Debt Dumpers - 2013

[gracie1]

Ha, I have one better...

Non budget hits in July

$600 - repairs to my Ford (throttle wire)
$1000 - repairs for my Honda (tires, brakes)
$400 - Assessment done for my LD child
$300 - Annual Glasses (son now needs em)
$300 - Doctor bills (deductible not met yet)

$2600 and I don't know what hit me

Sometimes I really wonder how people make it....thank god for savings
years ago this would have gone on a credit card...

It's months like these that don't let you get ahead, surely I'm not alone?

RayJay

You are definitely not alone! You sure did have a bad month though! I had quite a few medical bills in July that I hadn't planned, but luckily was able to pay them out of savings too! This month will be worse, and September not the greatest, but I believe October will be better (I hope I just didn't jinx myself)! I am now thinking ahead to my Christmas shopping, which I did start. Only picked up 2 gifts so far but atleast it's a start!

 

[gracie1]

Alright, so I had to come on and post this one!! Brushing my teeth this morning and my front tooth broke Luckily, I already had an appointment with the dentist this morning just for a comprehensive exam, but this now put me another $230 back.

I mean, my goal this year was to get out of cc debt, which I did, and then start slowly with working on my teeth that I have neglected for years!! But come on!! I mean, literally I am there every 2 weeks lately to get them fixed!! Oh well.... just another day in the dental chair. I don't know which is more painful, the bill or the needle in the front gum

 

[OhMari]

Alright, so I had to come on and post this one!! Brushing my teeth this morning and my front tooth broke Luckily, I already had an appointment with the dentist this morning just for a comprehensive exam, but this now put me another $230 back.

I mean, my goal this year was to get out of cc debt, which I did, and then start slowly with working on my teeth that I have neglected for years!! But come on!! I mean, literally I am there every 2 weeks lately to get them fixed!! Oh well.... just another day in the dental chair. I don't know which is more painful, the bill or the needle in the front gum

Ahh, I feel for you with the dentist. I had a ton of work done this last year and I would be a wreck the day of. When I got to the dentist I literally would be a pile of sweat by the time I was finished. I asked my dentist for a Xanax, and he said I have to get that from my Dr. I finally had a Dr. Appt. and I asked and she told me to call the next time I have to go the dentist. My dh got a bonus last December and it went all to the Dentist.

 

[eangel12]

OMG, please help me convince DH to continue with the snowball method instead of tackling the higher interest rate/higher balance cards first.
the man is driving me nuts.

He does not see that I'm trying to make sure we have enough money to cover the $833 a month for the kids tuition. If I tackle the higher interest stuff first, I would need to throw several hundred extra dollars a month on them to get the balance down. I don't have that flexibility yet.

Have you tried applying for scholarships that are available for people sending their kids to a Christian school!? My mom works at a private Christian school and most of the kids are on scholarships!! I can find out more info for you if you would like!

 

[pryncess527]

Ahh, I feel for you with the dentist. I had a ton of work done this last year and I would be a wreck the day of. When I got to the dentist I literally would be a pile of sweat by the time I was finished. I asked my dentist for a Xanax, and he said I have to get that from my Dr. I finally had a Dr. Appt. and I asked and she told me to call the next time I have to go the dentist. My dh got a bonus last December and it went all to the Dentist.

I'm with you. I had a really bad dental experience as a kid and now I see a sedation dentist who gives me Valium and nitrous.

 

[AuroraRora]

Alright, so I had to come on and post this one!! Brushing my teeth this morning and my front tooth broke Luckily, I already had an appointment with the dentist this morning just for a comprehensive exam, but this now put me another $230 back.

I mean, my goal this year was to get out of cc debt, which I did, and then start slowly with working on my teeth that I have neglected for years!! But come on!! I mean, literally I am there every 2 weeks lately to get them fixed!! Oh well.... just another day in the dental chair. I don't know which is more painful, the bill or the needle in the front gum

How does brushing your teeth cause your tooth to break?? I'm now deathly terrified this is going to happen to me I have the world's biggest dental phobia (and dental expense phobia too, I think, since last year when I had to pay $3000 out of pocket for a crown/root canal) I really should get to the dentist as I know I have a cavity in one of my back teeth, but I'm scared he's going to tell me its another RC/crown situation so I'm avoiding it.

