[leahcar54]

A tip that I think we all know but that it's hard to stay on top of is to pay your smallest debts first, for example if you have a $500 dentist bill but a 2k credit card bill, don't keep trying to pay extra on your credit card- of course you should pay your minimum each month but any extra you have - put to the dentist bill- you will feel great when you see how quickly that bill is paid off! and when you are done- don't think 'great now we have some extra 'going out' or 'entertainment' money- put whatever amount you were paying on your dentist bill toward your next smallest bill each week/month etc. My husband and i recently paid off our credit card bill (we were paying close to 100 a wk) and now we are putting that towards our car payment! We are hoping to get it paid off in 3 months! It 's such a rewarding feeling!

[amw1583]

I'm trying the same I have to get 3 loans paid off this year don't want to go into next year with these over my head. I'm excited I going have 12 payments left on my truck but I'm determined to pay my last payment in December hopefully things work out. Did you or your husband have to work any extra to have more money to send to the bills?

[keeperpoo]

Wouldn't it be best to try to pay off the highest interest bills first?

[5kidsmama]

I agree. another tip is when then cc bill comes in, immediately pay the minimum, you are paying interest each day, so if you pay the minimum, you will be 1. paying less interest in the longterm, and also 2. avoid a late fee by just forgetting the due date

I believe the OP is suggesting that by paying off the smallest debt you will feel rewarded and accomplished

[1NMMom]

Originally Posted by keeperpoo

Wouldn't it be best to try to pay off the highest interest bills first?

Yes, that was the way we were always told to do, but if you do it the way above you can usually get bills paid off a few months earlier.

[leahcar54]

Yes -I know that is what i thought too -I will let you know the example of our family.. we had close to 500 in dental bills (thankfully they let me pay when i couuld) , 2 k in credit card , and 3k on my car -
I had always paid at least 200 a month on my credit card but it was taking me FOREVER (im talking like over a year to get i t paid down)- by the end of the month i maybe had 50 dollars to put on it.. So i kept paying 100 to my credit card but instead paid the extra 100 to my dental bill..then as we got extra cash (my husband drives a lot for work and get mileage reimbursements -we used these checks to pay off dental bill too) -we would pay on the dental bill- i think we paid it off in less than a month..which opened up more money for the credit card bill... so now we were paying 400 a month on the cc and any extra we had- we ended up getting it paid off in 3-4 months which now means - we have 400 bucks plus our regular car payment to pay on the car payment.. i got my car in college and it was very cheap because i could only pay a little at the time *(about $162 a month) and since igot married we decided to double the payments.. so we have 320 (about) to our regular car payment plus the 400 we used to be paying on the credit card every month....which is close to 700 a month.. we also send the extra payments as a seperate payment and ask the company to 'apply to principal' to get the interest rates down. The only speed bump we have had is little extra costs that have come up that have prevented us from paying the extra money that we wanted. .for example my husband just accepted a police officer position and he has to provide his own weapon that has put us outt $500 so we had to take the money that would be going to the car to pay for that... he is also going to need an alignment and some other work for his car..which will total about 100 dollars so that is putting us behind..it is frustrating but i know if we stay on course and try not to do too much extra (such as going out to eat-buying 'fun stuff' ) we can get on track and get this paid off! We have a baby coming in July and i would like to have the car paid off at least two months ahead of time to put more into baby savings (day care is going to be expensive!)

Thanks for listening to my rambles

[lexco86]

If you pay off the lowest amount first, then you see results sooner..which makes you feel like you are doing great.Paying those with the highest interest makes sense because you save money that way.
I look at it that way I can pay an extra $25.00 to my credit card now or pay off a smaller bill and in five months start paying an extra $75..either way the important thing is to continue to pay off those debts whichever way works for you!!

[1NMMom]

Leahcar54
Even though there are times you can't pay extra on your car payment, you know you have that extra $$ to pay for the unexpected things (car repairs) and not having to put that on a credit card. It may take you a little longer to pay off your car, but you're not getting into more debt!!!

