Debt Free Journey Update July 2020

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It’s been 22 months in now to our debt free journey. So far, we’ve paid off $89,979 with $37,250 left to go.

The only debt we have left to tackle is our student loans and family debt.

September of 2018:

July 2020:

We’re still playing it safe due to COVID-19 and just paid $500 towards student loans this month.

It’s actually a great time now to pay off student loans because of no interest accrual. Who knows how long that’ll last.

Also, did you know that any payment made to student loans now go straight to principle?

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all get some loan forgiveness? How awesome would that be? We can only wish!

So this month, we’re still saving away just like the last few months now.

It’s important to have a good savings of 3-6 months on the side just in case.

I’ll admit it’s no small feat to pay off $89,979 in under 2 years. Just to be sure you didn’t miss it, if you want to get started on paying off debt then check out my posts below.

• Start a Budget

• Use the Snowball Method to pay off debt

• Find 95 Ways to Save

• Make Extra Money

• Travel for free

Related: How To Get Out Of Debt With These 5 Tips

Cutting The Cord

Cutting the cord? I don’t mean having a baby.

I mean cutting the cable cord.

Do you have cable and internet? I bet you probably pay way over $100 a month. We pay about $150 for cable and internet, that’s $1,800 a year. Talk about highway robbery!

So I’ve been trying to come up with other ways to save on bills. Cable was something that I just couldn’t get rid of. I love my reality TV, Don’t judge!

I did some research to see if there were any other cable alternatives. I found a couple! One is called Locast and the other is called Philo.

So, what’s the dilemma with cutting cable? Besides your favorite shows, you’ll be losing local channels too right?

There’s alternatives to that and it’s where Locast comes in.

Locast

Locast is a non profit service that provides you with your local streaming channels for free!

You sign up at Locast.org and you get live streaming of your favorite local channels. You can stream on your phone, computer, or on your TV.

For your TV, you’ll need a streaming device like  Roku, Amazon Fire Stick, or Apple TV.

The downside to Locast is every time you switch channels, you will see a short Locast commercial but it can be removed by paying Locast a small $5 a month donation.

Philo

One of the major reasons I couldn’t cut cable was cause of my favorite shows on certain networks like MTV, TLC, AMC, Discovery, HGTV, and others.

Then I found Philo. They have so many mainstream networks like A&E, AMC, BET, Comedy Central, Discovery, Food Network, Hallmark, HGTV, History, Investigation Discovery, Lifetime, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Network, TLC, Travel Channel, VH1, and WE TV.

Philo costs $20 a month which beats the price of cable by a landslide.

Plus Philo offers unlimited recordings of your favorite shows.

The downside to Philo is the unlimited recordings has a cutoff period of 30 days, but I think that’s enough time to watch every favorite show.

As of right now, we’re testing it out to see how it goes. Once we officially cut the cable cord, I’ll let you all know how it went.

Looking For Savings

This month I’m still using savings / cash back / and coupon sites that’s easy to use. Remember when I told you I hated clipping coupons? These sites and apps are perfect for those that don’t like couponing but can still get major savings.

Ibotta

Ibotta partnered up with over 300 stores including all your main grocery stores and others. They most likely have the grocery store you go to on their list.

Once you find your grocery store, you upload your shopping receipt and you’ll get cash back.

Currently, I have $30.90 cash back from Ibotta just for grocery shopping. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me, and no clipping coupons required.

It’s an awesome app to use.

Fetch Rewards

Another app I’ve been using is Fetch Rewards. I basically get points for scanning receipts from grocery shopping, gas, and food.

Once I reach a certain amount of points, I’ll get gift cards or free magazine subscriptions.

Swagbucks

Swagbucks is a site where you could take surveys/poll, play games, watch videos, shop online, complete daily goals, and enter competitions for points. These points convert to cash back via PayPal or gift cards.

I’ve been using Swagbucks to get cash back when I shop online.

Rakuten

I still use Rakuten when I’m doing any online shopping to get cash back on my purchases. It’s free money back, why not take it?

Honey

Have you all heard about Honey? I just recently started using it and it’s awesome.

I downloaded the Chrome extension and when I go to purchase something online, it’ll scour through tons of coupon codes to help find the best price for the item.

It’s good for lazy couponers like me.

It’s a site that finds you all coupons available for stores. It has a chrome extension so when you go to a site and purchase something, Honey will notify you if there’s a better price

Takeaway

This month has been all about looking for savings any way I can, the easy way.

22 months down and we’ve paid off $89,979 worth of debt. Pretty amazing stuff.

With the right tools and strategies in place, anyone can pay off debt.

Related: How To Get Out Of Debt With These 5 Tips

Hope you are all staying safe out there!

Are you ready to start your own debt free journey? Get started by grabbing this free Debt Thermometer and join us in the free 5-Day Debt Free Bootcamp to pay off $500 worth of debt in your first month.