Debt Dumpers - 2015

[honeybunches]

I'm excited to join in the fun of dumping debt. Although we do have a trip planned, I'm trying hard to pay for it without adding to our debt. Additionally, I finally figured out how to get my YNAB set up properly (was doing it wrong before). It is very helpful to have everything right on the screen. I paid off a small store card this month, and have already set up the payment to go toward the next small card!

Is anyone else focusing on cutting the food bill? I try to eat healthy, so do spend a lot on fresh fruit and veggies. I don't but the cheap, convenience food (spaghetti o's) but also don't but a lot of meat. Anyone else found a way to save money on groceries? TIA!

I don't have the time or inclination to do extreme couponing, but most of the time I can save $5-10 on items I'd purchase anyway by using coupons. If there's a BOGO sale or something, it makes the savings even better. I also use the Ibotta app to double-dip on the savings. We make meat dishes every day, so I try to find ways to save there. We order from a local farmer who is less expensive than the grocery store. When the store has chicken breast on sale for $1.99 lb, I buy several packs to freeze. For fresh vegetables, we keep a small raised bed and some container gardens. My favorites are squash, zucchini, tomatoes, and cucumber - they're so easy to grow and completely free after the seeds/plants. We use the zucchini for bread, add to spaghetti sauce, etc. Aldi recently opened here, and that's an amazing place to save on snacks and fresh produce. We eat out fairly often, so I try to save a little by doing the surveys on the receipts. We can usually get $2 off a sandwich, free fries, etc. which saves a little bit!

breaking my habit of stopping at the gas station for a fountain Coke in the mornings (why does it taste so much better from the fountain than from a bottle?!?)

YES, it does! This is my vice, too. My husband found out that he could buy the reusable cup for me, then refill it for only 99-cents. It's a huge cup and lasts all day. I know it's still $30 a month, but better than the $2 - $3 it can cost at other places.

 

[bcwife76]

Welcome to all the new people that have joined - it's never too late!

Congrats to all those making progress!

There are setbacks and success - it's a bumpy road with lots of ups and downs, but we're all here to support each other!

 

[Colleen27]

South Jersey. A little more than 10 miles east of Philadelphia. Our only consolation is that our public schools are excellent. If we moved to a town with lower taxes & paid for private schools, it would probably be a similar OOP cost. At least the property taxes are a deduction on our 1040 whereas private school tuition would not be. We don't have sales tax on food or clothing and our gas prices are fairly low compared to other states we've visited. Still, I wouldn't want to live here during retirement. Dh keeps talking about moving once the kids are out of school but almost all of our family is here. I guess it will depend on where our kids get jobs when they're done school and if our parents are still alive at the time.

There's always a trade-off, isn't there? Our local public schools are relatively good, not great, but they're in the midst of constant budget crisis thanks to the current political/economic climate as well as in constant curriculum flux thanks to the common core debate. So we have two of our three kids in private schools. My oldest is in small public school with a heavy focus on arts and community involvement, and starting a half day vocational program in the fall. He intends on going into a trade so it is the perfect fit for him. My middle child has her sights set on the Ivies, and is starting a private college prep high school because the public high school is so small that they're cutting AP and accelerated offerings due to of lack of interest. And the youngest is in a small Catholic elem that we love for the small classes and one on one academic support. Ironically, we moved here because it was the best school district we could afford to live in... 14 years ago when we moved out of Detroit. A lot has changed in that time, though, and short of winning the lotto and buying a home that cost 10 times what we spent on this one there's no way we could/would move to a public district I'd have confidence in. $8500/year in tuition is a bargain compared to what we'd spend on a mortgage and taxes in the affluent areas that still have top-rated public schools.

The other trade off, for us, is that we're in a blue collar small town/rural area about 60 miles out of Detroit. There aren't a lot of jobs, especially professional jobs, unless you are willing to deal with a long commute. I'd like to move closer to the city or relocate entirely when our older two (9th & 11th grade) finish school. DH would like to stay put forever and just travel a lot or get a winter home down south in retirement. But that's a long way off and any decisions we make will depend on what kind of job I find after I graduate, as well as on our parents' health as we get closer to a time when we feel like we could move, so we've put the whole debate on the back burner for a while.

 

[Colleen27]

YES, it does! This is my vice, too. My husband found out that he could buy the reusable cup for me, then refill it for only 99-cents. It's a huge cup and lasts all day. I know it's still $30 a month, but better than the $2 - $3 it can cost at other places.

