Debt Dumpers - 2013

[gracie1]

WOW! You all are doing so great! Me, not so much. Have controlled the spending, but don't have large amounts of $$$ to put toward the CC's. Every penny I make on Ebay is going towards it, but unfortunately I haven't had much time to actually list much. It's a vicious cycle LOL

The first part is controlling your spending. That is something to be proud of!!!

 

[MrsDrewsky]

May I join in? Last year we paid off all of our credit cards, and now we just have my student loans. Which are unfortunately really high.

We have our first baby on the way and paused paying off debt to save for doctor visits and hospital costs. I was able to prepay for the delivery and save money by doing so. I think we have a decent emergency fund now and enough to cover hospital expenses.

We just paid off one of my federal student loans! It was the federal loan with the highest interest. It was a small win. We still have a few more loans to go, but I think we're going to pause paying off debt once again just to contribute more to the emergency fund. Once the wee one is here and all is well, we will make another large payment. With me staying home with the baby and also saving for a home down payment it will probably be about 4 years before they're paid off. That's still 6 years early I suppose.

 

[Sagginit]

May I join in? Last year we paid off all of our credit cards, and now we just have my student loans. Which are unfortunately really high.

We have our first baby on the way and paused paying off debt to save for doctor visits and hospital costs. I was able to prepay for the delivery and save money by doing so. I think we have a decent emergency fund now and enough to cover hospital expenses.

We just paid off one of my federal student loans! It was the federal loan with the highest interest. It was a small win. We still have a few more loans to go, but I think we're going to pause paying off debt once again just to contribute more to the emergency fund. Once the wee one is here and all is well, we will make another large payment. With me staying home with the baby and also saving for a home down payment it will probably be about 4 years before they're paid off. That's still 6 years early I suppose.

way to go on the loans! i have been treating mine like CC debt, looking at each subloan and snowballing, from highest interest rate down. i am set to pay off my next one in may or april.

when i do the math i have saved sooo much in interest already so even if i have to stop extra for a while (like i did last year to get a new car) it is still worth it. this has made it so much more manageable when paying off and keeps me focused, when you look at all the student loans together sometimes its just depressing.

 

[leelee9878]

So happy to see everyone is doing so good! I am highly focused on getting out of cc debt this year, it just seems like a vicious battle. I did give up using my cc for lent and have been really good and haven't slipped which feels really good. I got my 2012 bonus on Friday and took the whole amount and applied it to my cc would have been a lot more had the government didn't take out 41%!!!! I saw the stub on Thursday, to be deposited on Friday and scheduled the cc payment for Friday. Figure the least amount of time it's in my bank account the better! Now I'm praying for a good tax return so I can apply another large chunk. Keep up the good work everyone!

 

[Clan Oz]

One thing you can do is offer to host a potluck at your house. The cost of hosting is usually very low, especially when everyone else brings the food and drinks!

I might need to throw a few of these - so they can get the idea.

I would just say "That sounds like fun! Our finances are really tight right now, so we're going to have to pass. We'd love to do something local next time though"[/QUOTE]

I dont know if this will actually pass but Im going to have to do something. Last weekend was $743AUD in total. Im tearing my hair out. That's $743 back on to the CC. We have Easter, another short 4 night stay and then a two adult bday parties in one weekend

 

[momof2gr8kids]

One thing you can do is offer to host a potluck at your house. The cost of hosting is usually very low, especially when everyone else brings the food and drinks!

I might need to throw a few of these - so they can get the idea.

I would just say "That sounds like fun! Our finances are really tight right now, so we're going to have to pass. We'd love to do something local next time though"

I dont know if this will actually pass but Im going to have to do something. Last weekend was $743AUD in total. Im tearing my hair out. That's $743 back on to the CC. We have Easter, another short 4 night stay and then a two adult bday parties in one weekend[/QUOTE]

You need to learn to say no and not feel guilty. Sounds like you're young, so if you can't learn how to stay out of the "keeping up with the Jones''" scenarios, it will only get worse. We have some friends like that, and we just don't hang around them as much. Over the years priorities change. We find we hang out with more like minded people like us. We can have a great time with the right people, right in our living room or back yard. A pot luck and a bottle of wine is a lot cheaper than fancy dinners out and $10 glasses of wine!

If you host one, maybe your friends will see you can have fun without spending a fortune. If not, find new friends. LOL j/k.

Down the road you will be the one having a good time, without debt and large savings accounts and money to travel!

Good luck!

 

[danielle79]

I know this may seem harsh, but you need to say no, I don't have the money. If you are putting all of these trips on cc, you will be in big trouble before you know it. It is very hard to admit to yourself and others that you don't have the cash but are these friends and family going to pay your bills?

 

[danielle79]

We got our federal tax return deposited Thursday and my hubby and I had a great discussion about what we are doing with our money and I think we might actually be on the same page with our finances for the first time in 15 years! As I said before we need to put a roof on our house so that is no fun! We have a little plan about vacation funds and debt payment and I feel really good about all of this.

 

[gracie1]

May I join in? Last year we paid off all of our credit cards, and now we just have my student loans. Which are unfortunately really high.

We have our first baby on the way and paused paying off debt to save for doctor visits and hospital costs. I was able to prepay for the delivery and save money by doing so. I think we have a decent emergency fund now and enough to cover hospital expenses.

We just paid off one of my federal student loans! It was the federal loan with the highest interest. It was a small win. We still have a few more loans to go, but I think we're going to pause paying off debt once again just to contribute more to the emergency fund. Once the wee one is here and all is well, we will make another large payment. With me staying home with the baby and also saving for a home down payment it will probably be about 4 years before they're paid off. That's still 6 years early I suppose.

