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Browsing posts in: Work

Looking at Credit Card Debt Differently

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I am so excited to being on my way to getting to really tear into my debt. But I do believe I need to prioritize paying back my personal loans first, then the credit cards.  However, I’ve found a TikTok creator (not an affiliate link, just a link to the TikTok creator’s profile) that gave me a different way of looking at credit card debt. One that I enjoy.

And I thought I would try out her perspective on my existing credit card debt. Now she’s all about paying off the debt, but also takes into consideration the method and how it affects your credit score. (I used to be very concerned about my credit score, but since I have a house and a car and plenty of credit card debt, I don’t really think about it very often.)

I think her method fascinates me because it’s kind of like a game, and we all know I love money games and keeping this journey interesting.

Credit Card by Percentage

CardLimit89%69%49%29%9%February, 2024 Total
CC - Wander$1,650$1,451$1.139$809$473$149$1,735
CC - USAA$5,000$4,450$3,450$2,450$1,450$450$4,966
CC - Amazon$1,500$1,335$1,035$735$435$135$1,481
CC - Sams$1,000$890$690$490$290$90$1,133
CC - Frontier$3,700$3,293$2,553$1,813$1,073$333$3,676
CC - Apple$500Paid off every month
Total CC Debt$11,419$8,867$6,297$3,721$1,157$11,971

Let’s Talk About It

My take away from this is that instead of focusing on paying off one card at a time. Perhaps I should focus on paying down every one of my credit cards to each percentage level. Focus on one, then another until they are all at the next lowest level, and then start the cycle again.

I guess the question I have to ask myself is would that be as motivating as just paying one off at a time? Seeing them all go down pretty steadily versus just one at a time? And does one way versus the other make much financial difference?

What are your thoughts?

Unexpected Blessing

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Well, my goal of Two No Spend Months kind of flopped when my heat went out, my glasses broke, and so forth and so on. I didn’t exactly no spend. But I didn’t spend anything I didn’t HAVE TO!

Our Neighbors

I don’t know if I have written much about my neighbors here. When we first moved into our house, 4 of the 8 houses closest to us were rentals. Over the last, almost 7 years, there have been some changes. Now only 3 of them are rentals. But most of our neighbors are pretty up there in age. In fact, of the 5 non-rentals, 4 of them have been there longer than us. And we LOVE our long term neighbors and some of our newer neighbors as well.

However, the drawback to everyone having been here forever is that many of our neighbors are quite old. In fact, in the days between starting this post and now finishing it, one of them has died. His daughter called me today. (He’s the one who had run over my mailbox. I shared that, right?!?)

Anyways, as his health worsened we did what we could to help. We grocery shopped for him, answered his calls for help on whatever. I even got to climb through his bedroom window one day to let the EMTs in when they couldn’t find a house key. For the last couple of years, Gymnast worked on his yard. And we spent hours listening to him reminisce about  the “olden” days up in Illinois where he was from and raised his 5 children.

Unexpected Help

All that is to give some back story on how our cupboards and freezer got re-stocked. When he was admitted to the hospital for the last time and told that the end was imminent (heart issues,) he knew he would never come home again.

And he graciously had his grand-daughter clean out his food and give it to us and another neighbor. We received a freezer full of food – bread, meat, frozen meals, along with eggs, bread, and a few other canned items. Oh, and I failed to mention that he was Italian so this food is really good. I didn’t have to spend a dime on food for the previous two months.

I’m also confident that with a small re-stock in the next week or so, we can go another two No Spend months.

So this post is a gratitude post to our neighbor Mark. May he rest in peace.