What’s happening in the world of A Dime at a Time?
Honestly, not a lot! Pretty much the same old same old, working and paying off debt! Of course this past week I was thrilled to see the ZERO balance on our smallest debt. I won’t miss that bill one bit! While I would prefer to close the account, we won’t do so just yet. I’m hoping we will be able to pay off the biggie (Discover) we are tackling next before the zero percent promo rate expires in November. If we don’t, at least we have a card for transferring any remaining balance.
So how about that Discover? Well, I’m trying my best not to feel intimidated by the amount we owe! Although the debt truly sucks, I also know how fortunate we are that it is not accruing any interest. Every last dime we send them chips away at the principle. With this in mind, I’ve been looking for additional ways to come up with even more money to pay it off. Here is what I’ve come up with so far:
- Decreased Hub’s retirement contribution to just the match. I know I’ll take some heat for this one, but Hubs and I both feel it will help us reach our goal much faster. With such an irregular income, it is near impossible to know how much this will add to our snowball.
- Quit rounding the mortgage payment up to the next $100. Doing so will add $94 to our snowball.
- Only rounding up our other debts to the next $5. An example is our car payment. The minimum is $281. Rather than sending them $300 as I had been doing, I’ll knock it down to $285. The result is an extra $15 going to the Discover.
- Reducing our clothing budget by $25/month. Since the beginning of the year, we’ve only spent $20, so I think we will be fine in doing so. Other areas of our budget have been pretty much spot on (or tight!), so for now, they will be left alone.
- Using downtime to create extra earnings via M-Turks. While there are a lot of other things I’d prefer doing, I need to remind myself that again, every dime earned/saved makes a difference. For the record, I’m up to $6.31 today. While (obviously!) I make more going to my regular job, I also don’t work 24/7. It won’t kill me to spend a few minutes here and there doing M-Turks. I also read somewhere that once you reach over 1000 HITS, it becomes more lucrative. I’m not too far from reaching that, so we shall see.
While making these changes hurts, I also know that paying off this beast will be a tremendous weight off of our shoulders.
On to other things. Today was payday for Hubs. Between using it for May’s mortgage payment, tithe to our church, and a few other small bills, the check lasted all of about 5 minutes. It kills me to see it go so fast knowing how hard Hubs works to earn it. There will come a day, though, that it won’t be going to pay off our debt-mortgage included!
I had an extra day with the preemie this week. I’m glad the job is only part-time. The baby is a good reminder why we have kids when we are young. As fun as the baby is, I’m honestly tired after caring him for an entire day! On a side note, I’ve been keeping track of what I’ve earned. They often pay me in cash, but sometimes write me a check. At some point, I’ll need to check with our CPA as how to handle the taxes. Meanwhile, do any of you have any input as to what I might expect?
Our weather has been anything but spring-like. Yesterday we were hit with 5 inches of the white stuff, and more is on the way this weekend. Ugh. Like so many others, I am completely over winter. I just wish Mother Nature would be too!
And the journey continues… A Dime at a Time.
You’ve been busy not only doing, but planning!!! You really have a good handle on this and your ideas sound very impressive to tackle that debt! I just got to write out a LOVELY check to the IRS yesterday that about killed me but….whatcha gonna do???
I’m helping a friend of mine who has a 3 year old grandson & 1 month old twins – her daughter-in-law just had to have brain surgery because they found a mass – and we were saying the same thing yesterday about how exhausting it is — and I only had 5 hours of it, she has been living it 24/7 for almost a week now!!!
Our weather has been so wonky….one week it is in the 80’s, the next week it is raining and in the 50’s – keeps going back & forth so my allergies are a MESS to put it mildly!! Just really strange weather this year!
Oh, and I meant to ask, what is M-Turks?
I added a link that explains it better than I could. I’m up to $18.99 for the day. Not bad for something I was able to do in my spare time.
Thank you – I’m going to check it out. I do Swaybacks and usually can earn at least a $25 gift card each month but I have plenty of time, so this might work out well.
It all adds up!
Ouch. Paying the IRS is never fun, but on the bright side, you were able to come up with the money to do so! I’d call that a win!
That is awful about your friend’s daughter-in-law. I cannot even begin to imagine what they are going through. Will keep them (and you for helping!) in prayer.
Definitely strange weather. We are supposed to get hit with yet another round of the white stuff over the weekend. I haven’t seen grass since last October!
Thank you so much – it has been a REALLY hard week for them (she and her husband are both in the mid-70’s), but what can you do – it’s family!!! All I know is it is a GOOD thing that my kids are 9 years apart and I didn’t have twins 🙂 ITS TOUGH!!!
You are right. That is what family does! They are so fortunate to have you to help!
I find the tax laws super confusing. I have no idea how your side income will be treated.
We’ve had funny spring weather lately. It snowed Saturday. It was so cold Tuesday that when I went for a run I had to get all bundled up. But then it was 81 today.
The Discover “beast,” with that attitude your debt doesn’t stand a chance! Go you!
I do too. I’m glad there are people out there that enjoy accounting!
We have a had a very successful April and I’m proud to say that we paid off PayPal (975) AND CareCredit(1900) but also just paid cash for his surgery today. (3200). It felt so freeing to not have to worry about upcoming medical payments. Also, now we can save, save, save.
I’d call that successful! Wow! You have had a fantastic month! Way to go! My hunch is saving will be way more fun than paying off debt!
For your pay, stick 33% aside for taxes, just in case. My hubs has irregular untaxed bonuses. He sets 40% aside as we get hit with paying in because if this money.
Thank you! Good to know. I’d rather have too much set aside than not enough.
Lots of little things do add up. You will see how much more you are able to pay off that way. Do you have a referral code for M-Turks? I am going to check it out and if you can get points all the better. I have been talking about budgeting at my blog since April is financial literacy month. My post about it is here: https://mcoia.blogspot.com/2018/04/do-you-have-budget.html
No referral code for M-Turks, but thank you for asking! I ended up earning $18.99 for the day. Not too shabby! I’ll be checking out your blog later tonight! Thank you for sharing!
Was wondering where you went. Might I recommend that you only pay minimums on all other debt and throw the rest at the Discover? I know that you want to chip away at everything, but attack one monster at a time while holding off the others will eliminate the juggle. Love you!!!
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I’m doing *almost* that…just rounding up to the next $5 which keeps the math simple. Love you, too Rhitter. We can do this!