Paying Those Bills from the Holidays and Becoming More Financially Stable in the New Year

The holidays are over, and now the bills are coming due. Did you overspend this past holiday season? Many people did. It's the norm these days. With the new year, maybe it's time try a new approach to paying those bills.

I'm actually pleasantly surprised with my totals. I did spend more than I intended, but most of my holiday shopping was done with cash or my debit card this year. I do have some credit card debt due to online purchases, but I'm happy to say I should be able to pay it off in a couple of months. I would pay it all off now, but my car insurance is due soon, and car insurance takes a lot of money.

This is the first holiday season I have not sweated paying for food, gifts, and supplies. If you are a frequent Ozarks Maven reader, you may know that I was able to pay off my credit debt last year after diligently chipping away at it and living frugally for a few years. I posted about it shortly after I made my last payment. I'm doing my best to stay on top of everything and never find myself deep in debt again.

While I am not a financial expert, I would like pass on some wisdom I found useful in the hopes it may help you, too. Like I said, I did post about this last year, so this may be old news to you. It's always a good idea to take a good look at your finances at least once a year to be sure you know where you stand.

If you're struggling, I highly suggest cancelling any services you can live without as they add up quickly. I really enjoyed my quarterly fitness boxes, but they weren't things I actually needed. Therefore, the first thing I did when I started to streamline my finances was cancel my lovely boxes. My ancestry membership was next to go. I also cancelled my book club membership and chose not to renew my magazine subscriptions. All of these cancellations meant more money available to help me climb out of debt.

If you have a great deal of credit card debt, I suggest you make a list of each card, the amount you owe, and the interest rate you're paying. While you're at it, you might be well served to check the offers from each card, as well, and jot down what they're offering if anything. That's an important key to how I was able to wipe out my debt.

I kept track of everything in a small spiral notebook. I wrote down every credit card and their balances each month. Then I wrote down how much I was paying each one. As I neared the end of the promotional period for each card, I jotted down the date on which the balance must be paid in full. At the bottom of the page, I totaled my debt and circled it. As it decreased, so did my stress.

There are agencies such as Consumer Credit Counseling Service that can help you pay your debts and achieve financial freedom. They are a great organization, but they require you to close all of your credit card accounts. Because I travel quite a bit, I need my credit cards for hotel reservations, car rentals, and conference registrations.

Please give careful consideration to what will work best for you and your situation. This is my story about what worked for me.

Many credit card companies are charging over 30% interest on your balances. However, some of them offer balance transfers with a 5% transfer fee and 0% interest for a period of time. These can be very beneficial in helping you take big bites out of your balances.

If you are going to use a balance transfer offer, there are some things you must keep in mind. Make sure you have a zero balance on the card you want to use for the transfer, and don't put anything else on that card until your transfer is paid off. The reason for this is if you are using a special offer, any purchases you make using that card will still charge interest, which will make it more difficult to pay off that balance.

Please note: it's very important to pay off your balance transfers before the special promotion period expires. Many credit cards write the agreements in such a way that you'll end up paying interest on the entire transfer if you still owe a balance at the end of the promotion period.

With the generous credit limit on my first transfer, I was able to transfer a hefty chunk of my debt to that card. Then I did some math. I divided what I owed that card by the number of months in which they would not charge interest and made equal monthly payments in that amount. I paid extra when possible, but I never paid less than my equal monthly payment.

Before that card was paid off, I received a couple offers from credit cards I’d had for a while offering zero percent interest for different periods of time. I also received a couple offers for under 2% interest. I transferred more high interest balances to those with lower to no interest. In total, I took advantage of six of those balance transfer offers, which saved me thousands of dollars in interest and allowed me to pay off my debt quicker.

Now, I owe less than the amount of one paycheck from my holiday shopping. My credit score has increases significantly, and I'm able to pay extra on my car loan. I'm hoping to pay that six-year loan off in three. We'll see how I do.

As I stated earlier, this is the method I used, and it worked for me. In the spirit of bringing positivity into the new year, I thought I would share again in the hopes that my story might help someone.

I wish you the best in 2026 and always!

I am an Amazon Associate. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. #ad 

Thank you for reading Ozarks Maven! If you’ve enjoyed my little seeds of wisdom and joy, please join me again next week for more Ozarks Maven.