Debt Dumpers - 2016

[MrsTurnerLovesDisney]

ugh.....we bought a truck this weekend.....ugh

I don't really regret it because we did need a larger truck for towing capacity...my DH grandpa owns a farm and DH helps a lot with it due to health issues. Plus we wanted to trade in DH truck (even though it was paid off) while it still had value. We had been looking for sometime but we got an offer we couldn't refuse...ended up with a low mileage used truck that was originally $55K that we are getting for $22k which is great and DH will be able to keep this one til the wheels come off...but I'm sad we are going from one note to another (about the same amount of money thank goodness)

But gosh I was looking forward to that money not being spent lol....oh well at least we acted now while we could get a great truck at a stupid low note.....
So once we get back the new insurance details I'll be redoing the budget and going from there.

 

[LinderInWonderland]

And if you have a Target Redcard (credit or debit) you can use it to buy a Disney gift card and save 5%, but use the Target gift card to pay for it. Or so I've been told that you can do it that way, I haven't tried yet. I've been collecting shopkicks trying to get to a $50 Target gift card to try.

I have noticed that if I buy JUST Disney gift cards with Target gift cards, it doesn't give me the 5% off for having my Red Card on file. If I add something else to my cart, then I get the 5% off the gift cards and whatever I bought.

I get my $25 Target cards once a month for $22 in Swagbucks (12% off) and then the extra 5% savings when I use them to buy Disney cards. In the last year, I've earned $200 worth of Disney gift cards from Swagbucks and am waiting for another $50 to credit soon. I don't work too hard at it, but by the time we go to Disneyworld in May, I should have $300 towards our spending money, which helps me lessen the amount of saved cash I need to bring and also doesn't increase my debt!

 

[MrsTurnerLovesDisney]

I guess that's true! I so wish we could get better tv/internet/phone service where we are. We're really not that far out in the country, but we can't get Verizon or Comcast in our area. Which means we pay separately for tv, internet, and cell phones (no landline) for over $100 each. Verizon tries to sell me Fios every time I go into a store and I keep telling them to bring it to my area and I will buy it. It's so frustrating constantly having to watch our data usage at home and having the satellite go out if there's a storm! But at least we got some off the Directv bill this time. I also got another $10 knocked off my Verizon cell phone bill the other day. No point in paying $10 a month for an iPhone 5 for insurance when you just pay $20 a month for a new phone now at retail price anyways.

I'm in same boat with you with tv/internet/phone all being separate....I wish I could ditch Verizon we don't have good coverage in our area and are paying a lot of money....blah...but that's another story...
I see you're with Direct I don't know if they have internet service bundle like Dish does but that might be an idea. We had planned on dropping excede internet to get Dishnet and the pricing wasn't going to justify the switch (we arleady have the lowest package with excede and the lowest with Dish was going to be the same)but...maybe DirectTv offers something and it might be worth a switch....just a thought

 

[Ava]

Hi Debt Dumpers! I haven't read through all the posts but I hope everyone's 2016 is off to a good start. I just popped in to say, I just paid off my student loan! If anyone remembers from last year's thread, my sister & I sold a piece of property that my dad left to us. I got the check for my half of the profit at Christmas, and it's almost enough to pay off all of our credit card debt and the remainder of my student loan. I decided to start with the loan, since it is the largest monthly payment and the only debt currently charging me interest. (The CC's are both on 0% promotions.) Now I have to decide whether to just pay off both CC's now, or put the rest of the money into a savings account to earn interest until the 0% promotions expire. With interest only being 1% (at best), I'm not sure if it's worth continuing to pay monthly just to earn ~$130 over the course of a year.

 

[rnorwo1]

Hi Debt Dumpers! I haven't read through all the posts but I hope everyone's 2016 is off to a good start. I just popped in to say, I just paid off my student loan! If anyone remembers from last year's thread, my sister & I sold a piece of property that my dad left to us. I got the check for my half of the profit at Christmas, and it's almost enough to pay off all of our credit card debt and the remainder of my student loan. I decided to start with the loan, since it is the largest monthly payment and the only debt currently charging me interest. (The CC's are both on 0% promotions.) Now I have to decide whether to just pay off both CC's now, or put the rest of the money into a savings account to earn interest until the 0% promotions expire. With interest only being 1% (at best), I'm not sure if it's worth continuing to pay monthly just to earn ~$130 over the course of a year.

Do you have an emergency savings? If not, definitely save it! I would lean towards saving it regardless... Using windfalls to pay off debt can lead to accruing more debt later on, whereas going through the process of paying the debt off will help to instill amazing, lifelong habits. You can always withdraw it and pay it off later down the road if necessary, but hopefully it won't be and you'll be debt free and have a nice cushion!

