I’m Pausing My Debt Payoff

This is part ten of Krys’ story. We’re following along as she starts budgeting and works to pay off $20,000 of debt. This post was originally written in the middle of June 2020: during Krys’ eighth month using YNAB. 

See the rest here:

• Day One
• Day 24 
• Month One
• Month Two
• Month Three
• Month Four
• Month Five
• Month Six
• Month Seven

I live in the twilight zone. These days are all the same, they go on and on forever, but the weeks are flying by, and I am sleepwalking through my life.

I went on a bit of a spending spree at the end of May, buying up a TON of cleaning and disinfecting stuff (was hard to find locally, and really expensive online, so I waited). It had been a while since we had been able to disinfect the house properly, and I was getting very nervous about it. Two of the three bathrooms are sparkling now.

The result of that spending spree is that I don't have any of August funded, which I had originally planned to do with the June 12 check. But, I think it's an important trade-off. My family's health is important enough for me to change my plans, and we are still well funded into the future. The debt is still taking a back seat to future funding, and I'm OK with that for now.

Status on Financial Goals

1. Get off the credit card float. ✅
2. Start contributing to sinking funds for known expenses. ✅
3. Start building the $1,000 emergency fund. ✅
4. Pay off the first credit card (credit card float/car repairs).  ✅
5. Pay off the second credit card (medical debt).  ✅
6. Get one month ahead (age our money 30 days).  ✅
7. Pay off the home equity line of credit (HELOC) that we took on to replace our window.
   Just inching along here.
8. Pay off the car loan. This is priority #4 on the debt snowball.

Update on Debt

• November 1, 2019              $19,169.50
• June 15, 2020                      $11,344.35
• Difference                            -$7,825.15

Age of Money: 68 days 

Age of money keeps creeping toward 70! I’ve got my eye on 90 now.

What’s Next

While the Twilight Zone is my hometown, I’ll be throwing wads of money at future bills.

I'll keep picking away at the whole-house cleaning I am doing. I have another bathroom to finish, and then it's the kitchen. After that, other high-touch surfaces will get a deep cleaning. THEN, it's declutter time, to make it possible to clean other spaces.

Summary

I am Squiffy* and Squiffy is me.

*Squiffy is a gold-hoarding dragon and personal mascot of Krys (explained in this post) as she realizes her priorities are shifting from paying off debt to building up more golden doubloons during COVID uncertainty.

Document your own financial journey over on our YNAB Support Forum in our journals section, just like Krys! You can be as anonymous as you want and you’ll be met with a warm welcome of encouragement from the community there.

Krys is enjoying working from home during the lockdown, because she loves spending time with her husband, daughter, and three pets. She’s been using YNAB since 2019 and has been documenting her journey in paying off almost $20,000 of debt. When she’s not budgeting, she enjoys reading, watching Marvel movies, and learning new languages. She also possesses a fierce love of bacon and sarcasm.