[texasdee]

We use Care Credit for large dental bills. The dentist office determines the promotion period but during the promotion period there is no interest on the loan. The trick is..it must be paid off during the promotion period or interest on the entire amount borrowed is due. So it is deferred interest, not interest free. My DH had to have a lot of dental work done, about $3600.00 worth. We put it on the card and if we pay it off within 18 months we pay no interest. So, our first priority each month is the Care Credit bill, then the credit card bill.

[Jaime]

Originally Posted by keeperpoo

Wouldn't it be best to try to pay off the highest interest bills first?

This is what I have done in the past, make sure I paid at least the minimum on all but pay the most towards the highest interest. I've also consolidated cc's when they had 0% apr deals w/ no balance transfer fees.

[leahcar54]

you're right - i am thankful God has allowed us to be fortunate enough to have that extra money around- i say thanks every day because there are so many people struggling right now.. we are lucky for everything we have and have to share what we have with others to say share God's good ness to us

[AnnoyinglyDomestic]

Even though it *kills* me not to pay off our highest interest rates debts first, we have found in the past couple of years that we have far more success paying off the smallest dollar amounts first. It's very liberating. LOL

[amw1583]

I know me and my husband keep talking about how nice next year going to be free of these three loans that total 800.00 a month. I think we are going to enjoy it my husband currently has a long commute to work and may take a job closet to know once we don't have those expense. Which may also mean more family time. I'm excited for 2012

[leahcar54]

Originally Posted by amw1583

I know me and my husband keep talking about how nice next year going to be free of these three loans that total 800.00 a month. I think we are going to enjoy it my husband currently has a long commute to work and may take a job closet to know once we don't have those expense. Which may also mean more family time. I'm excited for 2012

That's great! i know our school loans are a little over 800 a month right now i dont expect those to get paid off for some time - but i am a social worker - so at least for my federal loans- after ten years of service they ae 'supposed' to forgive them -but we will see! a girl can dream!

[leahcar54]

Originally Posted by amw1583

I'm trying the same I have to get 3 loans paid off this year don't want to go into next year with these over my head. I'm excited I going have 12 payments left on my truck but I'm determined to pay my last payment in December hopefully things work out. Did you or your husband have to work any extra to have more money to send to the bills?

Regarding your first post amw1583 -I work a city job so while i work over 40 hrs a week every week - there is no way i am geting paid more for it haha- good thing i love my job- But my husband- while he is in the process of trying to switch careers - he currently does IT work for a company but is contracted to General Electric- His actual company does have 'side jobs' from time to time - we are trying to get those jobs to save money for the baby fund and to pay bills- although this last job he did a 'trade' with his boss- He did the side work for her and in exchange- she is letting us put $145 +tip on the company tab at a fancy restaurant we have always wanted to go to but never had the money for-for valentines day! that was really exciting - but i definitely want to keep future jobs he may incur for bills or baby savings.. but it's nice to see that the barter system hasn't totally gone out of style! Not to mention -while he was doing the 'side work' it just happened to be for a local salon and they offered to give me and my husband salon tools (flat irons, dryers, curling irons-) at cost.. which is a double benefit! i havent tried it out yet because i don't want to take advantage- but we will see in the future!

[CWilliams9490]

I am also trying to put a dent in my credit card debt this year. So far I have paid off two credit cards and the goal is to keep them at zero and attack another credit card. I dont want to end the year in the same financial state.

[Robbo]

I think this is Dave Ramsey's "Snowballing Effect" and can be particularly helpful if you have a large number of debts to pay. It can be overwhelming to pay 10 different places every month and it can be even more difficult to work out a plan to get them all paid off together. If there are so many places, your money needs to be sent in so many directions that it can seem like you're never making progress. So if you take the smallest and send any extra money there (even if it's only a few bucks), you'll get that one paid off quickly and it will be less overwhelming to divide your money in 9 directions, even though in all probability the highest interest accounts are the ones you'll get to last.

