List every debt on one page, then log each balance month by month.
Most people who feel buried in debt have never seen the whole pile in one place. A statement here, an app there, a loan that only shows up as a line on a bank feed. The Debt Tracker fixes that in ten minutes: one page, every debt, with the balance, the interest rate, the minimum payment and the day it is due.
Below the list is a twelve-month balance log. Once a month, after the payments post, you write each balance in its box and add up the Total owed row. That row is the whole point. Watching it shrink, in your own handwriting, does more for motivation than any chart on a screen.
The tracker is deliberately method-neutral. Number the Payoff order column for a debt snowball (smallest balance first) or a debt avalanche (highest rate first), or in any order that makes sense to you. If you want the order worked out for you, the Snowball Worksheet and the Avalanche Worksheet pick up where this page leaves off.
Download the free PDF
Free, no signup, no email address. Pick your paper size; every version is one page and prints on any home printer.
The ink saver version is the same sheet in black and gray for cheap printing. Print at 100 percent, not "fit to page", so the rows stay a comfortable height for handwriting.
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
- Gather the statements. Every credit card, store card, personal loan, car loan, student loan, medical bill and money owed to family. If it has a balance, it goes on the list.
- Fill in section 1. Name, APR, current balance, minimum payment and due day for each debt. Add up the Balance and Min. payment columns in the Total row.
- Number the payoff order. Smallest balance first for a snowball, highest APR first for an avalanche. Every extra dollar you have each month goes to number 1 while the rest get their minimums.
- Log once a month. Pick a day (the day after your last payment posts works well) and write every balance into that month's column, then total the column. Same day, every month.
Tips that make it stick
- Put the sheet where you pay bills, not in a drawer. The log only works if the monthly entry is easy to remember.
- Round to whole dollars in the log. Precision is not the point; the direction is.
- When a debt hits zero, write DONE across its row in the log and leave it there. A finished row is a trophy, not clutter.
- Eight debts not enough? Print two copies, or let Undebt.it hold the list for you online for free, with the balances updating as you pay.
