Debt Dumpers - 2016

[ruadisneyfan2]

We have been chugging away here. Making progress and managed to save $5200 for Christmas. We usually spend around $3k but dh likes to give me cash to book a trip with because he knows I like that more than material things. Diamonds are not a girl's best friend.
I'm torn now whether to take a trip or just use it to pay off debt. I'll decide after Christmas.

Last year was the first time I funneled our snowball toward Christmas expenses for the months of August & September. Typically one of those months includes a 3-paycheck month so it adds up fast. It was a great feeling knowing that each gift purchase I made, I could simply transfer the money out of savings and pay our cc immediately (or weekly so we don't exceed the 6 transfers per month rule.)
So this year we funneled 3 months of snowball for holidays. I wasn't thrilled but I'm glad it's done and I can move on.

We have a pretty huge Parent Plus loan that became due last spring once ds19 left college. ($15k)
That interest rate was almost 7% even with the auto pay to lower the rate. Ridiculous. So I used our good ol' Disney visa checks to pay it off; some on my account, some on dh's. It's a 2% BT fee but that's still a huge savings to have 0% for a year. Our credit scores took a small hit but still around 800; so what if it's not perfect. It's good enough and it will recover once those bills are paid off. We should have dh's paid off by the end of Feb and mine paid off by the end of June. After that I'll be attacking the home equity loan. (Insert smiley with ferocious roar here.)
Assuming Murphy stays away which he better.

We've already had an emotional beat down and don't need anymore. Just 6 weeks after my grandmother died, my father in law died.
It's just too much on all of us, esp. my kids. All we can do is just keep swimming.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Ok, so my cousin has terrible credit. She has credit cards in collection. She is on the verge of being evicted from her apartment. I can't and won't help her with money, because honestly I don't have it to give and it would undoubtedly never be seen again in any case. But I showed her YNAB and she set up an account. It told her that she needs to try and reduce her expenses. She is on SNAP, so she said that covers their food expenses. But her boyfriend spends $150 on cigarettes each month. They have a $260 phone bill (includes a bunch of phones and an ipad on installment plans) and pay $175 for internet. I told her to check into reducing their bills. To try and sell things they don't want/need anymore.

But I also said I would look into credit counseling services. Anyone know a reputable nonprofit credit counseling service that could help her with the collections? She lives in upstate New York. I found some good resources in NYC, but am having trouble finding things in upstate New York.

Also, any other thoughts and advice that I might be able to give her? She has two young sons and I feel terrible because this is not a good life for them and she wants to improve, but doesn't know where to start.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Can you google her some good Dave Ramsey videos? Not just the Q & A ones where he takes callers by phone but the main talk he gives at his shows is very convincing. It's around 20-30 mins long.
Where is she going to live once she's evicted? I think if she's not evicted yet that would be most important to get current with. If cc's are already in collection they won't get any worse than that. Kids losing their home I think would be much more concerning. jmho but I think she should get current with rent and make out a strict budget to follow so it doesn't get so far behind. Or maybe look for a less expensive apartment once her lease is up. Getting evicted doesn't happen by being 1-2 months behind. You have to be seriously behind for eviction process to begin. (My boss was telling me her experience as a condo owner with a tenant that didn't pay for close to a year and it was hard to evict them.) Maybe it's different in NY.

I'm a former smoker (we quit 20+ yrs ago as a wedding gift to each other) and I'm astonished how people can find $ for cigarettes but not rent. But I digress.... I'd feel that way about coffee now. lol. We all have our vices.
I think DR is great about advising people how to cut back spending to bare bones and shut off everything that is not immediately required to live.
Does her bf work & contribute to household bills? I'm assuming they live together when you mention his needs in the budget. If not, he really should be.

I don't know anything about credit counseling services. I'm always leery about companies that prey on people who aren't good with money. They usually are not in the business as a charity so they have to make money somehow. I think I'd be looking for a non-profit organization. Maybe a government agency?

