I am going to start by saying I make $65,000/year, and this year I should make $73,000. Average it at $69,000 and minus taxes so I know how much I am working with and we get about $4,700/month. Below will be my bills, not including credit card payments. Totaling out to: $4,319/month
- Rent- $2,100
- Phones- $215
- Car 1- $304
- Car 2- $1,045
- Car Insurance- $290
- Wifi- $165
- Electric- $200
Between my wife and I, we also spend about $250 per month on gas between both vehicles. This is rounded up as we both fill up about every 2 weeks and a full tank is between $55-60.
Below I will make a list of my credit card debts
- Apple Credit Card- $6,889.72 out of $7,000
- Chase Credit Card- $807.50 out of $1,000
- BestBuy Credit Card- $0 out of $4,000
- Capital One Credit Card- $0 out of $3,000
I would include my car loan on that list, but I forgot my information for the auto loan and since it has been on autopay since I started, I haven’t worried too much about it. However, I know that It should be paid off by August or September. Meaning that I should only have about $1,000 left on my auto loan.
So between bills, gas and credit card payments, it comes to about $5,000/month. Which is where you see the deficit between income and expenses. However, my wife pays for $800 of the $1,045 for her car and she pays for her gas. So after those come out, that leaves roughly $4,050/month in bills left to pay. And that leaves me with $600 for food and things for the kids.
All of this being said, I just finished paying off the BestBuy credit card and now will have an extra $100 every month to put towards the Chase Credit Card.
I currently pay $100/month for both the Chase and BestBuy credit cards, but now that the BestBuy card is paid off, I can put $200/month into the Chase credit card until that is paid off as well. Unfortunately, all of these credit cards have anywhere from 22% to 30% interest on them. So as of now my Apple card barely get paid anything every month while I pay off the other cards. Once I get the Chase card paid off, I can put the $200 towards the Apple card. Which would then make the Apple card payments go from $200/month to $400/month. Although, it will take 5-6 months for the Chase card to be paid off.
Then with interest and paying $400/month, it will take about 20 months, or almost 2 years. Give or take. Now, if I include the money I would have left over from my car payments after that is paid off, I would have an extra $300/month. So I could put $700/month on the Apple card, which would drop it down to 11-12 months. Which is a pretty decent time frame.
We will be moving in November, which will make all of this a little difficult to do, but I believe that my wife and I will be able to make this work. I had also looked into adding our kids as authorized users on one of the credit cards to start building up their credit scores now so that they will start off with really good credit. I know I haven’t always been the best with money management, but once I set my mind to something I tend to see it through.
Once my Chase credit card, and auto loan are both paid off, I believe that things will get easier for us financially.
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