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Hi Debt Dumpers! I haven't read through all the posts but I hope everyone's 2016 is off to a good start. I just popped in to say, I just paid off my student loan! If anyone remembers from last year's thread, my sister & I sold a piece of property that my dad left to us. I got the check for my half of the profit at Christmas, and it's almost enough to pay off all of our credit card debt and the remainder of my student loan. I decided to start with the loan, since it is the largest monthly payment and the only debt currently charging me interest. (The CC's are both on 0% promotions.) Now I have to decide whether to just pay off both CC's now, or put the rest of the money into a savings account to earn interest until the 0% promotions expire. With interest only being 1% (at best), I'm not sure if it's worth continuing to pay monthly just to earn ~$130 over the course of a year.

Personally, I'd pay off the CC's now. When I set aside $, other things pop up and the $ goes before I know it.

 

[DisneyMandC]

I'm in same boat with you with tv/internet/phone all being separate....I wish I could ditch Verizon we don't have good coverage in our area and are paying a lot of money....blah...but that's another story...
I see you're with Direct I don't know if they have internet service bundle like Dish does but that might be an idea. We had planned on dropping excede internet to get Dishnet and the pricing wasn't going to justify the switch (we arleady have the lowest package with excede and the lowest with Dish was going to be the same)but...maybe DirectTv offers something and it might be worth a switch....just a thought

We actually did try the Directv internet a while back... it was AWFUL. I don't know if they've made any improvements, but it was terrible when we had it! Plus we had the same issue where service would go down when there was a storm. I have a Sprint hotspot now, which works pretty well and is fairly good on internet speed. The price is much lower than what Verizon was charging DH for a hotspot. I think he was paying $130 for 14 GB of data, we're now paying Sprint $112 for 30 GB. So I can't complain but so much, but we watched one hour long tv show on Netflix this weekend and it used 1.5 GB of data I guess that's the price I pay for living in the country.

 

[stayhomemom77]

Hi Debt Dumpers! I haven't read through all the posts but I hope everyone's 2016 is off to a good start. I just popped in to say, I just paid off my student loan! If anyone remembers from last year's thread, my sister & I sold a piece of property that my dad left to us. I got the check for my half of the profit at Christmas, and it's almost enough to pay off all of our credit card debt and the remainder of my student loan. I decided to start with the loan, since it is the largest monthly payment and the only debt currently charging me interest. (The CC's are both on 0% promotions.) Now I have to decide whether to just pay off both CC's now, or put the rest of the money into a savings account to earn interest until the 0% promotions expire. With interest only being 1% (at best), I'm not sure if it's worth continuing to pay monthly just to earn ~$130 over the course of a year.

I'd pay off the debt now as long as I had some money in my emergency fund. I wouldn't think $130 would be worth the feeling of having those cards paid off, but YMMV. Good luck deciding!

 

[stayhomemom77]

I've been lurking for a while and was hesitant to post because I get really down when going over my debt. I posted in the beginning of last years thread but disappeared because I failed miserably. But this time I'm more focused than ever to make a huge dent and DH is motivated as well (something that was lacking in the past). I like this thread because I 'feel safe' from judgement here!
Here goes.
CC#1 $10,300 @ 5.99%
CC#2 $8k @ 13.99%
Target $380
Kohls $310
Furniture loan $2,650. 0% until the summer. I've been paying the minimum and we plan to pay this off with our tax return.

My plan is to pay off the Target and Kohls cards first as they have the most interest. (They should be paid off by the end of this month). Then, onto card #2. The problem is, we are having a little bit of a hard time financially. A significant portion of my paycheck is used for childcare. Before that I have FSA funds taken out for dependent care (I use this for Christmas money) and medical care. Sometimes I have to pay for food shopping with my CC.
I have been really good with my spending and watching where my money goes. Also I had placed some online orders for Xmas and NY&Co messed up and wouldn't credit me. I wouldn't give up and fought and fought. Over a month later, they gave me my money back. Same thing with Nike. I didn't let their mistake slide either. Another thing I did, I checked all of my online purchases against Ebates. I got back an extra $10! I'm also trying to sell stuff on eBay (any suggestions on what is really good to sell on there?).
Anyway, I saw what I paid in interest this year on CC#1 and it was $950! It makes me sick! That's only 1 card and it's 5.99%.
Okay, that's my novel - Wish me luck and good luck to everyone here!

So happy to hear you feel safe from judgement here. Of course, we'd all be filthy hypocrites if we tossed any around, so...