 

[peel]

Alright, so I had to come on and post this one!! Brushing my teeth this morning and my front tooth broke Luckily, I already had an appointment with the dentist this morning just for a comprehensive exam, but this now put me another $230 back.

I mean, my goal this year was to get out of cc debt, which I did, and then start slowly with working on my teeth that I have neglected for years!! But come on!! I mean, literally I am there every 2 weeks lately to get them fixed!! Oh well.... just another day in the dental chair. I don't know which is more painful, the bill or the needle in the front gum

I suppose if there is a silver lining to this horrible story it's that it couldn't have broken at a better time!

 

[gracie1]

I suppose if there is a silver lining to this horrible story it's that it couldn't have broken at a better time!

That is exactly what I said! And atleast it didn't happen on the weekend!

 

[gracie1]

How does brushing your teeth cause your tooth to break?? I'm now deathly terrified this is going to happen to me I have the world's biggest dental phobia (and dental expense phobia too, I think, since last year when I had to pay $3000 out of pocket for a crown/root canal) I really should get to the dentist as I know I have a cavity in one of my back teeth, but I'm scared he's going to tell me its another RC/crown situation so I'm avoiding it.

I've never had a crown yet. After the root canal they do a temporary filling and then in 4 weeks they take that out and do a permanent one. As for the tooth breaking, I had a cavity behind it. The other one has a cavity behind it too so I have to have that fixed next. The dentist is something I don't look forward to, but I figure I need to suck it up and get in there. Otherwise it's just going to cost more and cause more problems!

 

[gracie1]

Bumping thread

 

[Eureka]

Bought our Seaworld tickets using the $50 weekday pass deal AND paid off a credit card this morning Now I can concentrate on the other one.

 

[Doodlebug939]

Bought our Seaworld tickets using the $50 weekday pass deal AND paid off a credit card this morning Now I can concentrate on the other one.

That is such great news!!!


This month is a little tougher for us that the usual months because all of the back to school items and fees. But being in a better place this year I can pay cash for everything without charging anything so that is huge progress for our household. Now my goal for this next year is to put a little aside each month so that next year I can buy what we need for school without slowing down our debt reduction. Now that it huge for me!!!

 

[Eureka]

That is such great news!!!


This month is a little tougher for us that the usual months because all of the back to school items and fees. But being in a better place this year I can pay cash for everything without charging anything so that is huge progress for our household. Now my goal for this next year is to put a little aside each month so that next year I can buy what we need for school without slowing down our debt reduction. Now that it huge for me!!!

I hear ya with school stuff. I am taking the kids this morning to get sneakers. They'll break them in and wear them in Universal/Disney too. I don't bother with jeans and fall clothing until school has started; many years they wear shorts into October.

Work has been slow for me the latter half of the summer, so I was really happy to get a big, fat check to make those payments. Might be slower for awhile until work picks back up. The credit card I paid off is the one that has Netflix and EZPass on it, but we had some other things on it too, so at least the extra stuff is gone and the monthly balance will be manageable again.

 

[BCmomma]

*bumping thread*

I've been reading and lurking for the past few weeks and just wanted to say I am getting so much inspiration from all your stories! We were in major budget/debt repayment mode earlier this year but then:
-our youngest DD got accepted into a fantastic preschool for September, after being on a long waitlist so we were not expecting monthly tuition just yet
-one of our cars died so we needed to buy a new vehicle so now we have monthly payments (still manageable but it takes away some money from our debt repayment)
-we are going to Disneyland in a week and a half (driving) and although *most* of it is paid for, a wee bit will go on credit *shame*

So come September we are back in budget mode, hoping to make a bigger dent in our HELOC and I'm trying to find ways to make money from home (I'm currently a SAHM). I've got a jar going for money I've made selling kids clothes/toys/books and household items as well as dumping all my survey checks into that account. Anyway that is hopefully going to pay for our 10th anniversary trip next August.