Dh had student loans & Amex that were in collections for years when we got married. I knew he had bad credit but didn't know the extent. I was shocked when we finally sent away for a copy of his credit report. Nothing was super high; a couple thousand each, but we ended up using some of our wedding gift money to pay it off. Grrrrr... Crazy part is that he easily had that in the bank but just wasn't good at keeping bills organized and kind of gave up.

I completely don't blame you for not giving her money. I know someone like that and it's a never ending vacuum, usually "someone else's fault" that things are they way they are, never their own. Then when you look at the big picture, it's a lifetime of poor decision-making.

What you could do, if she is willing to share her numbers, would be to sit her down and show her how to budget. Some people don't know how to get started but once it's laid out for them, they can follow it. I am doing this with ds19 now so he doesn't get into the pickle we're in.

I hope something works for her. I can't imagine living like that. I'd work 3 jobs if I had to but with all the debt we've ever had, I never had a late rent/mortgage/car payment. Whew, that's quite a hole she's dug for herself.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Sorry, I just re-read and see you had the same non-profit idea too.
Great minds think alike!

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Can you google her some good Dave Ramsey videos? Not just the Q & A ones where he takes callers by phone but the main talk he gives at his shows is very convincing. It's around 20-30 mins long.
Where is she going to live once she's evicted? I think if she's not evicted yet that would be most important to get current with. If cc's are already in collection they won't get any worse than that. Kids losing their home I think would be much more concerning. jmho but I think she should get current with rent and make out a strict budget to follow so it doesn't get so far behind. Or maybe look for a less expensive apartment once her lease is up. Getting evicted doesn't happen by being 1-2 months behind. You have to be seriously behind for eviction process to begin. (My boss was telling me her experience as a condo owner with a tenant that didn't pay for close to a year and it was hard to evict them.) Maybe it's different in NY.

I'm a former smoker (we quit 20+ yrs ago as a wedding gift to each other) and I'm astonished how people can find $ for cigarettes but not rent. But I digress.... I'd feel that way about coffee now. lol. We all have our vices.
I think DR is great about advising people how to cut back spending to bare bones and shut off everything that is not immediately required to live.
Does her bf work & contribute to household bills? I'm assuming they live together when you mention his needs in the budget. If not, he really should be.

I don't know anything about credit counseling services. I'm always leery about companies that prey on people who aren't good with money. They usually are not in the business as a charity so they have to make money somehow. I think I'd be looking for a non-profit organization. Maybe a government agency?

Dh had student loans & Amex that were in collections for years when we got married. I knew he had bad credit but didn't know the extent. I was shocked when we finally sent away for a copy of his credit report. Nothing was super high; a couple thousand each, but we ended up using some of our wedding gift money to pay it off. Grrrrr... Crazy part is that he easily had that in the bank but just wasn't good at keeping bills organized and kind of gave up.

I completely don't blame you for not giving her money. I know someone like that and it's a never ending vacuum, usually "someone else's fault" that things are they way they are, never their own. Then when you look at the big picture, it's a lifetime of poor decision-making.

What you could do, if she is willing to share her numbers, would be to sit her down and show her how to budget. Some people don't know how to get started but once it's laid out for them, they can follow it. I am doing this with ds19 now so he doesn't get into the pickle we're in.

I hope something works for her. I can't imagine living like that. I'd work 3 jobs if I had to but with all the debt we've ever had, I never had a late rent/mortgage/car payment. Whew, that's quite a hole she's dug for herself.

Thank you for all of the advice. I will look up some Dave Ramsey videos to send her. I have never really been into him, but I know that many, many people find him helpful and inspiring.

As for their costs, she set up YNAB and then took a screen shot that she sent me. It showed their bank balances as less than $50 combined, so they are in dire straights it seems. I know that her boyfriend works and she does as well, but I am assuming they are both low paying and might not be 40 hours per week. I didn't ask her what their income is, but I can't imagine that it is great if they qualify for SNAP and she was on WIC until her youngest son turned 1 a month or so ago.

