This is my plan to pay off $8,000 of debt in six months

In January 2024, I opened a 0% APR card with dreams of financing a bathroom refresh in the house where I live with my fiancé. Those dreams died with our central air conditioning in the spring. Instead, I put $8,000 on the card to make it through a muggy summer.

Rather than using my 0% APR card responsibly and sticking to a payment schedule, I felt overwhelmed that we'd spent money on a necessity instead of a bathroom upgrade and ignored the balance, making only the minimum payment. By October 2024, I had six months left on the zero-interest intro period and owed $8,200. (I also charged some new light fixtures for the bathroom.) If I don't pay the balance before the regular rate kicks in, my soon-to-be husband and I would get a pile of high-interest debt as a wedding present.

Here's what I'm doing to pay off more than $8,000 of debt in six months.

The 0% APR card that made it possible to finance such a big expense is the Chase Freedom Unlimited® (see rates and fees). At the time I opened the card, it offered a 15-month 0% intro APR from account opening on new purchases (then a 18.24% - 27.74% variable APR).  

As a Chase account loyalist with other cards from the issuer, it made the most sense to open the Freedom Unlimited. I had already earned plenty of Ultimate Rewards® Points with my other Chase cards, and the big spending we had planned for this one meant even more rewards points.

If I wasn't already a Chase user, I might have gone with the Wells Fargo Reflect® Card for its longer introductory APR period. But because I'm familiar with Chase's rewards system and, at the time, didn't think I'd need a longer intro APR period, I went with Freedom Unlimited.

To pay off the debt in time, I sat down with my fiancé to iron out a financial plan for the next six months.

1. Start with a solid budget

I couldn't make any meaningful decisions to dig out of debt if I didn't know exactly where we were spending money. So putting together a new, emergency budget was the first step.

To start, I divided the card balance by the six months left in the intro period. We'd need to put $1,300 a month towards the card. Not easy, but doable. 

To find that money, I used a budgeting app that connects to all of my and my fiancé's accounts to analyze how much is going in and out each month. 

I'm a visual person, so my favorite way to do that was with Empower, which set up a personal dashboard to help me track and visualize our net worth. The tool also makes budgets and charts debt balances to show change over time. It also has a useful phone app that I like for a quick check-in as we go.

If Empower isn't right for you, there are plenty of alternatives. Monarch, for example, made our list of best budgeting apps because it's easy to use.

Using that dashboard, I made a zero-based budget where every dollar goes to an expense or debt payoff. The budget leaves very little room for other spending, so my fiancé and I have drastically cut back. With a few exceptions like taking care of our 16-year-old cat, Fudge, and making deposits for our wedding, we aren't spending much at all.

We're planning on cutting out a few items that should save us money:

• Eating out and coffee (about $340): As someone who works from home, I love leaving the house every once in a while. But I estimate that I was spending about $75 to $100 a month at coffee shops, which I'll swap for trips to my local library. We also tend to get takeout when life makes it hard to cook. Instead, I'm cooking when I have the time and energy and stocking our freezer with things we can easily heat and eat. This should open up about $240 per month for debt payoff.
• More intentional with grocery spending (about $200): Our grocery spending can be reduced by about $200 per month if we're intentional about meal prepping and switching to buying in bulk.
• Swapping in low-cost activities instead of going out (about $100): We love hanging out with friends, but we'll do it at home or on the cheap whenever possible. Instead of a night on the town with friends for a birthday, we decided to have people over to our place. I estimate that this was about $100 cheaper than going out, and we probably do this once a month.
• Cut out extraneous spending (about $300): We estimate that we spend about $300 a month on extraneous things, from my occasional trip to a nail salon to a spontaneous online purchase.

Because we can only cut so much, we plan to boost our revenue by selling some clothes and camera equipment we no longer need.

2. Using the right cards for smart spending

More than just making big cuts to our spending, I am more mindful about how to pay for certain expenses to avoid derailing our long-term goals.

One non-negotiable line item on the budget is a regular contribution to my Fidelity Roth IRA. I try to get as close as I can to the limit each year — in 2024, you can contribute up to $7,000 per year or up to $8,000 per year if you're age 50 or older. That's about $134 per week out of the budget that we can't spend on groceries and other essentials.

Thanks to the very first credit card I opened, I have a way to support that weekly $134 for my retirement using what we spend on everyday needs. The Fidelity® Rewards Visa Signature® Card earns 2% cash back on all eligible spending when you redeem the rewards as a direct deposit into a Fidelity IRA, HSA or 529 plan. That means every time I use this card for expenses I know we can't avoid, 2% of the costs go into my retirement account.

3. Re-evaluate every expense

I know from previous budgets how easily recurring subscriptions can slip through the cracks and drain finances.

Going through credit card statements and records can be time-consuming, but Chase's Saved Account Manager simplifies the process. Available within the Chase mobile app, it helps you track everywhere your card information is stored and indicates which saved accounts have recurring charges.

I used Account Manger to re-evaluate recurring services and subscriptions. I settled on a few we could live without, and canceled them, which frees up $30 per month, or $180 over six months.  

4. Negotiate down essential expenses 

You can't cut every bit of spending. But I've learned during my time as a reporter that you can comparison shop for a better price, and you can usually even negotiate price. I have two items on the budget squarely in my sights: car insurance and the internet bill.  

Our auto insurance payment is just above $2,300 per year for a full-coverage policy with two drivers and two cars. One possible way to lower that expense is to bundle our auto insurance with our home insurance (in this case, condo insurance).  

Two providers I'm considering are Amica and Geico, both known for having affordable yet trustworthy coverage. Amica's bundling discount can be up to 30%, and Geico also offers a discount for bundling car and condo insurance.

I'm getting three to four quotes from insurers with our condo coverage included to see if this can lower the price going forward. If it does, I can switch insurance policies.  

The other item to slash is our $80 monthly internet bill. Some services negotiate your bills for you, like OneMain® MyMoney and Rocket Money. These services can lower how much you pay and help you save on utilities like internet and cable.

Since our internet bill is the only one I have to negotiate, I want to try to do it myself. I'm planning to give the company a call and see if I'm able to get it down. I plan to say that I'm considering switching providers and lean on my good payment history with the company. If it works, I'll put the difference each month towards our debt payoff — even $20 off per month would equate to $100 over six months.

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