That's been my downfall too. When I was getting a disposable cup every time at least the environmental guilt gave me pause every now and then. But now I have my nice refillable cup for guilt-free refills; it is just $1/day, which is all too easy to excuse, and then I refill it with water for the rest of the day. I used to have a major Mt Dew habit, then gave up caffeine, so now my vice is caffeine free Diet Coke which only our local gas station has. On the bright side, I'm so picky about soda now (has to be diet & caffeine free, but I don't like Sprite/7Up or most other caffeine free choices) that I almost never order a soda in a restaurant. Once in a while I'll order iced tea but mostly I stick to water.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

At one point we were getting pizza every Friday which with 2 teenage boys means 2 pizzas.
I finally did the math and we were spending $120/month on pizza.
We cut way back and get it around once every other month. Fortunately for me, dh enjoys cooking. It's not gormet but after a long day at work I'm grateful for anything he makes.

 

[dayvewc]

I don't know yet how it's going to work out long-term, but I just downloaded an app on my phone called Acorn. It links with my debit card/checking account and "rounds up" all my purchases to the next dollar. Then, once a week it does a draft on my account for that amount and I can either leave it in savings, or invest it in mutual funds. So far, I'm just leaving it as a savings amount since reading some of the reviews the transaction fees are higher than I'd like. So, I'm planning on letting it build up and figure I'll do periodic purchases and see if the fees are flat fees or percentage based.

 

[Angeejoe]

I don't know yet how it's going to work out long-term, but I just downloaded an app on my phone called Acorn. It links with my debit card/checking account and "rounds up" all my purchases to the next dollar. Then, once a week it does a draft on my account for that amount and I can either leave it in savings, or invest it in mutual funds. So far, I'm just leaving it as a savings amount since reading some of the reviews the transaction fees are higher than I'd like. So, I'm planning on letting it build up and figure I'll do periodic purchases and see if the fees are flat fees or percentage based.

That's cool! It charges a fee for each transaction?

 

[Dentam]

I don't know yet how it's going to work out long-term, but I just downloaded an app on my phone called Acorn. It links with my debit card/checking account and "rounds up" all my purchases to the next dollar. Then, once a week it does a draft on my account for that amount and I can either leave it in savings, or invest it in mutual funds. So far, I'm just leaving it as a savings amount since reading some of the reviews the transaction fees are higher than I'd like. So, I'm planning on letting it build up and figure I'll do periodic purchases and see if the fees are flat fees or percentage based.

My bank (BofA) offers this as well - not sure if there are any fees but knowing BofA I'm sure there are. I'm getting ready to switch to a credit union (been putting it off with all the house stuff) soon.

 

[gracie1]

I don't know yet how it's going to work out long-term, but I just downloaded an app on my phone called Acorn. It links with my debit card/checking account and "rounds up" all my purchases to the next dollar. Then, once a week it does a draft on my account for that amount and I can either leave it in savings, or invest it in mutual funds. So far, I'm just leaving it as a savings amount since reading some of the reviews the transaction fees are higher than I'd like. So, I'm planning on letting it build up and figure I'll do periodic purchases and see if the fees are flat fees or percentage based.

My bank doesn't do this but I do it in my check book - always round up. You will be surprised at how much you save over time. Once I get a cushion I transfer some to savings - but I like that cushion in there for unexpecteds!

 

[bcwife76]

Ok so now we're down one birthday party for July (which was for twins, so two less presents!!), but just got another invite for another August birthday (so +1 gift). Still ahead in my books ;-)

We're going camping in Oregon for 4 days at the end of July; sussing out the area where we will be (NorthWest corner on the coast) and there is an outlet mall about 30 minutes south of our campsite. That has a Carters/OshKosh. Sweet, tax-free (Oregon has no sales tax) back to school clothing shopping. Yay! And because we are out of Canada more than 48 hours, we can bring back 2-750ml bottles of wine (each) or 1.15 litres of alcohol (each), so yes, stocking up on cheap booze for our upcoming cruise ;-)

 

[tikitorie]

Checking in... As usual it's 1 step forward and 2 steps back, paid off a credit card and gained a car payment in the past month. We haven't had a car payment in about a year so we were able to put some money down to keep the payment where we wanted to be. Also got another mini van, we wanted to get a suv with the option of a 3rd row of seats but the prices are so high, more than we wanted to go. Oh well, you know how it goes..can't always get what you want, but you get what you need! DS is starting college next month, locally but still needs a car to get back and forth so we passed our old one on to him. I asked him if he would be embarrassed driving a mini van and he said Mom, if it's free I'm not embarrassed to drive it! Maybe he does listen to us occasionally! Insurance hit on a 3rd vehicle was the worst, but we told our ds that we would cover it since he's working 2 jobs to pay for his own schooling. He paid the 1st semester in cash and is now working towards the second. trying to go as long as possible without taking out student loans.

