Debt Dumpers - 2013

[jenny105]

Wow!!! My kitty is about 15lbs now and I think of him as being huge! He used to be 18.6lbs though so he's slowly shedding the weight. It helps that I stopped feeding him things like cheetos and slices of deli meat in addition to way too much cat food

My cat is at least 20 pounds. When he lays down he looks like he has no neck! I feed him normally but my boyfriend overloads him on food. Feeds him whenever he meows. He's never going to lose weight that way!

 

[peel]

Just redid my own up to my debt chart.
As of today, I have paid down 12,493.91 since 12/31/12

That includes all credit cards, car loans, the RV, the mortgage and the HELOC.
Still a long way to go but a few of these should be paid off by years end.

You should be SO proud! Congratulations!

 

[peel]

My cat Jake lived with diabetes for 8 years. Lots of testing his blood - lots of insulins - different ones, because of course he wouldn't respond to the cheapest one. My big tip to you - diet!! We switched from all dry to all canned - way less carbs - & he did much better. Plus his brother Elwood, who is still with us, lost a LOT of weight (which is a good thing) after switching to canned. He was a HUGE 26 lb tabby, who now at 18 yrs old is a healthy 17 lbs.

Calvin is home! It looks like he'll be okay with one dose of insulin per day. We do have the diabetic food now...they gave us wet and dry food. They're going to take him back in a week and monitor his sugar levels throughout the day to see if he's maintaining on just the one dose. They told us there's a possibility that after a few months we might be able to get by on just the diabetic food and stop the insulin, but they won't know that for a while. He was actually losing weight. He's under 10lbs right now, and he could stand to gain some back. Another one of our cats, on the other hand, is 20lbs! He's like a bowling ball.

Oh, and JAKE AND ELWOOD!!! I love it!!!

 

[milwaukeemommy]

Calvin is home! It looks like he'll be okay with one dose of insulin per day. We do have the diabetic food now...they gave us wet and dry food. They're going to take him back in a week and monitor his sugar levels throughout the day to see if he's maintaining on just the one dose. They told us there's a possibility that after a few months we might be able to get by on just the diabetic food and stop the insulin, but they won't know that for a while. He was actually losing weight. He's under 10lbs right now, and he could stand to gain some back. Another one of our cats, on the other hand, is 20lbs! He's like a bowling ball.

Oh, and JAKE AND ELWOOD!!! I love it!!!

LOL yep!!! Unfortunately Elwood now doesn't make much sense without Jake I will never in my life come up with better names for 2 cats!

Please try to feed more of the canned than the dry, because even the dry food for diabetics contain more sugars & carbs than the canned. And if you can get your other one to eat only canned, he would probably shed a pound or two Elwood only gets a few kernels of dry a day -- as a treat, mixed in with his canned. Good luck, it would be GREAT if he could be controlled just with his food, that insulin is so expensive! AND there ARE canned foods that you can buy at any store that would be fine, once you do get him under control. I used to belong to a Feline Diabetes chat board - they were more knowledgeable than my vet at the time (we have since switched) - I couldn't have helped Jake as much as I did without them. Let me know if you want the link, I'll look in my archives

 

[peel]

I don't think it will be a problem to give him more wet food....he seems to absolutely hate the dry food. He loves the wet if there's a little water mixed in and it's warmed up in the microwave.

I'm so sorry to have hijacked the thread, everybody. On topic news....I sold a couple more things on Ebay and a book on Amazon yesterday. Every little bit helps toward these vet bills. Having started using YNAB last month, it's disappointing that we had set all these preliminary goals and were excited to budget toward a buffer, emergency fund, and then start on our debt when we were faced with all of these serious challenges with the cats. We've had to rely on a credit card for a couple of those bills. But on a positive note, I think I would be losing my mind over the outflow of money right now if we hadn't sat down and laid all our cards on the table and come up with a plan. I know that these are not recurring expenses, and even if there may be followup treatments or aftercare involved, these numbers don't reflect a "normal" month. We can see that there will come a time that we will be able to start working on those goals. If we hadn't had a triple-whammy with three cats sick at once we actually would have been able to coast through this month without hitting the cards, which is good to know. I'm currently only working part time, and I'm looking for full time work, but we know that for now we can make ends meet AND start slowly building up those buffer and emergency categories while slowly decreasing the debt we've accumulated. It will take a long time, but it will be nice to start seeing the savings categories increase and the debt categories decrease. At least we're devoted to making changes.

 

[gracie1]

Bumping thread

 

[honeybunches]

Honeybunches,

Sorry July wasn't a great month for debt dumping for you, but I agree with you that your family is way more important.

Remember People first, then money, then things. Money never comes first. You made memories with people you care about, you will have them forever. Long after that last credit card or bill is gone.

I SO needed to hear this. Thank you!!! DH told me tonight that his parents are coming in a couple of weeks and -- surprise! -- they're bringing the nephew along. Oh, and they're staying for 6 days instead of the 2 they originally planned. I started to groan in my mind, but now that I read your words, I realize that it's a blessing that we'll get to spend some extra time with them. Thanks!!

