Debt Dumpers - 2013

[gracie1]

Bumping thread

 

[tgeorge0207]

Congrats on paying off 2 cc's

thank you was a great motivation!

 

[*Flower*]

Wow, I wish I only had 3 more months on my mortgage!! Way to go!

It's actually 6 months (I've been making extra principal payments every month) but I figure I can cut it to the 3 I'm aiming for. Thanks!
Every little bit helps though- even $5 extra toward principal every payment cuts the amount of interest that the mortgage company gets.

 

[milwaukeemommy]

Tons of debt here

Hoping to be able to read all 27 pages of this thread, it looks pretty inspiring. My hubby had surgery last October so not only is there lots of med bills, but he was off work for 2 months. Wish we still got a huge tax refund but we changed our withholding because everyone told us it was bad to get that big check. Maybe so, but it would be nice now LOL

I can't even bring myself to tell you how much debt we have. It's a lot. We are trying, though. Baby steps!

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

Tons of debt here

Hoping to be able to read all 27 pages of this thread, it looks pretty inspiring. My hubby had surgery last October so not only is there lots of med bills, but he was off work for 2 months. Wish we still got a huge tax refund but we changed our withholding because everyone told us it was bad to get that big check. Maybe so, but it would be nice now LOL

I can't even bring myself to tell you how much debt we have. It's a lot. We are trying, though. Baby steps!

Welcome! You can do this $1 at a time. That is what we are all doing.

 

[beansmom]

Welcome! You can do this $1 at a time. That is what we are all doing.

^ agreed!

 

[gracie1]

Tons of debt here

Hoping to be able to read all 27 pages of this thread, it looks pretty inspiring. My hubby had surgery last October so not only is there lots of med bills, but he was off work for 2 months. Wish we still got a huge tax refund but we changed our withholding because everyone told us it was bad to get that big check. Maybe so, but it would be nice now LOL

I can't even bring myself to tell you how much debt we have. It's a lot. We are trying, though. Baby steps!

Welcome to the board! You will find alot of inspiration when you read through all the threads. Just remember, every little bit extra towards a cc or medical bill will get you out of debt faster! Even if it's only an extra $1 like the other post said.

 

[gracie1]

Well, I just paid $2700 towards my credit card Not as much as I wanted to, but am still on track. Hope to still be able to meet my March 16th payoff, and if not I will definately hit the March 27th payoff.

 

[beansmom]

Well, I just paid $2700 towards my credit card Not as much as I wanted to, but am still on track. Hope to still be able to meet my March 16th payoff, and if not I will definately hit the March 27th payoff.

"go, gracie..go, gracie"

 

[Cinderelly5507]

Tons of debt here

Hoping to be able to read all 27 pages of this thread, it looks pretty inspiring. My hubby had surgery last October so not only is there lots of med bills, but he was off work for 2 months. Wish we still got a huge tax refund but we changed our withholding because everyone told us it was bad to get that big check. Maybe so, but it would be nice now LOL

I can't even bring myself to tell you how much debt we have. It's a lot. We are trying, though. Baby steps!

Don't be embarrassed! We are all here to support, not judge! We have a lot if student loan debt that I haven't even factored in her, as I want to pay off CCs and medical bills and need the motivation of not counting them yet. My DH was laid off in 2009 and when he found a job, it was 50-60% less than what he was making. You are definitely not alone! Keep up the good work of even just making it point to take control over finances rather than them controlling you!

 

[Cinderelly5507]

Well, I just paid $2700 towards my credit card Not as much as I wanted to, but am still on track. Hope to still be able to meet my March 16th payoff, and if not I will definately hit the March 27th payoff.

Yay!!!!!

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Fingers crossed for you!


Today was payday and I knocked one of my CC balances under $1000. Getting there!

Woohoo!! I hate seeing under $1000 in balances because it taunts me. I have one CC, the first I want to pay off and it's down to $499 and I want to pay is off so bad, but I opted to pay off tuition first.

Tons of debt here

Hoping to be able to read all 27 pages of this thread, it looks pretty inspiring. My hubby had surgery last October so not only is there lots of med bills, but he was off work for 2 months. Wish we still got a huge tax refund but we changed our withholding because everyone told us it was bad to get that big check. Maybe so, but it would be nice now LOL

I can't even bring myself to tell you how much debt we have. It's a lot. We are trying, though. Baby steps!

You don't have to tell us. But use some of the worksheets in the beginning of this thread to lay it all out there in black and white for you and your hubby.
Seeing it all on paper really helps.

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Paid off tuition this week for the little kids, glad that is over. My goal is to start putting this away now for next year, to pay it in full by September, $7500.

We also caught up on all the Amex cards. Unfortunately DH uses these for work so we pay it off and refill them again. But now that work has an app for expenses, he's been able to submit expenses weekly, which is really helping.

Next up is to work on getting taxes filed.

 

[momof2gr8kids]

Tons of debt here

Hoping to be able to read all 27 pages of this thread, it looks pretty inspiring. My hubby had surgery last October so not only is there lots of med bills, but he was off work for 2 months. Wish we still got a huge tax refund but we changed our withholding because everyone told us it was bad to get that big check. Maybe so, but it would be nice now LOL

I can't even bring myself to tell you how much debt we have. It's a lot. We are trying, though. Baby steps!

As long as you and your hubby are working together to get rid of it, it will happen.

I found that the biggest challenge - getting dh to realize that just because everyone has debt and charges everything, doesn't mean we need to! Now that he's on board and we've been putting extra $$ towards debt, I wonder, what they heck did we blow our money on??? LOL

 

[gracie1]

Paid off tuition this week for the little kids, glad that is over. My goal is to start putting this away now for next year, to pay it in full by September, $7500.

