Debt Dumpers - 2014

[AirGoofy]

Congrats! Sounds like you've done a fantastic job getting on track I hope you stick around on this thread to offer some of your expertise in areas that helped you that may help others!!

Will do and thanks for having me. We have been blessed with making some great decisions, but also have been stupid enough to make some poor ones. I wish I had learned this stuff in high school.

 

[gracie1]

Will do and thanks for having me. We have been blessed with making some great decisions, but also have been stupid enough to make some poor ones. I wish I had learned this stuff in high school.

I know exactly what you mean! They really should teach financial classes in high school. As soon as I graduated, turned 18 the credit card offers started rolling in, and then it all went down hill from there for many years.

 

[crazycatstacy]

I know exactly what you mean! They really should teach financial classes in high school. As soon as I graduated, turned 18 the credit card offers started rolling in, and then it all went down hill from there for many years.

Ditto to this!!!

 

[gracie1]

I'm still debating on whether to take the plunge and get rid of my iphone and go back to a basic phone. I do love candy crush though

 

[dayvewc]

I'm still debating on whether to take the plunge and get rid of my iphone and go back to a basic phone. I do love candy crush though

I think if I tried to go back to a plain phone after my smart-phone, there would be several people missing!! lol. But I use a lot of the other aspects of my phone as well. It's almost an extension of my laptop/desktop.

 

[gracie1]

I think if I tried to go back to a plain phone after my smart-phone, there would be several people missing!! lol. But I use a lot of the other aspects of my phone as well. It's almost an extension of my laptop/desktop.

I've had it for a couple years - however in January I deleted my work email from it. Before I was doing emails non stop for work and I decided this year when I am off, I am off! So I had to delete it from my phone or I would keep checking it. So basically, I go on the disboards a couple times a day and I play candy crush and that's it for the apps. I do a lot of texting, but I know I could still do that from a basic phone. I need to look at my cell bill again and decide how much savings I would get.

 

[dayvewc]

I've had it for a couple years - however in January I deleted my work email from it. Before I was doing emails non stop for work and I decided this year when I am off, I am off! So I had to delete it from my phone or I would keep checking it. So basically, I go on the disboards a couple times a day and I play candy crush and that's it for the apps. I do a lot of texting, but I know I could still do that from a basic phone. I need to look at my cell bill again and decide how much savings I would get.

Yeah, I never included my work email on my phone. But I do have my primary and alternate email on it. Mostly so I can access the google+ features. Not sure how much I use is actually the "smart phone" capability, as I take a lot of pictures, check disboards and MDE on a regular basis, use tripit (free version), quicken, dropbox, google+, calendar, calculator (scientific, cause I'm that guy), my banking and credit card apps, the navigator/gps mapping app, sudoku, code scanner while shopping to check for discounts, and the internet, plus texting. Funnily, I almost never use my phone to call people. lol.

I know several of these can be done with a "dumb" phone, but I don't think all of them can, and I just don't want to give them up. But that's me. I always have my phone with me, and I can do everything except create documents (and I think I could do that if I really tried) on it that I can do on my computer. So I generally use my phone as a point of entry for all my information, then use the computer to organize it all when I can work with it in a bigger screen and actual keyboard.

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

I know exactly what you mean! They really should teach financial classes in high school. As soon as I graduated, turned 18 the credit card offers started rolling in, and then it all went down hill from there for many years.

I made DS17 take a basic accounting class last year, he was happy in the end that he took. I plan to do the same for the other kids. They need to know the basics.
DS also hit a snow bank with my car last week, over shot the driveway. I'm making him pay part of the repair cost and if we can fix it ourselves, he will do most of the labor.

I've had it for a couple years - however in January I deleted my work email from it. Before I was doing emails non stop for work and I decided this year when I am off, I am off! So I had to delete it from my phone or I would keep checking it. So basically, I go on the disboards a couple times a day and I play candy crush and that's it for the apps. I do a lot of texting, but I know I could still do that from a basic phone. I need to look at my cell bill again and decide how much savings I would get.

I don't think I could go back to old school texting. LOL I love my keyboard!
Good for you deleting the work email. I wish DH could do that but he does incident response for work so he's "on call" 24-7.

 

[gracie1]

I made DS17 take a basic accounting class last year, he was happy in the end that he took. I plan to do the same for the other kids. They need to know the basics.
DS also hit a snow bank with my car last week, over shot the driveway. I'm making him pay part of the repair cost and if we can fix it ourselves, he will do most of the labor.



I don't think I could go back to old school texting. LOL I love my keyboard!
Good for you deleting the work email. I wish DH could do that but he does incident response for work so he's "on call" 24-7.

