A Little Push Ahead for Debt Reduction

Tim and I finally sat down to do the budget a few months ago. We looked at what we had been spending, and were happy with most of the areas. We discussed a plan to address those areas we weren't happy with. Then we got frustrated.

Tim's salary just covers the bare minimums. There is not much to put toward debt reduction. It is frustrating to have your budget down to bare bones, and still not be able to make real progress on debt. There are a few things in our monthly budget that are not true needs, when you define need as something essential to survival, like food and shelter. I call these things "high priority wants." These are things that we could survive with out, but are important to us. We are not willing to cut the high priority wants that remain in our budget.

What to do? One thing is to try to increase our income. Our monthly budget is based on Tim's salary and the income from a rental unit. Any money made on our blogs, Ebay or Tim teaching music is extra. The online income all goes to a Pay Pal account. The plan is to let it build a bit and then make an extra payment on a credit card, and keep doing it until the debt is gone.

How much have I made on Pay Per Post? My first post for Pay Per Post was Dec 27th. I've posted ten posts and made about $90. No, it isn't huge money, but it also involved a very small time commitment. It won't pay off our debt in one big swoop, but we also didn't create the debt all at one time. It grew a little at a time, and that is also how it will go away.