Debt Dumpers - 2016

[dayvewc]

I got my first account paid off. Yay! That's $420 down, and way more than I want to think about left.

Bad news about it, though. When I switched my payments to pile all my snowball over to 1 account at a time (instead of taking the entire time of the promotional period to pay them off) I did not realize that one of my accounts did not update the payment til the next billing cycle. So, when I moved $500 from my largest account over, (split between the one that just paid and the excess on one that will pay off April 1), they still deducted the original $600 draft I was initially paying.

I'm good for the moment, but March 2 may cut real close if my tax refund doesn't make it.

Fingers crossed there are no delays. (Based on the IRS tax payment schedule, it should deposit February 26).

 

[mrsabbott]

Our state return is delayed for some reason.. of course, Murphy decided to visit and we have a big, leaky crack in our kitchen sink! Discovered this yesterday. Going to see if there is a temporary fix until we can get a new sink. We've only had this one a couple of years!

 

[Gena001]

I got my first account paid off. Yay! That's $420 down, and way more than I want to think about left.

Bad news about it, though. When I switched my payments to pile all my snowball over to 1 account at a time (instead of taking the entire time of the promotional period to pay them off) I did not realize that one of my accounts did not update the payment til the next billing cycle. So, when I moved $500 from my largest account over, (split between the one that just paid and the excess on one that will pay off April 1), they still deducted the original $600 draft I was initially paying.

I'm good for the moment, but March 2 may cut real close if my tax refund doesn't make it.

Fingers crossed there are no delays. (Based on the IRS tax payment schedule, it should deposit February 26).

Dayvewc, how did you find out the schedule? When I look on the IRS site, it says they estimate 21 days... just curious.

 

[Gena001]

Our state return is delayed for some reason.. of course, Murphy decided to visit and we have a big, leaky crack in our kitchen sink! Discovered this yesterday. Going to see if there is a temporary fix until we can get a new sink. We've only had this one a couple of years!

I can relate! Not as costly as a sink, but our microwave went ka-put Sunday morning. Had to make hot chocolate on the stove! (My DD6.5 thought we couldn't make any! ) The Sears scratch and dent had a bunch of junky units this time so we drive across the street to HH Gregg. Found a couple nice options then looked on a lower shelf and spotted an open box of the nicer unit. Grabbed it just as another family came around the corner looking for one as well!

Glad I had the cash, it does make the rest of the week a bit tight, but the bills are paid and we each have some cash in our pockets until next payday.

 

[DnA2010]

So I received the death benefit cheques from my dad's insurance policies. Yes, cheques. Plural. The lawyer (man now I really think he's a bit dopey) was wrong about the amount of the policies. I ended up getting TWICE as much as he said I would. When I got the cheques today I was in shock opening the envelope.
So yeah....taking them to the bank tomorrow, kissing our line of credit goodbye and paying off any cards that have balances from the last couple of weeks.
We haven't filed our taxes yet (dh is still waiting on his T4 from work and I'm waiting on one more receipt as well) - the deadline to contribute to RRSP (retirement accounts in Canada) is February 29th (for it to make a difference on our 2015 taxes) so I think we'll stick some more in there to maximize our refund.

We were going to wait until the bigger payout comes next year to pay down (or off) our mortgage but now I'm thinking we should also take a chunk and pay that down now too. Honestly my head is spinning a bit at the moment!

I bet your head is spinning xx congratulations, upwards and on wards for sure

 

[dayvewc]

Dayvewc, how did you find out the schedule? When I look on the IRS site, it says they estimate 21 days... just curious.

I did a Google search for "2016 tax refund cycle" or something similar. It might not have been on the IRS website, but the chart listed had 3 columns, the file by, direct deposit date, and the paper check date.

It is not guaranteed, but the refunds are processed in batches usually on Fridays, and it does give an estimate on when you get the refund.

 

[rideswithchrist]

JOINING!I want to go to Disney in September SO BADLY but we really need to pay off debts too.
I figure if we can at least pay off our Credit cards, then also taking a Disney trip would be ok....?

I have an account with ready for zero but forget to log it.

This is the rough edge of our payoff amounts
DH Motorcycle: 2100
Suburban: 7300
Line of Credit: 900
Mastercard:450
Amazon card: 400
Student Loan 3100
Electric bill: 960
Tolls: 200

We added the 7000 suburban debt this year, but we did pay off 900 in my hubby,s truck.

 

[Kimberly1]

I got my first account paid off. Yay! That's $420 down, and way more than I want to think about left.

Bad news about it, though. When I switched my payments to pile all my snowball over to 1 account at a time (instead of taking the entire time of the promotional period to pay them off) I did not realize that one of my accounts did not update the payment til the next billing cycle. So, when I moved $500 from my largest account over, (split between the one that just paid and the excess on one that will pay off April 1), they still deducted the original $600 draft I was initially paying.

