Yay, paid down credit card debt!

[Anonymous]

Since this anonymous, I just want to say that I'm really proud of my husband and I for paying down $25k of cc debt. (I don't really want to admit this to anyone in person...) We're not totally at zero yet, but we will be next month, and the month after that we'll pay off our car. There is a light at the end of the tunnel!

[Anonymous]

We have about the same amount of CC debt. What did you do to get out?

[Anonymous]

Go you!

[Anonymous]

I'm a few months away from paying off a $30k debt. So liberating!

[Anonymous]

Congratulations! Any tips you'd like to share? I could definitely use them.

[Anonymous]

Fantastic!

[Anonymous]

CONGRATULATIONS !!!! The noose is loose.

There is nothing like debt freedom. The stress it relieves is incredible. Been debt free for 10 years and know how you feel. Good job !

[Anonymous]

We paid off $30K as well. It is the BEST feeling. Way to go.

[Anonymous]

We are expecting a small bundle of cash in the new year and expect to pay off $30K as well. Congratulations - hopefully, I can say the same in a few month!

[Anonymous]

OP here: Thanks everyone. It does feel great. I think the hardest part was just owning up to the fact that we had to deal with the problem, particularly as a team. But since a couple people asked, here's a couple of things we did: we had been paying a little extra on our car payment, to the effect that we didn't actually owe anything for many months - as opposed to continuing to make payments, we stopped, which freed up $500 a month for about six months. We refinanced and lowered our mortgage by $600, but due to the timing of it, we didn't have to make payments for 2 months ($5000), we submitted for FSA and dependent care savings reimbursements (total of about $4000).

That was the easy stuff - the hard part was the spending. We had been using mint.com for a while, but never really checked in on it (probably because it was too painful), so once we fully owned the problem, we started checking it every day. We looked at the spending as a challenge in "how low can you go?" We ate from the pantry/freezer and for a couple of months our grocery budget went from $1100 to $500, its probably stabilized around $700 now (3 adults, one child). For one month we totally gave up all coffee shops and brought our lunches every day. That helped us break the habit and establish new ones. Now we aren't quite so militant, but it has significantly reduced from former levels. We used to be Amazon Prime junkies. Now before we purchase anything that's not an absolute necessity (diapers), we check with each other. This has significantly reduced impulse buys. Anyway, this is what worked for us.

[Anonymous]

I went from 38k to 20k, and it feels like $0.Luckily the interest runs only about $110 a month on the $20k, for now.

[Anonymous]

We had $7,000 credit card debt on $40,000 HHI - 20 years ago.

It took is a year to get out of debt and we never went back to being in debt again. We were pretty hand-to-mouth at that time. So there was not much we could cut out. The best part was that we were young and did not have kids. This is how we got out of debt.

All meals cooked at home - grocery was around $200 a month even then.
DH car-pooled to go to work. (We had only one car)
No cable, newspaper etc.
No eating out, movies etc.
No new clothes (except what was needed for DH to go to work in)
Not buying a single thing for the house.
Not buying cleaning supplies and cleaning everything with just - laundry detergent, dish-washing detergent, dishwasher detergent and vinegar. I so wanted to buy Windex to clean my windows.

Made 2 payments every month on each bill. One to pay off the minimum and the expenditure for the month. And another at the end of the month to pay down one card at a time.

We knew we should have paid the CC with the highest interest rate first, but psychologically it was more encouraging to payoff the ones that had the lowest balance. Anyways, our credit scores soared after that. And we never ever went back to that state again.

Useful lesson. I am glad it happened early in our lives - within first year of marriage.

[Anonymous]

Way to go!

[Anonymous]

That's awesome! I'm working on 8-9$ k right now! It's not too bad trying to not spend but this is after a decade of debt.

The best advice is really acknowledging you have a problem. I denied it for so long and now that I really know its bad, I have to watch what I spend.

Trying to find freelance work helps too! And whenever I get extra money I use it right away to pay my cc!

[Anonymous]

I am very close behind you OP. I can't wait to be completely and totally debt free! Then I can start saving for a house.