So here I come out of the shadows to join you all ;-)

 

[gracie1]

You guys are all doing a fantastic job!!! Way to go My plan over the weekend is to revamp my budget. Since I know what some of the unexpected items are that were not originally in there, I need to plan for them. Of course a majority of that is for the dentist

 

[pryncess527]

*bumping thread*

I've been reading and lurking for the past few weeks and just wanted to say I am getting so much inspiration from all your stories! We were in major budget/debt repayment mode earlier this year but then:
-our youngest DD got accepted into a fantastic preschool for September, after being on a long waitlist so we were not expecting monthly tuition just yet
-one of our cars died so we needed to buy a new vehicle so now we have monthly payments (still manageable but it takes away some money from our debt repayment)
-we are going to Disneyland in a week and a half (driving) and although *most* of it is paid for, a wee bit will go on credit *shame*

So come September we are back in budget mode, hoping to make a bigger dent in our HELOC and I'm trying to find ways to make money from home (I'm currently a SAHM). I've got a jar going for money I've made selling kids clothes/toys/books and household items as well as dumping all my survey checks into that account. Anyway that is hopefully going to pay for our 10th anniversary trip next August.

So here I come out of the shadows to join you all ;-)

Welcome out of the shadows!!!!

 

[zy144622]

All is going well for our family! We have stayed on track with cash only purchases and its been a very rewarding feeling. This month should be the end of all medical bill debt. yeah for extra paycheck month! Boo for crappy commission paycheck . We have been saving all coins and about $50 a week towards our WDW tip in feb. super excited I was able to pay for airfare in full so booked the flights! I know I know we still have debt but as long as we pay cash for the trip I'm happy and so is hubby. I couldn't be happier with how things are going now that we are aware of our finances. Next on the list is to sell the car we are not using. We will use this money as savings towards car fund. This family could use a van but we want to wait until we can pay cash for it!!!

 

[njmom47]

I don't know if I mentioned this previously on this thread, but I put DH on a financial diet. When I looked at his bank statement one month (we have separate checking accounts) and saw all the ATM fees, I flipped . I told him he takes cash out once a week and uses his debit card for gas (at a place that charges the same for cash and credit). I have been buying him boxes of breakfast-y snacks so he can eat cheaply instead of spending $2 a day on muffins. I also noticed our insurance payment....which was discussed on another thread somewhere on here, and I thought our payments were for 6 months. NO-they were actually for the entire YEAR!!!! Our monthly car insurance payment is more than our mortgage. So I called our agent, we spent about 3 hours with her, and reduced our insurance payments by $229 a month.
I also was helping dd pay off her medical expenses, and 2 are done, 1 more to go (only $40 left...all total was less than $300 but she doesn't have the extra money, so I was being nice).
Getting there....

 

[peel]

Boy, do I understand about the car insurance! I will try to be diplomatic here....I had the same insurance company for 15 years with no claims, consistent discounts on my policy for good driving, etc. Then I got married. DH is not the most cautious driver, and since he drives all day for work (he's in sales) he has that much more opportunity for...erm...driver error. Within 2 years of having him added to my policy our rates went up and up until they just decided to drop us. After that, we didn't exactly have our choice of companies and policies, we had to take whatever we could get. So we currently pay a ridiculous amount of money every month, all 12 months. Now that we've refinanced our first mortgage I'm going to put my energy into finding better insurance and try to take advantage of a multi-policy discount if I move my homeowner's insurance along with the car insurance. Small steps.

 

[OhMari]

Boy, do I understand about the car insurance! I will try to be diplomatic here....I had the same insurance company for 15 years with no claims, consistent discounts on my policy for good driving, etc. Then I got married. DH is not the most cautious driver, and since he drives all day for work (he's in sales) he has that much more opportunity for...erm...driver error. Within 2 years of having him added to my policy our rates went up and up until they just decided to drop us. After that, we didn't exactly have our choice of companies and policies, we had to take whatever we could get. So we currently pay a ridiculous amount of money every month, all 12 months. Now that we've refinanced our first mortgage I'm going to put my energy into finding better insurance and try to take advantage of a multi-policy discount if I move my homeowner's insurance along with the car insurance. Small steps.

I am not being noisy, but what do you consider high. I have no idea if mine is high or not.

I pay $273 a month for our my car, my dd's jeep, my sons truck, our house, which includes our umbrella and my dh 2 Chevelle's which equals out to $3276 a year. Our insurance company charges me $4.50 a month for a service fee which is $54 a year.