Now that you’ve set a Debt-Free Date and made real sacrifices, how do you keep track of your progress? Do you have a spreadsheet that you update monthly? Do you rely on your loan statements? Do you have an app or program that you use?
Up until recently we only used an Excel spreadsheet. We have all of our financial accounts in Mint.com and use YouNeedABudget for budgeting, but for keeping track of our student loans we have just used a plain old spreadsheet.
On one part of the spreadsheet we have lines for each of the loans with their current balance. On another part we have our payments listed along with what loan they were applied to. We keep running totals of how much we have paid and how much we have left to pay. It’s pretty clunky and not very pretty.
Recently we signed up for a free account with ReadyForZero. Have you heard of ReadyForZero? They have a free website where you can link your accounts (student loans, credit card debt, mortgages and other loans) and make a personalized plan for paying it all off. It is a useful planning tool with an easy-to-use interface. We’re just getting started with it, but so far we like it.
ReadyForZero lets you manage your loans yourself. It has a built-in calculator that allows you to experiment with the numbers (like we talked about in setting a debt-free date) to adjust how much you can pay each month or the date you want to have it paid off. Of course there is an upgraded “plus” plan that offers more features like letting you automate payments, but the free website probably does everything you want it to do and free happens to be my favorite price.
If you have loans, especially if they are spread over various lenders (mortgage, credit cards, student loans, etc) ReadyForZero will simplify your finances by making it easy to see them all in one place. It will also help you set a goal and track your progress.
The most important thing is that you are doing something to keep track of your debt and debt payoff!
It’s Your Turn
- Tell us about your system for keeping track of your debts and payoffs.
- What has worked well for you and what hasn’t?
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Liz says
January 15, 2014 at 6:52 amWe purchased Quicken software and it has a really nice loan management tool. It lets you play with your monthly payments to calculate your debt free date and add variables like extra lump sum payments towards your loans. Now if only Quicken printed money as well … : )
Stephanie says
January 15, 2014 at 8:20 amPrinting money would be nice! Then we could be just like the government 🙂 I’ve never used Quicken, but I my in-laws are pretty faithful users. It sounds great! Thanks for sharing Liz!
Liz S says
January 15, 2014 at 8:51 amI only use a spreadsheet where I track our net worth. What I like about this is that is shows not just our debt balances monthly, but our assets. And I like seeing our net worth (hopefully) increase monthly. It’s nice seeing a positive number grow each month, rather
Liz S says
January 15, 2014 at 8:55 am(Sorry, my computer freezes once per day and I have to reboot.) than what I used to do which was just just keep a spreadsheet with all my debts. Then I was always looking at negative numbers. I like this simple Net Worth spreadsheet because
Liz S says
January 15, 2014 at 9:00 amit keeps all my info (assets and liabilities) in one place, and remind me that I AM saving money, even though I tend to just focus on the debt! 😛
Stephanie says
January 15, 2014 at 10:05 amWay to look at the bright side Liz! Looking at net worth is definitely nicer than just at debt! We look at our net worth on Mint.com. Our net worth is still negative right now, but having what we’ve saved for retirement added in, makes the numbers not look sooo bad 🙂
Katy says
January 15, 2014 at 10:10 amI’m a bit old school. I use an excel spreadsheet, and have my finance 3-ring binder that I keep with all of my money/budgets/debt stuff in. Tabs included are Debts, Paychecks (they vary each time), Budget, Spending Track, Extra Income (from side hustles), Year Goals, Total Debt, Net Worth. I update this any time money flows in and out. May seem like a lot, but it works for me!
Stephanie says
January 15, 2014 at 10:17 amThere’s nothing wrong with old school! If it works for you and you can keep on top of updating it, then it’s perfect! Thanks for sharing Katy!
La Tejana @Debt Free Tejana says
January 16, 2014 at 6:30 pmI’m with Katy! I use an excel spreadsheet for my budget that I update each month. I’ve heard good things about Mint, but for now, Excel works great!
CeCee says
January 15, 2014 at 9:47 pmI am also old school in my tracking. I’ve tried Mint and it didn’t work for me because I couldn’t get some of our accounts to link no matter what I tried. I also am a bartender so I take home cash every day. Mint was kind of a pain to keep up with that. To keep up with my tips I use an app called “TipBucket”, and I export the info to an email to keep track of for tax purposes.
I use a monthly calendar binder set up where I write out all of our bills for the month- Rent, Gym membership, electric, cable, insurance, student loan and cellphone. All of our bills are automatically taken from my husbands accounts, but I still get paper mail so that I can double check that all of the charges are right. I am very pen & paper about it
Stephanie says
January 16, 2014 at 10:23 amIt sounds like you have everything under control with your binder. Having things tangible on paper seems to be your thing!
TipBucket sounds like a great idea for people who get tips. I made tips in high school and I remember the craziness of keeping track of all that cash! That was long before apps (or high schoolers with cell phones)!
Nalani says
January 15, 2014 at 10:22 pmI use Mint, spreadsheets and checking my loan info pretty regularly. DH pays for everything but the girls daycare, my loans, my spending money and the vacation savings pot. So most of my paycheck goes toward my loans. It’s a lot of idle time just staring at the numbers, since I pay everything at the beginning of the month and just wait for the next paycheck and do it all over again.