We also caught up on all the Amex cards. Unfortunately DH uses these for work so we pay it off and refill them again. But now that work has an app for expenses, he's been able to submit expenses weekly, which is really helping.

Next up is to work on getting taxes filed.

Congrats on getting the tuition paid off

 

[gracie1]

As long as you and your hubby are working together to get rid of it, it will happen.

I found that the biggest challenge - getting dh to realize that just because everyone has debt and charges everything, doesn't mean we need to! Now that he's on board and we've been putting extra $$ towards debt, I wonder, what they heck did we blow our money on??? LOL

I wonder the same thing about my debt, what in the heck did I buy?? Although a bit of it was surgery on the dog! But still!!

 

[clintswifeymomof4]

Hey dumpers... just a bump to update today...

Worked on my March budget spreadsheet today. Set up some automatic transfers into savings (worked these into the budget for the first time in my life!).

We get our income tax refund in 2 weeks and I'm using it to buy our April tickets (around $2k and $1k for food) and the entire balance of another cc (about $3500). I opted to use the $1k to pay cash for our food/gas for our trip instead of paying off another low balance cc and then running it up on our trip. I think this way I will be more mindful of how much we spend on the trip (we are staying deluxe dvc and are cooking in our room for breakfast and dinner and taking food into the parks for snacks/light lunch and will buy some snacks and possibly lunch and a couple of dinners out- which I will tell you about in a second). Any money we come home with in our pocket will be sent to that low balance cc and by low balance I mean $1500- low compared to my others!!!

To save money on the trip I'm going to be making some "themed" dinners in our room and bringing some inexpensive Disney plates (thanks Dollar Tree) etc to give it that little magic touch. I want to take the kids to TRex and possibly Rainforest Cafe... our trip coincides with a birthday month so for $25 I'll have $50 credit for TRex (I paid $25 to join Landry's select club but was given the $25 back as a welcome credit plus will get $25 more in April for the birthday). I'll be on the lookout for free kids meal coupons for Rainforest Cafe.

Grandparents gave kids $25 Disney gift cards for Christmas and the Easter Bunny is bringing another $25 card (thanks Sam's Club for a little discount). That's $50 each kid to spend on souvenirs that won't have to come out of our budget. Yay.

I'm about to go drag out some old textbooks from the garage and see if I can find a buyer via Amazon or Ebay... any $ is a $ towards debt payoff and I'm ready to sell anything not tied down!

 

[Susiesark]

I've been 'lurking' on this page, following, trying to get motivated instead of just depressed over my situation. I work part-time for the school district, and haven't seen any kind of a raise in countless years, even though cost of living has gone way up. My DH has been out of work for a whopping 23 months, and we don't qualify for any type of unemployment benefits. He does have a small retirement check that comes every month, but not nearly enough to even cover the mortgage. When his contract job ended, I had close to 50k saved up between the checking and savings account, with no debt. That has all been wiped out, along with cashing out 2 insurance accounts, and our debt has never been higher. We live very frugally, always have, but cost of living in SoCal doesn't come cheap. Every week I think, and pray, this is the week a job will come through. We still have our daughter in a private school, the last thing I want to give up on. I've been reading your stories of paying off debt, even if it's just a small amount at a time, but honestly, we're more in the red every month. Well, thanks for listening to my venting, and thanks for the motivation.

 

[clintswifeymomof4]

I know you were only venting and not looking for "answers" so welcome to the board... we're here to listen and offer encouragement.

We can't do anything about the past but we can start making better choices for the future. I know you have no control over the job situation and I really relate to you on that. I was unemployed (I'm a teacher) for 2 years and thankfully this is my 2nd year back teaching. I have no tenure so we are year to year on my position hoping I get rehired until I reach tenure. Our debt is from "living" during those unemployed years.

I managed to sell 6 old textbooks tonight for a whopping $25.80. It's better than collecting dust in the garage. Sending it to my lowest balance cc when the check comes in (we are doing Dave Ramsey's plan).

I clipped coupons today and updated my coupon binder. Decided to send my coupon "savings" to the ccs too. I wonder if they will think its crazy to be getting $2 and $3 payments a few times a week?! Lol

 

[gracie1]

I've been 'lurking' on this page, following, trying to get motivated instead of just depressed over my situation. I work part-time for the school district, and haven't seen any kind of a raise in countless years, even though cost of living has gone way up. My DH has been out of work for a whopping 23 months, and we don't qualify for any type of unemployment benefits. He does have a small retirement check that comes every month, but not nearly enough to even cover the mortgage. When his contract job ended, I had close to 50k saved up between the checking and savings account, with no debt. That has all been wiped out, along with cashing out 2 insurance accounts, and our debt has never been higher. We live very frugally, always have, but cost of living in SoCal doesn't come cheap. Every week I think, and pray, this is the week a job will come through. We still have our daughter in a private school, the last thing I want to give up on. I've been reading your stories of paying off debt, even if it's just a small amount at a time, but honestly, we're more in the red every month. Well, thanks for listening to my venting, and thanks for the motivation.

We are all here to support and encourage getting on track with our debt. You are definitely going through a hard time with your husband being out of work, and I am so thankful that I have not had to experience that financial strain. If I were in your situation, my main goal would just to make sure that my mortgage was covered each month, and then if you have a little extra either try to put it towards a cc or put away for just in case emergencies.
Sending good vibes that your husband finds a job