Debt Dumpers - 2014

[Chelley00]

Way to go. I just tell myself that I am in shape, cause round is a shape, and roll happily past the gym. You have better willpower than I.

Yep. The gym cost money. We are trying to save money. Cannot spend it on the gym

 

[Eureka]

I've gained a couple pounds this winter - had lost 18 lbs last year - and it's time to get back on the wagon. I have reflux issues and apparently they have not been bad right now because I have been getting away with eating crap. So, starting today I am going to be good because I don't want it catching up to me. Who knows what it'll do to the budget because eating fresh is not necessarily less expensive than eating crap, lol. Wish it would warm up for good so I could walk at lunch on my in-office days.

As for finances, we spent a lot of money this past week, as I knew we would. Dinner with friends (with our kids), DS13 needed sneakers and clothes because he's growing like a weed, DH needed new shoes for work, etc. etc. It's always something. Good news is none of it went on a credit card, so even if we're not as flush this week as I'd like, we paid in cash (well, debit card).

Gotta get my papers together so I can do our taxes. We are anticipating a refund that's going straight to the credit card, which should make a good dent in it. Need to get that paid off b/c DH's contract is up for rebid, so there's no guarantee that he will have a job in a few months….ugh. Let's just say they'll get the new contract.

On that lovely note have a great weekend!

 

[Eureka]

We recently rolled existing student loans and credit card into our mortgage, increased the monthly payments and have been able to save quite a bit for our wedding in just one month. So far, we have been able to purchase our plane tickets for the honeymoon with cash, and pay the deposits on both hotels with cash, and have some left over! Now that we have a "clean slate" we are committed to saving money. The credit card is used as a convenience card only...if anything goes on it is paid off either immediately or on payday. Its pretty exciting to see savings growing rather than having to pay on the loans each month! Really freed up our cashflow.

That's great, congrats!

 

[Eureka]

I received the BEST news today!!!! The bankruptcy court released my tax refund considering it a "non-asset" whatever that means and I'm entitled to all funds!!!!! I can pay my car off once I receive it from the government!!!!!!

Whoo hoo!!!!! I wasn't expecting a large refund and I wasn't expecting to get it all! I thought for sure I'd have to hand over a huge chunk of it. I'm so excited!!!! Now I'll just have to make my normal payment and then call for a pay off quote once I have the funds and I will own my car! This is the first time that's ever happened!!!

Also, I've decided I have worked enough long hours and took half a day PTO for DS's doc appointment Thursday. I'm just too stressed out and tired so I'm going to enjoy a couple hours at home before I pick up DS and then go across town for his appointment. I'm sure I'll pay for that come Friday but I'm only going to work 10 hours and no more then I'm going home to enjoy my weekend!

Thanks everyone!!!!! I really love this thread!

Very nice! I hope you enjoy your half day off without stressing too much.

 

[Eureka]

My wife handled all the bills up until about a week ago. I thought she had them under control. I knew that we had around $5k on a credit card that we were going to pay off with our Tax return last year. We ended up purchasing a business instead and rolling the $5k into a 0% balance transfer. The plan was to pay on it and then pay the balance with this year's tax return.

In the meantime, I switch jobs, it didn't work out, and I switched back. That put some financial strain on us but I wasn't aware of how much.

As I was figuring out where to put our tax return money last week, I asked her for the logins for all the credit cards. $11,000!

Needless to say I was not happy. We had a huge "Come to Jesus" and we are basically cutting everything out that we can to pay these off.

I called AT&T and got our bill lowered for a few months. I also switched cable/internet providers to get a lower rate....I know, you are supposed to cancel cable....I figure with two pre-schoolers and a lot of sitting at home to be done in the near future, I couldn't do that to them.

So for the past week we have been selling some stuff, making some money on the side, and doing what we can to focus on our highest interest card...Disney Visa. We have paid off half of the $1k balance on it.

When our tax return comes, I should be able to pay it off as well as the balance for all of the other cards except the original $5k one that I knew about.

Since the 0% promo ends this month, I applied for a new card( ) that will give me a 0% balance transfer until next April. We are going to put every penny we can towards that card and hopefully pay it off by October. So at least we aren't paying any interest in the meantime. I'm also going to close at least three of the cards once the balances are paid off.

After that is paid off, I'm going to work on paying off our vehicle loan. After that, I will work on my student loans. This is going to be a different lifestyle now that I am handling the bills but hopefully in a few years we will be making double mortgage payments and will be on the road to being a lot happier.