Stephanie says
January 16, 2014 at 10:25 amI know what you mean. I like to log on and check things often, even though I know nothing has changed! That’s really nice that most of your pay goes to your loans! Thanks for sharing Nalani!
Nichole @BudgetLovingMilitaryWife says
January 16, 2014 at 2:16 amWe have always had a visual on our fridge for the past two years. For our consumer debt we had a thermometer. I now keep it in a memory-box for a keep-sake. lol. Now, we have a graph in the shape of a house for our mortgage on our fridge. Each square represents a payment. So when we pay extra on our mortgage, I color in the appropriate amount of squares. Our graph is about 1/2 colored and we have had our house for about 3 1/2 years! So hopefully, only a couple more years left! 🙂
Stephanie says
January 16, 2014 at 10:26 amI LOVE the idea of a visual on the fridge! So cute and motivating right where everyone can see it! Keep up the good work– you’re so close! That’s awesome!
CeCee says
January 16, 2014 at 6:26 pmI’ve been meaning to make one of those for our debt (a thermometer), but keep putting it off. Now its definitely on my to-do list
celeste says
January 16, 2014 at 4:39 amI have a binder…I have my checkbook register in, my budget/bill spreadsheet, copies of checks on bills that I’ve paid off with their corresponding bill for future reference. My husband laughs because that binder travels. It has it’s own bag and everything. IF the house were on fire, I’d grab it before my purse….
Stephanie says
January 16, 2014 at 10:28 amThat’s hilarious Celeste! I love that your budget binder has a special bag 🙂
CeCee says
January 16, 2014 at 6:28 pmHaving copies of everything with confirmation numbers or canceled checks has probably saved me hundreds if not a few thousand dollars over the years. Bravo Celeste!!
Liz S says
January 17, 2014 at 9:46 amThis is totally unrelated but I just received a total of $170 in birthday money. My son NEEDS long sleeved shirts in size 8, and my daughter will eventually need shirts in sizes 6, 7 and 8. They both need pajamas. Anyway, the Gymboree outlet had such an amazing sale that I spent all $170 (I will eventually pay myself back when I can) and I got 32 long sleeved shirts and 7 long-sleeved/pants pj sets. (Four of these were in size 12 for my son for WAY down the road, but too good a deal to pass up!) That is 46 articles of high quality clothing! And for shirts they had tons of variety: lots of different colors and designs, etc… I feel so blessed to have found this deal!
Stephanie says
January 17, 2014 at 2:28 pmCongrats Liz! That is a lot of clothes! That’s I love stocking up on bigger sizes when I get clothes at a great price! (I wrote about is here
Liz S says
January 17, 2014 at 4:04 pmYes, when I discovered your blog I went to the beginning and read EVERY post, word for word…I literally couldn’t soak up enough of your words! 😛
Stephanie says
January 17, 2014 at 4:24 pmYou’re sweet Liz. That makes my day! Thanks for sharing your successes and great ideas in the comments 🙂
Beth @ Goodness Gracious Living says
January 21, 2014 at 10:20 amStephanie, I believe you will be my favorite tribe member 🙂 Does Mint.com allow you to set up line items for all of my bills? I am embarrassed to say that I have never budgeted before and now that my husband started a company where he hasn’t taken a salary in a while, it’s time to budget so we don’t lose all of our savings while he follows his dream. Do you think that mint.com is the best place to start so I can see how I am spending and get an idea of where I should be cutting back?
Thanks and looking forward to getting to know you!
Stephanie says
January 21, 2014 at 12:48 pmYes! Mint would be perfect for you. You link all your accounts (checking, savings, credit cards etc) to your Mint account, then each time you log into Mint, Mint goes check all your other accounts and shows you your up-to-date account info all in one place.
You will have a record of each transaction you make in each account. Categories are assigned by default, but some you’ll need to change. The category it always assigns to Walmart purchases is “shopping,” so you will want to go in change the category to “groceries” or “household” or whatever fits. You can even split transactions into several category, which is especially useful for places where you buy things from more than one category in the same transaction.
You can set up an experimental budget and get a beautiful visual of how your spending is going in your categories. It’s a great way to get stared tracking your expenses. Once you have a better idea of your spending habits, you can change around your budget.
I think you will really find it helpful! Let me know if I can help you with anything Beth!
Sarah Mueller says
March 12, 2014 at 2:52 pmI just log in to my mortgage company’s website every now and then to check our balance – nothing fancy here, although the tools you listed sound helpful!
Thanks for sharing at Family Fun Friday. I’m featuring your post this week!
Stephanie says
March 12, 2014 at 7:50 pmJust having your mortgage to pay would definitely simplify things 🙂 Thanks for featuring me Sarah!
Jill says
April 13, 2014 at 7:16 amI use a 3 ring binder. For some reason being able to touch it makes it more real, and something more purpose driven that staring at a number on a computer screen. It also makes it easier for me to carry out to my car on a lunch break to work on it. 🙂