Paying off your loans 6 years early is awesome You really need to give yourself a lot of credit that you have prepaid for your delivery and saved enough money for all the medical expenses. That is great!!

 

[williamson_ja]

I'm going to join in here as well. We've been trying to do this for a while... with mixed results. It seems like every time we make a dent, we have some disaster that puts us back again. Anyhow, I decided in January to start doing Dave Ramsey again. I got the $1000 put in emergency savings, etc. Then, we had 3 things happen a

 

[williamson_ja]

I'm going to join in here as well. We've been trying to do this for a while... with mixed results. It seems like every time we make a dent, we have some disaster that puts us back again. Anyhow, I decided in January to start doing Dave Ramsey again. I got the $1000 put in emergency savings, etc. Then, we had 3 things happen a

Okay, the dog came up and pushed the "post" button before I was ready. Where was I? Oh yes, we had 3 things happen all at once that made getting out of debt very difficult for a couple of months. First of all, we found out that our tax bill was going to be 3 times as much as last year! We really need to hire an accountant to help us in the future with such things. I had saved as much money as I thought the tax bill was going to be, only to find out we were REALLY short. Then, our washing machine quit working. With a family of 6 and living 25 miles from the nearest laundromat, that became quite an issue. We didn't want to spend our savings away on a new machine, but also didn't want to spend all the money on going to the laundromat either. . Then, out of the blue our business just stopped bringing in the amount of money we normally get... as in it cut right in half. Mind you that 3 months ago, I was downsized at work. I went from working full time to 2 days per week. Between it all, instead of getting AHEAD on our bills, we got behind and ended up spending some of the money we had saved away for taxes... I still don't have enough for that bill. I feel rather discouraged right now and really NEED to get out of debt.

Right now, we are praying that our business will pick back up. I was able to beg my boss into letting me work a "little" bit more. We are not spending money on ANYTHING extra that we don't have to. No movies, eating out, trips, prepackaged food from the grocery store. Nothing. I make all the meals from scratch and make most of my own cleaners as well. We are working on getting our cars paid off first. If I can keep them on the original plan, they'll be paid off this summer freeing up an extra $800/month. We also have another expense that gets paid off in June that's $175/month. I keep telling myself that if we can hold out for that long, it will get better. Then, we have the credit cards next. We just don't owe that much on the cars and it's a high monthly payment, so we chose them to go first. Wish us luck!

 

[bigsis1970]

Way to go!!! That is great!!

Awesome! Way to go!

Thanks feels GREAT! working on CC #2 now

 

[lovingeire]

We had our third FPU class last night and my hubby called me from work saying at lunch he added up all his receipts to see on what and where he spent his money. (He has an allotment and pays for his motorcycle, it's insurance, his gas and any extras out of this.) He was shocked to see how much he spent on food, especially when I buy stuff for him to use for lunches at work. He also was shocked because he saw he was putting things on the credit card he didn't remember. They just increased his limit and he's already almost maxed it out again. At least last night he really decided we needed to take steps to see where our money is going and get things paid off. He actually scheduled a meeting on Wed night for us to talk about our budget and wants me to add up all the receipts too. I am so thankful that he is finally getting it!

 

[MrsDrewsky]

way to go on the loans! i have been treating mine like CC debt, looking at each subloan and snowballing, from highest interest rate down. i am set to pay off my next one in may or april.

when i do the math i have saved sooo much in interest already so even if i have to stop extra for a while (like i did last year to get a new car) it is still worth it. this has made it so much more manageable when paying off and keeps me focused, when you look at all the student loans together sometimes its just depressing.

Ah, I know. It really is depressing when I look at all of it together. But you're right in looking at each of the loans individually, I can actually see progress by doing it this way.

That's awesome you'll have another one of your student loans paid off in april or may. Good luck to you!

 

[MrsDrewsky]

Paying off your loans 6 years early is awesome You really need to give yourself a lot of credit that you have prepaid for your delivery and saved enough money for all the medical expenses. That is great!!

Thank you for your encouragement. You made my day!

 

[milwaukeemommy]

LOL what did I get in the mail today, but a letter from our credit union stating that we could possibly refinance at more than 2% lower than our current mortgage. It would be so nice, our monthly payment would go down. I would refinance for 20 years, not 30 - that is where we are at right now. But I just KNOW they are going to say we have too much debt to refinance. Which is ironic, because refinancing would help us get out of debt FASTER

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

ERGH!! Got a letter today saying our Mortgage was sold. I am not happy!!!
So needless to say, DH and I are going to move forward with a possible refinance through our credit union sooner, rather than later. Now for him to just be home long enough to go talk to them.

 

[Malakaiii]

A baby on the way! Congrats!

I'm so thankful to live in Canada where the birth and any possible hospital stay is included in our free health care! I don't know how people in the US manage to have more than 1 kid! We couldn't afford it, that's for sure.

 

[danielle79]

A baby on the way! Congrats!

I'm so thankful to live in Canada where the birth and any possible hospital stay is included in our free health care! I don't know how people in the US manage to have more than 1 kid! We couldn't afford it, that's for sure.

Congrats on expecting baby #2! You have to have medical insurance through your job or else the medical bills for a hospital stay and birth of a baby would be outrageous! We are very fortunate that our family has great medical insurance through my hubby's job!

 

[ceemys]

So it's been 4 days since I updated my quicken checking account. I feel weird knowing that I didn't enter my receipts yet. lol I was so tired yesterday, so I have to do it today!!

My ticker is now at 38%!! Next month I will be at 50% of reaching my goal!