Debt Dumpers - 2015

[Colleen27]

Just checking in, though I don't have much to report. According to my little spreadsheet we've paid down a whopping $376 dollars in debt since we started working on it in July. Such a pathetic little number but I'm trying not to beat myself up over it because we agreed from the start that we weren't going to put the brakes on the whole summer to pay things off faster. So that $376 is what we paid off over a month that involved a week's cabin rental for county fair, DD7's birthday party at the town carnival, a 9 hour round trip to deliver DD13 to camp, and a weekend's cabin rental when we picked her up.

In the Murphy department, my tuition went up an astonishing 8.5% for the coming year. I don't know how kids do it these days - you can't even borrow your way through school as a commuter student at a public uni any more! Fortunately I have a small scholarship for the coming year, so my loans for this year will still be smaller than last year, but not by as much as I'd expected.

On the flip side DD13 was one of the winners of the alumni scholarship from her elem, so her latest tuition statement shows a $333 payment that didn't have to come from my pocket. That's always nice to see! Her scholarship total this year so far is at a rather impressive $3700 (of $8500 total) and there's another $500 award coming that has yet to credit to the account so we'll basically be paying half price for this year. Hopefully she continues to do as well for the next three years! We also arranged to get some of her books - that's right, on top of tuition we have to buy our own books! - from a friend who is a year older so that'll save us about $100. I'm using Bigwords for the rest, just like I do for my own, so hopefully I'll be able to find decent prices.

 

[Colleen27]

It is a scam, we would put the boys on my husbands 1970 Chevelle's, because they had to have a vehicle associated with them. I remeber crying 15 years ago when our insurance went up 100 a month more per kid. Our last child, we never called till she got her own car. All our vehicles were insured and she very rarely drove. We also carried a 1 million dollar umbrella coverage-$425 a year.

I'm dreading that myself. DS17 didn't have any interest in driving for a long time. We switched from Progressive to Esurance when he turned 15 because Progressive wanted to hike our rates even though he didn't have a permit yet, much less a license, just for having a teenage boy in the household. Now he's taking driver's ed (at my insistence - he won't get his license until 18 but I'm requiring he have the class either way) so I'm sure we can look forward to a HUGE insurance hike. And we live in a crappy place for insurance to start with. Two adults with clean records, carrying only liability insurance on one older minivan, is running us $1500/yr. I don't even want to see what is going to happen with a newly-licensed teenage boy added to the mix. And it really is such a scam - the uninsured driver rate is high, so the companies raise rates, so even fewer people can afford insurance, so the rates go even higher. With rates based on zip code, we're essentially being punished financially for being in a lower-income community.

 

[roadtripper]

Haven't posted here in a while, but I paid off my smallest 0% credit card last week, and will begin chipping away at the others now. As of December, I will not have any more college bills for DD, but I am committed to pretending I do in order to knock off that other pesky debt. Even at 0%, it is making me crazy. Hope everyone else is doing well, and that Murphy is taking the summer off.

 

[gracie1]

Haven't posted here in a while, but I paid off my smallest 0% credit card last week, and will begin chipping away at the others now. As of December, I will not have any more college bills for DD, but I am committed to pretending I do in order to knock off that other pesky debt. Even at 0%, it is making me crazy. Hope everyone else is doing well, and that Murphy is taking the summer off.

Congrats on getting some of your cc paid off!! That is fantastic!!

 

[KSR0330]

I saw in a previous post that someone made a spreadsheet of their debt. I thought, "I LOVE spreadsheets!" and tonight I made one, too! I included each credit card debt, each month's balance and my payment made each month. I think it will really help motivate me to put as much money toward my credit card debt since I can now visually see the balances go down each month!

 

[gracie1]

I saw in a previous post that someone made a spreadsheet of their debt. I thought, "I LOVE spreadsheets!" and tonight I made one, too! I included each credit card debt, each month's balance and my payment made each month. I think it will really help motivate me to put as much money toward my credit card debt since I can now visually see the balances go down each month!