Sorry to hear things have not gone as planned. I hope your new plan works for you. Look into stuff like free activities at the library for your kids. Mine loved story time when they were preschoolers. Also remember that closing credit cards sometimes affect your credit score, so you might not want to do that when they are paid off. Just cut the cards up instead.

 

[GAGirlInVA]

Tuesday, DH got word that he earned a little over 10% of his annual salary in a yearly bonus. And got a 2% raise.

We got our federal taxes back on Thursday.

It was a big day. Our oldest turned 11 (need to go change my signature) so we had her celebration (budgeted) and we paid off the loan from our failed adoption.

Writing that check was quite emotional. But it is done.

We bought our flights for our 10th Anniversary trip in April.

I'm about to update our budget spreadsheets to take it out of the future budgets.

Tonight is date night (budgeted )

 

[gracie1]

Tuesday, DH got word that he earned a little over 10% of his annual salary in a yearly bonus. And got a 2% raise. We got our federal taxes back on Thursday. It was a big day. Our oldest turned 11 (need to go change my signature) so we had her celebration (budgeted) and we paid off the loan from our failed adoption. Writing that check was quite emotional. But it is done. We bought our flights for our 10th Anniversary trip in April. I'm about to update our budget spreadsheets to take it out of the future budgets. Tonight is date night (budgeted )

Fantastic!!! Congrats on getting that loan paid off and to your DH bonus!!!!

 

[yaddakal]

Well.. Just found out we owe 2200 taxes. Very very bad!!!! Already pushing being paid for trip by may. Not happy. Who wants to give me ideas of cheap dinners for family? This is somewhere I spend too much money... Any other hints I will
Take too.
I Don't want to
Move August cruise bc my kids will
Be at ages where they can be in club together. If we waited , they would be separated and they don't want to be..

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Well.. Just found out we owe 2200 taxes. Very very bad!!!! Already pushing being paid for trip by may. Not happy. Who wants to give me ideas of cheap dinners for family? This is somewhere I spend too much money... Any other hints I will
Take too.
I Don't want to
Move August cruise bc my kids will
Be at ages where they can be in club together. If we waited , they would be separated and they don't want to be..

That's awful!
We eat a lot of spaghetti/pasta. I also make a huge pot of homemade sauce on the weekends then once it cools, we take a souvenir popcorn bucket, put a Ziploc bag inside it, then fill it with sauce to freeze. Those buckets seem to work out to a perfect amount of sauce for 1 lb of pasta, maybe a little extra. We have a plastic tray in our freezer so the bags don't fall through the little metal bars of the shelf and freeze that way.

Also it's super convenient on a busy weeknight to be able to pull out a bag & have good, home-cooked food in less than a half hour. The leftovers heat up really well for lunch at work too.

 

[dayvewc]

Well.. Just found out we owe 2200 taxes. Very very bad!!!! Already pushing being paid for trip by may. Not happy. Who wants to give me ideas of cheap dinners for family? This is somewhere I spend too much money... Any other hints I will Take too. I Don't want to Move August cruise bc my kids will Be at ages where they can be in club together. If we waited , they would be separated and they don't want to be..

Well, my fallback cheap recipe is what I call "2" ( otherwise known as "chicken rice casserole")
2 cups rice
2 cans chicken broth
2 cans soup (I use either 1 cream of chicken and 1 cream of mushroom or 2 cans cream of chicken)
2 cans canned chicken breast, undrained (or cut up skinless boneless chicken breast, usually 4 of those, but you'll need to add enough water to make 2 cups liquid)
Black pepper to taste

Mix ingredients in casserole dish, cover with aluminum foil and bake for (you guessed it) 2 half-hours (1 hour) at 2 times 222 degrees (450 degrees). It's done when the middle doesn't look liquidy.

Easy to remember how to make and bake. It's just 2.

When I lived by myself, one pan would give me 8-10 meals. With SO, we get 3-4 meals out of it. Costs about $8-$10 to make so approximately $1 to $1.25 per serving.

Hope you like.

 

[momof2gr8kids]

Yep. The gym cost money. We are trying to save money. Cannot spend it on the gym

We have a no frills type of chain in Canada (Fit for Less) that costs me $5.22 biweekly for my membership. No fancy classes or hot tubs or saunas, but some great exercise equipment, free weights, weight machines, etc.

I can't find any other form of entertainment or activity that cheap! LOL Dh has one too and often that's a date night.

 

[momof2gr8kids]

Haven't posted in a while, but don't worry ... I'm still putting my budgeted amount on my debt and not adding to it!

Well, actually that's a lie - we did take out $4000 from our LOC for a car for my ss. So to see the number go up was ... blech... We are helping him out and trusting we didn't make a mistake doing this. He has a financial advisor (his gf's step mom) who is helping them with budgeting and saving and she's built the payment in and setting up a transfer to our LOC every 2 weeks.

