Another One Bites The Dust {Celebrating Paying Down Debt}

paying off debt

The moment you send off the final payment is a great feeling.  This past week J and I were able to cross off another debt on our snowball list.

How do you celebrate paying off bills?

It’s hard to celebrate without spending money, just like when you have reach a weight loss goal it’s hard to celebrate without food.  I have my handy “Soon-To-Be Debt Free” booklet I’m using from One Beautiful Home Blog.  I talked about it in this post.  I started highlighting the debts we pay off and writing the date off to the side.  The booklet has a section to put the goal to have your debt paid off and the game I like to play is to beat that goal.  It’s just like the same goal I play with the GPS – try to shave as much time off your estimated arrival time without driving like a crazy person!

This time we beat our goal by one month!  That got my wheels turning about paying off our next goal a month early and then the next debt a month early.  That makes me happy.

Here’s how we celebrate paying off a debt:

Talk about it.  It’s okay to be excited with one another.  It’s a big accomplishment digging yourself out of debt.  Don’t just act like it’s another day.  This is monumental!

Start on the next one.  Keep the momentum going.  I was able to go ahead and apply a little extra to the next bill on the list.  Thanks to the payoff amount not being as high as we were putting towards the debt each month.  I took the difference and paid it towards our next debt.

Cross it off on the list. I get no greater satisfaction then crossing something off my list.  I’ve been known to add a completed task to my list JUST so I can cross it off.  Sad, I know!  But it makes you feel accomplished.  We used to have a list hanging on our fridge with each debt (no totals).  Each time we would knock off one, we would cross it off.  It was something we could look at it.  We’ve since removed it from our fridge because we didn’t like having it open for friends to see, but we still keep a list to cross off.  It’s with our monthly budget.

How do you celebrate paying off another debt without spending money?  I’d love to know!

The following two tabs change content below.
Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®, a budget and financial strategist helping families pay off debt and live the life they've always wanted.