She said that their rent is 2.5 months over due and they need $2500 in 3 weeks or they will be evicted (though eviction proceedings may take some time, the landlord would have to file in court and I told her that she might be able to claim that she withheld rent because of structural defects in the septic system that they had complained about but hadn't been fixed. I just don't know NY law though, so I don't know if that is a defense to eviction in that state.). This whole conversation started because she wanted to know how she could get that much money so quickly. And I told her, I had no idea. Even if she could get a second job today and work 20 hours per week, at minimum wage that would only make her $540 before taxes. Even when I was saving up lots of extra money for my wedding, I got a second job as a tutor and it took me about 3 months to earn an extra $3000. I told her to try and sell things they don't need anymore, but she said they are pretty bare bones on possessions. It seems unlikely that without a loan from someone that she would be able to come up with that kind of money. She said she has an interview for a legal assistant position that pays $15 per hour. I hope that she gets the job, it seems they really need it.

And if they get evicted, I assume she would move back in with her father, which is where they all lived up until earlier this year. Their experiment to move out did not seem to work because I assume their expenses are way too high compared to their income. What I can't fathom is that they have expensive phones and a iPad (for a 3 year old!) on an installment payment plan with a bill at $260 per month. Their internet, phone and his cigarette habit make up over 1/2 their rent cost. DH and I pay $120 for our phone service (we took old, hand-me-down phones for free) and internet bill combined, while they pay $435!

I will try and help her the best that I can, without actually giving her money. But I can't force anything, so we will see how this goes.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

That's a shame but I think it's worth a shot. If she and her bf both got another PT job, even if it's just seasonal, they could probably send their landlord $500 or so and let him/her know that they are trying. Sending 0 just because they're waiting to scrape up $2500 still leaves the landlord wondering if they'll ever pay. Everyone is hiring seasonal workers now. Pretty much every store I walk into has a sign up. Staples, Best Buy, Kohls, Macys, I could go on and on.

$15/hr. for a young person with no skills is great pay. Ds19 got a PT job at Best Buy that pays $10.50. He is thrilled that it's more than minimum wage.

Or maybe it's best if she does move back in with her father until she can get back on her feet again. If she's smart just being home rent free she could hammer out those cc bills and once they're gone she could save up a good nest egg before trying to move out again.

The fact that they spend most of their income on gadgets and vices instead of necessities only shows they have some maturing to do before trying again. Not that we're all financial gurus here or we would have never joined this thread to begin with but it kind of reminds me of some inner city poor folks: living in section 8 housing, welfare, Medicaid, food stamps, etc. but they spend hundreds at the hair & nail salon and hundreds more in tattoos and thousands more for name brand clothes. They drive a Lexus but can't afford school supplies or a lunch for their kids at school.

NJ requires a half-year course called Financial Literacy to graduate. The HSDs19 attended is surrounded by very upper middle-class families, (not so much our neighborhood) Lots of doctors, executives, etc. and the focus of the course was about learning how loan interest is calculated, warned about cc use, but mostly how to invest and be MAKING money instead of pissing it away on debt interest. Ds was thrilled in 10th grade that he came in 2nd place for highest earning in the stock market computer program with their play money.
What kids really need to learn is just basics of making a budget and how to prioritize your needs for everything from food on down the list. I always felt that food & shelter (incl. water/heat/elec.) come first, next come things required to be able to work such as shoes, hosp uniform clothes, train tickets & a reliable car. Sometimes when $ is tight you have to put off spending on fun, hunker down and live on spaghetti or rice & beans. lol.

There was a time when we had 2 car payments (one was very low) and 2 kids in day care. omg I think I owned about 2 pr of jeans that were so old it was embarrassing. We got through it because I live all week in scrubs and regular clothes are a weekend thing. Usually, when you're a mommy, you end up putting your own needs and desires last.

Hopefully she has the sense to spend some money on reliable birth control because children are expensive!! Working FT with 2 is hard. Trying to do it with 3 is reallllllly challenging and unless you have a professional degree, and can afford a nanny, the cost of child care for 3 usually exceeds a mom's income. Then unless her man's earning a great salary and she can afford to be a SAHM, she'll be trapped in poverty.
Really, good BC should be #2 on the list after food.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

That's a shame but I think it's worth a shot. If she and her bf both got another PT job, even if it's just seasonal, they could probably send their landlord $500 or so and let him/her know that they are trying. Sending 0 just because they're waiting to scrape up $2500 still leaves the landlord wondering if they'll ever pay. Everyone is hiring seasonal workers now. Pretty much every store I walk into has a sign up. Staples, Best Buy, Kohls, Macys, I could go on and on.

