Tuesday, November 16, 2010

#15: Pay off credit cards. COMPLETED

Remember when I did this?

Seven months later (almost to the day), amazingly, the second credit card is paid off, meaning wee ol' number 15 is completed.

Honestly, I'm not certain I believe it.

For longer than I care to think about, I would pay a little extra here, a little extra there,The Husband would give me a sizable cash gift to help, but we would never really see much (downward) movement on those balances. And I got discouraged. Because I had never been one to carry a balance on my cards, let alone the ginormous (to me) balances that they had accumulated.

I was defeated, practically convinced that nothing, save for winning the lottery, could bring those big numbers down to a little number-- my beloved zero.

But then I got mad. Mad at one credit card company in particular, which kept switching my statement dates and payment due dates, thereby accumulating a greater balance. Mad at myself for not being persistent enough to just pay them off already.

I talked with the The Husband to see what, if anything, he could take off my financial plate to make this work. I created a real-live, honest-to-goodness budget, with the goal of finding unnecessary expenses that I could do without and, instead, put that money towards finally (finally!) paying off that stooopid debt.

I paid the minimum on one card (bigger one) and put anything unspent towards the other (slightly smaller one). And it worked! This past April, I paid off my first credit card. Phew.

Then, after discussing the pros/cons with The Husband until I was blue in the face, I transferred the balance from the remaining card to the then only paid off card. And, put everything (and I mean everything) I could towards that new balance.

For seven months.

My hair has gone un-trimmed, un-highlighted. My previous love of starbucks is, surprisingly, extinguished. I've learned how to make a decent cup o' joe with my office machine. My belly misses sushi like you would not believe.

But, these are all first world problems, so who am I to complain?

Oh, and I'm credit card debt free. :-)

3 comments:

Lena said...

so excited for you. you are one strong lady.

PattyAnn said...

way to go! that's really huge! now you need to reward yourself ;)

ashley-cita said...

Thank you, lovelies!
It's a wonderful and exciting thing... :-)