Debt Dumpers - 2014

[ceemys]

It really amazes me how well you did in one year. Paying off your debts, building up your credit (which is the hardest!!!) saving a down payment on your house - and getting a house, new furniture and all the unexpected times Murphy hit!
Hope you have a wonderful wedding and honeymoon in Disney

Thank you!

 

[pryncess527]

This is great that everyone is doing so well!

I have a new budget with my fiance moving in sooner than expected. His house sold faster than we thought! I am meticulous, so I have our wedding and Disney honeymoon budget written out in detail! He is coming over with a car payment so when we get back from the honeymoon, I will be all over making double payments on his car to get it paid off. I have not even started on my car savings yet. He has passed his budgeting over to me. His car is his only debt, so it isn't bad, but he doesn't track anything on his checking account. That will be my job now.

Between both of us, we can pay cash for everything but it is going to be tight for the next 4 months. But just like last year when I was saving so long for my house....it will be worth it. BTW!!!! I just Love, Love my new house. I have pictures on my phone, but need to figure out how to get it on here to show you my newly painted LR and my favorite part....the kitchen!

Keep on swimming everyone.

Ditto Gracie -- you have done a really remarkable job! You deserve a great wedding and honeymoon -- and thanks to your hard work saving you'll be able to really enjoy it!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Moving into hyperfocus mode. We have been sharing one vehicle for two years because the other one needed to be repaired to pass the emission inspection. Finally got it repaired $1100 and now we have to pay all of the back fees so another $600. ANNNNND now our 'good' car is acting up. So in order to keep our June 1 vacation a go I have to come up with $3000 over the next 2 months. Let the decluttering (and ebay/Craigslist selling) and work search begin. I'm a freelancer so the only work I have is the stuff I search for on a regular basis. Wish me luck!

Good luck writermommy!!

This is great that everyone is doing so well!

I have a new budget with my fiance moving in sooner than expected. His house sold faster than we thought! I am meticulous, so I have our wedding and Disney honeymoon budget written out in detail! He is coming over with a car payment so when we get back from the honeymoon, I will be all over making double payments on his car to get it paid off. I have not even started on my car savings yet. He has passed his budgeting over to me. His car is his only debt, so it isn't bad, but he doesn't track anything on his checking account. That will be my job now.

Between both of us, we can pay cash for everything but it is going to be tight for the next 4 months. But just like last year when I was saving so long for my house....it will be worth it. BTW!!!! I just Love, Love my new house. I have pictures on my phone, but need to figure out how to get it on here to show you my newly painted LR and my favorite part....the kitchen!

Keep on swimming everyone.

Sounds great ! I'd love to see pictures.

 

[hmack]

So I've been thinking about my goals for April and some may seem small, but they're all about taking control of my finances and small victories are good things.

- Pay back a friend $20 I owe her (small but naggy) I should say that I've only owed her the money for 4 days since she covered for me.

- When my DH was between jobs a couple of weeks ago I feel behind on one bill, so I'm one student loan payment behind so I want to catch up on that.

- Make a deposit in the saving's account. A deposit of any size would be great since we haven't made a deposit in that account for years and years. (my aim is $50)

- Work on starting a smalll but sustainable kitchen pantry.

Again, I know that all sounds like small stuff. But I also need to pay my 6-month car insurance and I don't have any money set aside for that. I'm also working on setting up a budget and getting my debt busting feet under me.

Hoping that our tax return comes in. Poor DH was on the phone with the IRS for over an hour yesterday and when he finally got through all they said was that if our return doesn't come in by 04/04 to give them a call on 04/07. ARG!

Thanks for being so welcoming.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

So I've been thinking about my goals for April and some may seem small, but they're all about taking control of my finances and small victories are good things.

- Pay back a friend $20 I owe her (small but naggy) I should say that I've only owed her the money for 4 days since she covered for me.

- When my DH was between jobs a couple of weeks ago I feel behind on one bill, so I'm one student loan payment behind so I want to catch up on that.

- Make a deposit in the saving's account. A deposit of any size would be great since we haven't made a deposit in that account for years and years. (my aim is $50)

- Work on starting a smalll but sustainable kitchen pantry.