Congrats on having your son take a financial class. That is excellent!! My parents would've done the same regarding the small accident - I would've had to pay also. Definitely teaches responsibility.

As for old school texting - I know what you mean!! That is the only thing holding me back from changing back to an old phone! But when I figure it up, it's like $330 a year I would be saving... so it's just something to think about!

 

[ceemys]

I'm still debating on whether to take the plunge and get rid of my iphone and go back to a basic phone. I do love candy crush though

Yikes! lol I love my smart phone. I pay $150 per month for unlimited data and 1500 land line minutes for two phones. Pretty good I think. I love my games and I get on pinterest, FB, the radio, etc.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Just upped our extra principle payment on the house today and in 36 months will should be mortgage free!!
Plugged the numbers into the computer and it will save us $28,000 in interest to pay off the house early. By then DH car will be 14 yrs old and we can get him a new one. So the amt saved on the mtg will pay for his car.

 

[gracie1]

Just upped our extra principle payment on the house today and in 36 months will should be mortgage free!!
Plugged the numbers into the computer and it will save us $28,000 in interest to pay off the house early. By then DH car will be 14 yrs old and we can get him a new one. So the amt saved on the mtg will pay for his car.

Way to go I wish I were going to be mortgage free in 36 months!!

 

[gracie1]

Yikes! lol I love my smart phone. I pay $150 per month for unlimited data and 1500 land line minutes for two phones. Pretty good I think. I love my games and I get on pinterest, FB, the radio, etc.

See, that's what's really making me think of going back to basics I don't use fb on there, nor do I even use the radio on it. I can transfer my iTunes songs onto iTunes and use it whether I pay for the phone or not. And the only game that I play on there is candy crush. So to me it's a matter of paying $30 a month to play candy crush

And, as I was researching today, it seems that I would still be able to play candy crush since I would still be able to get on a wifi connection whether I am using it as a phone or not (like having an ipod). So that has really got me thinking now

 

[dtr_angel]

I am getting frustrated with this car loan...

In January I made my first extra payment. The payment is 394.75 and I had that amount pending (it was due 2/4) online to be taken out of our account on 2/1. The payment was mailed in January and I wrote a note that it was an extra payment and apply it to principal only. When it posted to my account, they took interest out. I see they probably didn't realize that it wasn't my regular payment okay simple mistake (even thought I wrote a note!) so I called and he said he would fix it. After the February payment had posted, I mailed another $400 check with a note saying it was extra and to apply it to principal only. I was just online checking and niether of the 2 $400 extra payments were applied entirely to principal, they took about $30 interest out both times. I'm so frustrated! I have never had problems with this before. Our other 2 car loans were both paid off super early (years early) and every time I made an "extra" payment it was always applied to principal only. I really dislike the company that has my auto loan. I wish I would've gone through my credit union again.

 

[jenny105]

Yikes! lol I love my smart phone. I pay $150 per month for unlimited data and 1500 land line minutes for two phones. Pretty good I think. I love my games and I get on pinterest, FB, the radio, etc.

Yikes! I only pay $37/month for my smartphone - 300 anytime minutes (I don't talk on it much lol) but unlimited data and text.

 

[gracie1]

I am getting frustrated with this car loan...

In January I made my first extra payment. The payment is 394.75 and I had that amount pending (it was due 2/4) online to be taken out of our account on 2/1. The payment was mailed in January and I wrote a note that it was an extra payment and apply it to principal only. When it posted to my account, they took interest out. I see they probably didn't realize that it wasn't my regular payment okay simple mistake (even thought I wrote a note!) so I called and he said he would fix it. After the February payment had posted, I mailed another $400 check with a note saying it was extra and to apply it to principal only. I was just online checking and niether of the 2 $400 extra payments were applied entirely to principal, they took about $30 interest out both times. I'm so frustrated! I have never had problems with this before. Our other 2 car loans were both paid off super early (years early) and every time I made an "extra" payment it was always applied to principal only. I really dislike the company that has my auto loan. I wish I would've gone through my credit union again.

Maybe you should talk to someone else in the office. It's crazy how stressful it can be to try to actually get something paid off early. It's like they try to suck every dollar they can out of you

And this is why I won't pay extra on the home equity loan. I did pay $25 only one time to see what it would do - and it reflects in my balance, however it does not reflect in the payoff amount - it still shows there is interest. So I have decided just to put the money away in savings and then when I can pay it off early when I can.

 

[gracie1]

Yikes! I only pay $37/month for my smartphone - 300 anytime minutes (I don't talk on it much lol) but unlimited data and text.

Wow, that is cheap. I am actually on my mom's plan because she gets a 22%discount, and it's still over $50 a month.

