Debt Dumpers - 2013

[AuroraRora]

I got a second job! Start tomorrow. It will make up for the money we are losing by DH EI ending. He is going to pick up part time in September when our youngest is back in school and we will not need child care. That is when the snowballing will begin.

I am so relieved to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Last month, alot of my friends and coworkers received notices that either their jobs were eliminated or their areas were being downsized. Scared the crap out of me so I came up with a 2 year plan to get down to just having our mortgage. Feels great to have a plan.

Paula

Good for you Paula, that's awesome!!

I got called into work today, extra hours YAY! That'll be going straight to the snowball tomorrow, and my bills are paid for the next week or two so when I get paid next Tuesday I can put all of it in my snowball too. I made a new debt thermometer chart for my wall for the student loan I'm working on at the moment and I'm so excited to keep coloring it in - motivation for sure.

I also talked to my therapist about my plan to do 2hr sessions on alternating weeks. She thought it was a really good idea, and that way I compromise some longer sessions with my budget, because it'll only cost me an extra $120/month, instead of doubling what I pay

 

[xCourxCorex]

Since leaving my old job, I was paid out for my unused pto.. It ended up giving me enough wiggle room to put an extra $1750 to my car loan this month! yippee!! Once that clears my balance should be just under $9,000!

 

[pryncess527]

Since leaving my old job, I was paid out for my unused pto.. It ended up giving me enough wiggle room to put an extra $1750 to my car loan this month! yippee!! Once that clears my balance should be just under $9,000!

Congrats!!!

And congratulations on the second job Paula, that's awesome

Aurora, I'm glad you and your therapist found some middle ground

 

[zy144622]

Yeah! So much good news! It's amazing how changing how we think about money really does effect happiness. My stress level has dropped significantly since I started to focus on finances in Feb. I also find it great to have all of you to share with.

Crazy I even get excited to pay bills! I'm paid biweekly for Salary and monthly for commission. My off weeks Are boring not getting money to pay bills...lol

 

[gracie1]

You are all doing such a fantastic job! I never thought I would be excited to pay my bills either when dumping debt! So far I have been able to stay clear! Yay! And I have been able to use my cc to make purchases and pay off each month, so I can build my rewards.
I love coming on this thread to see the motivation everyone has!

 

[momz]

a few years ago (6 or so), my husband and I took the financial peace unversity course. It change our lives. But, those old behaviors have slowly started to creep back.

Tell me about this YNAB plan. How does it work? The envelope system is a great idea, but we hardly ever go to the bank to get cash, we just use our debit cards. And, while the money is always there, and we are not scraping the bottom of the barrel by the end of the month, we find ourselves making spontaneous purchases, and spending more than we intended.

I'm thinking that a software ap that helps us track our debit purchases in lew of using cash (the envelope system) will fit better with our lifestyle.

 

[nboicepardee]

a few years ago (6 or so), my husband and I took the financial peace unversity course. It change our lives. But, those old behaviors have slowly started to creep back.

Tell me about this YNAB plan. How does it work? The envelope system is a great idea, but we hardly ever go to the bank to get cash, we just use our debit cards. And, while the money is always there, and we are not scraping the bottom of the barrel by the end of the month, we find ourselves making spontaneous purchases, and spending more than we intended.

I'm thinking that a software ap that helps us track our debit purchases in lew of using cash (the envelope system) will fit better with our lifestyle.

I started using YNAB about 3 weeks ago and I LOVE it!! I tried to get my husband to buy into the envelope system a few years back and he did not love it, but more importantly, I had a really hard time getting it to fit our lifestyle. One of us would stop at the grocery store, but the other one had the "envelope"...just didn't work well for us. We have always lived within our means, but we found we weren't saving nearly enough. Now, we set our budget and before we make a purchase, we check how much is in the budget and then after purchasing, add a new transaction. I love the flexibility to move from category, because life is unpredictable and I feel like a success at the end of every day because I stuck to my budget, even if I had to move things around. I love the mobile app. The tutorials are great, the forums are lovely and helpful. I can't say enough good things so far. I am a little obsessed with it to tell you the truth!

 

[mum2simon]

a few years ago (6 or so), my husband and I took the financial peace unversity course. It change our lives. But, those old behaviors have slowly started to creep back.

Tell me about this YNAB plan. How does it work? The envelope system is a great idea, but we hardly ever go to the bank to get cash, we just use our debit cards. And, while the money is always there, and we are not scraping the bottom of the barrel by the end of the month, we find ourselves making spontaneous purchases, and spending more than we intended.

I'm thinking that a software ap that helps us track our debit purchases in lew of using cash (the envelope system) will fit better with our lifestyle.

It sounds like YNAB would be a perfect fit for you guys! It's like an electronic envelope system, with the same idea as DR's zero budgeting. You allocate your income to different categories, and when your out and about you can check to see how much $ is left in said category on the app....if its not there, you don't buy it....or you figure out where the money is going to come from.

We really wanted to use DR's cash envelope system, but our bank is not that close by and the thought of using cash at the gas station (3 young kids in the car and usually am by myself) was not inviting, led us to YNAB and we love it! Has truly changed the way we budget and spend. We still use cash for groceries (cash in hand makes me really stick to the list) and for our personal spending money.

 

[momz]

DH and I have a shared checking and savings account. All money is "our" money, there is not his and hers. So, does YNAB work for 2 people making purchases from the same account?

 

[mum2simon]

DH and I have a shared checking and savings account. All money is "our" money, there is not his and hers. So, does YNAB work for 2 people making purchases from the same account?

