The Big Payoff: No More Credit Card Debt

Published

March 18, 2015

Chris Geoffrey, a.k.a., The Debt Diva, was born into a very frugal and middle class family, spending most of her life in a really small Iowa town. A graduate of Iowa State University, she has worked for the public sector for 34 years. She got into debt, and then she decided to pay it down, once and for all.

What a difference a week can make. I have no credit card debt—seriously, I am at ZERO!!! It has been many years. It feels good and I just want to yell to the world that I have no credit card debt. I received my federal tax refund and paid off my remaining card. More exciting for me, I budgeted paying off my final card at the end of May and I was able to pay it off the first week in February. I saved additional interest! My remaining debts include my auto and my mortgage. I hope to pay those off within the next 18-24 months.

The week also had expenses. I used part of my tax return to repair my plumbing. I live in a 100-year old home. The water stopped coming out of my shower. Because of the age of the house, I plan ahead. I had purchased faucet replacements for my bathroom and kitchen faucets, and I had purchased a replacement kit for my bathtub/shower. The kitchen faucet broke, but it could be used. The bathroom faucet worked, but it leaked a bit. When the shower died, I could justify the replacement of the kitchen and bathroom faucets as well as the repair of the bathroom shower. When the shower stopped working, I solicited bids for fixing the shower and replacing the kitchen and bath faucets with customer provided parts.

I used an Internet-based referral site that provided customer reviews and I was thrilled with the response by and the service of the contractor I chose. The contractor arrived early, provided a bid within a few dollars of the final cost and communicated with me throughout the day. He wore booties over his shoes since we received snow before he arrived. He asked me to let my dogs out to meet and greet him so they would be comfortable with him in my home. He cleaned up after himself. Because of the work I needed done, my cost was $818. I had budgeted $1000. With the great service—it was a great deal.

I was a bit sad about paying the bills, but things got better today. I woke up to find out I won a $50 Amazon gift certificate from an online personal finance blog. And, I won a free large pizza and liter of soda because the Super Bowl coin toss was ‘heads.’

My daughter’s employer is financing her cell phone—so I just realized an additional $80 a month savings by cancelling my family smart phone contract and switching to a single plan.

Not a bad week. I spent a little, I saved a little. I have no credit card debt, so it is a week like no other in the past 2 to 3 decades!

Image: frostnova, via Flickr.com