Debt Dumpers - 2015

[gracie1]

Mine doesn't offer it free, but there is a paid Credit Monitoring service.

I am going to have my husband log into an account he has to see if it offers credit scores. I would assume he and I have different credit scores. Because my husband's information was compromised through a military database, they sent a letter where he was able to sign up for free credit monitoring for a year. I keep forgetting about this. I don't think he has logged in since signing up but are supposed to notify him if anything suspicious happens.

You should sign up for credit karma. I use M&T bank and they told me to just sign up for that - they actually use it also

Sorry - I posted before reading the threads!

 

[gracie1]

Today DH’s student loans will be paid off. The monthly amount was never killing us, and we consolidated through the fed about nine years ago at an historic low interest rate of 2.25%. That is why we never paid this one off early, although at certain times we could have. The payment cannot be snowballed into paying our credit card though, as his pay has been down since the spring, so we need that money just to live. But still, the only red I see in Quicken now is mortgage and credit card!

Small victories, ya know?

That is great news! One less payment!!

 

[Gena001]

Oh but was that Murphy knocking at the door? Yep. At the car door to be more precise. Clunking sound from the front of dh's car. Now he's pretty handy when it comes to cars, as an ex grease money (as he refers to himself) - does his own oil changes, tire rotations, fixed the brakes even. But this was beyond the scope. Garage just called to say it'll be approx $500. There goes half the anniversary money, bummer.

I'm so thankful my hubby is mechanically inclined, too. I drive a 1994 Previa mini van (it just keeps going...won't quit! No wonder Toyota quit making them, it cut into their new car sales). He recently did a ton of work to it, first real attention the 'ol girls had since we got her in 2004. If we had to take it to a shop, it would have been a couple thousand easily. But, the tradeoff is that we have tools and equipment investments.


And: HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! That is wonderful, your annual anniversary gift. We had our 25 year last week and no one even gave us a card! (We gave one to each other though. ) If we had not mentioned our anniversary, they would not have even wished us a happy one. Not really complaining, much, I guess all families have different strengths, too. My DILs are pretty much focused on other stuff. We're headed to FL in a few weeks & will celebrate then.

 

[NinaBella]

One of the checks I was waiting for came in. I just scheduled my two highest interest accounts to be paid off! 28.99% and 26.99% is crazy! I just requested a payoff quote for the 2nd mortgage to pay it off. Website said up to 3 days for the payoff balance to be e-mailed to me. Principal balance only shows $1,968.51 so we are not really paying it off that early but it is $805 a month so I want to pay it off September 1st and re-align that $805 to go toward a credit card balance on top of what we already pay that credit card. Still looking to get rid of a smaller account, but going to wait until DH and my next paychecks come in to go over spreadsheet again. My oldest son's computer died a few days ago. It has been on the blink for a while. His birthday happens to be Friday so we are looking at a new computer for him. Plus we have a few home repairs we need to schedule to be done, so going to relook at everything and how I am re-aligning our payments to existing bills with these accounts paid off. One of the home repairs is a dapper/damper in the attic. We had a new A/C put in about a year ago, but I guess this was not part of it. So the A/C guy says it is not automatically open/shutting. He manually opened it for now until we get it fixed.

I have a dental appt for a crown today and another crown in 3 weeks. So each crown is $575 out of pocket that insurance won't cover. Thanks to military dentist who only did the minimum and only did silver fillings, two molars have over 60% silver fillings and cracks after being old. I mentioned the visible cracks to military dentist who were not concerned. My first visit to a civilian dentist after retirement and of course they say I need crowns.

I have an appt with a financial advisor tomorrow. Any questions I should ask?