That's the best motivation is when you see the balances go down!! You can then see that your accomplishing your goal! Way to go

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

So I did tell you all that I'd come back and report the change in my FICO score after using my Disney visa balance transfer to pay off dh's truck and we'll have 0% for 12 months.
Well, according to the FICO as reported on my Discover account, it went from 816 to 825 initially. I think this was when I paid off the last of the cc's in my name. Now this last month it dropped to 797. So yes it took a slight hit but well worth it imo. It's still not bad credit, just not as good as it was. Our min payment on the truck is now $80 instead of $500. So for now I'm paying the minimum until I can get caught up elsewhere.

A few weeks ago I finished paying back dh's little slush fund the $ I borrowed to pay off the cc's. Today I finished saving up the car ins fund for when our renewal comes up in late Sept. By next Thurs I'll be done bringing our emergency fund back up to $1000. I had also "borrowed" from these savings accounts to pay off the last of our cc's. Then we're taking a 2 week break and using the snowball those weeks for food at Universal. Then starting to build our Christmas account which takes us to mid Oct. Then start paying down the 0% bill for our Universal trip. Then start on the truck loan which needs to be paid off by Aug.
Sigh...This had to be our most boring summer ever.

It should all work out and be paid off by early March IF Murphy stays away (sorry to dump him at someone else's door) and Frontier doesn't offer those $29 flights to MCO again. I was strong before but all this Universal planning just makes me long for some WDW.
I'm kicking myself for not jumping on those cheap fares when I had the chance. They're only $69 right now so I'm resisting out of stubbornness. Yes, it's half of what SWA & American want but still double what it was last week. For now, it's working to prevent me from booking but who knows for how long. I'm one who can't stand the feeling of regret. What I should be regretting is not about skipping cheap flights but I should be regretting using so much of our cc's and not saving more for college for our kids.
This is what I need to focus on.

Hang in there everyone. Just keep swimming!!

 

[Gena001]

So I did tell you all that I'd come back and report the change in my FICO score after using my Disney visa balance transfer to pay off dh's truck and we'll have 0% for 12 months.
Well, according to the FICO as reported on my Discover account, it went from 816 to 825 initially. I think this was when I paid off the last of the cc's in my name. Now this last month it dropped to 797. So yes it took a slight hit but well worth it imo. It's still not bad credit, just not as good as it was. Our min payment on the truck is now $80 instead of $500. So for now I'm paying the minimum until I can get caught up elsewhere.

A few weeks ago I finished paying back dh's little slush fund the $ I borrowed to pay off the cc's. Today I finished saving up the car ins fund for when our renewal comes up in late Sept. By next Thurs I'll be done bringing our emergency fund back up to $1000. I had also "borrowed" from these savings accounts to pay off the last of our cc's. Then we're taking a 2 week break and using the snowball those weeks for food at Universal. Then starting to build our Christmas account which takes us to mid Oct. Then start paying down the 0% bill for our Universal trip. Then start on the truck loan which needs to be paid off by Aug.
Sigh...This had to be our most boring summer ever.

It should all work out and be paid off by early March IF Murphy stays away (sorry to dump him at someone else's door) and Frontier doesn't offer those $29 flights to MCO again. I was strong before but all this Universal planning just makes me long for some WDW.
I'm kicking myself for not jumping on those cheap fares when I had the chance. They're only $69 right now so I'm resisting out of stubbornness. Yes, it's half of what SWA & American want but still double what it was last week. For now, it's working to prevent me from booking but who knows for how long. I'm one who can't stand the feeling of regret. What I should be regretting is not about skipping cheap flights but I should be regretting using so much of our cc's and not saving more for college for our kids.
This is what I need to focus on.

Hang in there everyone. Just keep swimming!!

HEY - you have a PLAN! And that's great! Stay the course!!!

 

[dayvewc]

HEY - you have a PLAN! And that's great! Stay the course!!!

