Girl Meets Debt Repayment

Hey everyone! Today I have a post for the sixth week of my debt payoff series (the other five posts were How I eliminated my debt in less than 1 year, How We Handled $32,000 in Student Loans, Getting out of debt … with a plan, Debt Repayment is My Middle Name and  Budgeting to Pay off Debt.

I asked readers and friends to submit posts regarding anything relating to their debt. Enjoy! If you would like to participate, please e-mail me at [email protected]

Hi everyone! My blog is Girl Meets Debt and I am very excited to write my first guest post here for Michelle’s blog because it just seems to “make sense” 😉

I have huge debt. When I first decided to take my head out of the sand and face reality 6 months ago, I had over 58K in the red. 45K from student loans and 13K from credit cards.

I don’t have a high income and live in Vancouver, one of the most expensive cities in North America so paying off debt is not as easy as it sounds. It may not be easy, but it’s also not impossible. I’m not intending to give any financial advice here; I’m just going to share what has worked for me this past half year…

I consolidated my two credit cards with an interest rate of 12.99% and 11.99% respectively into one personal loan with a slightly lower interest rate of 11.65%. I tried pleading charming my bank into giving me a lower interest rate but they said I had no financial asset and was apparently lucky to be approved for the personal loan in the first place. Well then!!!

I have a plan of paying off my personal loan first, then attacking the student loan. I believe this is call the snowball method. Whatever method you choose, just make sure you have a plan.

I stopped going to Starbucks everyday.

I stopped buying lunch and dinner everyday and started to spend more time in my unused kitchen trying out easy recipes on the internet. Truthfully I don’t know if I will ever “like” cooking but I know my wallet is thanking me.

I stopped getting salon blonde highlights, choosing to embrace my inner brunette goddess and I stopped getting regular manicures and pedicures.

I stopped shopping. Not going to lie, this was HARD at first, but it does get easier. I now find other wallet-friendly activities to do like hiking!

I don’t budget, and will never create an “official budget spreadsheet” but I do track my spending with a spending app on my Iphone.

I wait until the end of the month when all of my fixed expenses have been paid and any leftover money goes towards debt repayment.

I’m trying to find ways to earn extra income. This is still a work in progress.

I started a blog and found this wonderful personal finance community where we all share a similar passion, but have different methods to go about it and I just love that diversity. I’m learning something new everyday!

I have a long way to go in my journey to a debt-free life but the first important step has been taken because I am no longer in financial denial and looking forward to the day that I can maybe write a sequel for Michelle telling you all the things I CAN do since I will no longer be in debt.

Thanks for reading 🙂

What are you doing to save money so that you can pay down debt?