Credit Card Checkup

Back in January I decided to make a real effort in reducing my credit card debt. I got my first credit card in college, and I've carried a balance ever since. For the most part, my credit card balance has been about $5000-$10000. It never seems to get below the $5k mark, even though I make my payments. So, basically, all of the money that I've paid over the past 10 years has gone towards interest.

My plan was to creatively reduce my grocery bill each week and to put that savings towards paying down my credit cards. Thanks to many frugal blogs out there, I've been able to purchase more food than I was on my larger budget, and I've saved about $200 per month, which as you'll see below, I've applied to my credit card debt.

In January, my total credit card debt was $6436.75

As of May 9, my total credit card debt is $5766.19

That's about 4 months of payments and I've paid down a total of $670.56.

If I can keep at this pace for the remainder of the year, I'll have paid them down approximately $2011.68

At that rate, it will take me about 3 years to completely pay off my credit cards. Not incredibly great, but it's better than having the same $5k-$10k balance ten years from now. The light at the end of the tunnel is not having to pay approx. $200 per month towards credit cards, and that's just for minimum payments.

In addition to this, my car lease is up in August, and I'll make my last payment in July. I can either lease a new car at the same $500/month or more, I can purchase a semi-new vehicle for about $20k and pay $400/month for 5 years, or I can purchase an older used vehicle for $8-10k, keep my payment to around $250/month and apply the excess $250 from my car payment to my credit cards and my school loans.