Our Scary Number Was $134,711.10 – What’s Yours?

We recently hit $60k on our debt payoff which was an exciting milestone but guess what? It still isn’t even halfway. We started with $134, 711.10 – yeah. Ouch. Do you know what your number is? If you don’t have any debt then good for you. Seriously – GOALZ. But for most of you who clicked through this post, odds are you are underestimating your debt by up to 40%. That’s like A LOT. If you are ready to kick debt in the behind, then the first step is knowing how much you actually have. We have created 3 easy printables to help you get started and show you the steps we took to pay off $60k in 18 months! Download them here!

The three monthly budgeting forms are: 

1. Debt Payoff Goals (Savings Goals if you are currently debt free)
2. Household Expenses
3. Monthly Budget

These are going to be monthly worksheets so make some space on the fridge. The first printable we are going to work with is the “debt payoff goals.” (You might want to make two copies to start out.)

Step 1

Log on or sign up for Credit Karma to begin. This will give you an accurate list of what debts you owe and may remind you of some you might have forgotten. Once you are logged in you can click on “Accounts” and it will give you a list of all your accounts and the amounts. Data on Credit Karma is delayed by about a month so use this listing only to obtain a list of each of your debts.

Step 2

Once you have your list of debts, log in to each and every account and verify the amount – this will get you a very specific debt number. Write down all the accounts and amounts on one of your debt payoff goals sheet. It may also help to note down the website and login information on another sheet for each debt.

You are going to complete these three sheets every month so it may help to get a binder together to keep all your information organized.

Step 3

Add each debt that has a minimum monthly payment to your household expenses sheet. This could be your student loan payment, your car payment, and any credit card minimum payments. Don’t worry about the rest of the household sheet yet – just make sure you mark which debt and the minimum due per month on the household expense form.

If you are married you can combine all the debts on one sheet. This can be a point of contention for some if one spouse has significantly more debt than the other. My advice? You are married and you will make 10x more progress doing it together with servant hearts. This should be a time and space for grace, so go into this process with a “we” mentality. JR and I have never felt like either of us was more or less responsible for the debts – what’s mine is yours, right?

Step 4

Now that you have all of your debts written down on the first sheet, rewrite them from smallest to largest balance on the second copy you made of the debt payoff sheet. This is a Dave Ramsey tactic – you are going to pay off all your debts from smallest to largest. It is called the debt “snowball” and is baby step two of Dave’s plan. The smallest debt will go on the line that says “FOCUS.”

If you run out of lines don’t despair – we did too! Just print out two sheets and once debts are paid off you can consolidate them onto one line. I bundled all our paid off credit cards into one line. You will be one-sheeters like us in no time!

Step 5

Once you have them listed from smallest to largest, total them up. If you are starting out, the blue and red boxes will be the same. As you go along, your blue box will go down and the difference between red and blue will be the amount you have paid off so far. These are your scary numbers. They are called the scary numbers because they are supposed to scare you away from filling your cart up at Target! HA! The red number is your total debt owed. This is the number people read off when they do their debt-free scream so it’s a good one to look back on and keep close to heart.

And that’s it for your first sheet! Congrats! You are one step closer to being debt free! The next step is managing your household expenses. Check out the post covering the household expense sheet here! 

Download budgeting sheets here!

Getting Started: How We Paid Off $60k in 18 Months

Sheet One: Debt Payoff Goals

Sheet Two: Household Expenses

Sheet Three: Monthly Budget