I paid off a little over $10,000 worth of consumer debt yesterday. This was made possible by breaking that old 403(b) account I had from a previous job. So three Chase cards are paid off, and I will be canceling one of them soon. The other two I will keep around because the Amazon one I only use on Amazon orders, and it earns gift certificates from Amazon, and the Disney card we will use when we go on the Disney cruise later this year, as it too earns bonus money. The Bank of America and First National cards will be canceled as well; Lowe’s and my medical bill are gone as well. I figured this is around $322 a month in minimum payments that will no longer be going out. Close to $350 when you figure in the additional snowball amount I was paying.

This leaves only the car, home equity loan, and one consumer loan for appliances (which at 0% and a low monthly payment I was not concerned with paying this off). The wedding and cruise are now paid in full with no interest charged. That is a big bonus.

Some people have said I lost about $200,000 by breaking this account now, but I counter that with as soon as I can, I am going to increase my 403(b) contributions to 10% to match my employer’s input, so I think I can actually make this money back.

I am also going to split that monthly savings between paying additional on the Toyota loan and putting the rest back in savings.

This is a big relief, and it comes at a good time. My fiancée’s car is having problems, and we will have to save about $500 to fix it. She is also getting laid off March 1st. Money will be tight, but at least the over-all outlook is much better than it was just a month ago.

I have an old 403(b) account from a previous job. I had kept it separate as I was trying some different investment strategies with that account. However, I think it’s time I break the bank and use this money to quickly get out of debt. The biggest reason for this change is I am not comfortable with the debt load I have given the current economic climate. It also helps the decision that my other account now has an equal amount in it, and I feel ok taking the penalty tax as this will greatly ease my current financial situation, and then allow me to up my current contributions. I know this decision is going to cost me lots of money down the road and I am aware of that. I also have to consider that I may never see that money down the road. I know it’s morbid to think that way, but it is true. That money would help our situation now more than the situation that may not be so dire down the road after we get out of debt; well, mostly after I get out of debt.

There is a 9-part video on YouTube from Dave Ramsey from one of his Dumping Debt presentations.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

Part 6:

Part 7:

Part 8:

Part 9:

I just calculated my debt-snowball plan again, and it looks like 30 months to go, less my car and home equity loan. Including those two items pushes me beyond the 48 month window that the tool I have to calculate it with can handle.

That seems like a long time, however, my car will be paid off approximately the same time as the consumer debt so it will be a double whammy and I can then attack the home equity loan with full force.

I now see the light at the end of the tunnel. A long, long tunnel, but I can now see the end. A few weeks ago I was completely lost and stressed. You can ask my fiancée, she will tell you I was taking it out on her. I think we are both in a better place now that I have this snow-ball plan in place and the first three items are marked off with big red lines signifying those accounts are paid off.

Now, just to get the rest of the expenses in check and figure out how I am going to pay for the wedding and cruise packages.

Recently Megan has been checking out DVDs from the local library for us to watch. We do have a Blockbuster Total Access subscription, which costs $10.59 a month after tax, that we use as well; but that only allows us to have 1 movie at a time.

I have not been to the library to see the selection, but she assures me there are some recent movies there, as well as some older ones which she has been checking out three or four at a time. While some frugal experts would probably say that continuing the Blockbuster subscription was silly, since we could get movies for free from the library, I have a hard time giving it up as we currently get newer HD-DVDs from Blockbuster through the mail, then trade those in at the store for other DVDs. We typically get at least four or five a week and I also get a coupon for one XBOX 360 game rental a month, which itself easily justifies the $10.59 subscription.

The library DVDs have been a welcome addition as we killed the Dish Network subscription and only watch movies or DVDs now. The main reason for killing the TV feed was simply to save money. But I have also noticed I don’t really have any desire to go see movies at the theater since cutting the TV off. This is probably because I haven’t been bombarded with TV ads for the newest movies coming out.

I guess the whole point to this rambling is, you should definitely check the library for DVDs and movies to fill your entertainment gap on the cheap, or even on the free. This is on frugal tip I see us using for the next few years.

While I do not think this was the optimal first step it is going to be one that really helps free up some money and improve our financial situation.

We have decided to postpone the wedding until next year. This allows us time to save some more money and ease the financial stress on ourselves. This will also mean about $1,800 I get back from deposits and payments on the honeymoon Disney Cruise. This is money I can then turn around and pay on other consumer debt to help get on track. I would also highly recommend Dreams Unlimited Travel if you are looking to book a Disney Cruise or other Disney vacation as they have been extremely easy to work with. We will defiantly turn to their services first when we rebook our honeymoon.

I am getting married in October. Since we already live together, we have been discussing finances, budgets, and debt. According to some, my debt is nothing for me to worry about. However, I feel that almost $50,000 in debt is a bit too much. While only about $10,000 of that is consumer debt (credit cards, same-as-cash appliance financing, etc), I think it’s high time to get on top of this and eliminate it now.

Since one of the steps to getting anything done is to write it down; I’m going a step further here and writing it down on my blog. I plan on posting updates on my progress towards ridding myself of this debt as well as tips and tricks from the debt reduction websites I read daily.

I hope my experience here can help someone else to focus their efforts into ridding themselves of the debt monster.