I'm good for the moment, but March 2 may cut real close if my tax refund doesn't make it.

Fingers crossed there are no delays. (Based on the IRS tax payment schedule, it should deposit February 26).

Congratulations!

My refund is due on the 26th as well. It won't be a lot, but I sat down last night and went ahead and budgeted each penny into my debt so that I won't be tempted to spend any.

I'm actually behind on a few payments and with it, I will be able to pay off my smallest and catch up on all those I'm behind I think. Feels great to know that is right around the corner.

 

[gracie1]

JOINING!I want to go to Disney in September SO BADLY but we really need to pay off debts too.
I figure if we can at least pay off our Credit cards, then also taking a Disney trip would be ok....?

I have an account with ready forgery.com but forget to log it.

This is the rough edge of our payoff amounts
DH Motorcycle: 2100
Suburban: 7300
Line of Credit: 900
Mastercard:450
Amazon card: 400
Student Loan 3100
Electric bill: 960
Tolls: 200

We added the 7000 suburban debt this year, but we did pay off 900 in my hubby,s truck.

Welcome!! Have you sat down and made out a budget? This way you can get an idea of when you can aim to have each cc bill paid off. Your balances are pretty low so if I were you I would do the minimum balances and snowball starting with the smallest. Then once that is paid snowball to the next one. Also - you have electric bill. Is this just for this month? Or money that you back owe? You definitely want to make sure your electric bill is paid first!!

 

[gracie1]

Congratulations!

My refund is due on the 26th as well. It won't be a lot, but I sat down last night and went ahead and budgeted each penny into my debt so that I won't be tempted to spend any.

I'm actually behind on a few payments and with it, I will be able to pay off my smallest and catch up on all those I'm behind I think. Feels great to know that is right around the corner.

That is great that you will be able to get caught up and even pay off some of your smaller bills!!

 

[gracie1]

Dayvewc, how did you find out the schedule? When I look on the IRS site, it says they estimate 21 days... just curious.

Once the irs approves your refund they will give you a date. Mine was finally approved and it said that it should be direct deposit on the 18th.

 

[MinnieFanatic]

Joining in. I have lurked on these threads for a LONG time.
We keep repeating the debt/payoff/debt cycle and 2016 is my year to change things!
I just created a budget in YNAB. I realized part of my issue (embarrassingly enough) is that I didn't really understand how to budget. Whenever I got money I would pay off debt but then things would come up and we'd be back to square one because I did not anticipate expenses well. This year we are getting a larger than expected refund, plus I got a small and way overdue raise, so
I will use those to eliminate one CC (2,800) and beef up savings.
Then I will transfer the other CC (3,500) to 0% interest and pay it off in 10 installments. Am planning to open 2nd savings account for property tax and fund that with refund. I get paid 2x/mo so going to start transferring $300 to savings each paycheck. I hope that will help. I feel like we waste so much money. Lunch, Starbucks, dinner out. Hoping YNAB will make me more mindful.

 

[lilpixiebabe101]

--Paid off my 429$ target collections account.
--Paid off my 530$ best buy collections account (though I'm still waiting for my electronic check to actually process.)
--Paid off a 426 Dell bill finally which frees up 50$ to snowball.
--Put 500 into a secured savings account to build credit. I already budget 80$ a month to go into that account, so the 43.06 payment will not be out of the budget elsewhere.
--set up a payment plan of 25$ a month for a 2167$ apartment bill that is in 4 people's name. They would not let me pay just my fourth. Oh well. I just need it to start having positive payments on my credit.
-- I have the money earmarked out of taxes to pay off my student loan of 1055$ that will free up 50$ a month, our physical cell phone part of our bill which is around 1k that will free up 53$ a month, and a personal loan with about a 2k balance that will free up 140$ a month as soon as my lending broker pulls my credit on 4/6ish to see if my credit has bumped enough to take on the debt of a house haha! (She said all those were doing too much good to pay off quite yet.)

One all of this is done, I will have that apartment bill and a mortgage as the only current debt to my name! Oh it feels so amazing.

 

[gracie1]

--Paid off my 429$ target collections account.
--Paid off my 530$ best buy collections account (though I'm still waiting for my electronic check to actually process.)
--Paid off a 426 Dell bill finally which frees up 50$ to snowball.
--Put 500 into a secured savings account to build credit. I already budget 80$ a month to go into that account, so the 43.06 payment will not be out of the budget elsewhere.
--set up a payment plan of 25$ a month for a 2167$ apartment bill that is in 4 people's name. They would not let me pay just my fourth. Oh well. I just need it to start having positive payments on my credit.
-- I have the money earmarked out of taxes to pay off my student loan of 1055$ that will free up 50$ a month, our physical cell phone part of our bill which is around 1k that will free up 53$ a month, and a personal loan with about a 2k balance that will free up 140$ a month as soon as my lending broker pulls my credit on 4/6ish to see if my credit has bumped enough to take on the debt of a house haha! (She said all those were doing too much good to pay off quite yet.)

