Erasing Our Debt

About 4 months ago, I relayed the story about my line of credit becoming due in full. Four months ago, I owed approximately $3300 on the line. I am proud to say now I have gotten it down to just a little over $2000.
I'm a strong believer in the snowball debt reduction method. A lot of people throw around which debt you should get rid of first. Some say the highest interest rate and others say the lowest balance. I tend to agree for the lowest balance being on top due to listening to Dave Ramsey and the psychological impact it has when you pay off that first debt.
Using the lowest balance first method, this debt was #3 when I started. Without adding my wife's 2 new accounts(that will be paid off very soon), this debt is now #2.

Well, how am I doing it?

My direct deposit has the option to deposit into two separate accounts. I have a checking account with the bank that I have the line of credit with. I have my direct deposit set up to deposit $150 every paycheck ($300/month) into this checking account. When that money is deposited I do a payment of all the money in the checking account except 1 cent (to keep the checking acct open). I don't even miss the money actually. My normal payment is somewhere around $94 each month. But I'm paying $200+ on this account and getting it done quickly.

I used to just do $75 a paycheck, but that was when I was building my emergency fund back up.

The good thing about this is that I'm still working the debt snowball and able to throw a considerable amount of cash towards our lowest debts.

When they approved me for the re-finance, I told them I'd have this line of credit paid off by the end of the year. I hadn't done any math on it, I just said it to reassure them that I was intent on getting it paid off. After I said that, I realized I may not. Sure it was ok cause it was refinanced for another 2 years, but I wanted to stick the end of the year statement. Now it seems like this is a possibility.

// posted by Ryan @ 3:46 PM