I decided to go back to January and see how much progress has been made with debt repayment, because sometimes it seems like we are only treading water and sometimes it even seems like we are going backwards a little bit. But the numbers tell the real story.

$38,323.87 owed on personal loan in January.
Paid in full.

$29,133.45 credit card debt in January
$19,976.81 credit card debt owed now
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$_9,156.64 debt paid off since January

$22,326.63 mortgage in January
$20,386.38 mortgage now (guess as it hasn't hit yet)
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$_1,940.10 debt paid off since January

$93,000.00 medical debt (no interest loan from Mom)
$89,000.00 medical debt still owed
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$_4,000.00 debt paid off since January

So grand total is $53,334.61 paid off in the last six months. And even if I take the personal loan out of the equation, because paying that off was a one time windfall, we have still paid off $15,010.74 worth of debt this year, $9000 of it on credit cards, while at the same time paying $3000 to new medical debt with more to come. I need to remind myself of this on occasion when I feel burnt out or like it's not worth it. Putting the numbers in front of my face like that makes me actually see that we have made a major leap forward.

Yes, we still have the van loan which I have not included with the rest of the debt. I look at it in a different way than other debt, as an investment against my disabilities, and it will have lots of money thrown at it in the future when our credit card debt is gone, but it's not something I'm concerning myself with at the moment other than to pay the monthly payments. We plan to keep this car until it falls apart and it can be easily adapted if my knee gets to the point where I'll need to use a wheelchair, which I hope never happens. I still hold out hope for rehabilitation.

If I can continue to pay $2500 a month to credit card debt it should be gone by the end of February. But I still have no idea how much my surgery is going to cost me in the end. Right now I'm guesstimating $5000 based on how much my gall bladder surgery and appendectomy cost, each with one overnight stay. They were around $3000 each for my portion and it's been several years ago. I am guesstimating on the high side because it's been several years and it's at a fancy, name brand hospital. Normally I put $4500 to debt repayment each month, about $3000 of it to credit cards. A part of me is still hoping to do it by year's end, but the more practical, sensible part of me says February/March is a more realistic goal.