One all of this is done, I will have that apartment bill and a mortgage as the only current debt to my name! Oh it feels so amazing.

You've done an awesome job getting debt paid off! You should be proud of yourself!!

 

[gracie1]

Joining in. I have lurked on these threads for a LONG time.
We keep repeating the debt/payoff/debt cycle and 2016 is my year to change things!
I just created a budget in YNAB. I realized part of my issue (embarrassingly enough) is that I didn't really understand how to budget. Whenever I got money I would pay off debt but then things would come up and we'd be back to square one because I did not anticipate expenses well. This year we are getting a larger than expected refund, plus I got a small and way overdue raise, so
I will use those to eliminate one CC (2,800) and beef up savings.
Then I will transfer the other CC (3,500) to 0% interest and pay it off in 10 installments. Am planning to open 2nd savings account for property tax and fund that with refund. I get paid 2x/mo so going to start transferring $300 to savings each paycheck. I hope that will help. I feel like we waste so much money. Lunch, Starbucks, dinner out. Hoping YNAB will make me more mindful.

Don't be embarrassed about not understanding budgeting! That's how we all got into debt! Sounds like you've got yourself on the right track! Once you see how much your spending on things like eating out you will become more mindful!

 

[lilpixiebabe101]

You've done an awesome job getting debt paid off! You should be proud of yourself!!

Thank you!

And expenses I know about are put off to the side! Like uniforms/school supplies, summer registration and the extra payments over what we already pay, and both the girls registration for the fall!

 

[LisaSunshine]

Update time! I have a little bit of bad news and a little bit of good news.

First, the bad news. We underestimated our income when we signed DH up for Obamacare. It wasn't by a lot, but I'm assuming that the little extra put us in another income bracket, because we now owe the IRS 1K.

The good news, though, is that we should be able to make monthly payments on that amount and DH got a practically full-time position at his work that will hopefully include medical in the near future, so he'll be making extra to make up for that expense and hopefully pay off some other debt.

I've started a serious search for a new job, so even if DH doesn't get medical through his work, I should be able to find a position that will have a good medical insurance program so I can add us both to it. If neither of those options pan out, we'll have to change our income for Covered CA and pay them more each month. So fingers are crossed on the job front!

I'm glad that, for the most part, it sounds like everyone else is doing okay! Historically, January and February haven't been our best months (last year, we discovered the dog's glaucoma and my car broke down all in the same week), so I'm sure things will be looking up soon!

 

[gracie1]

Update time! I have a little bit of bad news and a little bit of good news.

First, the bad news. We underestimated our income when we signed DH up for Obamacare. It wasn't by a lot, but I'm assuming that the little extra put us in another income bracket, because we now owe the IRS 1K.

The good news, though, is that we should be able to make monthly payments on that amount and DH got a practically full-time position at his work that will hopefully include medical in the near future, so he'll be making extra to make up for that expense and hopefully pay off some other debt.

I've started a serious search for a new job, so even if DH doesn't get medical through his work, I should be able to find a position that will have a good medical insurance program so I can add us both to it. If neither of those options pan out, we'll have to change our income for Covered CA and pay them more each month. So fingers are crossed on the job front!

I'm glad that, for the most part, it sounds like everyone else is doing okay! Historically, January and February haven't been our best months (last year, we discovered the dog's glaucoma and my car broke down all in the same week), so I'm sure things will be looking up soon!

That's a bummer on your irs return. I underestimated my income last year too so they deducted the additional out of my return. But I am glad I at least had coverage. Good luck on job hunting!!!

 

[bcwife76]

Deposited my insurance cheques today and the bank put a 5-business-day hold on them, bummer. So at 12:01am on Feb 24th I can start paying stuff off lol Since our HELOC payments are due on the 21st of each month this means I'll have to make a payment from our 'own' money lol just the minimum though

Well done everyone on so much progress lately!!!

 

[gracie1]

Deposited my insurance cheques today and the bank put a 5-business-day hold on them, bummer. So at 12:01am on Feb 24th I can start paying stuff off lol Since our HELOC payments are due on the 21st of each month this means I'll have to make a payment from our 'own' money lol just the minimum though

Well done everyone on so much progress lately!!!

That is so exciting though!! I know you must be feeling a wave of financial relief!!
On another note I took my car in yesterday for the oil change and to have a full on inspection underneath to see what needs repair. Of course it snowed yesterday and I took it to my dealership - my dad told me before we went that they probably wouldn't do an inspection because of the snow and water dripping on them - and they came out and said they didn't find one thing wrong! Normally dealerships do - so most everyone would be happy but I know for a fact from where I had it at another shop that the balljoints are broken - it just proved that my dad was right about them not really inspecting it like they said. I didn't even tell them that there was in fact something that needed repairs - I just left. Kind of ticked me off. It just means that they lost some business too.