December Final Debt Reduction Numbers...

Well the final numbers for December are in...and we did pretty well in regard to our debt reduction!

As of the end of December our Net Worth Increased $2570!

Here are the December high points:

• Paid off our #6 Snowball Debt! - Already rolled our snowball to our next debt on the list; The State Farm CC, we will now be paying about $100 over the minimum payment.
• Paid off a total of $1122 in Credit Card debt - Two more cards to go!
• Paid off $1191 in Loan Debt - Our consolidation loan has really helped to lower our average interest rate and minimum payments, so more can go into our snowball!
• Added $327 to savings towards 2008 Property taxes - Do not want to borrow to pay this off this year!

Points to Work on:

• Overspent Grocery/Entertainment this month by $100, due to hosting family for New Year's Eve - Well make it up over the next couple pay days
• Overspent Gas Bill -Ninja Bill Taking this out of January's discretionary fund (dining/Entertainment)
• Lots of travel coming up - Make sure to quickly process business expenses!

So we had a great month, especially by not going over on Christmas. The debt reduction will be out of the norm, but was paid for out of a bit of windfall on my check. Once you hit the maximum contribution to Social Security they stop taking it out of your check. In the past we would have spent this away as fun money or on Christmas, but now that we are on plan we took it all and applied it to debt retiring a credit card debt earlier than we hoped!

I don't expect January to move the budget needle as much, as my check goes back to normal and we have picked a lot of the low hanging fruit. I see Personal Finance and Budgeting as a marathon, not a sprint, but it does feel good to run every now and then...