Debt Dumpers - 2016

[Gr8t Fan]

If you remember way back to the end of January, I pitched a promotion to my boss. Well, it has wound its way through the university system and is official! I got a title change and a raise! The raise was several thousand dollars more than I was even hoping to get, so I am currently over the moon with excitement. My goal is to not change our monthly budget at all and apply all of these new earnings towards our debt dumping. It should really help accelerate our plans! Today is awesome.

The only thing that could be better is if DH gets a job offer. He had another interview this morning. I told him to just keep swimming, eventually something will work out.

Congrats to you and fingers crossed for your DH.

 

[AquaDame]

@Dentam cars are such a friggin' PITA! Glad it seems to be going ok now but smart to still get it checked out when you have the time. As for the focus group, while the $100 would be nice, I wouldn't want to spend 2+ hours of my birthday in one either - unless it was about CAKE I've still ignored getting tires for my car because I'm annoyed about it all. DH says I probably can wait to replace them later in the Spring or summer since the weather is, theoretically, getting better!

So since we've been pretty smart (mostly lol) with the inheritance I have received so far (debt gone, mortgage lump sum paid, retirement fund contributed to, savings/kids savings contributed too) I feel like our tax refund could either (a) go to savings or (b) be spent on something FUN sooo.....we are going back to Disneyland to celebrate the 60th for a second time! We are actually only going to the parks one day. We will also go to Universal Studios for another day and the third will be up in the air. We're going to stay at HOJO so that hotel has a great waterpark so I forsee lots of pool time. I suppose I should feel guilty about planning this considering we have a week in Maui in May and our second cruise next January....but I don't! Finally we are in the black, staying there come hell or high water, and if this trip is paid entire with our tax refund only then........ hey at least we don't need to get any souveniers and we can take our mickey ears from our last trip

It sounds like you were more than prudent with your insurance already - I hope you have a blast! It's been almost a year since we found out that my husband was receiving a small inheritance from his grandmother's estate, but we still have not seen a dime of it, so we are just continuing to plug away at debt on our own. I am starting to think it will never come which is a pity... it was from sale of stocks that was to go to all her grandkids. One of them even went and bought a larger house all excited since they had another kid and needed the space (he was going to use the money towards the downpayment). Since it still hasn't surfaced his father in law covered it - I would feel so awkward if that were me!

It started acting up on the way home from the store today and I had to pull over and turn it off, then restart it. It continued to run horribly the rest of the way home, so I will be taking it in this Friday on my day off. I really hope it is a simple enough fix that I can get another year out of it! It currently has 155k miles so I feel like another year isn't too much to ask of it!

Yeah, I really just don't want to deal with that on my birthday. Politics usually get heated and I try to stay out of the fray most of the time. But yes, if it was about cake I'd be all over it - especially if taste testing was involved!

Hooray for the DL trip!! We will be there next month - can't wait!

Fingers crossed! My little '97 Subaru just rolled over 230,000 miles and is still running great (knock on wood!).

If anyone wants to be shocked by rent amounts, check out NYC. Thank god our apartment is rent stabilized, which means the housing authority determines the % increase allowed each year. We pay just under $1800/month for a 1400 sq ft 2-bedroom. It's a very large apartment for Brooklyn, and is also considered a good deal at that price. It's really hard to find any decent 2-bedroom for under $2000/month here.

@DisneyMandC I think you're right about student loan interest. I graduated in 2003 and the interest on my loans was between 2-3%. My total amount was also less than $20K, and my payment was $125/month from the time I graduated until I paid it off at the end of last year. I can't imagine paying over $1000/month in loan payments, especially right after graduation. Yikes!


I've been doing focus groups for years through a few different companies in my area, and its not creepy at all. They are usually held in an office building or conference room at a hotel, and its a group of people all meeting together so you aren't like, alone in a room with the administrator or anything. For the ones I've done, you go to the building, sign in with a receptionist, and they usually have beverages & snacks available for you while you wait. Its all very professional and nothing to be concerned about going to alone.

