Watching My Debt

I’m so excited.  Yesterday, I transferred the final payment for my personal line of credit.  This LOC was originally my overdraft protection LOC that had worked it’s way up to $6000 at 21%.    Today, it is non-existent.

We started to pay down debt on April 15th, 2009.   Since that time, we have paid off  $22, 370.70 of our debt.   That isn’t $22,370.00 in payments, that is a $22k reduction in our total debt!   By my calculations, we have made approximately $28,000 in payments to get that reduction.  Next week, we cross the line for 25% of debt eliminated.  This is a good day.

Over the last 14 months, we’ve settled into much more responsible spending and saving habits.   It no longer feels like we’re sacrificing our lifestyle.   We’ve built up a useful emergency fund and set aside money for some things that we know are coming, like braces for my son.   In 6 weeks, we are taking our first debt-less vacation.

Now, we start on the long slog to the end.   We have 3 debts left to pay:  Our last car loan(ever!),  one credit card which was an accumulation of pretending we were making progress on our debt by combining many debts onto one card, and finally, our mortgage.    The car will be paid by the end of the year.  When summer childcare expenses are over, we’ll be making triple payments until it is gone.    After that, we have a long, slow couple of years paying off the credit card.

It hasn’t always been easy, but right now, it feels good to look at the progress we’ve made.

Update:  This post has been included in the Carnival of Debt Reduction.