Yup, that's how we operate, one shared checkings/savings. The program keeps each of your devices synced via dropbox, so as soon as my DH makes a purchase and records it, it shows up on my computer and iphone at home.

 

[peel]

DH and I have a shared checking and savings account. All money is "our" money, there is not his and hers. So, does YNAB work for 2 people making purchases from the same account?

Yes, and it's encouraged with YNAB. It eliminates the need to have separate accounts for separate purposes.

I've only been using it for a couple of weeks, and not even the "right" way yet, because we're still tweaking the categories and accounts so that it makes the most sense for us. But I can already see how it will change our lives, and I'm really excited to get started for real on August 1st.

We will be following YNAB and DR's basic guidelines...build a one month buffer first (it will make YNAB so much easier to use), build up an emergency fund, and then pay down debt. I'm not subscribing to DR, just using YNAB to implement his plan.

 

[momz]

This is the first place I have heard to YNAB. I see there is a fee for the service. What does the fee cover? Is it a one-time fee, or are there ongoing subscription costs? Does the fee cover having the ap on multiple devices?

I'm excited to explore this tonight with my husband. I'm at work now, so I have limited acces to internet sites (thank goodness the DIS isn't blocked). We are grilling out for dinner, both kids have plans with friends, so hopefully they will be occupied and DH and I can talk about this.

The good news, is we are both at about the same place regarding our finances. We want to have better control over our spending, and we have both recognized our need to get organized. We tend to both be in the middle of the continuum between free spirit and nerd. Strangely, we rarely fight about finances. I hear that is a common issue for some marriages. Thankfully, we are pretty well paired regarding this issue. (I say that now...before we delve into YNAB).

 

[pryncess527]

This is the first place I have heard to YNAB. I see there is a fee for the service. What does the fee cover? Is it a one-time fee, or are there ongoing subscription costs? Does the fee cover having the ap on multiple devices?
).

There is a one time cost to purchase the software but no ongoing subscription fee. They do encourage you to install the software on multiple computers and the app is free

Its on sale this weekend and there is also a 10% off referral coupon

 

[AuroraRora]

You are all doing such a fantastic job! I never thought I would be excited to pay my bills either when dumping debt! So far I have been able to stay clear! Yay! And I have been able to use my cc to make purchases and pay off each month, so I can build my rewards.
I love coming on this thread to see the motivation everyone has!

That's awesome Gracie, so many people seem to use the cards and then just fall back into their old patterns, good job sticking to using them properly and then getting the rewards out of it!! I totally agree about the motivation - coming here and seeing others doing well really motivates me to keep plowing on too.

I had this outlandish idea last month to try and pay off everything but my huge student loan, by October in order to feel I could justify my Oct Disney trip, but it seemed impossible so it was more of a "Aiming to pay everything else off by then but realistically just hoping to pay off as much as possible". I have my $14,500 student loan to go before I hit that goal, and today I worked out that with my contracts I have booked for work for the rest of the month, I'll be able to get it down to $9900 by the end of the month! If I can get any extra hours, which I hope I can, I can add that on too Now I'm obsessed with the idea of actually possibly paying it off by October!

 

[peel]

Good for you, Aurora! That will be a huge accomplishment!

As for me, I just found out today that I owe $350 to pay back an overage I was erroneously paid in unemployment benefits. Two weeks ago I would have had a panic attack about that, but now, even though we're still not completely utilizing YNAB yet, I know I can scrape it together without a problem.

 

[gracie1]

That's awesome Gracie, so many people seem to use the cards and then just fall back into their old patterns, good job sticking to using them properly and then getting the rewards out of it!! I totally agree about the motivation - coming here and seeing others doing well really motivates me to keep plowing on too.

I had this outlandish idea last month to try and pay off everything but my huge student loan, by October in order to feel I could justify my Oct Disney trip, but it seemed impossible so it was more of a "Aiming to pay everything else off by then but realistically just hoping to pay off as much as possible". I have my $14,500 student loan to go before I hit that goal, and today I worked out that with my contracts I have booked for work for the rest of the month, I'll be able to get it down to $9900 by the end of the month! If I can get any extra hours, which I hope I can, I can add that on too Now I'm obsessed with the idea of actually possibly paying it off by October!

Way to go!!! That is awesome that you are going to have that student loan down to $9900 by the end of the month! I hope you reach your goal to have it paid off by the end of October, but even if you don't, just look at how much you have accomplished

 

[AuroraRora]

Thanks gracie!

Peel, sorry you have to pay that back, that really sucks! It's definitely great that you can deal with it without it sending you into a tailspin though - it's such a benefit of having more stable finances! I dealt with that a few years ago when I was overpaid $800 and my employer at the time tried to claim it back. I protested on the basis of some random email from my manager telling me it was ok to take the time off I'd requested (they were saying I was overpaid based on taking more personal days than I was allowed) - I didn't expect it to be successful but they forgave the overpayment Sorry you have to deal with that too!

 

[pianokey]

We were doing so well paying things down. Got a curveball with our poor kitty. He started vomiting and various other issues yesterday. Took him to the emergency vet because he was dehydrated. Still don't know what the cause is. That was a bill of $800. We can pay that, by making some other things tight. However, I don't know how much more he will cost if they can't figure out the issue.
:-(

 

[peel]

I'm so sorry about your cat. We're dealing with the same curveball. My cat has had radiation and now chemo for a tumor and it's really straining the already tight budget.
I hope yours gets well soon!

 

[pryncess527]

Aww, best wishes to everyone with vet bills. Having sick animal is always stressful and the vet bills never help! I hope your fur-babies are all better soon.