 

[Chelley00]

So our whole debt reduction plan is busted.

We made the final payments from DS's car accident, got our tax refund and paid off a credit card and built up our emergency fund a little and then wham......

DS18 was diagnosed with a pituitary adenoma that is scheduled for removal in March (apparently common after head injuries) Then norovirus. Not just norovirus, but plague like norovirus. 4 of the 5 of us. DS18 was so sick, most likely from being already sick with the adenoma, that he ended up dehydrating so quickly that it resulted in one ambulance ride and two ER visits for fluids and meds. It was scary. Thankfully he's feeling better and we are all back on our feet and the house has been disinfected. I missed a ton of work staying home to take care of all the pukers and ended up sick myself. DH is the last one left but hopefully he's managed to escape it (please)

I'm just so frustrated that we seem to keep going backwards instead of forward. We're supposed to be eliminating debt, not adding to it.

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

So our whole debt reduction plan is busted.

We made the final payments from DS's car accident, got our tax refund and paid off a credit card and built up our emergency fund a little and then wham......

DS18 was diagnosed with a pituitary adenoma that is scheduled for removal in March (apparently common after head injuries) Then norovirus. Not just norovirus, but plague like norovirus. 4 of the 5 of us. DS18 was so sick, most likely from being already sick with the adenoma, that he ended up dehydrating so quickly that it resulted in one ambulance ride and two ER visits for fluids and meds. It was scary. Thankfully he's feeling better and we are all back on our feet and the house has been disinfected. I missed a ton of work staying home to take care of all the pukers and ended up sick myself. DH is the last one left but hopefully he's managed to escape it (please)

I'm just so frustrated that we seem to keep going backwards instead of forward. We're supposed to be eliminating debt, not adding to it.

Hugs to all of you, from afar! LOL Don't want the bug.

But don't look at it as going backwards, you are just treading water. Trust me, it's better. If you hadn't paid all that off and built up an emergency stash you still would have been hit with the plague and been that much further behind.

 

[dayvewc]

I am getting frustrated with this car loan...

In January I made my first extra payment. The payment is 394.75 and I had that amount pending (it was due 2/4) online to be taken out of our account on 2/1. The payment was mailed in January and I wrote a note that it was an extra payment and apply it to principal only. When it posted to my account, they took interest out. I see they probably didn't realize that it wasn't my regular payment okay simple mistake (even thought I wrote a note!) so I called and he said he would fix it. After the February payment had posted, I mailed another $400 check with a note saying it was extra and to apply it to principal only. I was just online checking and niether of the 2 $400 extra payments were applied entirely to principal, they took about $30 interest out both times. I'm so frustrated! I have never had problems with this before. Our other 2 car loans were both paid off super early (years early) and every time I made an "extra" payment it was always applied to principal only. I really dislike the company that has my auto loan. I wish I would've gone through my credit union again.

I have a similar issue with my mortgage companies. When I make extra payments, they never apply the entire amount to principal, but split it and pay the "daily interest since last payment" and the rest to principal. I called and talked to them, and was told repeatedly that it is the way their system calculates the payments - that my payment slips are essentially "estimates" based on payments being made exactly on that day every month for the life of the loan. But early (or extra) payments reduce the total principal (and thus the daily interest), while later payments (still in the grace window) will not reduce the principal as much as the payment coupon says, since there are extra days of interest added in.

I did some calculations (cause I'm a math nerd) and it turns out to not make much of a difference. On the $10k mortgage I calculated it on, having the entire extra payments applied solely to principal as opposed to split between daily interest and principal saw a difference of about $300 over the life of the loan. So, yeah, while I'd prefer it to calculate in my favor, it just didn't seem like enough to really get in a row about with them.

So our whole debt reduction plan is busted.

We made the final payments from DS's car accident, got our tax refund and paid off a credit card and built up our emergency fund a little and then wham......

DS18 was diagnosed with a pituitary adenoma that is scheduled for removal in March (apparently common after head injuries) Then norovirus. Not just norovirus, but plague like norovirus. 4 of the 5 of us. DS18 was so sick, most likely from being already sick with the adenoma, that he ended up dehydrating so quickly that it resulted in one ambulance ride and two ER visits for fluids and meds. It was scary. Thankfully he's feeling better and we are all back on our feet and the house has been disinfected. I missed a ton of work staying home to take care of all the pukers and ended up sick myself. DH is the last one left but hopefully he's managed to escape it (please)

I'm just so frustrated that we seem to keep going backwards instead of forward. We're supposed to be eliminating debt, not adding to it.

Oh my. Hope everyone gets to feeling better. And hang in there, it will come together for you, it just may take a little longer than you originally thought.