I chatted a few weeks ago about needing to refocus on our financial goals. Sometimes the road to debt freedom isn’t straight. We have gotten off track and faced some setbacks with unexpected expenses, but we still make a little bit of progress every month.
However, we are both a bit tired of how slowly it has been progressing. Because of this, we’ve been looking for additional ways to make money to snowball our debt.
The Debt Snowball
If you’ve been following the blog for a while, you know all about the snowball method. Essentially, this method of paying off debt has you set aside an emergency fund. Once that is done, every extra penny you have goes to paying off your debts.
This involves having a set budget. Once you look at your budget and see how much excess money you have, you can see how much you can put towards your debts. It is important for people who are snowballing their debts to also budget for some entertainment. Not doing so typically leads to overspending or abandoning your budget altogether.
The debt snowball method oftentimes includes searching for additional work to throw at paying off accounts as well. For instance, if you can make a few extra bucks selling things in your attic or walking the neighborhood dogs, you’d use that cash to pay off debt. We’ve been looking for more ways to increase our income so that we can do this.
How We Are Hustling to Pay Off Debt
First, we have both been looking for ways to trim the costs of day-to-day life. This includes my husband coming home for lunch every day. This saves us between $25 and $50 per week, all of which goes toward paying off debts.
My husband has also been picking up small jobs to earn a little extra money on the side. For instance, someone in our building needed a battery put into their car. He went down on a Sunday. It took all of 10 minutes and he earned an extra $50 to go toward paying off his tool accounts.
I’ve also been picking up a little extra work here and there. Every once and a while a freelance article pops up and I take it. This usually only makes me between $25 and $100 per article, but every bit counts. I’ve also picked up a modeling side gig that pays $175 per photo. This is less consistent and doesn’t happen as often as freelance work, but it is still a great way to earn a little extra to put towards my student loans and other debts.
As the weather gets colder, we will also be cleaning out our closets. We will be trying to sell these items on Facebook Marketplace for extra cash to snowball our debts. All in all, each of these things seems very small but they are helping us tick down our overall debt tremendously.
Readers, have you picked up a side job or hustle to snowball your debt? What have you done?
Read More
- When is Debt Settlement a Good Idea?
- October 2019 Update: Searching For Relief
- August 2019 Debt Update: Stalled
- Debt Update: June 2019
Amanda Blankenship is the Director of Social Media for District Media. In addition to her duties handling everything social media, she frequently writes for a handful of blogs and loves to share her own personal finance story with others. When she isn’t typing away at her desk, she enjoys spending time with her daughter, husband, and dog. During her free time, you’re likely to find her with her nose in a book, hiking, or playing RPG video games.
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