 

[jenny105]

Ugh. Not debt related but I checked my email this morning and had an email from Capital One 360 (formerly ING) saying that I had a pending charge of $119.83 from Bed, Bath, and Beyond! Unless I wake up in the middle of the night and sleep shop (it was emailed at 2:15 AM) that wasn't me! I called CO and they cancelled my card but I couldn't dispute the charge unless it goes through. I called BB&B to cancel the order but they told me they couldn't look up the order by CC number. Really? I've never heard of that. They were no help at all and the guy I was speaking to was clearly being coached by someone in the background. He had absolutely no idea what to do. I felt like they didn't believe me and just didn't want to lose an order. I ended up hanging up on them. Needless to say I'll never shop there again! Ugh so frustrated. I googled BB&B #651 and found out that this happens often to people. BB&B did tell me that if the address provided on the order doesn't match the address on the card it won't go through but still...so frustrating!

 

[SpaceGirl]

Ugh. Not debt related but I checked my email this morning and had an email from Capital One 360 (formerly ING) saying that I had a pending charge of $119.83 from Bed, Bath, and Beyond! Unless I wake up in the middle of the night and sleep shop (it was emailed at 2:15 AM) that wasn't me! I called CO and they cancelled my card but I couldn't dispute the charge unless it goes through. I called BB&B to cancel the order but they told me they couldn't look up the order by CC number. Really? I've never heard of that. They were no help at all and the guy I was speaking to was clearly being coached by someone in the background. He had absolutely no idea what to do. I felt like they didn't believe me and just didn't want to lose an order. I ended up hanging up on them. Needless to say I'll never shop there again! Ugh so frustrated. I googled BB&B #651 and found out that this happens often to people. BB&B did tell me that if the address provided on the order doesn't match the address on the card it won't go through but still...so frustrating!

Jenny
While I know this is upsetting and really got "Your Blood A Boiling" you are very lucky you had the alert so you knew that this was a fraudulent charge, you were able to contact the credit card company as soon as you received the information. Unfortunately this happens all the time and all to often the owner of the card doesn't know about the charges until they receive their next statement many days after the charges went through...

So everyone be sure to check your accounts during the month, make sure you keep a close watch on your cards and balances. It's hard enough to pay off our own debt let alone debt someone else thinks they can stick you or the credit card companies with their crap. The sooner you catch the fraud the sooner the credit card company can close the account and hopefully stop the transaction.

 

[SpaceGirl]

I SO needed to hear this. Thank you!!! DH told me tonight that his parents are coming in a couple of weeks and -- surprise! -- they're bringing the nephew along. Oh, and they're staying for 6 days instead of the 2 they originally planned. I started to groan in my mind, but now that I read your words, I realize that it's a blessing that we'll get to spend some extra time with them. Thanks!!

Honeybunches,

Glad my post helped...So sounds like you have opened the "The Honeybunches Resort and Restaurant" just kidding...I know you will enjoy seeing and visiting with your family.

You have a few weeks to get ready so just make sure you have as much ready for them that you can. Low cost meals you can make in advance so you wont be tempted to do fast and expensive alternative.

I love the new commercial that has a woman stilling on a couch with silence...she said this is what September sounds like, remember better economical times are just around the corner.

 

[gracie1]

Ugh. Not debt related but I checked my email this morning and had an email from Capital One 360 (formerly ING) saying that I had a pending charge of $119.83 from Bed, Bath, and Beyond! Unless I wake up in the middle of the night and sleep shop (it was emailed at 2:15 AM) that wasn't me! I called CO and they cancelled my card but I couldn't dispute the charge unless it goes through. I called BB&B to cancel the order but they told me they couldn't look up the order by CC number. Really? I've never heard of that. They were no help at all and the guy I was speaking to was clearly being coached by someone in the background. He had absolutely no idea what to do. I felt like they didn't believe me and just didn't want to lose an order. I ended up hanging up on them. Needless to say I'll never shop there again! Ugh so frustrated. I googled BB&B #651 and found out that this happens often to people. BB&B did tell me that if the address provided on the order doesn't match the address on the card it won't go through but still...so frustrating!

It is very frustrating when your account has been hacked!! I noticed this a day after Christmas with my bank account, almost $1000 had been sent to Western Union. I went to the bank the following day and I told her I wish I had known before the charge went through, and she told me the same thing, they couldn't do anything about it until it was charged through and then they could dispute it. The person that hacked my account had used it for Western Union. I was livid! Thank goodness I had enough in there to cover my bills still, or it would've been even messier!

 

[jenny105]

It is very frustrating when your account has been hacked!! I noticed this a day after Christmas with my bank account, almost $1000 had been sent to Western Union. I went to the bank the following day and I told her I wish I had known before the charge went through, and she told me the same thing, they couldn't do anything about it until it was charged through and then they could dispute it. The person that hacked my account had used it for Western Union. I was livid! Thank goodness I had enough in there to cover my bills still, or it would've been even messier!

