Tackling Debt in 2016

2015 was a dumb year for us, financially. We made some big purchases, moved, got a cat (and all of the shots and fixes that come with it), and loved eating out a little too much. We have debts, but they're not particularly large ones: Small credit card (less than $3k), Washer and Dryer (less than $2k), a little left on Jackson's car (less than $800), my car loan (less than $10k), Jackson's school loan (less than $10k), and Jackson's tool loan (right at $10k).  It's not a large sum until you add it all together: It equals about $35k in debt.   That number hurt. The little ones all separate from each other are easy to chew, but $35k was a little hard to swallow. Here's our plan of attack for 2016 to get his car, the credit card, and the washer and dryer all paid off. If I write it, it will happen, right?  1. Pay the minimums - that sounds crazy, right? If we're trying to pay stuff off, shouldn't we be paying extra? Well, yes.  We are going to pay the minimums on everything except for the smallest loan.  My plan was to pay $150 on our washer and dryer per month (three times the minimum) but it doesn't make sense when there is a light at the end of the little car loan! Our first plan of attack is to pay the minimums on everything we're paying extra on and dump it all toward the car. That would equal almost $180 extra on the $92 payments per month... meaning the car would be paid off in less than 4 months. First debt, check. 
2. Spend our Tax Refund Wisely - by spend, I mean apply it to some of the debt. Years prior, we have not necessarily been smart with it. Our first year married, our refund hit while we were on our honeymoon. What did we do? We bought my new NikonD3100, a humidor for Jackson, and some other goodies.  Last year, we paid off the credit card and applied the rest toward his tools.  This year, the goal is to apply it to the credit card and go back to only using it for gas and groceries and paying it off to build credit. 3. Snowball it - If any of you are familiar with Dave, you'll know this one. After the car is paid in full, we will apply the $272/month that was just freed up to something else! The credit card would be my pick. There's currently a balance of almost $3k on it.  After we apply our tax refund, I plan to chip away at it by paying any extra "overtime" we get and what was snowballed from the car.  Hopefully that will get that one paid off in no time.   4. Run home - After all of the car and the credit card are paid off, we will snowball it again to pay off the washer and dryer in the six months or so to follow.  Once all of that is paid off, we will snowball it to my car to total a payment of  $520 per month. After my car comes snowballing it to the tool bill to total a $1000 payment per month. Then we tackle the school loan to total a $1200 payment per month until we are debt free! 
Now, there's not just the payoff side of things, there's also the matter of not racking up any more debt. So unless it is an emergency, we will save from here on out for the things we need.  For example, the tires we just put on my car... boom! Charged for points and paid off immediately. ;) 

How are you planning to meet your money goals in 2016?