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SiouzQ.
9-6-15, 9:22am
....from my unexpected summer vacation. It's been real, it's been lots of fun, but reality intrudes and I am going back to work starting on Tuesday. Starting with a couple weeks of part-time, shorter shifts, and back in the kitchen until I am able to run around at the deli front counter like a crazy person.

Soooooo, I haven't worked since June 5th, the day I left for my vacation. My entire vacation was a paid one, and the first week of my medical I used up my remaining paid time off. Since then, I have been receiving $282 per week in my short-term disability pay (about 2/3rds of a regular paycheck). Luckily, I had a lot of jewelry repairs and some payments from the galleries for July and now August, plus the new housemate paid a security deposit and the rent for September. Unfortunately, I know have about $2500 in out-of-pocket medical expenses from the toe accident...wahhhhhhh.

I was literally going to be finished with paying an old medical debt in August, and was then going to pay off my car sometime later in the fall. I've chipped away at this four year car loan steadily, double-paying when I could, and I've actually gotten it down to $2,000! I'm wondering if just paying it off would be a smart move ~ I could pay it off within the next two months easily from my savings, and still be left with a decent sized emergency fund. I guess I should figure out how much in interest I'd be saving by doing that. Once I am back to work full-time, getting the rent money and heading into the holiday season at work (gain-sharing bonuses) and the holiday season at the galleries, I should be making some good (for me, anyway) money every month. I am also considering doing the plasma donation thing again. It's been 8 months since I went last, and I am sure my body has recovered sufficiently (I was getting low in iron so I had to stop). That can bring in $200 per month, which for me is almost my entire grocery budget.

I just hate being in debt, as we all do, and want to figure out a way to get rid of this medical debt quickly. I have arranged to pay $100 per month on it, but would like to pay extra so I can get rid of it quicker (I don't want to tell the billing department I can pay more, in case something else happens. I don't want to get trapped into having to pay a higher amount).

So these are my only two debts - what do you all think of the idea of just paying off the car loan, probably sometime in November?

Gardnr
9-6-15, 10:29am
Arrange low payments you can handle and pay more every time you can. As far as which to pay first? That is your sleeptest. Which is more important to pay off?

Snowballers would say: pay off the smallest balance first with the maximum cash you have on hand. Faster feel of success. Then you pay the full amount on the remaining 1 debt.

Good on you for getting right back to what is important to you now that you can!

Teacher Terry
9-6-15, 11:23am
I would look at the interest rates. Often medical debt doesn't have any interest & if that was the case I would take care of car first.

SiouzQ.
9-6-15, 1:24pm
Yeah, the medical debt has no interest, but a two year time frame to pay off. So I'm thinking after I pay the next 6 months of car insurance sometime in late October, I just might pay off the rest of the car, which would be around $1700 at that point. I am going to see what I can save in interest by doing that, probably a couple of hundred dollars, at least.

rodeosweetheart
9-6-15, 2:00pm
Yeah, the medical debt has no interest, but a two year time frame to pay off. So I'm thinking after I pay the next 6 months of car insurance sometime in late October, I just might pay off the rest of the car, which would be around $1700 at that point. I am going to see what I can save in interest by doing that, probably a couple of hundred dollars, at least.
I would do that, pay off the car first if you can and then take what you were paying in car payments and think about taking half of that and accelerating the medical debt, or if your emergency fund got decimated due to the unexpected toe accident, I would build that back up with the car payments.