Debt Dumpers - 2014

[tikitorie]

I'm in. Just paid off 2 cars in the past several months. Going to use the extra to get rid of the rest of our debt

 

[xCourxCorex]

Getting a nice big paycheck tomorrow thanks to some extra shifts and OT my emergency fund will hit $8250 once my deposit clears.
I volunteered to pick up a few extra days over the next month too, so if I'm able to work all of them it'll put me ahead of schedule for finishing my emergency fund and paying off my student loans!

 

[pryncess527]

Well, we have been simplifying and cutting back for the last 2 years and I've been picking up extra freelance work where possible and a few weeks ago we paid off the $8000 balance in my van 3 years early. We are hoping to pay off the last $5000 of dh's car by the end of the summer, leaving us with just our mortgage and some student loans. The student loans are at a very low rate ((1.625) but we will start working on getting them eradicated after the car!

That's great! Congratulations on your progress.

I applied for and got approved for the Discover It card. Transferring my balances over there for 18 month no APR. I'm so sick of interest charges!

Yay for no interest! Good luck paying it off in 18 months

I'm in. Just paid off 2 cars in the past several months. Going to use the extra to get rid of the rest of our debt

Awesome! Paid off cars are great, and should make a nice snowball to throw at that debt. Congratulations!

Getting a nice big paycheck tomorrow thanks to some extra shifts and OT my emergency fund will hit $8250 once my deposit clears.
I volunteered to pick up a few extra days over the next month too, so if I'm able to work all of them it'll put me ahead of schedule for finishing my emergency fund and paying off my student loans!

Awesome! Your hard work is paying off

 

[pryncess527]

We are facing a small setback, but we'll roll with the punches and get through it! DH's job was supposed to start on April 1st, but his start date has been pushed back. It will suck to lose a few weeks of income, but considering I was prepared for full blown unemployment, this is only a minor setback. His insurance from his last job lasts till the end of April, so we should still be able to avoid having to pay for a 1 month gap policy.

I also learned that a small windfall I had hoped would come in, will likely not happen. Glad I've learned to only budget money in hand instead of money I hope to get! This will pretty much decimate my goal of having our HELOC paid off by September, but I always knew that goal was overly optimistic, so I'm trying to let this roll off my back.

And we've had an unexpected trip come up, have to drive to visit family in a few weeks, so it looks like our extra debt payments this month will be smaller than I'd like, but I'm going to work hard to keep our grocery budget under control and cook all month to help offset the cost of the trip. And it will be good to spend some time with family, at least gas is the only cost we are likely to incur.

 

[GAGirlInVA]

We are facing a small setback, but we'll roll with the punches and get through it! DH's job was supposed to start on April 1st, but his start date has been pushed back. It will suck to lose a few weeks of income, but considering I was prepared for full blown unemployment, this is only a minor setback. His insurance from his last job lasts till the end of April, so we should still be able to avoid having to pay for a 1 month gap policy.

If by "gap insurance" you mean COBRA, read your paperwork carefully. My husband had about a month in between, but we could elect the insurance retroactively for up to so many days. So we waited and prayed. We didn't end up needing to elect it so we saved nearly $1000 for that one month!

 

[pryncess527]

If by "gap insurance" you mean COBRA, read your paperwork carefully. My husband had about a month in between, but we could elect the insurance retroactively for up to so many days. So we waited and prayed. We didn't end up needing to elect it so we saved nearly $1000 for that one month!

I was just going to buy him a plan off the exchange and then cancel it when his new coverage starts. A plan off the exchange was about 4 times cheaper than COBRA!!! Hopefully I can avoid dealing with it either way, I'm ready for his boss to email and say the paperwork is ready, lol

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Checking in and still plugging along.

Just wanted to check in and see how Kymm was doing. Anyone heard from her??

 

[AirGoofy]

Mailed the IRS tax check today. I know I had another week before I had to pay, but I figure that $.01 of Interest lost won't hurt too bad. I'm refraining from adding any further commentary about the government and taxes.