 

[honeybunches]

Checking in... As usual it's 1 step forward and 2 steps back, paid off a credit card and gained a car payment in the past month. We haven't had a car payment in about a year so we were able to put some money down to keep the payment where we wanted to be. Also got another mini van, we wanted to get a suv with the option of a 3rd row of seats but the prices are so high, more than we wanted to go. Oh well, you know how it goes..can't always get what you want, but you get what you need! DS is starting college next month, locally but still needs a car to get back and forth so we passed our old one on to him. I asked him if he would be embarrassed driving a mini van and he said Mom, if it's free I'm not embarrassed to drive it! Maybe he does listen to us occasionally! Insurance hit on a 3rd vehicle was the worst, but we told our ds that we would cover it since he's working 2 jobs to pay for his own schooling. He paid the 1st semester in cash and is now working towards the second. trying to go as long as possible without taking out student loans.

Good for him! Wonderful that he sees the value of hard work, and is willing to put his own sweat into it. We're still paying back student loans....no fun!!!

 

[jm0925]

I don't know yet how it's going to work out long-term, but I just downloaded an app on my phone called Acorn. It links with my debit card/checking account and "rounds up" all my purchases to the next dollar. Then, once a week it does a draft on my account for that amount and I can either leave it in savings, or invest it in mutual funds. So far, I'm just leaving it as a savings amount since reading some of the reviews the transaction fees are higher than I'd like. So, I'm planning on letting it build up and figure I'll do periodic purchases and see if the fees are flat fees or percentage based.

I have this app too and have only had it a short time. I didnt realize you could set the transfers to once a week or at a certain time interval you set. I thought you had to pick a limit like once your round ups totaled $5.00, it would do a transfer automatically for the $5.00 from your bank account. Ill have to play with it some more. The monthly fee is $1.00 for anyone curious if you choose mutual funds. You can also link credit cards too so it can monitor your purchases on those. Once your round ups total whatever you set, it makes the transfer automatically from your checking.

 

[gracie1]

Checking in... As usual it's 1 step forward and 2 steps back, paid off a credit card and gained a car payment in the past month. We haven't had a car payment in about a year so we were able to put some money down to keep the payment where we wanted to be. Also got another mini van, we wanted to get a suv with the option of a 3rd row of seats but the prices are so high, more than we wanted to go. Oh well, you know how it goes..can't always get what you want, but you get what you need! DS is starting college next month, locally but still needs a car to get back and forth so we passed our old one on to him. I asked him if he would be embarrassed driving a mini van and he said Mom, if it's free I'm not embarrassed to drive it! Maybe he does listen to us occasionally! Insurance hit on a 3rd vehicle was the worst, but we told our ds that we would cover it since he's working 2 jobs to pay for his own schooling. He paid the 1st semester in cash and is now working towards the second. trying to go as long as possible without taking out student loans.

Sounds like you have a good son!! That is great that he has been able to pay for schooling so far without taking loans.
I have started my Christmas shopping to get a jump start. I have my list made and as things have been on sale I've been picking them up. I was actually able to even get a 5 pc comforter set for myself for $38 shipped from Macy's and bought some tops from target online for about $8.50 a piece! Then I was browsing on jcpenney and ordered my parents a quilt for their bed for $39. I'll hold off on the gift cards for now and will get them once we near Christmas but would like to have the actual presents bought. My closet will soon look like a shipping department!
So am I the only crazy one who has started shopping??

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Sounds like you have a good son!! That is great that he has been able to pay for schooling so far without taking loans.
I have started my Christmas shopping to get a jump start. I have my list made and as things have been on sale I've been picking them up. I was actually able to even get a 5 pc comforter set for myself for $38 shipped from Macy's and bought some tops from target online for about $8.50 a piece! Then I was browsing on jcpenney and ordered my parents a quilt for their bed for $39. I'll hold off on the gift cards for now and will get them once we near Christmas but would like to have the actual presents bought. My closet will soon look like a shipping department!
So am I the only crazy one who has started shopping??

Not crazy at all! I haven't started yet but last year dh & I spent a weekend in Cape May and a little gift shop had the cutest coffee mugs I thought my parents would love. Instead of regular handles, it had a cleat on the side to hold onto to. Like what you tie a rope around to secure a boat to the dock. They have been into boating as long as I can remember and I couldn't pass them up.
So anyway, in 2014 I started shopping in June.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I'm trying to resist temptation. The Pope will be visiting Philly in late Sept close to where I work. Since there will be several million people visiting the city, the hospital where I work is trying to set up a plan to be able to handle a disaster and still maintain vital services. Lucky for us, our outpatient office will close Friday and open late Monday. Woo hoo!
Naturally the first thing I thought of was escaping the crowds and enjoying some WDW time during the off season. Spirit has great flight times out of Atlantic City that would make it easy to avoid Philly airport too. Even Myrtle Beach would be nice to try. For less than $1000 3 of us could fly down and stay in an oceanfront condo for 2 nts/3 days.
The only thing that makes me restrain myself is the though of screwing up The Plan and creating more cc debt. I could pay it off quickly but it would set our savings plan back a few weeks. I need to stay strong!

