Debt

October Update: $10,000 Debt Repayment

In June I announced my mission to pay off $9,888.00 in debt by the end of the year. I’m utilizing every means necessary to do it, including:

• Reducing weekly spending
• Re-starting my mystery shopping side hustle
• Pick up extra writing jobs
• Temporarily halt deposits into our emergency fund / savings

I just made my forth payment, and while I’ve come to the conclusion that I might not meet my goal, I’m working hard to get as close as I can. I’ll then follow through and finish it off in as few extra months as possible. Let’s take a look at how the last month has played out.

Minimum Monthly Payment

The minimum monthly payment for the current billing cycle was $80. The minimum payment was already factored into our monthly budget therefore no reduction in spending or extra income needed to cover this.

Suspension Of Saving

Until the debt is gone, we’re suspending our monthly contributions to our emergency fund / savings. This gives us an additional $500 to put towards the debt.

Reduction of Spending

We reduced our weekly entertainment spending by $100 per week, adding $400 to our debt repayment effort.

Mystery Shopping

Last month I did a mystery shopping job in which I had to go to a gas station, make a purchase between $25 and $35, then attempt to make the payment using an EMV enabled debit card. I had to take pictures of the card reader throughout the process. The payment for this was the cost of my purchase, which in my case was a tank of gas for my van plus $25 bonus. The total compensation ended up being $57 and change.

Extra Writing

I had one extra writing job that paid out this month worth $50. Add that to the debt reduction total!

Our debt payment this month breaks down as follow:

• Minimum payment : $80
• Suspension of Saving: $500
• Reduction of Spending: $400
• Mystery Shopping: $57
• Extra Writing Payment: $50

Total payment: $1087

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to put that entire amount towards the debt, as we had to pay the remainder of my son’s senior picture bill. We had set aside $200, but our total bill was $550 ($500 for the digital images, and $50 for the session). This meant we had to use $350 of our debt payment to pay the photographer.

Actual Total Debt Payment : $737

Thus far, I’ve made the following payments:

• July : $1208
• August: $937
• September: $1640
• October: $737

For a total debt repayment of $4522, leaving a balance of $5366 (remember, this debt is under a 0% interest credit card promotional offer). As mentioned, I may not be able to meet my goal of paying off the debt completely by the end of the year, but I’m definitely taking a big bite out of it, and I’m going to keep going until it’s gone!

Brought to you courtesy of Brock

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Brock Kernin

Brock is a software engineer by day and personal finance blogger at night. He is a fitness junkie and enjoys grilling and smoking meat. Married with two children,  Brock strives to improve his skills as a husband and father, and is always on the lookout to stretch his family’s budget as far as he can.