It always sucks hard at the beginning when you've added up everything you owe and then you feel like it will take an eternity to become debt free...we are here for you.

Good job tallying everything up and it sounds as though you have a good plan in place to tackle it.

I'd like to echo some of the others in saying that you might want to consider doing up a budget. Even if you can't make any cuts to it right now, having one makes you feel more in control of your finances. It helps to combat that helpless feeling that comes when you first take ownership of all your debts. Just something to think about.

As to what will sell on ebay...try anything and everything! I've been shocked at some of the stuff that has been bought/sold over the years. And I think the time investment is worth it if you are able to make some money and pay down that debt.

We'll be here for the ups and downs so pop in whenever you need us.

 

[PrincessKymm]

I'm struggling with my financial and debt dumping goals for this year. I start my new job Monday and I'm hoping I will get at least one weeks pay as they get paid on the 15th and last day of the month. I've got two vacations scheduled and I'm hoping and praying I can still do both. It might be tight for both but I don't want to give up either. Since I don't know what my checks will look like (I've done estimates online but they vary by $400 depending on the source) it's hard to do a budget for the year. I only know my annual salary and that I get paid twice a month.

I've got enough in savings to cover any tax bills (I'm nervous about my state and city taxes), my rent for next month and my next electric bill. My child support will have to float us until I get paid. That leaves me $1,000 EF untouched so not super shabby for not having a job for a few weeks.

I'm not sure if I should snowball or just save save and save some more. Not having an income by choice has made me realize I do need a safety net besides me 401k.

 

[DisneyMandC]

I'm struggling with my financial and debt dumping goals for this year. I start my new job Monday and I'm hoping I will get at least one weeks pay as they get paid on the 15th and last day of the month. I've got two vacations scheduled and I'm hoping and praying I can still do both. It might be tight for both but I don't want to give up either. Since I don't know what my checks will look like (I've done estimates online but they vary by $400 depending on the source) it's hard to do a budget for the year. I only know my annual salary and that I get paid twice a month.

I've got enough in savings to cover any tax bills (I'm nervous about my state and city taxes), my rent for next month and my next electric bill. My child support will have to float us until I get paid. That leaves me $1,000 EF untouched so not super shabby for not having a job for a few weeks.

I'm not sure if I should snowball or just save save and save some more. Not having an income by choice has made me realize I do need a safety net besides me 401k.

I can't remember what your debt situation looks like, but maybe you could half and half it towards savings and debt? At least you'd still be contributing some to both, and you still have that $1000 EF under your belt, which is nice.

I hope you enjoy your new job and have enjoyed your time off! You'll have to let us know how it goes next week!

 

[ariel1025]

Bad news. The truck issue wasn't just the battery. We went and bought a new one and the truck still won't start. BIL thought it might be some sort of battery cable and the terminals since they looked too corroded to him, but that didn't fix the issue either. FIL is going to bring his truck and trailer over the weekend to take it to our mechanic and find out what the issue is. At least we will save money on the towing bill and the mechanic is a friend of a friend who we trust to be honest with us. Fingers crossed that it's nothing too expensive....

 

[LisaSunshine]

Hi Debt Dumpers! I haven't read through all the posts but I hope everyone's 2016 is off to a good start. I just popped in to say, I just paid off my student loan! If anyone remembers from last year's thread, my sister & I sold a piece of property that my dad left to us. I got the check for my half of the profit at Christmas, and it's almost enough to pay off all of our credit card debt and the remainder of my student loan. I decided to start with the loan, since it is the largest monthly payment and the only debt currently charging me interest. (The CC's are both on 0% promotions.) Now I have to decide whether to just pay off both CC's now, or put the rest of the money into a savings account to earn interest until the 0% promotions expire. With interest only being 1% (at best), I'm not sure if it's worth continuing to pay monthly just to earn ~$130 over the course of a year.

Congrats! It must be nice to have that big chunk of debt off your shoulders! I would put the rest into an emergency fund and snowball what you were paying for your student loans into one of the CCs. Maybe once the 0% promotion ends, you can look at taking that money to pay them off, but personally, I'd rather have that emergency money in case something pops up, so I wouldn't have to use a CC and rack up more debt! But if you already have an emergency fund that you feel comfortable with, pay those suckers off!

 

[gracie1]

Hi Debt Dumpers! I haven't read through all the posts but I hope everyone's 2016 is off to a good start. I just popped in to say, I just paid off my student loan! If anyone remembers from last year's thread, my sister & I sold a piece of property that my dad left to us. I got the check for my half of the profit at Christmas, and it's almost enough to pay off all of our credit card debt and the remainder of my student loan. I decided to start with the loan, since it is the largest monthly payment and the only debt currently charging me interest. (The CC's are both on 0% promotions.) Now I have to decide whether to just pay off both CC's now, or put the rest of the money into a savings account to earn interest until the 0% promotions expire. With interest only being 1% (at best), I'm not sure if it's worth continuing to pay monthly just to earn ~$130 over the course of a year.

