Budgeting printables were so helpful to us as we worked through Dave Ramsey’s baby steps. This free Debt Payoff Printable is meant to help you track your progress on your debt free journey.
I remember excitedly walking into the bank to pay off our mortgage — it was surreal! It was just myself, my husband, and our two boys. We asked the bank teller to snap a quick picture of us, with our big goofy grins, holding our receipt that said the mortgage balance was paid in full.
I’ll never forget it! Such a treasured memory! You can get there, too.
I highly recommend creating a Budget Binder for your family so you can keep track of your progress. It will help you stay disciplined while you’re paying off debt. Here’s a Budget Binder I created, and it even includes a printable cash envelope template. I love the gold floral design! I also love that all the pages coordinate with each other.
Writing it all down seems to cement the process and help you stay focused on the end goal: being debt free!
You might also like
- We’re Debt Free! Our Story of How We Paid Off Our House
- My Dave Ramsey Meal Plan for a Beans and Rice Budget
How To Use This Debt Payoff Printable Tracker
Think Smallest to Largest
If you’re using the debt snowball method of paying off your debts, then you’ll want to write them in order of smallest to largest. Since we’re big Dave Ramsey fans around here, we won’t think too much about the interest rates — just the balances.
Paying off the smaller balance first will help you have that psychological “quick win” and feel more urgency about paying the rest of your debt. Remember, you’ll need to be what Dave calls “gazelle intense.”
By the way, if you’re not familiar with Dave Ramsey’s plan for getting out of debt, you can grab his book Total Money Makeover. It explains everything!
Write It All Down
Fill in all the fields: today’s date, name of debt, monthly payment amount, current balance owed, and your goal payment amount.
Leave the “actual paid” area blank for now, until you make your payment(s) — then write in what you actually paid to each debt.
The First Payment Should Be The Biggest Payment
Your first payment, made to the debt with the smallest balance, should be the highest payment you send the first month. That’s where all your extra money will go, so that debt can be paid down the fastest.
For your other debt payments, just make the minimum payments. You’ll get to those if you work the baby steps!
Once a debt is paid off, add all your extra money to the next minimum payment on the tracker. This becomes the new payment for the next debt on your debt payoff tracker.
When You’re Done With This Month
Complete a new, updated Debt Payoff Printable each month. Keep your old Debt Payoff Printables so you can look back at the progress you’ve made. I love looking back at ours from years ago! I don’t want to ever forget how far we’ve come.
>> Click here to download your free Debt Payoff Printable Tracker <<
You might also like:
The Printable Budget Planner That Helped Us Finally Get Debt Free
Let’s chat soon,
New to my site? I love to share ways to get out of debt, save more money, and make cheap healthy meals from home.
A few tools I recommend:
Personal Capital – It’s a helpful (and FREE!) way to track your spending, income, and entire investment portfolio all in one place. Check them out here.
Use a shopping portal like Ebates and save more money on everything you buy online. Get a $10 bonus when you sign up now.
Give eMeals a try. This is the meal planning service Dave Ramsey recommends on his show. For a small fee, they’ll even send your meal plan and shopping list over to a local store (like WalMart!) and have your groceries ready for you to just pick-up and go. Click here to try it free for 14 days.
I also highly recommend getting started with a pencil and paper budget, if you’re not already doing so. My printable Budget Binder Toolkit has everything you need to hit the ground running!
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