HOW I PAID OFF MY DEBT - DEATH OF DEBT BY A THOUSAND CUTS

Ten or so years ago,  I had quite the credit card debt.  Mainly from going out to eat and drink up tasty cocktails, buying vinyl records, buying clothes, and a bunch of other garbage I got on a whim.  I had a wild hair that was oly scratch by shopping. 

Having a child changed all of that.  Time to end debt.

To get out of debt, I set a goal of paying a debt on a DAILY BASIS.
Yes.
Daily.
Every. Single. Day.   

Weekends too..

It is measured and methodical.   It is easier than plunking a bunch down at one time. 

I simply took by 2 week paycheck and divided that by 14 to determine my daily budget.   I would never spend more than that amount and all the leftover went into debt payment.  

First, I broke out all of my regular bills. I call that my FIXED EXPENSES. 'Cause that's what they are..  

At time of writing, it adds up to $48.07 per day.  

• water/sewer bill - $8.38
• electricity - $4.72
• gas (home gas, not car..) - $2.45
• cell phones - $6.24
• property tax - $12.49
• home insurance - $2.26
• auto insurance - $4.18
• car tabs - $0.88
• internet - $4.42
• Streaming TV apps - $2.05

I put $50 per day in Savings.  And pay the fixed expenses from the savings stash.  So that's out of the way.

That leaves me the rest to feed my family.  Some days, that is nothing.

The remaining amount went to paying off the credit cards.  It was easier than I thought. Some days I put over $100 towards the debt,  After a few months, it was wiped out. 

Once my CC debt was wiped out, it morphed into a vacation fund.  

It has resulted in having a 10 day trip to Hawaii totally paid for, including all food and spending money.  I've been doing this for over a decade.  Saving up for the trip takes about 3 months.

I still had leftover.  So $35 per day ($250/week) went to the brokerage.

Still have a bit left over:  Gifts, records, and fun stuff

All it took was plugging away at it.  Killing debt by a thousand cuts

Just wanted to bring up a tip that I think makes paying off debt or saving for a goal easier

And it does not involve gambling your ass off!