Plan of attack!

After the shell shock of realizing exactly how much debt I owe, I've decided that I needed to write out a plan of attack. 

Obviously, I want to put as much money as I can towards my debt to get it paid down as quickly as possible. The only problem is that I don't get paid enough to pay it down as quickly as I'd like.

The way I see it, there is only one solution to that problem: make more money. 

There are two ways I can do that: 
1. Get a new job with a higher salary 
2. Make some side income 

I don't really want to leave my job because I have good benefits and the schedule is flexible so I need to come up with extra income ideas. Here is a list of what I've come up with so far: 

• Ask for overtime at work. I was getting 5-10 hours of overtime a week for a while and the extra money was really nice. Recently they cut our hours down so I doubt this will happen anytime soon. 
• Get a second job. I've tossed around the idea of getting a second job for awhile now. I like the idea of having that extra money, but I don't know how I feel about giving up the little bit of free time that I do have. I'm just not sure that it would be worth it. 
• Sell on eBay. Last year while de-cluttering, I sold several things on eBay and made some nice money. I've been selling a few things here and there ever since but recently have gotten more serious about it. 
• Sell with Amazon FBA. This is something that I have no clue about. Even though I have read several blogs about people who do this and are very successful, it seems kind of complicated to me right now so I don't know that I will be going this route in the near future. 
• Sell on Etsy. This is another item that I'm not as comfortable with. I'll keep it as an option but I don't think I'll do anything with it anytime soon. 

For now, I am going to focus on selling on eBay. My hopes are to grow eBay into a steady side income. I still have a lot to learn with eBay and the biggest thing is figuring out exactly what I want to sell. I currently sell mostly home goods that are bought through retail arbitrage. I think I would like to start sourcing at thrift stores and selling used clothing because people seem to have the most success with that. I have 14 items listed on my eBay at the moment but I am hoping to get that up to 75 by the end of the month. 


Thanks for reading! Do you have any ideas on ways to make some extra income? I'm open (and grateful) for any and all ideas! 

The Nitty Gritty

This is going to be a hard post to write, but I want to be as transparent as possible so I am going to suck it up and deal with it. Today I will be sharing all of my debts. I actually have no idea what the total will be and I am a little nervous to find out. 

Here is a list of my debts as of February 1 when I officially started really focusing on paying off debt: 

Credit Card 1:  1977.25
Credit Card 2:  5,016.29
Student Loan 1:  89.14
Student Loan 2:  141.45
Student Loan 3:  503.36
Student Loan 4:  4685.15
Car Loan*:  35,000.00
RV Loan*:  47,000.00
Mortgage*:  146,000.00

Total:  $240,412.64

*These aren't the exact amounts but should be close. 

Honestly, I am a having a little anxiety by seeing that number. I knew it was high but I wasn't expecting to be almost a quarter of a million dollars high. Realizing that is very overwhelming and makes me want to focus even more on getting it paid off. 

Now some of this is what I called "shared debt"; meaning that I share it with my husband. This is stuff that we talked about and went into together. While I do want to get that paid off, It is not my main focus. My shared debt is the Car Loan, RV Loan, and our Mortgage. 

My debt is the stuff that I got into by myself. Some of it was recent, such as the credit cards, and some of it was before we were together, such as the student loans. 

So for my main debt that I am focused on: 

Credit Card 1:  1977.25
Credit Card 2:  5,016.29
Student Loan 1:  89.14
Student Loan 2:  141.45
Student Loan 3:  503.36
Student Loan 4:  4685.15

Total:  $12,412.64

I've decided to use a modified Snowball method to pay off my debt. I will be paying off the debts in the order they are above. So for now, I'll be paying the minimum balance on everything and put everything extra towards Credit Card 1. My goal is to have it paid off by the end of March. 

I realize that my student loans are low enough that I could easily pay them off but they are not accruing much interest so I would rather put that money towards my credit card balances. On Credit Card 2, I am paying almost $100 a month in interest!!! That is ridiculous and the reason that I am itching to get these paid off fast! 

I'll be back tomorrow to talk about how I plan to tackle my debt so that I can get rid of it as quickly as possible. 

Here We Go...

Hello! 


My name is Brittany and I have a problem. 



I am in debt.

I know most don't really consider this a true "problem". It's not like my house is being foreclosed on or my car is being repossessed. I pay my bills on time and have a little extra at the end of the month so is it really a problem? 

I think so! I, like many Americans, live pay check to pay check. I spend my money going out for lunch, picking up takeout, and shopping. I find that at the end of the month, I paid the minimum payment on each of my accounts and then wonder where all of my money went. In fact, if you look at my personal bank account today, you would see that I have $.23 cent in by checking account and $20 in my savings account. 

I am so embarrassed to admit that. 


In the spirit of being completely transparent, I would like to say that I have another account that I share with my husband. Our savings account is much larger than that but it is mostly money that he has saved. And I know that what's his is mine and what's mine is his, but I don't feel that it is fair for him to have to take responsibility for my debt. 

This week a reality set in. If I lost my job or if something happened to me, my husband would have to pay back all of my debt which includes about $7,000 in credit card debt. He works hard and is really good at saving money, and he shouldn't have to pay for my mistakes. 

My goal?

 I want to pay off my debt as quickly as possible and build up my savings. I plan to use this blog to share my journey to becoming debt free. I will use it as a way to keep me accountable and hopefully motivated. Maybe I will inspire someone else to take control of their finances too! 

The dictionary defines thrifty as a person using money carefully and not wastefully. From this point forward, that is who I will be. I know it will not be easy, but I know that it will be worth it.

So from this point on, just call me Thrifty Brittany!


I hope you will check back in with me soon to see my progress (I'm going to need somebody to hold me accountable!) and share any tips you might have to help me out!