I truly appreciate everyone’s thoughtful guidance and feedback to my last couple of posts on my Current Debt Load and desire to Increase my Credit Score. I am still working through all my lists of tips and suggestions. And frankly, it is too overwhelming to me to come up with a master plan. Thus, I’ve come up with a few bite size plans that give me immediate action AND immediate gratification! The OVERWHELMING advice that stood out, as expected, is pay off debt.

Thanks to our mostly No Spend Month, I have some extra money sitting around here at the end of the month. And it is burning a hole in my pocket, let me tell you! That leads us to the first plan.

Pay Off Debt

I will be tackling three debts with everything I’ve got with the goal of $0 balances on all three by the end of this calendar year.  Here’s my plan:

• Amazon (current balance $527) – pay in full November 3rd with $$$ saved through No Spend October. This will bring it to a $0 balance before the statement date for the month of November. Question: do I leave the account open or close it? Bearing in mind the affect on my credit score.  Guidance please.
• Computers (current balance $2,655) – pay $500 the first week of November with $$$ saved through No Spend October. And review November and December budgets to see if I can find a way to bring it to a $0 balance before the end of the year. Maybe a modified no spend month…we’ve still got quite a bit in our pantry. This will drop the balance quite a bit before the statement date for the month of November (yes, I’m still thinking of my credit score, but only as a benefit of making wiser financial decisions.) Question: do I leave the account open or close it? Bearing in mind the affect on my credit score.  Guidance please.
• Collection Acct (Apartment) – call and see if I can negotiate a 1) pay to remove arrangement and 2) settlement amount, effectively decreasing the amount I must pay. Again, I will attempt to close this account out by the end of the year.

What about my credit card?

For the time being, I am going to keep using my one credit card as a revolving line of credit, effectively paying it off every month so I do not accrue any finance charges and using it to pay all my regular budgeted items.

I think this plan is very do-able for me. It’s definitely trackable. And if I could eliminate these three debts over the next 2 months. Well, that would be AWESOME!!!!

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