Paying Off those Pesky Credit Cards

Not too long ago we had $16,000 in debt (probably a year and a half to two years ago) and one car payment.  I can't really remember how much we owed on the car - how easily we forget, huh!!!  Today we are down to under $5,000 in credit cards and no car payment (actually we owe $150, but I refuse to pay the prepayment penalty, so we are letting it sit) and the plan is to pay off the credit cards in September and only have student loan and mortgage debt.  Here is the plan and I hope by posting it on-line that I will be more likely to hold myself accountable and make the payments as I should instead of buying that really cute outfit or those amazing shoes that I desperately "need."  So I will also be updating this bi-monthly as the payments are made.

A few things first....

• I'm sure this isn't perfect, my numbers aren't exact and I'm sure some things will crop up in the process (Want to hear something ironic?  Before I even published this-I typed it on Monday and was saving it for today - my husband had an accident.   Thankfully, he is ok.  But we now need a new vehicle.  What is that saying, I think it goes something like "We make plans and God laughs."  So, we made some plans and they have been derailed a bit, but we are still going to pay those credit cards off.) 
• We aren't paying interest (I play the transfer game), so that helps.  But after this hopefully there will never be a transfer game to play again!
• Our regular payments are just that, what we had been paying.  But the first full week in June the kids are out of daycare and we have an extra $650 to put towards our credit card payments.  I kept $200 of that out because we always spend more during the summer on fun activities, so realistically we need more spending money.  The remainder of that has been divided up into twice a month payments labeled as "Extra Daycare." When the kids go back to school in the fall the payment changes, but we get to save almost $400 over what we are currently paying :)!!!!

Date	Payment	Balance	Payment Source
1-Jun		$ 4,600
	$673		Reg. Payment
	$85		extra daycare
		$3,842
15-Jun	$150		Reg. Payment
	$225		extra daycare
		$3,467
1-Jul	$673		Reg. Payment
	$225		extra daycare
		$2,569
15-Jul	$150		Reg. Payment
	$225		extra daycare
		$2,194
1-Aug	$673		Reg. Payment
	$215		extra daycare - kids start school
		$1,306
15-Aug	$150
	$160		extra daycare - extra week to pay
		$996
1-Sep	$673		Reg. Payment
	$215		Extra Daycare
		$108
15-Sep	Pay that baby off!!!!!!