Again, I know that all sounds like small stuff. But I also need to pay my 6-month car insurance and I don't have any money set aside for that. I'm also working on setting up a budget and getting my debt busting feet under me.

Hoping that our tax return comes in. Poor DH was on the phone with the IRS for over an hour yesterday and when he finally got through all they said was that if our return doesn't come in by 04/04 to give them a call on 04/07. ARG!

Thanks for being so welcoming.

Nothing wrong with baby steps!
Car insurance is a thorn in my side.
Part of me (my level-headed half) wants to set aside $ for it, which I currently am doing, in equal amount biweekly so that 100% of the premium will be there when needed.
The other part (impatient half) wants to keep that $ to put into the snowball and get these numbers down faster. Then once Sept gets closer (when our next 6 mo. policy renews) I could funnel our snowball to pay the ins. bill.
I guess either way would work since they're both methods of setting extra money aside to pay a future bill. If anything, my snowball will be larger in Sept so it would take less time to accumulate the needed amount compared to this last time.

 

[ceemys]

So I've been thinking about my goals for April and some may seem small, but they're all about taking control of my finances and small victories are good things.

- Pay back a friend $20 I owe her (small but naggy) I should say that I've only owed her the money for 4 days since she covered for me.

- When my DH was between jobs a couple of weeks ago I feel behind on one bill, so I'm one student loan payment behind so I want to catch up on that.

- Make a deposit in the saving's account. A deposit of any size would be great since we haven't made a deposit in that account for years and years. (my aim is $50)

- Work on starting a smalll but sustainable kitchen pantry.

Again, I know that all sounds like small stuff. But I also need to pay my 6-month car insurance and I don't have any money set aside for that. I'm also working on setting up a budget and getting my debt busting feet under me.

Hoping that our tax return comes in. Poor DH was on the phone with the IRS for over an hour yesterday and when he finally got through all they said was that if our return doesn't come in by 04/04 to give them a call on 04/07. ARG!

Thanks for being so welcoming.

Paying back a friend...not small at all! Small in amount but huge in pressure.

None of that is small! I think since you are just starting, these are great goals! Keep it up

 

[hmack]

So this morning I did that scary thing. You know that thing that you have to do when you decided to face down your debt in a show-down in a dusty abandoned town at high-noon? You look at square in the eye.

And that's what I did. I added up all of our credit card debt and I'm not proud and slighty nauseous. But here goes. Between the two of us we have 6 cards carrying a balance for a total of 16,056 in c.c. debt.

But this time instead of hiding behind an abandoned wagon on the side of the road infront of the general store. Well, there's a new sheriff in town and this one's ready to pull the trigger and wipe this out.

(anyone else have the sudden urge to go visit Frontier Land?)

 

[writermommy6]

Nothing is small!!! Every little bit helps. Just look at the One Year to Save thread. (On my phone so can't link right now).

And yep I sure do feel like I should be wiping dust off my face in the Wild West. I completely understand that showdown feeling.

My hyper focus mode kicked in yesterday and I started moving around like the Easter Bunny on speed. I have a huge stack of stuff to list on CL and ebay today and sent out a dozen answers to potential clients which has resulted in one job so far.

Ready to tackle this car repair.

 

[aliceindisneyland]

So this morning I did that scary thing. You know that thing that you have to do when you decided to face down your debt in a show-down in a dusty abandoned town at high-noon? You look at square in the eye.

And that's what I did. I added up all of our credit card debt and I'm not proud and slighty nauseous. But here goes. Between the two of us we have 6 cards carrying a balance for a total of 16,056 in c.c. debt.

But this time instead of hiding behind an abandoned wagon on the side of the road infront of the general store. Well, there's a new sheriff in town and this one's ready to pull the trigger and wipe this out.

(anyone else have the sudden urge to go visit Frontier Land?)

Now I'm going to say, "Reach for the sky!" to all of my mail. You are so funny!

 

[zurgswife]

I did it even with some unexpected expenses I was able to pay $450 toward one of my student loans. My goal is to continue the $450 payment every month until it is paid off. Then work on the next loan. So the first month it has been completed....I feel great!!!