 

[Colleen27]

Waiting is the worst, isn't it? I'm SO impatient to really get going now that the first real paycheck is so close! DH hired in as the company was changing over from an outside maintenance company to handling it in house, so in his first week he was basically a temp with the old company and then from the second onward he was direct-hire with the company. So he's been working there since June 8 and has only been paid for the first week. Needless to say, things have been tight waiting for the first full check! We're not adding to the mess but the waiting is rough when we're so excited to start seeing progress.

I'm trying to channel my energy into decluttering. It is a never ending battle, it seems. I'm debating the merits of a garage sale this year but in the meantime I'm just listing things on a local Facebook swap group. I hate having garage sales so stuff that doesn't sell might just end up donated to my daughter's volleyball team fundraiser during the "garage sale trail" event in our area. I'd be giving up some cash in my pocket, but I wouldn't have the hassle of storage, pricing, set-up, and clean-up, and I wouldn't be the one sitting out in the sun waiting for customers. And DD gets credit towards her team fees (pay for play and equipment) for our donations and her hours worked, so there would still be some financial benefit.

So, as a distraction - Do any of you read any interesting debt-dumping forums, blogs, or websites to help stay motivated? Dave Ramsey is the only one I'm familiar with and I find him rather obnoxious, mostly because he's so insulting/condescending towards those with worldviews that differ from his own. There have to be more interesting financial types out there, right? Do you have any great recommendations to share?

 

[dayvewc]

I have this app too and have only had it a short time. I didnt realize you could set the transfers to once a week or at a certain time interval you set. I thought you had to pick a limit like once your round ups totaled $5.00, it would do a transfer automatically for the $5.00 from your bank account. Ill have to play with it some more. The monthly fee is $1.00 for anyone curious if you choose mutual funds. You can also link credit cards too so it can monitor your purchases on those. Once your round ups total whatever you set, it makes the transfer automatically from your checking.

I've only had it for about 2 1/2 weeks. It's done 2 transfers, one for $12 something and the second for $6 something. I'm still learning it, so you probably know more. I just figured based on the timing that it did it once a week, but that could have been coincidence. I only know about the fees from the reviews of other people. I just want to save enough this way to have an extra cushion somewhere, just in case.

On a totally different note, the POS roommate got another job. He should be starting at the end of the week. It's only part time, but that is better than nothing. Talking to the hiring manager, he was told that company policy for part time is no more than 25 hours a week, but that they are so shorthanded right now that if he wants he should be able to transfer to full time in about 4 months. (probationary period is my guess). It's minimum wage, but the state passed a wage increase last year, so he's guaranteed a raise in January, and then another one next January (unless he gets really good performance based raises, but I don't think they would do that much at a time). With him paying his share of bills, I'll be able to increase my monthly payments by about $400, which will go very nicely with all the medical bills I've been accumulating recently.

 

[Angeejoe]

Sounds like you have a good son!! That is great that he has been able to pay for schooling so far without taking loans.
I have started my Christmas shopping to get a jump start. I have my list made and as things have been on sale I've been picking them up. I was actually able to even get a 5 pc comforter set for myself for $38 shipped from Macy's and bought some tops from target online for about $8.50 a piece! Then I was browsing on jcpenney and ordered my parents a quilt for their bed for $39. I'll hold off on the gift cards for now and will get them once we near Christmas but would like to have the actual presents bought. My closet will soon look like a shipping department!
So am I the only crazy one who has started shopping??

I posted this yesterday....

I'm trying to do something similar this year, I started my Birthday Gift/Christmas shopping last month when the Disney Store had an extra 20% off of clearance,plus free S&H, plus I used ebates. I'm all done now with my niece for her 2yr October bday (Sofia themed gifts, I got the Sofia dress for only $13 reg $45 plus various of Sofia things totaling only like $24- reg prices I bet would've been like $80+). With a great start for her, my newborn niece, & 3 nephews for Christmas.

Tonight Joann Fabric's website had tons of kids crafts on clearance so with a coupon for $1.99 S&H, plus ebates I got a lot of kids crafts & educational workbooks for my two 5 yr old nephews for .90 -$5 for Christmas & I think I will add to it all these back to school deals like .50 crayons, glue sticks, etc as they love crafts. Plus a magic kit for $5 for nephew's October bday, & some various cheap crafts to have at my house when the kids are over.

I find I wait to long as the holidays grow closer & pay too much or feel rushed to just buy. So if I do just a little each month it will really help my budget.

I'm also trying to figure out some homemade gifts, last year I knit everyone a scarf. I made like 22 of them in like 5 wks!! They were a hit, but my hands were killing me!

So if you like to stock up on your trunk DnA2010, check out Joann's!!

 

[gracie1]

I posted this yesterday....

Glad to know I have a fellow shopper out there!!