Frugal Homesteading Blog

When you’re getting out of debt, it can feel like a slow, often discouraging process. When you first start the journey, you might feel energized and enthusiastic, excited about your new plan. And I imagine that when the end is in sight, you’ll have renewed energy to sprint to the finish line. But for those of us in the middle of the journey, finding motivation is harder.

On the Dave Ramsey forums, I stumbled across the idea of “snowflakes.” If you’re familiar with Dave Ramsey’s Dumping Debt lesson, or have read his books, you’ll be familiar with his debt snowball idea.

The idea of Snowflakes is that anything extra you can add to your debt snowball each month gets you that much closer to becoming debt free. Participants in the My Total Money Makeover forums join in a monthly Snowflake challenge and post updates throughout the month as they work toward their personal goals.

Snowflakes are totally extra, above and beyond the extra already being put toward debt. It’s a way of making debt freedom come even more quickly. Say your monthly debt payment minimums total $600, and you have an extra $200 a month budgeted for your lowest balance. But you really want to get out of debt. Snowflakes are the ways you save or earn more money to put toward the snowball.

For June, I challenged myself to find an extra $100 to put toward my debt reduction. So far I’m at $75. I saved $25 by getting my cable provider to drop my internet bill from $50 to $25 a month for the next six months. I earned $25 through an extra online writing job I hadn’t expected, and got $25 for signing up for an online bank account.

I’m $75 closer to being debt free!

Getting out of debt can almost be fun with the Debt Snowball and Snowflake approach. How much extra could you put toward your debt snowball this month? I’d love to hear your comments below!