 

[writermommy6]

I did it even with some unexpected expenses I was able to pay $450 toward one of my student loans. My goal is to continue the $450 payment every month until it is paid off. Then work on the next loan. So the first month it has been completed....I feel great!!!

Great job!!!

 

[dtr_angel]

I am feeling the same way - first time ever, even though we've gotten out of a much higher level of debt before - I didn't have the mindset I do now, or the YNAB plan!



Don't feel discouraged - that's wonderful progress! I assume you're upsizing your house, not downsizing? Are you moving in town or out of the area? 10K = $100,000 house down payment - is that correct? ...and another 10K for closing costs. Are you going to make a profit on your current house? Sweat equity (not necessarily remodeling but scrubbing and retouching and organizing so your house looks better than the other ones when you're selling) will help you get a higher price for your current house. You could make a plan starting now through 2015 of a couple of areas in the house to make shiny each month. Could you sell a bunch of stuff in the house to help pay the car off more quickly? (less to move too!) How much do you owe on your car?

Yes we are upsizing. We live in a 2 bedroom 1000 sq ft house with one bathroom. We are staying in the same area we live now. We're going to build which makes this more difficult and scary. If we sell our house for what we paid for right now we'd have about 10k over what we owe, so I figured another 10k we would need to save for the down payment and I didn't even think about closing costs We're hoping to be able to do it all for around 150k but I don't know if that is realistic. I have spent the last year+ organizing and destashing my house to prepare for selling it. I have given away/donated/sold just about everything we don't need but I still have a few boxes of stuff to continue to list on ebay and CL. We have made some upgrades so I'm hoping to turn a little profit on the house. We do have plans to make everything all pretty and staged to hopefully help it sell for more and not sit on the market too long. We're in the middle of some projects this summer that will hopefully help. I was looking at the outside of the house today (its 90 years old) and thinking it might be worth it to pay a professional to paint the outside to give it some good curb appeal. I owe just around 11k on the car. I was really hoping to pay it off this year but with vacations I don't know if it's possible. I'm going to try to work some more when I can to bring in some extra money. My paychecks (I work 1-2 days/month) go entirely to extra payments on the car.

 

[gracie1]

So I've been thinking about my goals for April and some may seem small, but they're all about taking control of my finances and small victories are good things. - Pay back a friend $20 I owe her (small but naggy) I should say that I've only owed her the money for 4 days since she covered for me. - When my DH was between jobs a couple of weeks ago I feel behind on one bill, so I'm one student loan payment behind so I want to catch up on that. - Make a deposit in the saving's account. A deposit of any size would be great since we haven't made a deposit in that account for years and years. (my aim is $50) - Work on starting a smalll but sustainable kitchen pantry. Again, I know that all sounds like small stuff. But I also need to pay my 6-month car insurance and I don't have any money set aside for that. I'm also working on setting up a budget and getting my debt busting feet under me. Hoping that our tax return comes in. Poor DH was on the phone with the IRS for over an hour yesterday and when he finally got through all they said was that if our return doesn't come in by 04/04 to give them a call on 04/07. ARG! Thanks for being so welcoming.

I think these are great goals!! Sounds like you have a great plan and by picking these few items you will feel a sense of accomplishment as you mark them off as you go along! Remember that were all here for support and advice. We've all had different things work for us that may be of some help to you if you ever need it!!

 

[ceemys]

So this morning I did that scary thing. You know that thing that you have to do when you decided to face down your debt in a show-down in a dusty abandoned town at high-noon? You look at square in the eye.

And that's what I did. I added up all of our credit card debt and I'm not proud and slighty nauseous. But here goes. Between the two of us we have 6 cards carrying a balance for a total of 16,056 in c.c. debt.

But this time instead of hiding behind an abandoned wagon on the side of the road infront of the general store. Well, there's a new sheriff in town and this one's ready to pull the trigger and wipe this out.

(anyone else have the sudden urge to go visit Frontier Land?)

Good for you!!! Facing it head on is the best thing to do.

