Debt Dumpers - 2013

[AuroraRora]

The puppies were NOT good for debt dumping, lol, but their cute faces make up for it (and luckily they aren't adding to debt, just slowing down our repayment pace a bit)

There's a definite correlation between cuteness and expensiveness, I think lol! I always insist I'm not spending any more money on treats etc for my cat, but then I'll be in the pet store for food and before I know it, I have $20 of toys in the cart too argh!

 

[peel]

There's a definite correlation between cuteness and expensiveness, I think lol! I always insist I'm not spending any more money on treats etc for my cat, but then I'll be in the pet store for food and before I know it, I have $20 of toys in the cart too argh!

I know what that's like!

It has been determined that our one cat has diabetes. He's staying with the vet today and tomorrow to get his levels under control and then we'll need to start giving insulin at home. I absolutely hate having to leave a cat at the vet. I spend the whole time thinking about them being scared in a cage. My poor Calvin.

My cat with the lump on her paw is scheduled for surgery on Wednesday. They won't be able to tell what it is until they get in there. I'm hoping it's something benign like an abscess, but my gut is telling me it's cancer, so I'm trying to prepare for that.

I've been doing a lot of Ebaying, and I've managed to make about $600 so far . That was supposed to go toward my buffer, but it's going toward all these unexpected vet bills instead. Oh well.

 

[gracie1]

I also agree with the others about prioritizing debt/retirement first

Monday morning bump! Hope everyone made it through the weekend in one piece

We had a scheduled vet visit for our older dog on Saturday, but other than that managed to have a no-spend weekend. The vet is making a fortune off me this month! Our puppies have their 2nd check up next weekend. The puppies were NOT good for debt dumping, lol, but their cute faces make up for it (and luckily they aren't adding to debt, just slowing down our repayment pace a bit)

Nope, they don't add to the debt at all LOL! I can go in a store just like aurora and come out spending much more on toys, kind of like having kids!! lol.
What kind of puppies do you have?

 

[AuroraRora]

I'm glad the ebaying will leave you with the money to pay for it at least, instead of it having to come out of somewhere else. I really hope both your kitties do ok! I completely know what you mean with leaving them at the vets office - when I moved to NYC and had to change vets, my cat had to spend the day there for something and I insisted they give me a back-room tour and show me the exam rooms and where the animals were held etc, and then when I handed him over I was in tears. People probably thought I was handing him over to be euthanized, nope I was going to be picking him up at the end of the day and yet I was still crying!

If you don't mind me asking, how does the ebaying work? I've seen a lot of people both here and on Dave Ramsey's site say they make money selling on ebay/craigslist. Are you guys just selling stuff you have lying around the house one-off, or do you actually make a side-job out of getting items and re-selling them and such?

 

[peel]

We're lucky that our vet is only a mile from home and they truly care about us and our animals. I know Calvin is being treated well, but he's very sensitive and clingy. I can't help but feel like he's thinking we abandoned him right about now.

Regarding Ebay, we do a bit of both. We have been selling things we've had for a long time, mostly records and things (DH and I are audiophiles). But I do like to go to tag sales, auctions, and estate sales and think I have a pretty good eye for finding things to resell. It's not something I do regularly though, so I couldn't generate any kind of substantial income from buying and reselling.

I think the biggest hurdle with Ebay is that there is almost always at least one of what you want to sell already for sale! It's hard to NOT find something on Ebay at any given moment. There are a lot of things that I just don't think are worth listing because they're commonplace and in order to separate yourself from the pack you have to offer the lowest prices. Often times that means selling things for less than you know they're worth just to get rid of them. Plus, Ebay now takes 10% of your sale, which is a lot higher than it used to be. We definitely don't have enough to continue generating $600 in a month right now, but the vet bills are pushing DH to dig a little deeper into his "collections" to find things to part with. Unfortunately, that money we just made will only scratch the surface of the bills we're looking at.

I also just started listing some books on Amazon for sale. They make it really easy. But again, there are usually going to be a lot more of that same item already for sale so you have to price things to move. Luckily I was able to unload most of my textbooks from grad school that I just finished up with, and didn't have to settle for $5 or $10 a piece for those. But any kind of best seller or common work is going to be harder to get rid of for any decent price.

I haven't done Craigslist yet, not for selling anyway. I have a bad feeling about letting people come to my house to pick things up. I'm hooked on true crime TV shows and they've made me completely paranoid.

 

[pryncess527]

If you don't mind me asking, how does the ebaying work? I've seen a lot of people both here and on Dave Ramsey's site say they make money selling on ebay/craigslist. Are you guys just selling stuff you have lying around the house one-off, or do you actually make a side-job out of getting items and re-selling them and such?