 

[LilacBarries]

Mailed the IRS tax check today. I know I had another week before I had to pay, but I figure that $.01 of Interest lost won't hurt too bad. I'm refraining from adding any further commentary about the government and taxes.

It sucks, I've been there. We've owed the last two year- just finished paying off 2011 last month. Fortunately this year were getting money back.

 

[OhMari]

Mailed the IRS tax check today. I know I had another week before I had to pay, but I figure that $.01 of Interest lost won't hurt too bad. I'm refraining from adding any further commentary about the government and taxes.

I hear ya. Everyone likes to look how their refunds and how much they are getting back, but do people look at how much they pay in? It is horrendous. My whole gross salary. Why do I even work.

 

[hmack]

First pay day with the new goals, budget and plan and I've already had to readjust my goals for the month.

I am paying back a friend who loaned me $20 to cover for me (we went to a film festival and they didn't take debit cards and there were no atms in the building)

I'm slowly working on the pantry (only bought a couple of low-price side dish things)

But I will not be able to double pay on my student loans to catch up as I forgot about oil. Man, with this winter we've gone through a ton of it and the tank is near empty again. The good news is that we're slowly warming up (might even hit 50 today!) and we're not going through it as quickly.

Still waiting on the IRS, they said if we didn't get our refund by today (8-weeks out) that we should call Monday. But I know we're fortunate to be getting a refund at all. Just need to count my blessings and try to be patient.

I'm guessing that one of the keys to being a debt-butt-kicking-ninja is being focused but also flexible.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

First pay day with the new goals, budget and plan and I've already had to readjust my goals for the month.

I am paying back a friend who loaned me $20 to cover for me (we went to a film festival and they didn't take debit cards and there were no atms in the building)

I'm slowly working on the pantry (only bought a couple of low-price side dish things)

But I will not be able to double pay on my student loans to catch up as I forgot about oil. Man, with this winter we've gone through a ton of it and the tank is near empty again. The good news is that we're slowly warming up (might even hit 50 today!) and we're not going through it as quickly.

Still waiting on the IRS, they said if we didn't get our refund by today (8-weeks out) that we should call Monday. But I know we're fortunate to be getting a refund at all. Just need to count my blessings and try to be patient.

I'm guessing that one of the keys to being a debt-butt-kicking-ninja is being focused but also flexible.

So true. Things come up. Sometimes we make math errors. Sometimes we set goals so high that we forget we still need to live and be able to pay for regular things. Don't let it get you down. As long as you stay focused you will soon see progress.
Just keep swimming!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I hear ya. Everyone likes to look how their refunds and how much they are getting back, but do people look at how much they pay in? It is horrendous. My whole gross salary. Why do I even work.

Eeek! Don't look at the total!
Once we added up all of our income and property taxes then made a low estimate of sales tax. It's nauseating. I hate politicians from any party.
Sigh.....

 

[zy144622]

I hear ya. Everyone likes to look how their refunds and how much they are getting back, but do people look at how much they pay in? It is horrendous. My whole gross salary. Why do I even work.

My thoughts exactly! LoL we don't clam zero anymore so that has made some difference. There were a few years that our total paid in between taxes and SS was almost my hubby's entire income for the year. A large part of my income is commission and taxes on are average 37%... But I try to focus on what we CAN change and that's off the table.

 

[pryncess527]

I hear ya. Everyone likes to look how their refunds and how much they are getting back, but do people look at how much they pay in? It is horrendous. My whole gross salary. Why do I even work.

My tax preparer (who is family and does them for free) provides me with a nice little summary sheet that shows our actual tax burden and the effective tax rate we end up paying, and displays that data for the last 3 years so that we can see the trend. It is always interesting to look at! It's probably my favorite thing about using him for our tax services.

 

[ceemys]

Checking in and still plugging along.

Just wanted to check in and see how Kymm was doing. Anyone heard from her??

I must have missed something...What happened?

