A few months back while browsing in the library I came across a book entitled Pay It Down! From Debt to Wealth on $10 a Day by Jean Chatzky. Although the title pretty much says it all, I highly recommend reading this book!
Have you ever sat and thought about the amount of money you spend daily on Starbucks coffee, breakfast, or trips to the vending machine? Well I did, and I was truly amazed by the money I was spending on these items! What Jean says in her book is to find $10 in your budget by eliminating some of these unnecessary expenditures and instead take that $10 and apply it to your debt on a daily basis. In reality, this really isn’t a hard feat! I did it and it worked like a charm.
For one week straight (yes, just one week and I vow from this day forward to get back on track!) I cut out my daily trip to the vending machine ($1/day), Caribou Coffee/breakfast trip ($4/day…sometimes $8 if I get my Mint condition from Caribou AND breakfast) and brought my lunch to work ($7 per day). Instead I picked ONE of my credit cards and paid $10 a day on it. I specify ONE b/c I truly believe that its easeier to tackle your debt when you focus on one thing at a time….not that your neglecting your other debt, your just choosing which card has your focus at that time. So everyday at 12 p.m.(I plugged it into my Outlook calendar at work so that I would get a daily reminder) I would log into my Capital One account and pay $10! Although this doesn’t sound like much, when the 4th of the month came (credit card due date!), not only did I already make my payment for the month but I paid more than the minimum; something that I ordinarily wouldn’t do!
Just think about it! If you cut out just $10 per day for just ONE month, you very well could have paid off an entire credit card! Or at the very least, put a dent in it! Giving up $300 worth of coffee, candy bars and breakfast biscuits is worth it, don't you think???!
So just to recap:
Pick a credit card of focus- I know people say to pick the card with the highest interest rate, but I’m the type of person who likes to see results fast in order to stay encouraged so in my case, I picked a card with the lowest balance.
Find $10 a day by skipping that trip to dunkin donuts, vending machine, etc.
Set a reminder on your cell phone, outlook calendar or whatever is handy and everyday at the same time pay $10 on your credit card. Even if its just $5, that’s $150 for the month that you applied towards your debt! If your like me and only pay the min $15 then that’s major!!!!
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