Payoff! January report

My total payment in December: $1,115.48

It was another very good payoff month, due to something called “Christmas.” In my family, we make or buy a small token for each person (my gift this year: potato focaccia bread and a calendar magnet) and then take the rest of the money we would have spent on presents, throw it in together, divide it up and then each buy ourselves one big present. This year, my present to myself was another chunk of debt paid off.

This month I paid $1,107.68 toward the principal and $7.80 toward the interest. The money for the extra payments came from $393.16 originally budgeted, $37.00 I didn’t use on my gym dues because my gym was closed the last week and I opted to skip the second-to-last week and not pay until the new year. I also had $15.18 left over in dining out, almost $60 left over in my Christmas budget. My Christmas gift this year totaled $460 (that’s $360 from the pot-splitting and $100 because Santa still brings me money.)

I don’t have anything down on my list of things not bought, so it was another good month of not wanting things.  I’m not having any roadblocks right now. It’s getting very exciting to get that much closer to the end of this goal.

I’m also pretty excited that my original budgeted amount was so high.($103.67 for the regular payment plus $393.16 for the goal for a total of $496.83. It bodes well for my accelerated savings plan that I will begin once I get this debt paid off.