OK here's what I am thinking. My wife and I have seperate checking accounts and usually between the two of us I like to keep about $1000 so that we have a cushion in case of emergency. Well since our debt is ginormous (a combination of gigantic and enormous!) I thought why not delve a little deeper into the debt and go a little light in the checking accounts? I realize it's a risk but I think at this point we need to keep the pressure on the debt reduction and with more and more stuff going to ebay I can probably recoup some of the dough as we go.
Here's how it shapes up. Combined we have just under $1300 in both checking accounts. I know based on our budget I'm going to need $433 before our next payday. So that leaves $867 to make a mark. I'm going to put an additional $500 on Card 9 to bring it under $2000 and today I got an email stating Card 5's statement closed with a finance charge of $92 and that a min payment of $154 was due on it. So I'll use $654 to pay those two amounts and be left with $213. It's a lot closer to that 0 than I like to be with my checking accounts but in this reduction scenario every little bit helps.
As I said it's a risk because if we have something come up over the next 12 days where we have to write a check we're only going to have a couple hundred to work with but I think right now it's the right thing to do. I have an additional $200 in an overdraft savings I can freely transfer to cover a check but I don't want to do that. So no checks from now until payday! I think we can do this. Let's update the debt tracker:
Updated matrix:
Card 1/$12097/$20000/14.23
Card 2/$15215/$31000/12.24
Card 3/$8135/$12500/12.24
Card 4/$6211/$9000/18.24
Card 5/$6151/$9000/18.24
Card 6/$6143/$8000/0.00*
Card 7/$5903/$10000/4.99**
Card 8/$3821/$10000/0.00***
Card 9/$1971/$7250/17.24
Card 10/$3464/$4400/16.99
Card 11/$2815/$3900/13.99
Card 12/$2100/$2500/0.00****
Card 13/$4075/$4500/5.82
*Teaser rate ends 4/1/07 (up to 13.99)
**Balance Transfer rate
***Teaser rate ends 8/22/07 (up to 24)
****Teaser rate ends 5/1/07 (up to 13.99)
$81008-$78101=$2907 off since day 1.
The debt reduction fever!
March 8th, 2007 at 11:02 pm
March 8th, 2007 at 11:28 pm 1173396498
March 9th, 2007 at 12:05 am 1173398713
March 9th, 2007 at 03:34 am 1173411273
Hey z...well I guess I should consider it a blessing but my wife and I drive two company cars which means all gas, maintenance, insurance etc. is paid for by the company we work for. So auto emergencies aren't a concern (where something with the house would be so I should substitute that for auto!) Hopefully we're on the right track with the debt though...I love seeing those numbers get smaller!
March 9th, 2007 at 02:37 pm 1173451033
March 9th, 2007 at 08:05 pm 1173470713
Your monthly minimums on that 78k must be a killer. And once you move debt away from card X, you'll find card X will offer you a teaser rate to return.
For example if cards 1,2,7,8 could be consolidated, you would have room on one of them to consolidate all the other debt (more or less) to the teaser rate card X would give you.
March 9th, 2007 at 09:13 pm 1173474791
March 10th, 2007 at 12:40 am 1173487203
then 4 and 5 onto 3
then 7 and 8 onto 5
then 9-12 onto 7 (this is close, one card may not fit)
before doing this, know the transfer fees and interest rates you'll get on all the cards, the minimum should drop by $300, which is $300 more which can pay down principal each month.
March 10th, 2007 at 02:56 am 1173495373
I just think you'll breathe a little easier if you have a small EF, there won't be any pressure to use a CC if an emergency does occur.
March 10th, 2007 at 06:00 am 1173506427
Thanks again both of you for the ideas!
March 10th, 2007 at 01:36 pm 1173533777
ranks cards by amount owed (balance) like above
create a second list which ranks cards by the credit limit on the cards.
create a third list which ranks cards by the available limit (what you can add to it).
This might reduce the number of "consolidations", each one costs you money, so even 1 fewr consolidation is $75 not spent.