The Debt Diet Challenge Week #3: Our Participants Weigh In

Melissa

We are Week 3 into the Debt Diet challenge and I found that I have become very anxious and a little stressed. My husband thought at the beginning of this process that his biggest challenge would be overcoming discouragement that could arise if our debt didn’t go down as quickly as we hoped it would. I found this week that was my issue. It has only been 3 weeks and we have at least 3 years to go unless we find a big chunk of money somewhere. Like a food dieter that gets on the scale too frequently, I have been looking every night at the debt totals. Nutritionists tell you not to weigh yourself everyday; I can see that measuring my debt everyday is probably equally unhealthy. I just want it to move faster! I guess in the big picture that is a good thing.

I find myself counting the days until we get our next paychecks so I can throw some more money at this problem. Each time I leave myself very little discretionary money so I won’t be tempted to spend, but unfortunately I had to borrow from savings this week because I overspent. The success for this week is that I still haven’t used my credit card. Nevertheless, I did borrow money I put into savings in the last 3 weeks as part of my “pay yourself first savings plan” for emergency issues. This week we did suffer a heatwave, much like the rest of the country, but I don’t think a few dinners out and several trips to the ice cream stand qualified as emergencies. Ice cream seems like such a small treat but each time it is $20 for a family of 4. I am hoping to put the money back plus continue with saving again. The weather is cooler already so I have to get back on the wagon I fell off this past week.

I continue to look for other ways to fund the $10 per day toward debt paydown needed for the Debt Diet challenge. I spoke with Jean this week and we discussed getting a lower interest rate for one of my credit cards. I have another offer in the mail so I am going to first see if Capital One will reduce my rate. Otherwise, I will try to negotiate a transfer rate and do a balance transfer. Also we discussed calling a mortgage broker to see if refinancing our mortgage is a good option for us right now. Jean advised that I should give the broker my scenario and credit scores and ask what they think without having them look up my credit. Every time someone pulls your credit report, it affects your points. I need to maintain the highest points possible, and this was a tip I never would have thought of before. I went back through the activities of the Debt Diet and considered refinancing my car. It looks like it would save us $20-$30 per month. I am not sure this would be worth it but then again that is 3 days of $10 per day needed.

Overall we are making progress even though it is painfully slow, a mental challenge all by itself. I have spent years as part of the “I want it now and I can use my card to get it” generation starting with my first credit card in college. I know it is going to be a daily challenge to keep pushing through all of this and I am hopeful that the more I struggle, the more I will persevere through this and eventually become debt-free.

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