This is the season of my dd's sports travel. So extra money to put on debt is hard to come by. But, we haven't put any on cc, and don't plan to. That was the problem before which helped us get into the debt we are in.

I will have read to catch up and see how everyone else is doing here!

 

[donkeyandshrek]

Just made the final payment on DD braces! Still got a LONG way to go but feels good to have this paid off!

 

[jenny105]

Yep. The gym cost money. We are trying to save money. Cannot spend it on the gym

No need to spend money on a gym. Pinterest is a haven of workout pins and videos!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Just made the final payment on DD braces! Still got a LONG way to go but feels good to have this paid off!

Ah, I look forward to that day! I have both DSs in braces now and though we use a FSA to pay for it, it will be so nice when our FSA can cover copays for dr visits and prescriptions instead of all going to braces.
I think next January will be the last scheduled payment.

 

[PrincessKymm]

Just made the final payment on DD braces! Still got a LONG way to go but feels good to have this paid off!

Great job!!! Way to go!!

 

[Colleen27]

I received the BEST news today!!!! The bankruptcy court released my tax refund considering it a "non-asset" whatever that means and I'm entitled to all funds!!!!! I can pay my car off once I receive it from the government!!!!!!

Coming up for air to say hi!

DH informed me last week that he sent the final payment to the furniture company. It was a zero finance deal, and we finally own our beds now Woooo!

Tuesday, DH got word that he earned a little over 10% of his annual salary in a yearly bonus. And got a 2% raise.

We got our federal taxes back on Thursday.

It was a big day. Our oldest turned 11 (need to go change my signature) so we had her celebration (budgeted) and we paid off the loan from our failed adoption.

Writing that check was quite emotional. But it is done.

We bought our flights for our 10th Anniversary trip in April.

Just made the final payment on DD braces! Still got a LONG way to go but feels good to have this paid off!

Woohoo and congrats! Lots of "wins" to celebrate!

Well.. Just found out we owe 2200 taxes. Very very bad!!!! Already pushing being paid for trip by may. Not happy. Who wants to give me ideas of cheap dinners for family? This is somewhere I spend too much money...

Sorry to hear about the unexpected tax bill.

I'm not a recipes person - I'm more of an improvisational cook - but what I do is buy what's on sale and then think up or look up recipes using those ingredients. My Google history is full of "chicken & rice recipes", "ways to prepare eggplant", and other random searches for dinner inspiration. Meatless Mondays - not usually on Monday in this house - have proven to be a nice little savings because meat is often the most expensive part of the meal. Recipes that have a little meat with a lot of other ingredients accomplish the same thing, though I find that harder to do this time of year because off-season produce isn't cheap.

 

[Eureka]

We got a check today because they had overestimated our mortgage escrow. That's never happened before, so cool. It's a little over $200, will go to the credit card. Our payment has been adjusted down by $18 too, but we are going to pay what we've been paying and put the extra toward the principal.

And my bank sent me a new debit card even though the old one hadn't expired, because of all the breeches. We hadn't had any problems and I didn't request a new card but it's one less thing to worry about.

 

[Colleen27]

Our tax return got here today. It was enough to knock off the few hundred dollars lingering on our rewards CC, which gets us back to using it and paying it off monthly. I'm hoping that by the time our insurance renews in April we'll have had the card open with a good payment history long enough to counteract the damage done by our cash-only years (it sucks getting hit with a poor-credit penalty without any negatives!).

I also threw $1000 at beefing up our sad little emergency fund and another $1000 to jumpstart our anniversary vacation fund, and on Monday I'll pay off what's left of the girls' tuition for this year which will free up a couple hundred dollars in the budget this month and next. That will pretty much wipe out the refund but it also checks off some major priorities on the financial to-do list.

 

[gracie1]

Our tax return got here today. It was enough to knock off the few hundred dollars lingering on our rewards CC, which gets us back to using it and paying it off monthly. I'm hoping that by the time our insurance renews in April we'll have had the card open with a good payment history long enough to counteract the damage done by our cash-only years (it sucks getting hit with a poor-credit penalty without any negatives!). I also threw $1000 at beefing up our sad little emergency fund and another $1000 to jumpstart our anniversary vacation fund, and on Monday I'll pay off what's left of the girls' tuition for this year which will free up a couple hundred dollars in the budget this month and next. That will pretty much wipe out the refund but it also checks off some major priorities on the financial to-do list.

Way to go! Sounds like you are on track!!