Congrats! That is awesome!! I would go ahead and pay off all the cc. Then you can put a set amount into savings each month. What a great way to start 2016!

 

[MrsTurnerLovesDisney]

I've been lurking for a while and was hesitant to post because I get really down when going over my debt. I posted in the beginning of last years thread but disappeared because I failed miserably. But this time I'm more focused than ever to make a huge dent and DH is motivated as well (something that was lacking in the past). I like this thread because I 'feel safe' from judgement here!
Here goes.
CC#1 $10,300 @ 5.99%
CC#2 $8k @ 13.99%
Target $380
Kohls $310
Furniture loan $2,650. 0% until the summer. I've been paying the minimum and we plan to pay this off with our tax return.

My plan is to pay off the Target and Kohls cards first as they have the most interest. (They should be paid off by the end of this month). Then, onto card #2. The problem is, we are having a little bit of a hard time financially. A significant portion of my paycheck is used for childcare. Before that I have FSA funds taken out for dependent care (I use this for Christmas money) and medical care. Sometimes I have to pay for food shopping with my CC.
I have been really good with my spending and watching where my money goes. Also I had placed some online orders for Xmas and NY&Co messed up and wouldn't credit me. I wouldn't give up and fought and fought. Over a month later, they gave me my money back. Same thing with Nike. I didn't let their mistake slide either. Another thing I did, I checked all of my online purchases against Ebates. I got back an extra $10! I'm also trying to sell stuff on eBay (any suggestions on what is really good to sell on there?).
Anyway, I saw what I paid in interest this year on CC#1 and it was $950! It makes me sick! That's only 1 card and it's 5.99%.
Okay, that's my novel - Wish me luck and good luck to everyone here!

What about selling thru local online yardsale groups? Like I know here selling stuff on Facebook is huge and there are several groups you just meet folks at a secure location for the sale. Like our local police station lets folks come to their parking lot for sales.
I have sold a ton of stuff this way especially baby clothes/toys and household items.
So you kinda get a bonus of cleaning out the house plus some cash. Sometimes I save the cash on fun stuff like movies but sometimes life happens and that money goes to the grocery budget but hey at least its there.

As far as ebay goes...books, dvds, and any sort of collectibles has always been good for me to sell online but I haven't done the ebay stuff in about 5 years.

 

[Eureka]

You guys gotta talk me down....bear with me while I explain. I mentioned how I'm going to Orlando with my sister. We'll be there four nights. I've decided not to try to work while I'm there, and will just take PTO. (My company has an unlimited PTO policy as long as we don't abuse it). The first day, we arrive in the afternoon and she won't have much to do until the next day so we can hang out by the pool if it's warm enough and relax. Or whatever. She is getting me into the conference for free on one day to see the panel she's moderating and do other conference-y things. (Her employer is co-sponsoring the conference and it's not my line of work but something I am interested in, so this is cool). Another day she has told her coworkers that she is playing hooky and she and I are going to Universal. She has never been and I have only been once in 2013 and have not seen the newest Harry Potter stuff. Then there is another day where she will be busy with work and told me to keep dinner time open and we'll eat together, but I am on my own that day.

This is where the "dilemma" comes in. Should I be "good" and take the hotel shuttle to wherever they drop for Disney and wander the deluxe resorts? I have never been to Animal Kingdom Lodge and would love to see if I could see any animals. I also love the theming of the Yacht Club and Grand Floridian and could wander and have some lunch at either place. Or...I could get a ticket and go to Epcot and take the Behind the Seeds tour I've wanted to take since our first trip with the kids in 2008. The tour itself is like $20 but of course the park ticket is not. When we've gone with the kids, we never wanted to take the time out to do it, and now they are older and we think we are done with Disney as a family (at least for awhile). Then if I was already there, I'd do some stuff, but I probably wouldn't get tickets too far ahead of time and so wouldn't really have fast passes. But that's fine.

As soon as I mentioned to DH that I'd have a day on my own, he said I should look into stuff we've never done and how often do I get so close to Disney? (The answer is not often). He said to do whatever I want and not worry about the money. I plan to offer to buy my sister's Universal ticket bc even though she personally is not paying for the hotel, obviously bc of her I'm getting free lodging and she said I am welcome to join in any dinners with her coworkers (that will be expensed) and even the Uber from the airport will be expensed and I won't need to pay.