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Update:
I canceled our verizon account today for the router for the RV. We have not spent much time at the RV this summer and we don't need to router in the winter so that saves me $133 a month. We figured if we need it, we will bump up our data with AT&T and use our phones as access points or make the old router work with AT&T. We have been monitoring our phone data usage and since we are home most of the summer our data has gone way down and we have roll over. So, we will start with that at the RV next summer and go from there.
We are also not rebooking our seasonal site next year. Between 3 people working and sports we have not had time to go there at all. We've been once since summer started, and will probably go one more time for Labor Day weekend. So I am saving $4500 on that next year! We will probably book a few holiday weekends here and there but that will be very little money.

 

[dayvewc]

I'm so thankful my hubby is mechanically inclined, too. I drive a 1994 Previa mini van (it just keeps going...won't quit! No wonder Toyota quit making them, it cut into their new car sales). He recently did a ton of work to it, first real attention the 'ol girls had since we got her in 2004. If we had to take it to a shop, it would have been a couple thousand easily. But, the tradeoff is that we have tools and equipment investments.

That is great. My total extent of mechanical (automotive) knowledge consists of "push the go pedal, and feed it lots of gas".

One of the checks I was waiting for came in. I just scheduled my two highest interest accounts to be paid off! 28.99% and 26.99% is crazy! I just requested a payoff quote for the 2nd mortgage to pay it off. Website said up to 3 days for the payoff balance to be e-mailed to me. Principal balance only shows $1,968.51 so we are not really paying it off that early but it is $805 a month so I want to pay it off September 1st and re-align that $805 to go toward a credit card balance on top of what we already pay that credit card. Still looking to get rid of a smaller account, but going to wait until DH and my next paychecks come in to go over spreadsheet again. My oldest son's computer died a few days ago. It has been on the blink for a while. His birthday happens to be Friday so we are looking at a new computer for him. Plus we have a few home repairs we need to schedule to be done, so going to relook at everything and how I am re-aligning our payments to existing bills with these accounts paid off. One of the home repairs is a dapper/damper in the attic. We had a new A/C put in about a year ago, but I guess this was not part of it. So the A/C guy says it is not automatically open/shutting. He manually opened it for now until we get it fixed.

I have a dental appt for a crown today and another crown in 3 weeks. So each crown is $575 out of pocket that insurance won't cover. Thanks to military dentist who only did the minimum and only did silver fillings, two molars have over 60% silver fillings and cracks after being old. I mentioned the visible cracks to military dentist who were not concerned. My first visit to a civilian dentist after retirement and of course they say I need crowns.

I have an appt with a financial advisor tomorrow. Any questions I should ask?

Congratulations on getting some debts paid off - especially with interest rates like those!!

And yeah, military dentists are sufficient, but all the work that was done by them had to be re-done once I got out. That seems to be a pretty common occurrence from everyone I have talked to about it. (limited number of people, but still ...)

I'm not sure of any questions to ask. I personally always wonder why people who are supposed to be investing my money are called "broke"rs, but that's probably not a helpful question. ;-)

Update:
I canceled our verizon account today for the router for the RV. We have not spent much time at the RV this summer and we don't need to router in the winter so that saves me $133 a month. We figured if we need it, we will bump up our data with AT&T and use our phones as access points or make the old router work with AT&T. We have been monitoring our phone data usage and since we are home most of the summer our data has gone way down and we have roll over. So, we will start with that at the RV next summer and go from there.
We are also not rebooking our seasonal site next year. Between 3 people working and sports we have not had time to go there at all. We've been once since summer started, and will probably go one more time for Labor Day weekend. So I am saving $4500 on that next year! We will probably book a few holiday weekends here and there but that will be very little money.

Sounds like you have a plan to cut unneeded expenses. Good going!

 

[PrincessKymm]

I interviewed for a second job yesterday at a department store. I could use the extra money and the discount on DS's clothes. He just hasn't stopped growing!

Work is getting insanely busy but that's only another 6 weeks then I can work as much extra time as I want at the second job as long as I get it.

