Paying it Off One Penny at a Time: Paying off debt one penny at a time

5:30am & rudely woken up, literally & figuratively...

Literally, a car alarm began to blare outside my bedroom....my own car alarm.

Figuratively, my money "problem" wasn't going anywhere unless I seriously ramp up my efforts, even if only a penny at a time.

I can't shake an image I saw on a debt payoff blog a few weeks ago. The writer had paid off her student loans by chipping away constantly at her debt, sometimes even with payments of just a penny at a time. The picture was a snapshot of her payments over the course of a month. Some payments were less than a dollar, even as little as a single penny! But, the whole point was that she was simply diligent about chipping away at her debt at every opportunity, and ultimately she managed to get totally debt free, and a lot faster than she had expected.

I have been despairing for months -- no, years -- over my dismal financial situation. I have felt crushed by it, especially this past year. I am living a bizarre paradox where I am both doing better and worse than ever before in my life, and upon waking this morning to my car alarm, I realized I am about to fall off my financial tightrope if I don't make big changes NOW, even if it's only a penny at a time.

I've got one of the best jobs I've ever had with full benefits, super flexible hours, and room to grow.

Yet, I'm in worse financial shape than ever.

Here's what I do NOT have:

credit card debt
a car loan
a mortgage

Here's what I DO have:

student loan debt
medical/healthcare debt
a car that is about to fall apart, and that I can't afford despite NO car payments (think gas, insurance, maintenance)
a small debt to my city due to two tickets and a registration error (Since writing this, I have PAID OFF this debt IN FULL!)

My crazy ridiculous amount of debt comes out to a HUGE $110,000. That figure makes my heart race and my palms sweat.

$110,000 makes me want to hide under the covers and cry.

It makes me want to give up. It makes me feel hopeless.

But, the thing is, I'm a single mom. I can't afford to give up or feel hopeless. I can't afford to do that to myself or to my son. I owe it to both of us to find a way out of this, even if that means paying off my debt and improving our situation one penny at a time.

Today, in my efforts towards financial stability, I will be:

Revisiting Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace Planner
Paying $50 towards the debt to my city (~~$115 remaining to pay this tiny debt off!~~ Update: I paid it off IN FULL!)
Paying a few bills
Meal planning
Grocery shopping based on sales and my meal plan
Telling my boss that I won't be attending our annual holiday work party as doing so would cost at least $40 between the white elephant gift, a potluck dish, and transportation to get to and from

Stay tuned as I'll be sprucing this blog up and writing a new post ~~EVERY DAY~~ as often as I can to track my journey from $110,000 in the hole to $110,000 above ground.

~*~*~*~*~*~

If you are familiar with Dave Ramsey, you have probably heard of his cash envelope budgeting system. I have tried it in the past and found it to be boring and a chore. Ugh!

I want my money story to be FUN and EXCITING!

So, I decided to create my own money envelopes. They are covered in hearts because I want to LOVE my money. I created these envelopes to feature a spot to write in categories, a spot to write a money mantra, and a spot to write three priorities for my money in that category. My goal is to use the mantra and priorities to help me stay motivated and on track and to prevent dipping into one envelope or another when I'm low in one area of my budget. I also created these to double as coloring pages!

You can get your cash budget envelopes HERE.

Love them? Save 33% on your own cash budget envelopes in my Etsy shop with coupon code PENNIES. You'll receive a near instant download PDF of the envelope to copy, print, color, and use. Print as many copies as you need, and if one gets damaged, just print another one!