Getting started with becoming debt free

This page is a place where I track our journey to becoming debt free, it is meant to be a place for my family to keep ourselves accountable, although if you find you benefit from reading about how I do things, then I hope it helps you too!  Each month I will post about our progress: how much we paid off that month, and how much longer we have until we are completely debt free. I'll also post about how we redirect our money once each debt is paid off, and any tips I have for making ends meet without going into debt. I'm excited to see our progress!
To start off with, I want to start out by saying: Please don't judge me! Everyone has different financial situations and everyone comes into a marriage with unique ideas about finances and debt. I'm not making this page to shame you or myself, and certainly not to say that everyone should do things the way I do - its simply for my family to keep track of ourselves. So with that out of the way, I'm going to come out and say exactly how much we are in debt as of December 1st 2015. Between 4 different loans (listed at the bottom by the year they were borrowed), the amount we still owe is:

$15,000.97

Once again, please don't judge or compare my amounts to your situation :) Also please note that we don't own a home yet, and when we do, that mortgage will be added to our list of debts. We also aren't done going to school, so for our situation, more student loans will be added as well.

Now for the game plan:
We plan on using the debt elimination method promoted by the LDS church, which can be found here. The idea is that once debt #1 is paid off, you apply that amount to your monthly payment for debt #2, in addition to what you are already paying on debt #2. When debt #2 is paid off you take all the money and apply it to debt #3, and so on. You pay less interest that way. Using the calculator on the church's provident living website (found here), I can input the data from my loans and calculate exactly how long it will take me to pay off my debts (taking interest into account). Using the debt elimination method my family will shorten our anticipated payoff time from 10 years until our current debts are paid off, to 4.5 years until our current debts are paid off. There are 3 different options when trying to decide which loan to focus on paying off first. Here they are:

• Lowest to highest balance
• Shortest to longest payoff period
• Highest to lowest interest rate

Using the calculator I found that paying off the one with the highest interest rate first will save me the most money, and it also tells me how to distribute the payments I'm already making in order to follow that method.  Here's another tidbit of personal info that I really hope you won't judge me for, or try to compare to your situation:

Every month we spend $314.46 on debt payment

If I follow the debt repayment plan, I will spend $314.46 every month for the next 4.5 years, and all my (current) debts will be paid off. It does mean that I continue living as if I hadn't paid off the debt (meaning I don't go out and celebrate with a nice dinner or a new dress), but it's worth the patience to continue living on less for an extra 2.5 years in order to have an extra 5.5 years of not worrying about debt payments! We also plan on making extra payments when we can, so that we can get out of debt faster.


So here are the goals:
Loan 2008 will be paid off by March 2019
Loan 2011 will be paid off by May 2020
Loan 2012 will be paid off by October of 2019
Loan 2014 will be paid off by October of 2017

So there you have it, my debt totals and my goals to get out of it!  I'll be back every time I make a payment on a debt to report how much was paid towards each loan and what efforts we are making to pay things off early.  I want to reiterate that this page is meant to be a place for me and my family to keep ourselves accountable for getting out of debt, I don't expect it to be of much use to anyone else, unless in reading it you decide you like what I did and want to follow that pattern as well.  In any case, I hope it at least helps you think about your own family goals for becoming debt free.

If you are interested in other Financial Calculators that can be used for free, go to this website:
https://providentliving.lds.org/self-reliance/finances/financial-calculator?lang=eng
The LDS church offers a plethora of free information on how to get out of debt and live providently, and I strongly encourage you to use the resources offered!