Debt Dumpers - 2013

[StitchesGr8Fan]

Hi Everyone, DH and I are focusing on dumping debt this year. We have a little CC debt, and student loans. We practiced living on a budget last year so we have fine tuned it for this year and are ready to go. We have a couple if variables - a new baby coming, and one new student loan to start paying, so we will have to adjust our budget once we know those costs. I want to start a thread where we support each other on passing up those unnecessary expenses to focus on the long term goal. Who is with me?

 

[jmartinez1895]

I would love to join you. We are very much in debt ( mostly medical and attorney fees that I either put on credit cards or took out loans for....lesson learned). We are making all of our payments very comfortably, but it would be nice to have all the cash we are spending on interest going to our saving account instead of the credit card company. We have a disney trip planned for this year that we are paying cash for. Yes that money could have gone to bills, but we needed a break from all the doctors.
Thanks for starting the thread and letting me vent some!!!

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

Welcome! We have no trips planned, which is sad. But I think about how great it will feel when we take our child for the first time and don't have to feel guilty that we could have used the money to pay down debt! But in your case, it does sound like the trip is needed. Use it to get refreshed and attack that debt like crazy!

 

[mrssmith06]

I am with you!! We have a good bit of debt to get paid off this year!! We are hoping to be able to take our next trip next year...we'll see....

Our main goals:

• 4 credit cards (2 are maxed!)
• DD's Furniture (just paid off her bed, still owe on her dresser!)
• Taxes, loans, etc from my business that closed last year.

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

We are attacking the debt this year too.
I used Gail Vazoxlade's own up to your debt spreadsheet to figure out how to pay each card off.

http://www.gailvazoxlade.com/resources/own_up_to_debt_worksheet.html

I put everything on there, including the house and the cars.
It breaks it down with the total and interest and it tells you what you need to pay to get the debt paid off in 12, 24, and 36 months.
I also put everything on that list to pay off in order. Like CC #1 gets paid off first because it has the smallest balance and the highest interest rate.

We are also going to refinance the house when DH's expense check comes in. We can save $400 a month when we switch from the big bank mortgage company to our local credit union.

 

[wiigirl]

We are attacking the debt this year too.
I used Gail Vazoxlade's own up to your debt spreadsheet to figure out how to pay each card off.

http://www.gailvazoxlade.com/resources/own_up_to_debt_worksheet.html

I put everything on there, including the house and the cars.
It breaks it down with the total and interest and it tells you what you need to pay to get the debt paid off in 12, 24, and 36 months.
I also put everything on that list to pay off in order. Like CC #1 gets paid off first because it has the smallest balance and the highest interest rate.

We are also going to refinance the house when DH's expense check comes in. We can save $400 a month when we switch from the big bank mortgage company to our local credit union.

Thanks!

 

[mebbradley]

Our goal is to pay off our three smaller credit cards by the end of the year! We have about 2,300 or less to go.

We are buying our first house in a few weeks and have student loan/car debt that we want to try and knock as much as we can away from.

Gah never mind. Looks like a decent chunk of this is now going towards our wedding

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

We are using the Dave Ramsey snowball technique - paying off the littlest first, rolling what we were paying into that one up to the next biggest, and so on.

 

[jmartinez1895]

We are also doing Dave's snowball. So far I am starting to see a dent and I have only been committed for a few months. When we get our tax return I am going to put some of that toward the credit cards and that shouls help out some.

 

[ohiopugmom]

good luck everyone! My goal is to pay off our van this year! we have about 9k left....

we use cc, but pay off every month. It is going to be tight this month....kind of overspent with the holidays....

 

[dreamin_disney]

Thanks!

We are attacking the debt this year too.
I used Gail Vazoxlade's own up to your debt spreadsheet to figure out how to pay each card off.

http://www.gailvazoxlade.com/resources/own_up_to_debt_worksheet.html

I put everything on there, including the house and the cars.
It breaks it down with the total and interest and it tells you what you need to pay to get the debt paid off in 12, 24, and 36 months.
I also put everything on that list to pay off in order. Like CC #1 gets paid off first because it has the smallest balance and the highest interest rate.