Back to debt dumping... I think I am going to go ahead and pay off (or at least pay down by half) my last CC. I have most of the money set aside from my property sale, and I was going to just keep that in an account until the 0% interest promotion on the card is up next year and try to pay down the card with regular funds, but I think having that card nearly maxed out is affecting my credit score. I wanted to apply for a new credit card (for a sign-up bonus) so I checked my score with CapitalOne's Credit Tracker tool, and its lower than I thought it was. Its still over 700, so not bad, but I used the feature on the credit tracker to run different scenarios and it estimated that if I pay off that card my score will go up by over 80 points. I liked the idea of keeping that money as a temporary emergency fund while I built up more savings but I have another about $2500 as a true emergency fund. I could also take the $100/month that I pay toward the card and redirect it to the EF. Maybe I will pay off half the balance on the card with the savings and keep half as emergency $. Its so hard to decide, parting with large sums of money (even if it is to pay off debt) makes me nervous.

Portland OR is right up there with you - we are in the middle of a huge housing crisis and they can't build condos fast enough here even at $1800/mo for a one bedroom. The old houses in town are renting for ~$3,000 for 1200 sq foot with one car garage when they even have that... >_<

Personally I lose more sleep over large numbers of debt than parting with cash. You have the best of intentions but what if something happens between now and next year and you can't pay it down before the 0% ends? I'm a fretter though through and through!

My 15 yr old has been done with braces for almost two years and I think he quit wearing his removable retainers after a year but he has permanent ones too. It's basically a wire glued to the inside of the front of his teeth (does that make sense?) Now, if he breaks them, and doesn't notice like he did once, it won't help, but I'm hoping they will prevent a lot of shifting. We keep waiting for the dentist to say the 13 yr old is ready but he is smaller for his age than his brother was, and only just finished losing baby teeth.

I have a permanent bottom one and have seen no shifting at all in 21 years (geez has it been that long?!). I wish I had one for the top too since those did shift. My dentist back in the day told me not to worry about getting a new retainer when I went on vacation and accidentally left it at home for two weeks very soon after I got it. Said my teeth had shifted as much as they were going to. What a sucker I was...

If you remember way back to the end of January, I pitched a promotion to my boss. Well, it has wound its way through the university system and is official! I got a title change and a raise! The raise was several thousand dollars more than I was even hoping to get, so I am currently over the moon with excitement. My goal is to not change our monthly budget at all and apply all of these new earnings towards our debt dumping. It should really help accelerate our plans! Today is awesome.

The only thing that could be better is if DH gets a job offer. He had another interview this morning. I told him to just keep swimming, eventually something will work out.

Congratulations! I hope your husband finds something he loves soon too!

 

[MinnieFanatic]

Thanks everyone for the advice on braces. I will definitely be doing some comparison shopping after we get the final word they are ready for them. I hate to admit this but we don't have a FSA. I need to learn more about ours and how to set one up. We only have one income right now so I never wanted anything to deduct more but I guess in the long run it would benefit us.

 

[bcwife76]

@Jen and Ashwin congrats, that is fantastic news!! Well done!!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Thanks everyone for the advice on braces. I will definitely be doing some comparison shopping after we get the final word they are ready for them. I hate to admit this but we don't have a FSA. I need to learn more about ours and how to set one up. We only have one income right now so I never wanted anything to deduct more but I guess in the long run it would benefit us.

Yes, the payroll deduction part is a little sad at first but remember it reduces the amount of taxable income next time you file. So imagine if you could list your children's braces along with other deductions, you would right? This is the same thing. We adjusted to the lowered paycheck and it's nice to be able to use the FSA card for doctor & prescription copays too. Also, I'll be back at the dentist next month for a crown. The part my ins. doesn't cover is over $700. I just use the FSA card.