We just sell stuff laying around the house. I got lucky in that my H collected various things when he was younger and is ready to get rid of some of those collections now, so we were able to sell some comic books and miniature figures from a tabletop war game on Ebay. Now that those are gone, I'm having a harder time coming up with stuff to sell, but I have learned to never underestimate what someone else will pay for your unwanted stuff!!

 

[peel]

I have learned to never underestimate what someone else will pay for your unwanted stuff!!

Here's a good example....I just sold a Daisy Duke spiral notebook for $31!

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

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.

 

[pryncess527]

Wow MissBisnca, congrats!!!!

 

[AuroraRora]

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.

Awesome job!!!!

 

[gracie1]

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.

That is fantastic!! Way to go!!

 

[gracie1]

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.

Way to go! That is fantastic!

 

[milwaukeemommy]

I know what that's like!

It has been determined that our one cat has diabetes. He's staying with the vet today and tomorrow to get his levels under control and then we'll need to start giving insulin at home. I absolutely hate having to leave a cat at the vet. I spend the whole time thinking about them being scared in a cage. My poor Calvin.

My cat with the lump on her paw is scheduled for surgery on Wednesday. They won't be able to tell what it is until they get in there. I'm hoping it's something benign like an abscess, but my gut is telling me it's cancer, so I'm trying to prepare for that.

I've been doing a lot of Ebaying, and I've managed to make about $600 so far . That was supposed to go toward my buffer, but it's going toward all these unexpected vet bills instead. Oh well.

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.

 

[milwaukeemommy]

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.

Um ... WOW!! That's about the same time I started keeping track (via a debt blog) & I've only paid down about $3000. Good for you!

 

[milwaukeemommy]

I also sell on Ebay. On & off since 2003. Things sure have changed in that time. It's way more frustrating now - between crabby buyers & Ebay taking such a huge cut I'm about at my limit. I also sell on Etsy, but that's just crafts. I sold 4 cards over the weekend (to the same person) for $50. That's $50 more than I had Friday

 

[honeybunches]

We got far behind at the end of July. We had 2 straight weeks of out-of-town company. With 6 extra people one week (2 of them bottomless-pit teens) and then my mom & stepdad who are somewhat picky eaters the next week, we spent way, way more than we usually do on food. Such a bummer because I was putting that extra money toward bills for the past few months. It was still great to have our family visiting us. Hoping to get back on track in August!!

Hoping the kitties get all better!! And way to go for all the debt paying off that's going on. I hope to add to that total soon.

 

[OhMari]

Looking for opinions. Should we contribute to DD’s college fund or use the money to pay off car and student loans more quickly?

Background:

We spent a long time getting ourselves out of a pretty deep hole, and with some hard work and good fortune, we managed to become completely debt free (no CC debt, no car payments, no mortgage, no loans). Then DH went to graduate school for which we now have about $5k in student loans. We also recently financed a new car ($20k) to replace our 10 y/o Subaru that was on its last legs. No other debt beyond that.

The 5-year car loan is at a decent interest rate, and we don’t start paying DH student loans until after he graduates in December. Payments for both fit fine within our budget and still allow for a decent monthly amount to split between DD’s college fund and our IRAs. However, I can’t help but think that maybe we should be using the extra funds to pay off our debt sooner and thus save money in interest payments.

We currently have enough saved for 2 years at a public university for DD. She’s a sophomore in high school, so 3 years to go before she needs it. If we continue to save at the same rate (and not increase our loan payments), we’ll have almost the full amount she’ll need (for a public univ) by the time she starts college.

I know this is a good problem to have. I think I spent so long getting out of debt that now I’m a little freaked out about having the loans. I keep telling myself that we're different people now and we’re making reasonable choices based the fact that we maintain and stick to a realistic budget. I guess I would just like to see what others would do.

Is your dh student loan through the government or is it a private loan. If it is the government loan you are fine, but if it is a private loan, they allow you to hold off on payments, but the interest accumulates.

If you have enough for her to go to college for 2 years, that gives you 5 years to have to start worry about your dd. You should have your husbands paid off and maybe you can then start saving again and making the college payments. Some colleges will even let you make monthly payments. We did this one year for our dd interest free. It worked out great till the following year and my dh lost his job.

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Um ... WOW!! That's about the same time I started keeping track (via a debt blog) & I've only paid down about $3000. Good for you!

A huge portion of that is my car. It is a higher price car because we spend a lot of time in it but I've been paying on it for 3 years so a lot is going to principal now. I will be so happy when that is paid off!

3000 is really good! You are cranking along.
I'm very proud of everyone for all their hard work, keep it up!

 

[SpaceGirl]

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.

 

[AuroraRora]

He was a HUGE 26 lb tabby, who now at 18 yrs old is a healthy 17 lbs.

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