I did it even with some unexpected expenses I was able to pay $450 toward one of my student loans. My goal is to continue the $450 payment every month until it is paid off. Then work on the next loan. So the first month it has been completed....I feel great!!!

Woot, Woot!!

Yes we are upsizing. We live in a 2 bedroom 1000 sq ft house with one bathroom. We are staying in the same area we live now. We're going to build which makes this more difficult and scary. If we sell our house for what we paid for right now we'd have about 10k over what we owe, so I figured another 10k we would need to save for the down payment and I didn't even think about closing costs We're hoping to be able to do it all for around 150k but I don't know if that is realistic. I have spent the last year+ organizing and destashing my house to prepare for selling it. I have given away/donated/sold just about everything we don't need but I still have a few boxes of stuff to continue to list on ebay and CL. We have made some upgrades so I'm hoping to turn a little profit on the house. We do have plans to make everything all pretty and staged to hopefully help it sell for more and not sit on the market too long. We're in the middle of some projects this summer that will hopefully help. I was looking at the outside of the house today (its 90 years old) and thinking it might be worth it to pay a professional to paint the outside to give it some good curb appeal. I owe just around 11k on the car. I was really hoping to pay it off this year but with vacations I don't know if it's possible. I'm going to try to work some more when I can to bring in some extra money. My paychecks (I work 1-2 days/month) go entirely to extra payments on the car.

I think curb appeal can be a deal breaker! Without pictures not sure what it looks like, but maybe put new mulch down...a fresh coat of paint, wouldn't hurt either. Good luck on your decision. Just make sure that the paint won't put you in the negative.

 

[OhMari]

So this morning I did that scary thing. You know that thing that you have to do when you decided to face down your debt in a show-down in a dusty abandoned town at high-noon? You look at square in the eye.

And that's what I did. I added up all of our credit card debt and I'm not proud and slighty nauseous. But here goes. Between the two of us we have 6 cards carrying a balance for a total of 16,056 in c.c. debt.

But this time instead of hiding behind an abandoned wagon on the side of the road infront of the general store. Well, there's a new sheriff in town and this one's ready to pull the trigger and wipe this out.

(anyone else have the sudden urge to go visit Frontier Land?)

You can do this. One of the biggest hurdles is actually looking at the numbers. Write them down on a spread sheet so you can see it too. Good luck. I was in your shoes 5 years ago and I am almost in Frontier Land. Just trying to wipe out my mortgage in 5 years now instead of the 13 we have left.

 

[gracie1]

You can do this. One of the biggest hurdles is actually looking at the numbers. Write them down on a spread sheet so you can see it too. Good luck. I was in your shoes 5 years ago and I am almost in Frontier Land. Just trying to wipe out my mortgage in 5 years now instead of the 13 we have left.

It is one of the biggest hurdles! The good thing about writing it down and tracking is you can actually see the amounts go down!! That is a huge motivator then!

 

[daniele_ut]

I don't post on this thread regularly but I wanted to share some great news with people who would appreciate it. We went down to 1 income (well, 1 and 1/3 income since I still freelance) when our 3rd child was born 2 years a ago but at the same time we had to buy a new car for me and we had to take out a loan to do. A year later DH's car, which was long ago paid off, needed to be replaced several years sooner than we had hoped. In 6 months we had gone from 2 incomes and no car payments to 1 income and 2 car payments!

Well, we have been simplifying and cutting back for the last 2 years and I've been picking up extra freelance work where possible and a few weeks ago we paid off the $8000 balance in my van 3 years early. We are hoping to pay off the last $5000 of dh's car by the end of the summer, leaving us with just our mortgage and some student loans. The student loans are at a very low rate ((1.625) but we will start working on getting them eradicated after the car!

 

[jenny105]

I applied for and got approved for the Discover It card. Transferring my balances over there for 18 month no APR. I'm so sick of interest charges!

 

[ceemys]

I applied for and got approved for the Discover It card. Transferring my balances over there for 18 month no APR. I'm so sick of interest charges!

Great. Now you can take the balamce, divide by 18 and pay it off at the end.

 

[GAGirlInVA]

Everything is on hold right now with storm clouds on the horizon.