 

[SarahSlink]

So, after spending (way too much!) time reading this ENTIRE board the last few days I decided to join you on the debt dumping train! First, thanks everyone for posting your victories and frustrations – it’s great to get a realistic view of what’s ahead and some excellent pointers and advice to help this journey get started. Now, beware -this got really long on me


Here’s what I’m looking at – we currently have a balance on 1 credit card of approx $3,000, a vehicle loan of approx $7,000 and a personal loan of $10,000 that my parents said we can pay back whenever we can. We also have a mortgage. I’m currently a SAHM to our 3 kids and my DH has a good job with great benefits, so although he’s not getting any increases in his pay-including cost of living, we don’t have obnoxious insurance/medical issues like so many do, and thankfully – no student loans! We pretty much live pay check to pay check, though, and all things considered, I’m impressed that we’ve managed to keep our debt down as much as we have. The bigger problem is that we have basically zero savings and I feel like we’re one Murphy visit away from disaster. Actually, we have a window that is completely shot that needs to be replaced and we haven’t been able to for a year and a half now.


My goals. I’m hoping that our tax refund (yes, we’re slow, haven’t even brought them in yet…) will wipe out the cc and fix the window. And maybe even have some left for savings. I need to get an emergency fund asap and then start saving for those other things that come up and I’m not ready for. That’s my struggle – saving for things I know are coming when we barely make ends meet on every day expenses. This time of year stinks for that so I’m feeling it pretty bad right now. Plus, we have lots of stuff that needs to get done on the house, not to mention DH's truck has 200,000+ miles so a new one is likely coming before we're ready. I’ve started thinking about a HELOC, since we have plenty of equity at this time, but refuse to add one more payment until some others disappear.


I feel like we’ve trimmed what we can from the budget, so I need to look at ways to bring in more. I’m very thankful that my DH doesn’t shy away from any and all OT that is offered to him, but I’m not bringing any income in at this time. I have sold a bit on etsy and have the supplies to make more items, so I need to get to work on that and see if I can’t get some $$ that way (and also clear some clutter in the meantime!) We also have a basement full of “stuff” that needs to be gone through and purged. The good news is that starting in the fall I will be watching my new niece (she’s currently waiting for my sister and family to come get her in China!!!) every afternoon and that will generate a bit of extra income as well.


And in the midst of all that – I’m dying to get a Disney fix!!! Right now we have made plans for DCL in January 2018, so that’s seeing me through. But for a family of 5, it’s not a bargain by any means. We’ll be cruising with my parents, my sister and her family and we’re hoping to talk my mom’s brother & his wife, cousins and their families into joining us. Right now I’ve “invested” $250 into gift card churning and am hoping that will generate enough to at least get our deposit made this fall and then see how much more I can get from there. DH and I are also doing swagbucks and right now that’s going into the cruise fund, but I’m thinking that might change a bit just to get us a little more breathing room.


Next up on my To Do List is to make a budget. Blech.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

 

[toystoryduo]

Well, the past couple of weeks have kind of been a roller coaster as far as savings and debt go.

The good news is that we flew right past our savings goal of $300 this month and are currently at $560 for the month.

The not-so-good news is that a couple of my DH's checks got messed up this month (will be fixed next month), and we had to dip into savings again. We'll get that money back, but I was kind of hoping we would hit our "big" savings goal this month. Gotta keep moving forward....

The other good news is that we had 2 eBay sales this week, and we still have 2 more auctions listed. I plan on listing some stuff on Craigslist this weekend, but it's all electronics, so I have to have my DH test everything first to make sure it still works. If that stuff doesn't sell on CL by Easter, I will list those items on eBay during Spring Break. All the money from eBay and Craigslist sales goes into our savings account.

As soon as we hit our $1,000 savings goal, we'll re-start the debt snowball.

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

[ilovecraigandcooper]

Totally new to this marvelous thread (I'm only on page 5)!!! BUT! I had to comment on what happened yesterday. I've been slowly trying to go through our bills one by one and write everything down, put it in snowball order, look at the interest rates, get things IN ORDER the way I should have done it years ago... Well I got to our Lowe's bill and because I get all of our statements online I never take time to look at them, I just log on, make the payment (usually the minimum because I suck like that) and be on my way. So yesterday I pull up the statement to add the details to my list I'm making and I see a $56 fee....not interest but fee. I look at the statement before that and it's there too. And the statement before that. So I do the online chat with a rep and inquire what it is and it's some kind of "if we die insurance, our bill will be paid off" !!! I'm like OH MY GOSH, CAN YOU REMOVE THAT IMMEDIATELY, PLEASE?!?! She did so and as a courtesy removed the month before also. I'm guessing the fee is in accordance to what your balance is and we put a lot on our card last year, building up on our house so as much as it SUCKS that we paid if for probably a year without noticing (I mean, that's embarassing and horrific in itself). But at the same time I am so proud that I'm finally taking charge and investigating and trying to get ahead of things and that'll be another $56 a month we have to pay on the card!!!