I'm not making any progress so I figured things had to change. I'll be happy if I make $1,000 extra this year from that adventure but I'm really hoping for more. I'm also looking at doing a home party business so I can maybe make a little extra, recoup my costs and see how it goes. I'm not doing much else with myself. I did meet a guy and he thinks my Disney obsession is "cute" so I think I might have to keep him around a while. But since I want to take thing slow, we shall see.

Other than that I feel like slowly sinking again even though my debt is cut in half from earlier this year. Strange.

Thanks for the motivation everyone!

 

[NinaBella]

The appt with the financial advisor was a waste of time. He didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. Other than meeting a nice person, seems like I already have a good plan in place.

 

[dayvewc]

The appt with the financial advisor was a waste of time. He didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. Other than meeting a nice person, seems like I already have a good plan in place.

I hate it when that happens. I have a meeting with one in a couple of weeks. Or I think he is a financial adviser. He represents the company that I pay $50 to a month pre-tax to build up a retirement portfolio. Pretty sure all he's really going to do is try to get me to contribute more.

 

[AlohaNow]

Woo hoo! DH got a job offer today! A definite step up in both title and pay! I’ve been plugging numbers into the budget spreadsheet since he’s been interviewing and, oh my, we could be out of cc debt in one year! I just noticed that every sentence in this post so far has an exclamation point! Can you tell I’m excited?????

 

[gracie1]

Woo hoo! DH got a job offer today! A definite step up in both title and pay! I’ve been plugging numbers into the budget spreadsheet since he’s been interviewing and, oh my, we could be out of cc debt in one year! I just noticed that every sentence in this post so far has an exclamation point! Can you tell I’m excited?????

That is fantastic news!!!! YAY!!!!!!!

 

[bcwife76]

Woo hoo! DH got a job offer today! A definite step up in both title and pay! I’ve been plugging numbers into the budget spreadsheet since he’s been interviewing and, oh my, we could be out of cc debt in one year! I just noticed that every sentence in this post so far has an exclamation point! Can you tell I’m excited?????

Fantastic news!!

 

[OhMari]

One of the checks I was waiting for came in. I just scheduled my two highest interest accounts to be paid off! 28.99% and 26.99% is crazy! I just requested a payoff quote for the 2nd mortgage to pay it off. Website said up to 3 days for the payoff balance to be e-mailed to me. Principal balance only shows $1,968.51 so we are not really paying it off that early but it is $805 a month so I want to pay it off September 1st and re-align that $805 to go toward a credit card balance on top of what we already pay that credit card. Still looking to get rid of a smaller account, but going to wait until DH and my next paychecks come in to go over spreadsheet again. My oldest son's computer died a few days ago. It has been on the blink for a while. His birthday happens to be Friday so we are looking at a new computer for him. Plus we have a few home repairs we need to schedule to be done, so going to relook at everything and how I am re-aligning our payments to existing bills with these accounts paid off. One of the home repairs is a dapper/damper in the attic. We had a new A/C put in about a year ago, but I guess this was not part of it. So the A/C guy says it is not automatically open/shutting. He manually opened it for now until we get it fixed.

I have a dental appt for a crown today and another crown in 3 weeks. So each crown is $575 out of pocket that insurance won't cover. Thanks to military dentist who only did the minimum and only did silver fillings, two molars have over 60% silver fillings and cracks after being old. I mentioned the visible cracks to military dentist who were not concerned. My first visit to a civilian dentist after retirement and of course they say I need crowns.

I have an appt with a financial advisor tomorrow. Any questions I should ask?

Ask the Finamcial advisor if we should we cash out our stocks? I do not have any, but my dh has a 401K with work and he says it isn"t pretty.

At least you do not need root canals. Maybe get a second opinion.

 

[OhMari]

Paid off our contribution for our dds wedding. Lucky for us, I had a good portion of it saved.
I have 3 more to go and I will be a lot smarter next time and call a meeting and sit down with them and discuss expectations. I will never ever be told again, that "the brides parents pay for the wedding." I have one more dd and 2 sons and wedding planning will be done a lot different.

