Free Debt Snowball Worksheet

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Order your debts smallest to largest and see how each payment rolls into the next.

The debt snowball is the simplest payoff method there is: pay the minimum on everything, put every spare dollar on the smallest balance, and when that one is gone roll its whole payment onto the next smallest. The payments grow as the debts fall, which is where the name comes from.

This worksheet walks the method in four steps on one page. List the debts smallest first. Add your minimums to the extra you can find each month to get your monthly snowball. Roll it forward, debt by debt, writing down the payment each one gets while it is the focus. Then write the date you will be debt free.

The snowball is not the cheapest method in interest terms; the debt avalanche usually saves more. It is the method people actually finish, because the first debt disappears fast and the second faster still. If you want the numbers done for you, the free debt snowball calculator computes every payment and payoff date in seconds.

Debt Snowball Worksheet: page one of the free printable PDF

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Rather have the numbers filled in for you? Undebt.it tracks all of this online for free, and personalized versions of these printables, built from your own plan, are on the way.

How to use it

  1. Step 1: list smallest to largest. Balance is all that matters for the order. Write the minimum payment and APR beside each one and total the minimums.
  2. Step 2: find your snowball. Total minimums plus the extra you can commit every month. That number never goes down: when a debt is paid off, its payment stays in the snowball.
  3. Step 3: roll it forward. The focus debt gets the snowball minus the minimums still owed on the debts below it. When it clears, the next debt becomes the focus and gets a bigger payment.
  4. Step 4: name the date. Estimate it, or let the calculator tell you exactly. Write it on the sheet and put the sheet where you will see it.

Tips that make it stick

  • If two balances are close, put the one with the higher rate first. The snowball is a rule of thumb, not a law.
  • Round the extra down to a number you can hit even in a bad month. A snowball that survives December is worth more than a bigger one that does not.
  • Windfalls (a tax refund, a bonus, a sold bicycle) go straight onto the focus debt. Then keep the regular snowball going as if nothing happened.
Debt Avalanche Worksheet preview Debt Avalanche Worksheet Order your debts by interest rate, highest first, and pay the least interest possible.
Debt Tracker preview Debt Tracker List every debt on one page, then log each balance month by month.
Debt Payoff Matrix preview Debt Payoff Matrix Debts down the side, months across the top, a payment in every cell. Cross them off as you go.

See all the free printables

Common questions

You pay the minimum on every debt and put all your extra money on the one with the smallest balance. When it is paid off, its payment is added to the next smallest debt, and so on. The amount you send to debt each month stays the same, but as debts disappear it lands on fewer and fewer of them, so each one falls faster than the last.

The avalanche (highest interest rate first) costs less in interest and is the mathematically best order. The snowball (smallest balance first) gets the first debt off your list soonest, which is why more people stick with it. For most real debt lists the difference in total interest is smaller than people expect; the snowball vs avalanche calculator shows both side by side with your own numbers.

Start with minimums only and still fill the sheet in. The moment the smallest debt is paid off, its minimum becomes your extra, and the snowball starts itself. Even a snowball of zero extra dollars finishes sooner than paying minimums forever, because the freed-up payments compound.

Take your monthly snowball and subtract the minimum payments of every debt still waiting below the focus debt. What is left is what the focus debt gets. For the last debt on the list that is the whole snowball. The calculator does this arithmetic for you and adds the interest.