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Just wanted to say welcome to the new dumpers!!!! Glad you are here!!

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Today I paid 1/2 of the next credit card on the chopping block. I'm ready to pay the whole thing off but I know we will get an oil fill soon so I need to keep that money in the bank.
I've also started paying my kids back. They got money from our accident 8 years ago and we borrowed it to pay various things. Now it's high time I paid that back.

I also got my $1000 emergency fund set up, now to not touch it!!! LOL

 

[Angeejoe]

Totally new to this marvelous thread (I'm only on page 5)!!! BUT! I had to comment on what happened yesterday. I've been slowly trying to go through our bills one by one and write everything down, put it in snowball order, look at the interest rates, get things IN ORDER the way I should have done it years ago... Well I got to our Lowe's bill and because I get all of our statements online I never take time to look at them, I just log on, make the payment (usually the minimum because I suck like that) and be on my way. So yesterday I pull up the statement to add the details to my list I'm making and I see a $56 fee....not interest but fee. I look at the statement before that and it's there too. And the statement before that. So I do the online chat with a rep and inquire what it is and it's some kind of "if we die insurance, our bill will be paid off" !!! I'm like OH MY GOSH, CAN YOU REMOVE THAT IMMEDIATELY, PLEASE?!?! She did so and as a courtesy removed the month before also. I'm guessing the fee is in accordance to what your balance is and we put a lot on our card last year, building up on our house so as much as it SUCKS that we paid if for probably a year without noticing (I mean, that's embarassing and horrific in itself). But at the same time I am so proud that I'm finally taking charge and investigating and trying to get ahead of things and that'll be another $56 a month we have to pay on the card!!!

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

So exciting to see all of the new people. The hardest part is just starting the process and getting everything down on paper (or in my case, in Mint.com). Once that step is complete, you can really start to see a path forward and make real changes. I have made so much progress already this year and the motivation from this group has been amazing! Going to just keep swimming and hope that our plans stay on track to be debt free (with the exception of car and house) by October.

 

[stayhomemom77]

I have an ugly confession to make.

DD and I went to Shoppers on Saturday night to buy milk but I should have asked the hubs to do it. She and I were having hormone related cravings and we came home with $36 worth of chips, chocolate and ice cream in addition to the milk.

And I KNEW that was likely to happen if I went to the store.

Because there was no room in the budget for $36 worth of junk food, I had to take it from my vacation account.

I spent the last week being crazy frugal with our other purchases so I could pay that money back.

I now have $25 left in my grocery budget (I only have to get milk and produce with it on Thursday so that will be enough), $65 in my gasoline budget (which should be enough to go out of town with for Easter) $10 in cash for MISC expenses (and nothing expected to come out of this cash) and $150 for my son's birthday present. Otherwise, the bank account contains enough to cover what is needed in the various savings categories and all the upcoming bills.

So, it all turned out fine. But I keep reminding myself that my vacation account could have been $35 richer (and our waistlines smaller) if we hadn't bought all that garbage last week!

Cravings suck!!

 

[MrsTurnerLovesDisney]

Not Murphy yet...but maybe...we knew my 10 year old SVU needed a bit of work and had $200-$300 set aside from tax return money to cover it. I have to take it in next weeks to have the brakes looked at but my air blows on the floor and the dash but not the actual forward facing vents. Talked to the brake folks they said it sounds like an actuator switch which sounds pricey to me. They don't fix that so I have to call a regular mechanic. Hoping it's not over the top and the money I have set aside will cover both.

Mainly bc I have been dumb and been doing a little too much shopping lately. We went wild this last payday and ate out 3 times we're not supposed to do that and then some shopping and all we've spent about an extra $400 from our tax refund ugh!!! But now I have fussed at my self bought a month worth of groceries and left the debit card at home. I told myself my last paycheck we didnt' need groceries and making last minute stops for stuff we did need ended up costing as much if I had just gone and bought stuff.

