Oh, for Progress' Sake: Finance Friday III

I was on the phone with my friend, Jeanette, who was inquiring what we're going to do about Minnie the cat. We are NOT getting rid of her.  I told my friend that even though hearing Minnie cry incessantly in the basement is heart-wrenching, I have to remember the one who matters the most is our daughter, Emmie.

We're doing this for her.

The good news is, despite the drama, we are moving right along with paying down our debt.

Today I paid the bills and updated our debt spreadsheet.  I every time I update it, I add a new column for the date and enter in the new balance totals for each item.

We've paid off 14% of our debt in the past month! Most of it was from pulling out my old 401(k), but still.  That's better than we did in the whole year from 2010-2011.

Two beautiful words in the English language: "Paid off"

Now that I am back to work, we are finally able to pay our bills and breathe a little easier when we see how much money is left.  We are paying a significant sum towards our debt with each paycheck.  We've eliminated three bills!  Since we are going from smallest to largest, the debt snowball should start rolling faster now.

The positive results really encourage us to persevere.

I keep telling myself, when this is over, it won't have seemed that bad.  It's like a break-up; once you move on, it doesn't hurt anymore.

Hopefully Minnie can put this behind her, too.