Luckily this account is my secondary checking - I use it to save for my vacations & Christmas money. So I had enough in there to cover the charge, no overdraft fees or anything, and the money isn't there for immediate use so that's the bright side of this. Such a pain to deal with though. This happened to me a few months ago with my primary checking card but luckily the bank blocked it from going through and took care of everything on their end. I didn't have to do a thing! I wish CO had done that but at least I caught it.

 

[peel]

I've had this happen with my bank card several times, and thankfully each time it was caught by Visa before any charges were completed because there was never enough money in the account to cover the charges. My husband's account was just hacked last month too, but a $500 charge went through before he caught it, so we were down that much money until the bank completed their investigation. It's infuriating to have it happen in the first place, but then to be treated like you've somehow done something wrong is maddening!!

 

[gracie1]

I've had this happen with my bank card several times, and thankfully each time it was caught by Visa before any charges were completed because there was never enough money in the account to cover the charges. My husband's account was just hacked last month too, but a $500 charge went through before he caught it, so we were down that much money until the bank completed their investigation. It's infuriating to have it happen in the first place, but then to be treated like you've somehow done something wrong is maddening!!

Or is infuriating when they have to investigate it!! I was lucky that my bank put the money in my account 2 days later. It helps that I use them for the company I work with so I know that's why they expedited things.

 

[Sagginit]

Ugh. Not debt related but I checked my email this morning and had an email from Capital One 360 (formerly ING) saying that I had a pending charge of $119.83 from Bed, Bath, and Beyond! Unless I wake up in the middle of the night and sleep shop (it was emailed at 2:15 AM) that wasn't me! I called CO and they cancelled my card but I couldn't dispute the charge unless it goes through. I called BB&B to cancel the order but they told me they couldn't look up the order by CC number. Really? I've never heard of that. They were no help at all and the guy I was speaking to was clearly being coached by someone in the background. He had absolutely no idea what to do. I felt like they didn't believe me and just didn't want to lose an order. I ended up hanging up on them. Needless to say I'll never shop there again! Ugh so frustrated. I googled BB&B #651 and found out that this happens often to people. BB&B did tell me that if the address provided on the order doesn't match the address on the card it won't go through but still...so frustrating!

Don't blame the company, this is based on privacy policies in part regulated by governments. Since you are stating you did not place the order they are really not at liberty to discuss it with you, they need to research it and determine if your claim is valid. Depending on how fast they move I hope they have it canceled before it turns into a dispute and your money is taken off hold. Oddly enough it protects you from someone calling up with vague details trying to get your personal information.

I just spent a weekend in a tourist area and I took my card that is not linked to my bills. I learned my lesson a few years ago when my card number was stolen on vacation and I had to scramble to get those automatic payments paid.

 

[gracie1]

Bumping thread! How is every one doing?

I go this afternoon for my X-rays and comprehensive exam with the dentist. So I will have a better grip on how much work I need done and budget it out. I hate to see how many cavities it will show!! But it has to be done.

 

[SpaceGirl]

I just spent a weekend in a tourist area and I took my card that is not linked to my bills. I learned my lesson a few years ago when my card number was stolen on vacation and I had to scramble to get those automatic payments paid.

We returned from Europe in June I never used any of my credit cards outside the Hotels. (Most of the hotels were paid in advance)We just used the ATM's for cash every few days, this made purchases at small out of the way places so much safer.

A few years ago when we were at Food & Wine @ EPCOT my sisters ATM was copied so now I only use Disney gift cards while visiting the Parks. It is so easy for people to gain access to your account information I try not to make it any easier for them.

 

[SpaceGirl]

I go this afternoon for my X-rays and comprehensive exam with the dentist. So I will have a better grip on how much work I need done and budget it out. I hate to see how many cavities it will show!! But it has to be done.

Oh Gracie...Good Luck, I hate going to the dentist with a passion, even though mine is so nice and explains everything that needs/will to be done. (doesn't help) Hope you have a good outcome.

 

[jenny105]

Just an update on the BB&B situation - I ended up sending them an email explaning my problem after I hung up with them. The person I corresponded with via email was a lot more helpful and ended up canceling the order & having my funds reinstated. I checked this morning and it has been removed from my pending charges. I have no idea why the guy I first spoke to couldn't do this in the first place but at least it's been resolved. And that card has been deactivated & a replacement is on the way!

 

[SpaceGirl]

Just an update on the BB&B situation - I ended up sending them an email explaning my problem after I hung up with them. The person I corresponded with via email was a lot more helpful and ended up canceling the order & having my funds reinstated. I checked this morning and it has been removed from my pending charges. I have no idea why the guy I first spoke to couldn't do this in the first place but at least it's been resolved. And that card has been deactivated & a replacement is on the way!

Great news...maybe you just talked to a newbie when you called in the other day...still it should have been handled correctly then...