportunity.

Because I didnt take any time off between switching jobs (which in retrospect may have not been the best idea), I’m going to get 3 paychecks come april 1.  Because I live on only a small portion of my income, I can put most of these to very, very good use.  One of these is the final paycheck from one of my jobs, and the other is the payout for my unused vacation days.  The unused vacation days came in at slightly above 2 weeks, so that will basically be a full paycheck as well.

Along with those 2 things, I was able to get a bit of a raise with my new position (as well as the gas savings), and I’ll be getting paid monthly there, but will get a check for my first 2 weeks.  I was waiting for this from the day that I decided to leave my old job, because I wasn’t sure if I would get paid in april, or would get a larger check in may.  I decided to hold on to last months debt payment, in anticipation of the latter situation, but now that I know that’s not what’s happening, I can make a nice debt payment once these checks come in.

Those things, coupled with my reduced spending lately should provide me with enough dry powder to completely knock out (or come very close) my small student loan that I had hoped to pay off at the end of march.  Though it wont happen exactly as soon as I planned, but a debt free date is always going to move (either forward or backward) and  that should be expected.  What’s important in this journey is that you dont give up.

So I’m going to keep at it, and am attacking my debt with renewed vigor.  I’ll be able to make a big payment sometime soon (I’m waiting for 1 final check from one of my old jobs) and will hopefully be able to make a payment big enough to knock out the student loan I’m currently snowballing.

Tagged as: debt, debt free, debt payoff

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