My dh bought a new lawn mower, so that will be tackled next. It took 5 years to pay off all my debt and my snowball amount is $1200, plus the $200, so I will be able to make $1400. I should have it paid off in six months. Next will be my car. We moved and I used to walk to work every day. Now I drive 40 miles round trip, I had to get a car, 2012 Volkswagon. I hate making car payments.

 

[dayvewc]

Paid off our contribution for our dds wedding. Lucky for us, I had a good portion of it saved.
I have 3 more to go and I will be a lot smarter next time and call a meeting and sit down with them and discuss expectations. I will never ever be told again, that "the brides parents pay for the wedding." I have one more dd and 2 sons and wedding planning will be done a lot different.

My dh bought a new lawn mower, so that will be tackled next. It took 5 years to pay off all my debt and my snowball amount is $1200, plus the $200, so I will be able to make $1400. I should have it paid off in six months. Next will be my car. We moved and I used to walk to work every day. Now I drive 40 miles round trip, I had to get a car, 2012 Volkswagon. I hate making car payments.

Congrats on getting stuff paid off. And I am impressed with a $1400 snowball!!! Way to go!!!

I hear you on the car payment. I hate having them also. Sadly, I'm probably going to need to get another car before I get completely debt free, so I'm just praying I will have enough of a snowball built up to cover the payment when it happens.

 

[mom2t]

Paid off another credit card yesterday. I just have the one big one left. It is good feeling and I am very careful about what I am buying. Working on Christmas presents right now. Made my list and going to watch for sales. At times I am tempted to internet shop my favorite way to buy but I do not want to move backwards. Focusing on my goal of retiring in June.

 

[Dentam]

Paid off another credit card yesterday. I just have the one big one left. It is good feeling and I am very careful about what I am buying. Working on Christmas presents right now. Made my list and going to watch for sales. At times I am tempted to internet shop my favorite way to buy but I do not want to move backwards. Focusing on my goal of retiring in June.

Great job - congratulations on paying off another cc!! Sounds like you are doing great! I plan to get one more cc paid off by the end of this year as well.

 

[AlohaNow]

Working on Christmas presents right now.

And I thought I was the only one! Yep, gotta cashflow Christmas to stick with the plan so must start now.

Congrats on your impending retirement!

 

[NinaBella]

So happy to have just paid off the second mortgage. I requested the statement (payoff quote) twice be emailed to me but never got the email. Finally found it online where it was saved with the payoff amount through 8/31/15 (TODAY) so I paid it really quick. Funny part is I always pay with my bank webbill pay service so the payoff I did on their website so they can see I submitted payment today. My bank does send manual checks sometimes depending on the company that takes a few days to get there. The mortgage website said since I was a "new" customer they were waiving the $9.95 fee to pay over the website but I may incur a fee starting next month. Ha Ha. NOPE... done with that. I hate companies who charge you a fee for paying our bills! My one and only payment on their website!

I have one more bill I targeted to payoff this month but the regular payment isn't due until September 22nd so I am going to wait closer till then until a couple more of our paychecks hit and the other three debts I paid off in full has time to process.

I did notice I have an overpayment to an account I paid off last month (Dicks Sporting Goods). It's in DH name so I will have to see if he wants to call to request a check or just use the card for the 7.62 credit we have. I suppose next time we make a purchase they can split the payment.

 

[Iowajes]

Ask the Finamcial advisor if we should we cash out our stocks? I do not have any, but my dh has a 401K with work and he says it isn"t pretty.

Why are you wanting to cash out? Because of the current market correction (drop?)

That's actually a really bad time to cash out. Don't sell low. If anything, now is a good time to buy more- though I prefer to not time the market and am just sticking to my regular buying schedule.


Stocks are the only thing people never seem to want to buy on sale... and have the urge to sell when they will garner the lowest price.