Debt Avalanche Method
November 2023 we switched to the debt avalanche method from the snowball method. Since then we have paid off our dental debt, Zuntifa and have taken some months off tentative debt payoff dates. How are we doing one year later?
Dental- we paid this debt off in December 2023 so paying it off 7 months before the tentative payoff date.
ZutaFi- We paid this off in September 2024 which is 14 months sooner.
Collection Pro Mine- This is where the debt avalanche method could get hard to see the process because the debt is $13,478.11. However, I have 7 accounts with this collection agency so this is the snowball method within the avalanche method. With rollover from dental and ZuntaFi we will now put $215 to this debt a month which will go to the lowest account. I also call them and ask if they will accept a lower amount if the account is close to being paid off. Unfortunately, we have added to this debt which resulted in adding 8 months to the tentative payoff date, June 2039. My ex-husband is also responsible for some of this debt also he makes small payments monthly.
Collection Pro His- This debt is our UGH debt. We pay $350 a month to this debt which is an automatic payment the agency disputes to each account however they feel like it. This debt has actually went up because of hospital bills adding 8 months to the tentative payoff date, June 2039. Just going to sigh and do a major eye roll. If you would like to know more of how and why we have this debt check out my post on our debt and debt collections.
Credit Collection Bureau- This debt has gone down a lot because we pay it with my husband's HSA-Health Savings Account. In January his company puts $1,000 to account. We also get a credit of $300 for both my husband and I getting our yearly physicals. I decided to keep paying this account with HSA until fully paid off. Our new tentative payoff date is 23 months sooner after that extra payment, April 2026.
Crook County Medical- I honestly despise this debt. This is from two ambulance rides and an ER visit from a car accident in 2020. It was easier to let this go to collections. Not the greatest thing to do but I could not deal with being yelled at by the lady in charge of billing. She was extremely rude and I was still recovering from the accident. So told her to let it go to collection because I need to focus on paying the surgeons who saved my arm and my recovery and her rudeness was not helping. This debt has gone up adding on 8 months to the tentative date, June 2039.
Family- We have not paid anything on this one yet. Because other debts have gone up the the tentative date on this one went up by 3 months making it June 2039. However, we will not wait that long. We plan on starting to send them a small amount each payday.
Hand Therapy- For a few months we dropped the monthly payment down to $50 which contributed to adding 1 month to the tentative payoff date making it September 2025. We are now back to paying the $100.
Thunder Basin- We now pay $200 a month which we now do $100 biweekly. This means on magic months (3 paychecks months) they will get an extra $100. Because we lowered the payment down to $100 for a few months we added 3 months to the tentative payoff date making it April 2028.
This does not include my student loan debt. Student loans are a whole other beast. However, the university I attend has a lawsuit against it and I may get $24,000 written off. That would help out a lot.
Overall we added 4 months to our date payoff date. However, I am not going to get down about it. Our debt total when we switched to the avalanche method was $83,993.95. We are now down to $76,406.47. So in 11 months, we have paid off $7,587.48 of our debt. Yes, I know we could be doing better but still taking that number as a win.