So, not that I need "permission," but I basically have the green light to buy a park ticket if I want and do the tour...but I feel kind of like I shouldn't, even though I want to. I never go away without my family and DH has said every step of the way that I should, he wants me to have fun. But at the same time I feel almost guilty, even though I am excited beyond belief about this trip and can't wait. Does this all make sense? Thanks for listening to the rambling. First world problems, I know!

 

[Dentam]

My company has an unlimited PTO policy as long as we don't abuse it

Wow - I only get 2 weeks a year right now (soon to be 3 once I've reached 5 years with the company this fall) - super jealous!!

You probably won't get many people on here advising you NOT to buy the tickets. I did my horticulture internship at EPCOT and my family and I all did the Behind the Seeds tour also. We enjoyed it and thought it was worth the money. I'd say go for it and find a discount site like Undercover Tourist to purchase your tickets from so you know you'll be saving a bit, even if it's not a huge amount.

Have fun!!

 

[Eureka]

Dentam - the other side of having unlimited PTO is that we also don't have specific holidays. So, I assume even though you have two weeks right now, you probably have like 6-8 holiday too? And maybe sick time? All of that is rolled into one for us. I have to mark, for example, Christmas and New Years as PTO on my calendar because they're not "free" holidays.

Glad to hear you liked the Behind the Seeds tour. That's also kind of what I wondered, how good it was.

 

[gracie1]

You guys gotta talk me down....bear with me while I explain. I mentioned how I'm going to Orlando with my sister. We'll be there four nights. I've decided not to try to work while I'm there, and will just take PTO. (My company has an unlimited PTO policy as long as we don't abuse it). The first day, we arrive in the afternoon and she won't have much to do until the next day so we can hang out by the pool if it's warm enough and relax. Or whatever. She is getting me into the conference for free on one day to see the panel she's moderating and do other conference-y things. (Her employer is co-sponsoring the conference and it's not my line of work but something I am interested in, so this is cool). Another day she has told her coworkers that she is playing hooky and she and I are going to Universal. She has never been and I have only been once in 2013 and have not seen the newest Harry Potter stuff. Then there is another day where she will be busy with work and told me to keep dinner time open and we'll eat together, but I am on my own that day.

This is where the "dilemma" comes in. Should I be "good" and take the hotel shuttle to wherever they drop for Disney and wander the deluxe resorts? I have never been to Animal Kingdom Lodge and would love to see if I could see any animals. I also love the theming of the Yacht Club and Grand Floridian and could wander and have some lunch at either place. Or...I could get a ticket and go to Epcot and take the Behind the Seeds tour I've wanted to take since our first trip with the kids in 2008. The tour itself is like $20 but of course the park ticket is not. When we've gone with the kids, we never wanted to take the time out to do it, and now they are older and we think we are done with Disney as a family (at least for awhile). Then if I was already there, I'd do some stuff, but I probably wouldn't get tickets too far ahead of time and so wouldn't really have fast passes. But that's fine.

As soon as I mentioned to DH that I'd have a day on my own, he said I should look into stuff we've never done and how often do I get so close to Disney? (The answer is not often). He said to do whatever I want and not worry about the money. I plan to offer to buy my sister's Universal ticket bc even though she personally is not paying for the hotel, obviously bc of her I'm getting free lodging and she said I am welcome to join in any dinners with her coworkers (that will be expensed) and even the Uber from the airport will be expensed and I won't need to pay.

So, not that I need "permission," but I basically have the green light to buy a park ticket if I want and do the tour...but I feel kind of like I shouldn't, even though I want to. I never go away without my family and DH has said every step of the way that I should, he wants me to have fun. But at the same time I feel almost guilty, even though I am excited beyond belief about this trip and can't wait. Does this all make sense? Thanks for listening to the rambling. First world problems, I know!

So how much are you planning on spending that you didn't think you'd be spending originally? Exactly how often do you get to Florida?
And what an awesome job with the pto!

 

[Dentam]

Dentam - the other side of having unlimited PTO is that we also don't have specific holidays. So, I assume even though you have two weeks right now, you probably have like 6-8 holiday too? And maybe sick time? All of that is rolled into one for us. I have to mark, for example, Christmas and New Years as PTO on my calendar because they're not "free" holidays.

We get 6 paid holidays. My last job gave us over double that - 2 paid days for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's vs. 1 day each here along with other holidays we don't get at all here. I also get 2 weeks of sick time a year and 4 personal days. I would think if it's unlimited PTO it wouldn't really matter how they categorize it but then again I've never been with a company that did it that way. I'm guessing by your response that it's not as good as it sounds.