I hear ya. Everyone likes to look how their refunds and how much they are getting back, but do people look at how much they pay in? It is horrendous. My whole gross salary. Why do I even work.

Ugh!! I know! So big of a % of my paycheck gone!. lol I really try not to focus on that portion.

First pay day with the new goals, budget and plan and I've already had to readjust my goals for the month.

I am paying back a friend who loaned me $20 to cover for me (we went to a film festival and they didn't take debit cards and there were no atms in the building)

I'm slowly working on the pantry (only bought a couple of low-price side dish things)

But I will not be able to double pay on my student loans to catch up as I forgot about oil. Man, with this winter we've gone through a ton of it and the tank is near empty again. The good news is that we're slowly warming up (might even hit 50 today!) and we're not going through it as quickly.

Still waiting on the IRS, they said if we didn't get our refund by today (8-weeks out) that we should call Monday. But I know we're fortunate to be getting a refund at all. Just need to count my blessings and try to be patient.

I'm guessing that one of the keys to being a debt-butt-kicking-ninja is being focused but also flexible.

Flexibility! It's a good thing to be able to roll with the changes.

 

[Eureka]

Hi, how is everyone doing? We are fine here, did an impromptu overnight away last weekend and spent a bunch of money but only put the hotel room on the credit card (more for security than anything else). Last year, we might have gone away but used the plastic for everything, so this was an improvement.

I also found out yesterday that my company is going to start paying for my parking. As soon as I can confirm that this parking card they gave me to have the fees put on their account works, I will cancel my monthly pass and it will be a savings of almost $300/month. Very excited about that!

Hope you all are doing well (in life and in finances) and have a great weekend.

 

[Eureka]

I forgot about oil. Man, with this winter we've gone through a ton of it and the tank is near empty again. The good news is that we're slowly warming up (might even hit 50 today!) and we're not going through it as quickly.

Crazy winter everyone's had. I grew up in Central/Eastern ME (Bangor) and my parents still live there. They transferred over to natural gas last year and it was so much cheaper than the oil they would have used this year.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Hi everyone!
We're making good progress. I'm happy to say our next card will be paid off May 8 instead of my original estimate of May 29 thanks to some OT dh worked. Of course that's unless something else comes up.

Our exterior house painting is over budget though but not by much, maybe $100. We estimated $1000 & set it aside from our tax refund. Dh needs to repair some rotted wood first and he "needed" a pressure washer.
Men and their toys.....
Paint is so expensive. We always use Sherwin Williams Super Paint and even with a 30% off coupon it was just over $500. Hopefully we didn't underestimate the amount of paint needed. Dh has been pretty good about that in the past so I just cross my fingers and go with the flow.
I'm glad to have a rancher which makes DIY much easier. Also now with 2 teen boys we have a few extra helping hands.

Just keep swimming!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Hi, how is everyone doing? We are fine here, did an impromptu overnight away last weekend and spent a bunch of money but only put the hotel room on the credit card (more for security than anything else). Last year, we might have gone away but used the plastic for everything, so this was an improvement.

I also found out yesterday that my company is going to start paying for my parking. As soon as I can confirm that this parking card they gave me to have the fees put on their account works, I will cancel my monthly pass and it will be a savings of almost $300/month. Very excited about that!

Hope you all are doing well (in life and in finances) and have a great weekend.

Wow, what a great employee perk! I work in Philly and parking + bridge toll is so high so I take the train but so many coworkers pay to park; it's crazy expensive.

I applied for and got approved for the Discover It card. Transferring my balances over there for 18 month no APR. I'm so sick of interest charges!

This is a great idea. I took your idea and just did this for our last & biggest card on our list. The promo time ran out and interest is awful. Since this one is last on the list I'm still paying minimum and feels like the balance barely drops each month. This will be a big help. I could only find it for 14 months but that's fine. It will be gone by then. I like that it gives your FICO score too. I will be so glad when it's all done. I expect to have all CCs gone by next March. Then just dh's truck & mortgage. I can't wait.
Thanks!!