I thought I was snowballing.  I discovered.....I am not.  I looked at just my credit card bills.  Looked at the minimum payment, and then what I am paying.  Turns out, that while "most" of my available snowball money is going toward one bill, I am paying extra on all of them!

Here's the breakdown of extra money paid, on just the credit cards:

CC1 - $52
CC2 - $25
CC3 - $8
CC4 - $0 (although I have paid $260 over the minimum this billing cycle)
Store card - $118

OK, so my goal was to pay off the store credit card, and at this point....done!  If I had taken the $85 extra that  I paid on the other CCs, I would have had that paid off 2.5 weeks earlier.

Next am trying to pay off CC4 (because I was mad at myself for even using that card again).  So if I take the $133 I spent paying off the store card and put it toward CC4, it will be paid off in about a month (since $133 plus the minimal $40 due will just about pay off the balance of $181).

I get the snowball concept, but the idea of just paying the minimum scares me!  I feel like I HAVE to pay a little something extra.  But I really can see the power of a true snowball.  The unfortunate thing is that the interest rates coupled with the balances on the remaining CCs will not give me the faster gratification that I sort of want.

I am such a geek....I find this facinating.  I guess taking the time to discover these things really will open my eyes to the possible.  That stuff really can get paid off.  Slow and steady wins the race.

I am hoping that some recent changes (took the landline phone down to basic service, lower electric bill, higher cell phone bill), which will free up about $60 more a month will really help.  Now the question is....do I really give it gazelle intensity and do the snowball in debt order, or do I tackle the CCs???