I followed a similar procedure when my husband and I first got married - we had a bunch of old stuff to pay and a few ancient collections that needed to be handled. In several months I had more than a dozen small items paid off - gone! - and it really was a relief to not have to deal with so much. It also made it significantly easier to figure out a plan to pay off the rest - 2 credit cards, car & a few large medical bills - without having to find $10 in ten different places to keep all those people off my back.

Although once we got down to that point, I stuck to the payment plans I had worked out with the hospital & Dr.'s offices, and sent every extra penny we had to the car, then the credit cards because the medical bills weren't accruing interest... So I failed Ramsey's plan in that regard but in 14 months, we're down to like $300 on one credit card and $200 on one last Dr. bill so it worked out for me.

[leahcar54]

Originally Posted by Robbo

I think this is Dave Ramsey's "Snowballing Effect" and can be particularly helpful if you have a large number of debts to pay. It can be overwhelming to pay 10 different places every month and it can be even more difficult to work out a plan to get them all paid off together. If there are so many places, your money needs to be sent in so many directions that it can seem like you're never making progress. So if you take the smallest and send any extra money there (even if it's only a few bucks), you'll get that one paid off quickly and it will be less overwhelming to divide your money in 9 directions, even though in all probability the highest interest accounts are the ones you'll get to last.

I followed a similar procedure when my husband and I first got married - we had a bunch of old stuff to pay and a few ancient collections that needed to be handled. In several months I had more than a dozen small items paid off - gone! - and it really was a relief to not have to deal with so much. It also made it significantly easier to figure out a plan to pay off the rest - 2 credit cards, car & a few large medical bills - without having to find $10 in ten different places to keep all those people off my back.

Although once we got down to that point, I stuck to the payment plans I had worked out with the hospital & Dr.'s offices, and sent every extra penny we had to the car, then the credit cards because the medical bills weren't accruing interest... So I failed Ramsey's plan in that regard but in 14 months, we're down to like $300 on one credit card and $200 on one last Dr. bill so it worked out for me.

You know what - It is Dave Ramsey
They are doing Financial Peace University at my church- my husband insisted we didn't 'Need' that - but we did listen to the tips ppl told us about and they have been helpful!

[amw1583]

I can't wait for yard sale season I wanna have a family yard sale to make some extra money and then send every dollar to my old doctor bills. Its sad I only have about 600.00 to pay put Its to like 10 people so makes it tricky. So ill probably take your advice it was very helpful that's for sharing

[LilBlossom]

Good thing for us that the CC with the highest interest rate is the one with the lowest balance! And now closed, as soon as I get it paid off. I refuse to pay $3 / month for them to charge me 15% interest on my balance. I'll go without.

Once my husbands student loan hits our account, we'll be paying off all our CC and consumer debt, and be left with a student loan, car loan and mortgage. The student loan is small ($4-5000) and has a good 4% interest rate on it, which doesn't go into effect until husband finishes college, which we hope is in August. At which point we're hoping he'll be able to double his salary with a new job. That stupid piece of paper is all that is holding a lot of companies off from even interviewing him.

[Dusti1960]

Paying the smallest amount first keeps you motivated. This way when that bill is paid off you can use that money to pay next bill.

[leahcar54]

Good Luck All! I am sure we are all doing the best we can! Cheers to a debt free future!

[SLance68]

Originally Posted by leahcar54

You know what - It is Dave Ramsey
They are doing Financial Peace University at my church- my husband insisted we didn't 'Need' that - but we did listen to the tips ppl told us about and they have been helpful!

Your DH is incorrect. Everyone should go through FPU it not only gives good info it will help you with setting goals and having a way to reach them. Next time sign up and go even if he won't go with you. Well worth the money it costs.

[raintree2]

good for you i wish i could get my man to get our back bills all paid off it is slow going but i am working on it so far we have paid off 6 lg back bills so on to another one it will get done just alot slower then i want

[browneyedgirl40419]

I am working two jobs to try paying all of our bills and I have about stressed myself into a heart attack