That reminds me from a couple of years ago when I had an annual pass to WDW. I scheduled 4 trips over the year it was valid, and just told my family "I've planned my vacations, now I'm vacationing my plans"

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

Things seem to be getting better here. We made it to payday with $800 still in our checking account. Better then the 2 weeks living on $29!

My husband and I both got into new jeeps. Yes, I know new cars don't help budgeting issues, but selling off his (which he still had 3 years of payments on) got us $3500. And I was 5,000 miles away from being over on my lease mileage. At the end of the day we walked away with money and new cars. So IF....IF, we have to do something like consolidate, and our credit score takes a hit, we'll be okay for awhile

The biggest thing is that I've started lunches at home and dinners. As a family who ate out nearly every meal, this has helped a ton with money. We both made a pack to do much better about this (with my husband coming home for lunches rather then going out) and I'm gearing up to have lots of meals ready to go once school is back (I'm a teacher).

We've got a savings account with about $5k in it now. We need to sit down and look at the credit card balances to see how we can pay some of it off. My husband loves to just pay the minimums. So this will be a battle to pay down our debt.

Nice surprise today...$400 overage check from the orthodontist. Wasn't expecting that. We used a CC for a few of the monthly ortho bills so I'm inclined to send it to that card. My husband wants us to put it into the savings account we have. Like I said, paying down our debt is a challenge with him, LOL.

No word on our contract for this school year. But if for some reason there were no raises and only steps given, I'm looking at a $5k raise (which will help us back to recovering from the $20k hit I took to switch). I've told my husband we should make an effort this year to automatically transfer the "extra" pay I get this year into savings as soon as I get paid. That will pad our "safety" net and possibly give us money to send to our credit cards.

I've been trying to sell off random stuff too, to get some back to school shopping money built up. Sold off some of the kids old clothes, a camera lens I don't use, old purses, etc. Every little bit, helps, right?

Kudos to all of you paying stuff down. Even $300 is better then nothing! I hope to join you someday....when I can convince my husband to stop paying the minimums!!! AHHHHH!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Things seem to be getting better here. We made it to payday with $800 still in our checking account. Better then the 2 weeks living on $29!

My husband and I both got into new jeeps. Yes, I know new cars don't help budgeting issues, but selling off his (which he still had 3 years of payments on) got us $3500. And I was 5,000 miles away from being over on my lease mileage. At the end of the day we walked away with money and new cars. So IF....IF, we have to do something like consolidate, and our credit score takes a hit, we'll be okay for awhile

The biggest thing is that I've started lunches at home and dinners. As a family who ate out nearly every meal, this has helped a ton with money. We both made a pack to do much better about this (with my husband coming home for lunches rather then going out) and I'm gearing up to have lots of meals ready to go once school is back (I'm a teacher).

We've got a savings account with about $5k in it now. We need to sit down and look at the credit card balances to see how we can pay some of it off. My husband loves to just pay the minimums. So this will be a battle to pay down our debt.

Nice surprise today...$400 overage check from the orthodontist. Wasn't expecting that. We used a CC for a few of the monthly ortho bills so I'm inclined to send it to that card. My husband wants us to put it into the savings account we have. Like I said, paying down our debt is a challenge with him, LOL.

No word on our contract for this school year. But if for some reason there were no raises and only steps given, I'm looking at a $5k raise (which will help us back to recovering from the $20k hit I took to switch). I've told my husband we should make an effort this year to automatically transfer the "extra" pay I get this year into savings as soon as I get paid. That will pad our "safety" net and possibly give us money to send to our credit cards.

I've been trying to sell off random stuff too, to get some back to school shopping money built up. Sold off some of the kids old clothes, a camera lens I don't use, old purses, etc. Every little bit, helps, right?

Kudos to all of you paying stuff down. Even $300 is better then nothing! I hope to join you someday....when I can convince my husband to stop paying the minimums!!! AHHHHH!

