As a member of the high balance club, starting the May balances-

April 4 credit cards $30,304

 May 4 credit cards $31,069

increase in balances of $765, mostly due to gas purchases to get dh to tech school

April 3 home loans $249,346

May 3 home loans $248,921

decrease in home debt $425

Total increase in debt, $340, not so bad on the fourth month of unemployment.   I guess I was kind of anticipating this.  Would like to pay off some with the rebate check, but will need that for living expenses.  Dh is done with school, so that should help some. Hope to stay even for June, I would be happy to post a zero reduction next month after the past one! 

Share your debt pay off progress this month! If you have questions or tips for the others, please share those as well.

Debt balances:

I include the mortgage because it is my desire to eradicate that debt as well.  

Car loan :                1313

Credit Card:            4836

Mortgage:            145600

This month, to make our money stretch further, we are writing down ALL variable expenses each day so that when we hit the budgeted amount, we stop! We have weeks we don't come close to spending our allotted amount now that we plan ahead for expenses. (which seems to just balance out the weeks with vet or doctor bills).

I have also found that once we made the joint decision to pay off debts and beef up savings, we felt such peace and relief, that I had people offering me jobs and my home business (teaching writing classes online, selling my own writing books) has grown exponentially. it's almost like jobs, opportunities and more income found me when I stopped panicking about our finances. Of course, there is a lot of work involved, but somehow the work is joyful, knowing that I am making my family more secure, and our retirement plans in 9 years more real.

We are on schedule to having the car and credit card paid off by January 2009, and we pay an extra $200 each month to the mortgage and the difference is already showing in terms of lowered interest payments and more $ going to the principal.

It's not easy - I cannot justify traveling to NYC to visit my daughter this summer (although I am trying to get her to come see me by paying for her train ticket.) Nor will we have as much free time this summer b/c I will be working 3 jobs this summer with only Sundays off. But I will say being able to pay ALL bills ON TIME is wonderfully freeing.

peace, peace, peace.

pam

Mortgage: $97,000 +

Credit Card: $1200

We are going to pay off the credit card debt with our stimulus check and have $600 left over for savings! Our mortgage will be our only large debt. Our $500 a month that was going toward credit card debt will be put into savings for all those wonderful yearly expenses that crop up. Our $1000 emergency fund will be fully funded very soon.

Next, my plan is to take the $500 that had been used for credit card debt and start the 3-6 months of living expenses account.

Good luck to everyone paying down credit card and other debt! 

 I began May with $2,355.36 in debt,

Payment today of $313.32 to the truck brings us to $2042.04 in debt.

Our budgets/debts remain the same as aways for the moment.  The mortgage does down every month at least!   We don't have car payments.

 Like Pamelaw I started May 1 writing down every penny. Plus my challenge to myself to stay out of thrift stores (have done that so far) and getting my mom on board with no more toys for may too.

We did ok in April but will do even better in May!  Goal for may is to pay a minimum of $902 towards car and credit card debt.  I think we can do better than that though-already I have about $75 from extra work and selling a few things on ebay to send off.  Plus DH has a couple of extra jobs lined up for May.  And our tax rebate-though we will hold it in savings until our rental property has a tenant (should have in the next week or so).

So I am currently working on my Visa bill.  Starting May with balance of $4223.63.

I added up our total debt (with and without mortgage) and we are still charter members of the high balance club here but I feel very encouraged as we have been making progress; I compared our balances from the start of the year to now and we have reduce credit car balance by over $2000 since Jan.  Wish it was more but seeing that we are making progress encourages me to push further.

 Started May owing $1500. to Dr. Paid $200 so far so balance now $1300. Babs

 As you all can see from our ticker we are also in the high debt club!  (Especially since that number does not include the mortgage!.)  Our number did decrease though.   Yet we have a plan for the future.   We need to fix DH's car, this month.  Yet afterwards we are going to focus on a few things.  

1. Finance DH's professional licensing.  It will be about 300.00, but will allow him to take side jobs where he can charge 25-45 an hour.  This will mostly be done by recycling scrap metal that DH collects off the job sites.  We have about 200 left to go.
   
2. Use the money from the side jobs to pay for realtors school for me.  It will cost 445.  If I sell one house, I will more than recoup the costs.  And if I sell only two houses a year, I will meet to exceed my current part time income.  When the market picks up (eventually , I will be able to do even better, plus I have been interested for a long time)  I will also keep my current part-time job until I sell a house or two.
   
3. Save $25 out of every paycheck towards the baby emergency fund, while still paying down debt.  I need to see debt going down in order to encourage me to stay in a job I'm not crazy about. Yet we need some in savings too.  I figure 25 is a rather painless amount.  Plus it will equal about 150 a month.
4. Save at least 700 by middle August in order to pay for DH's next semester of school, so we will not have more student loans.
5. Buy one roll of insulation from each paycheck to hopefully be able to reinsulate the attic before fall.
6. I want to find a w ay to grocery shop more efficiently now that I have gone back to work and our needs have changed.
   

 Amy- excited about your school, let us know how you change your grocery shopping.