We are also going to refinance the house when DH's expense check comes in. We can save $400 a month when we switch from the big bank mortgage company to our local credit union.

I entered my info but its not doing anything. Is anyone else having trouble with it?

 

[treeface]

We were working on Dave's snowball until DH lost his job in September and our income was cut way down. It took 12 weeks before unemployment kicked in so our snowball is on hold while we just pay living expenses. Still hoping to dump the debt as my car is paid in March and DH's in August so there is a light at the end of the tunnel. At that time, if he still isn't working, I can get back to the snowball.

 

[HouseMother]

I think that's a great idea. We are debt free except for our mortgage and my CC which has about a $350 balance. DH lost his job last June and went back to work in November at a better paying job, but thankfully we were able to make it through his unemployment without going into debt. The CC balance is from a few tanks of gas and groceries between paychecks while DH was unemployed. We are closing on our refinance tomorrow and will skip February's payment, so I can pay off the balance then. I am the biggest debt free cheerleader in the world so I will gladly encourage everyone on their quest to crush debt!

 

[sskem96]

We are using the snowball technique also. No "real" vacation this year, but we may go camping with extended family in August. Cruising (on DVC points) next January, so I currently have $50/pp going into a savings acct. to cover airfare and misc expenses for that trip.

I was supposed to pay off my Kohl's card with last week's paycheck, but we got slammed with a $900 car repair bill, so I'm already behind. I'm using the cash that was supposed to pay the cc off plus all of my and DH's Christmas money and about $350 from the emergency fund to pay for the car repairs. I'm supposed to pay $200 towards my Sam's Club card next payday, so I'm hoping my check is enough to pay off Kohl's and still send Sam's $200 since it will have a little overtime on it.

 

[bored]

We dumped debt in 2012. I have a potential job loss coming up in the first quarter of 2013, so we sold the toys (jet skis and atv) and our third vehicle. I hated to see my toys go but we're down to mortgage payment only and it will make surviving the job loss if it happens a little easier.

 

[acename]

I'd love to join in. We built a house last year and moved in in October. While we can pay all the payments, I hate having all these credit card bills hanging around. I hate not having extra money to save for vacation, new furniture and things like that. I hate knowing that I can't buy things I want now because I have to pay for things I bought earlier.

We don't have student loan or car debt, just a mortgage and credit cards. I know we can't get it all paid off this year. But I'd like to cut the credit card debt in half.

 

[arwood82]

I am in. I still have some student loan debt that I am working on. We have no credit card debt so our focus is the student loans, medical bills , and to pay off our new furniture that we bought in August. We are skipping vacation this year so we can pay some of this down. We are still saving a little bit here and there for a disney cruise in 2014.

 

[Deffenm]

I will join you. My goal this year is to pay off the 1 credit card we have, my truck (DH's is already paid for), and a small loan we have. I would like all of these paid for by October. We were supposed to go to WDW in August but we have decided to just do a few local camping trips instead. We are paying for an RV so we might as well use it.

 

[gator75]

I will also join. We where credit card free , but got back in again due to my moms illness that required me to be with her at the hospital for a month. We own our cars no student loans so just credit cards. I plan on using dave ramsy snowball plan. I'm going to pay off 2 small credit cards next month so it's a start.

 

[ktrask]

We are on a longer plan that one year, more like 3, but all credit cards will be paid off in the 3 years. We'd like to buy a house in 3-4 years, and I told my husband that before I will apply for any home loan I want all of the credit cards paid off.

DD is out of daycare in a year and a half, so when she's out the money we pay to daycare will go to downpayment savings. I'd like us to have a downpayment saved and no CC debt when we apply for our loan. A year and a half of no daycare will give us about 8-10% down on a home. More than enough for an FHA loan, and we will be first time home buyers.

I'm dying to own our very own home...but I want to go into it the right way.