Do you know how much you pay in interest every month to service your debts? I was calculating how much debt we had paid off last month, and I was disheartened to see the amount was less than $600. I knew we had paid more than that (it felt like we had paid A LOT more than that), so I decided to add up how much interest we are paying every month.
Of course, we all know we pay interest on our debts, but do you know exactly how much? It is so easy to just look at the overall debt total and the monthly payment, without giving thought to how much interest is paid.
Looking at the amount of interest you are paying every month can be painful!
Last month we paid $251.38 in interest, and that is not even including my husband’s two small student loans that aren’t in repayment yet. (One is not accruing interest, but the other is.) Over the course of a year, that is over $3,000 in interest! Just think of what we could do with an extra $3k in our budget!
If you haven’t done so, I encourage you to add up how much interest you are paying.
Then, get mad.
Get mad at the debt and the money slipping through your fingers to pay interest charges and minimum payments, and get gazelle intense. Snowflaking makes a huge difference. Any extra amount you can put on your debt, no matter how small, helps you knock down the amount you pay in interest. It is worth the fight!
Our Progress
I had hoped to put most of our tax refund on our debt, but my husband would prefer that we prepay Japanese school for both of our kids for the summer. As much as I would like to be rid of our small business credit card balance, I am in agreement with him. Our emergency fund is small, and I am still losing and gaining jobs as I have for the last two months. My income feels very unstable right now, and having the kids’ summer school paid for upfront will take some pressure off.
Therefore, I am going to tackle the business credit card debt by selling more things, keeping a strict budget, and putting the money from any “extra” jobs I get this month toward snowflakes.
Writing/V.A. Job: $84
In February I earmarked one of my weekly jobs strictly for debt repayment, and like last week, I was once again able to use the money for that purpose.
We were able to snowflake $84 this week. In the last 27 weeks since we have gotten gazelle intense, we have “found” $6,168.48 to snowflake!
How did you do this week? Feel free to link up and share your progress.
You bring up a very good point! I need to bite the bullet and figure my interest too. these are the things I should have been thinking about before the swipe of the CC! Yikes! thanks for keeping me on my toes with this debt!!!!!!!
I’ve been thinking more about interest recently because of the changes to federal student loans. The loans I receive for the upcoming school year will start accruing interest immediately, instead of being deferred until 6 months after I graduate. So I’ve had to think about how I will pay them first with the funds I have already saved, and continue to save to pay of the last year’s loans (which still have deferred interest). It’s kind of a silly thing to juggle, but if I avoid paying interest, I am happy with it.
No snowflaking this week either. I have a couple of pairs of dance shoes listed on Craigslist, and just realized I could add my graduation gowns as well — ’tis the season!
Thanks for the suggestion. I have some of my son’s outgrown dance shoes to sell.
I was just sitting her thinking of what I needed to get done today. I was thinking about calling my credit cards to see if I could get the interest rates lowered, but that was on the bottom of the list. If I didn’t get around to it, no big deal. But after reading this, I am now determined to call at least a couple of them to see if they will lower the interest rates.
Let me know if they negotiate with you and how much they lower your rates.