$15/hr. for a young person with no skills is great pay. Ds19 got a PT job at Best Buy that pays $10.50. He is thrilled that it's more than minimum wage.

Or maybe it's best if she does move back in with her father until she can get back on her feet again. If she's smart just being home rent free she could hammer out those cc bills and once they're gone she could save up a good nest egg before trying to move out again.

The fact that they spend most of their income on gadgets and vices instead of necessities only shows they have some maturing to do before trying again. Not that we're all financial gurus here or we would have never joined this thread to begin with but it kind of reminds me of some inner city poor folks: living in section 8 housing, welfare, Medicaid, food stamps, etc. but they spend hundreds at the hair & nail salon and hundreds more in tattoos and thousands more for name brand clothes. They drive a Lexus but can't afford school supplies or a lunch for their kids at school.

NJ requires a half-year course called Financial Literacy to graduate. The HSDs19 attended is surrounded by very upper middle-class families, (not so much our neighborhood) Lots of doctors, executives, etc. and the focus of the course was about learning how loan interest is calculated, warned about cc use, but mostly how to invest and be MAKING money instead of pissing it away on debt interest. Ds was thrilled in 10th grade that he came in 2nd place for highest earning in the stock market computer program with their play money.
What kids really need to learn is just basics of making a budget and how to prioritize your needs for everything from food on down the list. I always felt that food & shelter (incl. water/heat/elec.) come first, next come things required to be able to work such as shoes, hosp uniform clothes, train tickets & a reliable car. Sometimes when $ is tight you have to put off spending on fun, hunker down and live on spaghetti or rice & beans. lol.

There was a time when we had 2 car payments (one was very low) and 2 kids in day care. omg I think I owned about 2 pr of jeans that were so old it was embarrassing. We got through it because I live all week in scrubs and regular clothes are a weekend thing. Usually, when you're a mommy, you end up putting your own needs and desires last.

Hopefully she has the sense to spend some money on reliable birth control because children are expensive!! Working FT with 2 is hard. Trying to do it with 3 is reallllllly challenging and unless you have a professional degree, and can afford a nanny, the cost of child care for 3 usually exceeds a mom's income. Then unless her man's earning a great salary and she can afford to be a SAHM, she'll be trapped in poverty.
Really, good BC should be #2 on the list after food.

Since I have no clue what their debt total looks lie, I don't know how long it would taken them to dig out. I did find a nonprofit debt counseling agency and sent her the link. And I found a good Dave Ramsey video on youtube and sent her that too.

I totally agree about the needs v. wants. I can't believe they put an iPad on installment payment for a 3 year old when they can't even make their rent payments. Just insane to me. I told her that she needs to really sit down and determine their priorities. She said that she started working on her associates degree again. I have no clue how she is playing for that, but she couldn't even buy the text book for one of her classes. I found a copy on Amazon for $10 and sent it to her.

I really do want her to succeed, if not for her sake, but for the sake of her kids. My mom won't send gifts to her children because she thinks she is not responsible enough and in the past she has been pretty terrible to my aunt (her mom, my mom's younger sister) and my mom. But I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. She has made some bad decisions in her life but I want to think that she actually does want to turn things around for the sake of her kids. And so I mentioned to my mom that if we wanted to do something positive for my cousin's kids, then maybe we should set up 529 college funds in their names. I could open and manage the accounts so that they are managed well. And then great grandparents, grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins or anyone else who wants to could make contributions for each child for birthdays and holidays.

I hate the idea that these kids will be growing up with nothing and not have any choices in their lives.

 

[arlinar]

Since I have no clue what their debt total looks lie, I don't know how long it would taken them to dig out. I did find a nonprofit debt counseling agency and sent her the link. And I found a good Dave Ramsey video on youtube and sent her that too.