Anyways yesterday we went to the store and really stocked up I hated having to spend sooo much but our local stores suck and never have good sales. I did save $17 with coupons but still nasty!

Also CareCredit got my check for my full payment on Friday and still took the automatic draft out of my acct Monday even though I had a $0 balance. I made sure to cancel all other automatic drafts and I called to see if they could just cancel the payment. They said no they would have to cut me a check in 5-15 days!!!!

On the good news side DH interview went very well and he should hear back by next week so fingers crossed!

 

[AquaDame]

Need to kvetch, this is likely the best spot. After paying another CC down to $0 which I was SO HAPPY about, my husband's debit card had a hold put on it! Someone in South Dakota decided to try and charge $120 worth of stuff to it at a Walmart there. We didn't discover this until we were at the grocery store with $25 worth of food getting warm at the scanner (of course) and he drove so I left my wallet at home. Since you can't use credit cards there he had to go use the ATM there and it warned us about the $1 charge... what it did NOT warn us about was that it is considered a cash advance and hit us with a minimum $10 fee! We have never had to do this before so I had no idea! I'll admit I probably should have known and just put all the groceries back but we didn't. I tried calling Bank of America and having the charge reversed but they refused. Chalk it up to experience I suppose, but man I am still livid at banks taking advantage. We have over a thousand dollars sitting at one bank but since some jerk decided to steal our card WE have to pay the stupid tax.... a whopping 40%!

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Need to kvetch, this is likely the best spot. After paying another CC down to $0 which I was SO HAPPY about, my husband's debit card had a hold put on it! Someone in South Dakota decided to try and charge $120 worth of stuff to it at a Walmart there. We didn't discover this until we were at the grocery store with $25 worth of food getting warm at the scanner (of course) and he drove so I left my wallet at home. Since you can't use credit cards there he had to go use the ATM there and it warned us about the $1 charge... what it did NOT warn us about was that it is considered a cash advance and hit us with a minimum $10 fee! We have never had to do this before so I had no idea! I'll admit I probably should have known and just put all the groceries back but we didn't. I tried calling Bank of America and having the charge reversed but they refused. Chalk it up to experience I suppose, but man I am still livid at banks taking advantage. We have over a thousand dollars sitting at one bank but since some jerk decided to steal our card WE have to pay the stupid tax.... a whopping 40%!

Ouch!!!! Live and learn, I guess. At least you've paid down the CC to ZERO, so this isn't in addition to the cash advance fee.

 

[AquaDame]

Ouch!!!! Live and learn, I guess. At least you've paid down the CC to ZERO, so this isn't in addition to the cash advance fee.

Too true... first thing i did when I got home was put the $40 back to the card so it was still at zero - the entire time I owed them money was about 12 minutes. That may have made more more angry than I would have been otherwise though since the $10 balance was taunting me this morning...

 

[Dentam]

Too true... first thing i did when I got home was put the $40 back to the card so it was still at zero - the entire time I owed them money was about 12 minutes. That may have made more more angry than I would have been otherwise though since the $10 balance was taunting me this morning...

Bank of America is really bad with fees. I've had them put my bill payments in order so that they went through before my paycheck was deposited (I have direct deposit) and then they could charge me a fee for letting my balance get too low. And the fee was for EACH transaction - so each bill paid. Didn't matter that they were hours apart. Really shady and when I called them about it they would only take one of the fees off after I asked for a manager.

 

[AquaDame]

Bank of America is really bad with fees. I've had them put my bill payments in order so that they went through before my paycheck was deposited (I have direct deposit) and then they could charge me a fee for letting my balance get too low. And the fee was for EACH transaction - so each bill paid. Didn't matter that they were hours apart. Really shady and when I called them about it they would only take one of the fees off after I asked for a manager.

Wow that is cruel!

We really do fly Alaska a lot so I really didn't want to give up my card but the more I think about it the more I want to drop BoA. Maybe now would be a good time to do that.