Will have a second look. I don't agree though that a thimble of spit is better than nothing, it is nothing. When we embrace EBAY, it will be more for shining a light on our free spending habits. I like making chunky payments, not snowflaking. I vow for 2014 to take one bill and start spitting at it.
Like I said, this is a rookie mistake. And math is math, and math says something isn't nothing, even if it's a small something.
As I said, paying off $4000 in debt is good, but paying off $4400 would've been a little better. You do what you can with your main salary, and you look for small extras too. That's how you move beyond the rookie mistakes.
Yes. Also, this isn't just about paying off the debt. If that's all you do, you'll be back where you are in a few years time. It's also, and perhaps far more importantly, about changing your mindset. When you allow yourself to have thoughts like "it's only a little, so it doesn't count", you allow yourself to continue to see your money in those terms. If selling an item for $25 is no big deal, then buying one isn't, either. If your debt isn't really such an emergency that you need to do whatever you can think of, then where's the harm in buying those cute shoes that are on a super crazy sale?
Even the notion that you prefer chunky payments over snowflakes is just allowing yourself to fall back on the irrational, emotion-driven decision making that got you here. I've you've got $5, send it to a card. Saving it until you have $50 allows interest to accrue.
You'll need to run the numbers, but it might be smartest to move the lease buy out to the top of the list of priorities, reducing payments on everything else to the minimums.
If, of course, it isn't, then put everything toward the highest interest CC.