I totally agree about the needs v. wants. I can't believe they put an iPad on installment payment for a 3 year old when they can't even make their rent payments. Just insane to me. I told her that she needs to really sit down and determine their priorities. She said that she started working on her associates degree again. I have no clue how she is playing for that, but she couldn't even buy the text book for one of her classes. I found a copy on Amazon for $10 and sent it to her.

I really do want her to succeed, if not for her sake, but for the sake of her kids. My mom won't send gifts to her children because she thinks she is not responsible enough and in the past she has been pretty terrible to my aunt (her mom, my mom's younger sister) and my mom. But I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. She has made some bad decisions in her life but I want to think that she actually does want to turn things around for the sake of her kids. And so I mentioned to my mom that if we wanted to do something positive for my cousin's kids, then maybe we should set up 529 college funds in their names. I could open and manage the accounts so that they are managed well. And then great grandparents, grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins or anyone else who wants to could make contributions for each child for birthdays and holidays.

I hate the idea that these kids will be growing up with nothing and not have any choices in their lives.

My mom is like your cousin. Can't afford to pay bills, tells me that she is struggling when she is working 40 hours a week making over $15 an hour. My step dad spends about $200 a week on beer and about $40 on cigs a week which is where all the money is going to while he works minimum wage. He's been working a 2nd job but they still don't get anything paid. She tried telling me that the internet company is making her pay $700 but that's because she didn't pay her bill. My siblings need internet for their school work but she tells them to go elsewhere. She gives them false promises every year to take them to Disneyland but it never happens because her tax return goes to random stuff. There's no hope for my mom to show her how to budget or anything. My mom is also in collections for payday loans and so much more.

I hope your able to assist your cousin in the best way possible.

Just got back from Vegas and spent last then $300 the entire trip. Ate in the suburbs at really cool restaurants and only limited me and my boyfriend to $40 each for gambling. Granted we were only there for less then 48 hours.

Sadly when I came back my car was broken into. The police report was filed and just seeing whats missing besides the visible stuff. They stole my change, our storage unit key, some of my boyfriend's knifes, took his social security card ( I dont even know why he had that in there ) and threw it on the ground for people to see ( front office found it ) and took his prescription Ibuprofen probably thinking it was something else and threw it into the pool. My car is totally trashed. There is stuff everywhere from where the thefts got in and they literally tore things apart (ripped papers and went through a empty package) This all happening before my birthday. It disgusts me what people will do to either get a cheap thrill or feed a habit.

 

[Ngwira]

My mom is like your cousin. Can't afford to pay bills, tells me that she is struggling when she is working 40 hours a week making over $15 an hour. My step dad spends about $200 a week on beer and about $40 on cigs a week which is where all the money is going to while he works minimum wage. He's been working a 2nd job but they still don't get anything paid. She tried telling me that the internet company is making her pay $700 but that's because she didn't pay her bill. My siblings need internet for their school work but she tells them to go elsewhere. She gives them false promises every year to take them to Disneyland but it never happens because her tax return goes to random stuff. There's no hope for my mom to show her how to budget or anything. My mom is also in collections for payday loans and so much more.

I hope your able to assist your cousin in the best way possible.

Just got back from Vegas and spent last then $300 the entire trip. Ate in the suburbs at really cool restaurants and only limited me and my boyfriend to $40 each for gambling. Granted we were only there for less then 48 hours.

Sadly when I came back my car was broken into. The police report was filed and just seeing whats missing besides the visible stuff. They stole my change, our storage unit key, some of my boyfriend's knifes, took his social security card ( I dont even know why he had that in there ) and threw it on the ground for people to see ( front office found it ) and took his prescription Ibuprofen probably thinking it was something else and threw it into the pool. My car is totally trashed. There is stuff everywhere from where the thefts got in and they literally tore things apart (ripped papers and went through a empty package) This all happening before my birthday. It disgusts me what people will do to either get a cheap thrill or feed a habit.

I'm so sorry arlinar.