Great job! We've been packing lunches for years and I cringe when I see what some coworkers pay each day for lunch. So if they're married or have a S.O. that means x2!! Yikes!
Have you tried sitting your dh down to talk about paying more than minimums? This would make me bonkers and would get my dh fired from his bill-paying job. lol. He is very passive and doesn't argue much on how we go about it, as long as we were making progress. Not all men are so easy to let go of the reins.
You really get no where paying just the minimum. If you look on your statement it will spell out how long it will take to pay off if you only pay the minimum, assuming you don't charge any more. Maybe you could convince him to part with more savings to pay bills down? It's good to have some safety net but as long as you're paying interest on debt, that is likely costing you more than what your savings account earns. Of course if that $ is earmarked for certain future, non-monthly bills such as car insurance or property taxes, it would make sense to hold onto it.
I followed Dave Ramsey for paying down debt and he suggested keeping $1000 for an emergency fund. It does seem like a small amount but rarely in our 2 years of paying down did something suddenly cost us more than that. Even $2K would be good but once you start seeing that balance drop, drop, drop it's actually exciting to pay bills on payday. (or maybe I just really need to get out more! lol!) There are some aspects about DR's plan that I just couldn't agree with such as cutting out all unnecessary spending such as cable, cell phones, car payments, vacations, etc. He also suggested to stop funding our retirement plans while we're paying down debt. I just couldn't cut down that far. He is right in that the more spending that gets cut out of the budget, the faster the debt pay down occurs. So perhaps instead of it taking us 2 years, maybe it would have only taken us 8-10 months if we followed every piece of advice. It's good to find the right balance so that you're reminded of your motivation but not on a starvation diet that is unrealistic to stick to.
Good luck to you.

 

[Angeejoe]

I had a horrible heartbreaking day yesterday, I had to have my 10yr old cat put to sleep. It was unexpected. I'm just devastated. I'm really missing him. My other 2 cats seem lost without him.

 

[Dentam]

I had a horrible heartbreaking day yesterday, I had to have my 10yr old cat put to sleep. It was unexpected. I'm just devastated. I'm really missing him. My other 2 cats seem lost without him.

I'm so sorry to hear this, Angeejoe! Hugs to you and your 2 kitties.

 

[Angeejoe]

I'm so sorry to hear this, Angeejoe! Hugs to you and your 2 kitties.

Thank you so much Tamara. It's just hard, DH & I are just so sad. You may remember I had posted on here in June he was sick, had an infection in his gum. The vet gave us the option of just antibiotics or pull the tooth in the area (even though it wasn't an infected tooth, but would really help with the swelling) with antibiotics, so we did the latter. He just never recovered, went into liver failure & developed a bile duct blockage/possible tumor. He just didn't want to eat or drink, we were spoon feeding him. We initially thought the not wanting to eat was related to the tooth pulled as we had to switch him to a soft diet. The vet & tech were so good with him & I stayed with him until he was gone. I just kept petting him & crying.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I had a horrible heartbreaking day yesterday, I had to have my 10yr old cat put to sleep. It was unexpected. I'm just devastated. I'm really missing him. My other 2 cats seem lost without him.

I'm so sorry. I've had to do that too. It's awful.
Hugs to you and your family.

 

[Angeejoe]

I'm so sorry. I've had to do that too. It's awful.
Hugs to you and your family.

Thanks Patti!

 

[Miss Whimsy]

Oh Angeejoe, I am so sorry.

 

[bcwife76]

I had a horrible heartbreaking day yesterday, I had to have my 10yr old cat put to sleep. It was unexpected. I'm just devastated. I'm really missing him. My other 2 cats seem lost without him.

I'm so, so sorry for your loss

 

[dayvewc]

I had a horrible heartbreaking day yesterday, I had to have my 10yr old cat put to sleep. It was unexpected. I'm just devastated. I'm really missing him. My other 2 cats seem lost without him.

I'm so sorry for your loss. Those furry, four-legged, fluffy friends are family. Big hugs!!

 

[crazycatstacy]

I am so sorry about the loss of your cat.