 

[yupikgal]

Hello there! Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. We filled our bellies and then some! Anyway, back to thinking of my debt (boo!) just paid off Discover, but I'm already thinking of transferring another balance to Discover because they offer a 0% with a 3% transfer fee. Here's the situation. I was going to payoff Citibank first, but then I realized I have a lot longer (until March 2018) to pay it off before the promo rate expires, so I'm thinking of transferring Chase to Discover to get the promo rate for 12 months. Thoughts and opinions?

Citibank – 18 months @ 0% - $95 minimum

Chase – 13.49% - $165 min payment - $88 interest

$88 x 12 months = $1056 - $230 (3% transfer fee) = $826 savings

Discover – 0% interest – 3% transfer fee - $7685 x 3% = $230.55 = $7915.55 / 12 = $660 per month

$7915 / 8 months = $990 per month (January 2017 to August 2017)

 

[mom2t]

Fell of the debt dumpers train the last couple months. Back on again starting now.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Fell of the debt dumpers train the last couple months. Back on again starting now.

Welcome back aboard!

Hello there! Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. We filled our bellies and then some! Anyway, back to thinking of my debt (boo!) just paid off Discover, but I'm already thinking of transferring another balance to Discover because they offer a 0% with a 3% transfer fee. Here's the situation. I was going to payoff Citibank first, but then I realized I have a lot longer (until March 2018) to pay it off before the promo rate expires, so I'm thinking of transferring Chase to Discover to get the promo rate for 12 months. Thoughts and opinions?

Citibank – 18 months @ 0% - $95 minimum

Chase – 13.49% - $165 min payment - $88 interest

$88 x 12 months = $1056 - $230 (3% transfer fee) = $826 savings

Discover – 0% interest – 3% transfer fee - $7685 x 3% = $230.55 = $7915.55 / 12 = $660 per month

$7915 / 8 months = $990 per month (January 2017 to August 2017)

By chance, do you have a Disney visa? They often send us blank checks to transfer balances at 2%. Well, none lately because dh & I both took advantage of their last offer which brought us close to our limits with those. Still, I'd rather take a temporary hit to my credit score than be paying 6.7 or something % on the Parent Plus loan. That's insanity.
I already paid off $2100 to dh's and it should be gone by end of Feb. Mine by the end of June.

 

[yupikgal]

Welcome back aboard!

By chance, do you have a Disney visa? They often send us blank checks to transfer balances at 2%. Well, none lately because dh & I both took advantage of their last offer which brought us close to our limits with those. Still, I'd rather take a temporary hit to my credit score than be paying 6.7 or something % on the Parent Plus loan. That's insanity.
I already paid off $2100 to dh's and it should be gone by end of Feb. Mine by the end of June.

j

Ironically, that's the card that I'm transferring to Discover! Therefore, I haven't got any blank checks from them, probably we've had a balance for a while I just want to get the next card paid off, and it's either going to be Chase or Citibank, but Chase makes more sense even with the 3% transfer fee since the monthly interest shot up after the 0% promo went away, and the interest is about $88 a month now. In 12 months that's $1000, and the transfer fee would only be $230. Makes sense, right??

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

j

Ironically, that's the card that I'm transferring to Discover! Therefore, I haven't got any blank checks from them, probably we've had a balance for a while I just want to get the next card paid off, and it's either going to be Chase or Citibank, but Chase makes more sense even with the 3% transfer fee since the monthly interest shot up after the 0% promo went away, and the interest is about $88 a month now. In 12 months that's $1000, and the transfer fee would only be $230. Makes sense, right??

Absolutely! We also used a bt offer from Discover. I think that's when the Disney visa checks started to arrive. Once I used one, they kept coming. They say you can't apply a bt from one Chase account to another but those checks can be made out to oneself then pay off balances as you see fit.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

I have my IVF retrieval procedure tomorrow early morning. It took longer for me to react to the medication than expected, so we weren't able to go to my parent's for Thanksgiving. I had to be home for blood draws and ultrasounds. I am trying to have positive thoughts for tomorrow, but I am a little sad because it doesn't seem like there will be as many follicles as I was hoping. And because I had to be on the medicine for a bit longer, we had to use up all 5 of my lifetime prescriptions. That means that if we need to do this again, it will cost over $10,000 in medication alone.

So that meant that DH and I just bummed around the house together, watching TV and eating turkey/stuffing/mashed potatoes. We did buy a few things during the sales, but nothing too crazy.

We finished paying off DH's student loan and we have no credit card debt now! It feels pretty great. I was also able to save another $1000 for IVF costs. That means that next month we need to save another $500 towards the IVF costs and pay back to our savings with another $2200. We should be able to reach that by the end of next month as long as we stay frugal. But then, starting in January, we will be all caught up on our debt, IVF costs and savings replenishment. Then we plan to start putting money towards our emergency fund, a baby fund and starting accelerated payments on my car loan and the mortgage.

DH and I played around with a mortgage calculator the other day. If we started making extra payments equal to our current principle+interest, then we would have the house paid off in 10 more years (for a total of 14) and we would cut the interest over the lifetime of the loan in half. DH got really excited at that idea. And it would also put us in a much better position to help his parents in 10 years or so, which is almost a certainty given their financial position.

My goal is to continue living the frugal life that we have been over the past 6 months, with just a little loosening of the belt for some extra personal spending and family fun money. But otherwise, our new income from DH's job is going to go mostly towards those extra savings goals and hopefully will put us in a much better position over the next few years.

 

[Dentam]

Good luck tomorrow, @Jen and Ashwin! Sounds like you are doing great financially! I've fallen off the wagon a bit and am eagerly awaiting the 2017 thread! lol

 

[Miss Whimsy]

I've fallen off the wagon a bit and am eagerly awaiting the 2017 thread! lol

Sames. Modcloth and Unique Vintage got me with their Black Friday sales, and I was able to justify most of it by calling it "work clothes." December is a 3-paycheck month which will put me back on track, but it was a chance to get ahead so I'm kind of kicking myself.

 

[crazycatstacy]

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving and luck at Black Friday sales if you participated. We did Black Friday sales and spent more than we planned but we spent all cash so that's a positive. I told my husband during the holiday season we need to think of debt just like my weight- would be nice to lose some but as long as we don't gain or add anymore I will be happy. I am ready to start the new year on track and really pay some stuff off. We only have $1900 left on our Disney trip and that will be paid off in February. We were going to fly down- we live in South Dakota. Tickets average about $700 a piece. We are taking our 6 year old nephew- he did live in Florida but just moved to Cincinnati, and we are now going to drive. It will take us longer obviously but will save money and isn't that bad of drive.

 

[Ngwira]

Hey everyone! Window loan is in the $4,000 range..down from $7200 in July. Didn't do too bad on Black Friday. I did spend an extra $74 on a pair of tall ugg boots but anyone who has ugg boots knows they are the most warm, comfy fall and winter boots ever.
I also ended up booking some 2017 travel..usually spend $1600 or so on auto train to Disney each year..this time I only spent $196 due to points. So we are booked and headed there for 7 days and 6 nights in August.
I also booked Amtrak to NYC for my 40th birthday in July. I paid $117 for two adults, 2 kids round trip from philly. We plan to spend some time in NYC doing touristy stuff..Times square etc,
Other than that I'm chugging along. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I was always so against shopping on TG but I finally broke down and did it. Best Buy was offering a $250 BB gift card for upgrading to the Samsung S7. Ds19 prefers these and his is 3 yrs old. (Sadly, it was $450 in GC's the day before which is what we thought we would get but that expired Wed.) So $250 is better than 0. They also included the latest VR device that is a $99 value. That will be his 20th birthday gift which is not long after Christmas.
They also had an awesome deal on a Nikon DSLR camera with 2 lenses and a 32GB memory card for $499, regularly $1000. This same deal could be found all over the place but we bought at BB because we got the gift card for getting the phone.
The great deals we got there were very uplifting, which made me feel better after stooping so low by going to a store on TG. I have been so opposed to this for years and still feel that nothing should be open except hospitals, fire halls, & police stations.

Oh and we're almost done shopping. Just have to figure out what to get my parents. We should be done with around $500 left over. Yay!