Debt Dumpers - 2016

[ruadisneyfan2]

Sorry to hear about your mom. I hope she's feeling well soon.
My dad had a cardiac cath about 8 yrs ago and they found 1 artery 90% blocked. They couldn't get a stent in but they said he too had enough collateral circulation to supply the heart with blood so he didn't need surgery. The human body is amazing. He gets short of breath from his COPD due to being a former smoker but he is just as active as ever cutting their lawn, washing cars, boats, etc.
Now that I think of it, he's probably due for a follow up cath.

Sending prayers and pixie dust to you and your family.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

On the debt dumping, we are making progress. We are paying down the car we bought ds. We originally cashed a Disney visa check they sent us, for $7000. It's a 2% fee but 0% x 12 months. After looking at a lot of cars that had way too much potential for major repairs (as in cars with close to 100,000 miles) we decided to use the $7000 as a down payment and get something not so old. It's a 2013 Corolla and only 27,000 miles. This should last him until he can buy his own next time.
So of the $7000 we took out in Feb, it's down to $2600.
The official car payment is very small, about as much as my larger, "last to attack" credit cards were.
They seemed huge when I first started snowballing but once you get rid of all of the smaller bills, those larger ones don't seem so impossible. By then the snowball is pretty big and you just keep taking big bites out of the balance.
Such a great feeling. Never give up!

Ds has another job interview tomorrow. Yay! Hopefully then he can start paying his student loans himself and also kick in some toward car insurance. Then we can start working on a real emergency fund, 6 months of expenses. It seems every time we pay something off, something else new takes its place.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Assorted updates:

So, I paid the law firm last Friday to represent me dealing with Diamond, and I have received 7 calls and 3 emails this week. , Kind of sure it is coincidence, since the law firm confirmed that they haven't sent out the representation letter yet. It's kind of funny, in an ironic sort of way. Though, the email that addressed my issues pretty much just said "tough luck, we've already done everything we are going to", so I'm still not feeling generous towards them.

On a different front, my mom was having chest pains Tuesday night, so my sister took her to the heart hospital. She was admitted based on the initial test results. She was supposed to have a full catheter done on Wednesday afternoon, so I took off a half-day to go be there. At 7 pm, we received word that the doctor was not going to be able to do it then, but that she was 2nd on the list for having it done today. So, I stayed overnight in the hospital. Did not realize that mom likes late night Discovery Channel TV. Got to see WAY too many episodes of "Alaska: The Final Frontier". *shudder*

Anyway, this morning they came and got her to do the cath spot on at 8:20 after we had been told it would start around 6 am. The nurse that took her to surgery said it would take about an hour, and sure enough, at 10:45 we were called back for the consultation with the doctor. (Brief background, 3 years ago she had a triple bypass and valve replacement). The doctor checked everything out, and the valve and 2 of the bypasses were fine. But the third bypass (from what I understood, the one at the rear of her heart) had 100% complete blockage. However, her heart had "built" its own bypass around the blockage. There was enough buildup from the bypass that the doctor did not think he would be able to operate on it - he couldn't even identify where the replacement artery ran through the secondary bypass. On the gooder side, her heart was pumping strongly, with a steady rhythm, and moving blood at a sufficient rate through her body, so the doctor determined that with as well as her heart is working coupled with the problems he would have trying to operate through the mass, that the potential gain was far outweighed by the high risk of problems, so no surgery.

He also could not find anything that would explain why she was having chest pains, so mom was sent home early afternoon and they do some other tests through the office and keep an eye on her heart, knowing about this alternative bypass and to keep checking on it that it is functioning adequately.

So, I got home about noon after getting about 3 hours of sleep last night and took a 4 hour nap. And that is my life for the last little bit.

Sorry about your mom! But glad to hear she's doing ok. My grandma actually has the same situation where she her heart made its own bypass. I believe at one point she too had gone in for chest pains and that's when they discovered it. That was quite a while ago though, and she hasn't had any other issues. She's in her late 70s now.

 

[gracie1]

Assorted updates:

So, I paid the law firm last Friday to represent me dealing with Diamond, and I have received 7 calls and 3 emails this week. , Kind of sure it is coincidence, since the law firm confirmed that they haven't sent out the representation letter yet. It's kind of funny, in an ironic sort of way. Though, the email that addressed my issues pretty much just said "tough luck, we've already done everything we are going to", so I'm still not feeling generous towards them.

On a different front, my mom was having chest pains Tuesday night, so my sister took her to the heart hospital. She was admitted based on the initial test results. She was supposed to have a full catheter done on Wednesday afternoon, so I took off a half-day to go be there. At 7 pm, we received word that the doctor was not going to be able to do it then, but that she was 2nd on the list for having it done today. So, I stayed overnight in the hospital. Did not realize that mom likes late night Discovery Channel TV. Got to see WAY too many episodes of "Alaska: The Final Frontier". *shudder*

Anyway, this morning they came and got her to do the cath spot on at 8:20 after we had been told it would start around 6 am. The nurse that took her to surgery said it would take about an hour, and sure enough, at 10:45 we were called back for the consultation with the doctor. (Brief background, 3 years ago she had a triple bypass and valve replacement). The doctor checked everything out, and the valve and 2 of the bypasses were fine. But the third bypass (from what I understood, the one at the rear of her heart) had 100% complete blockage. However, her heart had "built" its own bypass around the blockage. There was enough buildup from the bypass that the doctor did not think he would be able to operate on it - he couldn't even identify where the replacement artery ran through the secondary bypass. On the gooder side, her heart was pumping strongly, with a steady rhythm, and moving blood at a sufficient rate through her body, so the doctor determined that with as well as her heart is working coupled with the problems he would have trying to operate through the mass, that the potential gain was far outweighed by the high risk of problems, so no surgery.

He also could not find anything that would explain why she was having chest pains, so mom was sent home early afternoon and they do some other tests through the office and keep an eye on her heart, knowing about this alternative bypass and to keep checking on it that it is functioning adequately.

So, I got home about noon after getting about 3 hours of sleep last night and took a 4 hour nap. And that is my life for the last little bit.

So sorry to hear about your mom! I hope everything is okay with her going forward. My mom has had several caths and has two stints but she also has angina which causes a lot of her chest pain. I hope you get some rest and keep the discovery channel off! Lol

 

[MrsHull1488]

I'm super late in getting on the train here, but Just found this site and this thread in the past few days. I have been trying to get everything paid off, I have been making a good bit of progress, I'm a photographer and just had to invest in new equipment, so I'm hoping the get that debt beat down soon and start really paying off our disney trip scheduled for this fall.

 

[Eureka]

Assorted updates:

So, I paid the law firm last Friday to represent me dealing with Diamond, and I have received 7 calls and 3 emails this week. , Kind of sure it is coincidence, since the law firm confirmed that they haven't sent out the representation letter yet. It's kind of funny, in an ironic sort of way. Though, the email that addressed my issues pretty much just said "tough luck, we've already done everything we are going to", so I'm still not feeling generous towards them.

On a different front, my mom was having chest pains Tuesday night, so my sister took her to the heart hospital. She was admitted based on the initial test results. She was supposed to have a full catheter done on Wednesday afternoon, so I took off a half-day to go be there. At 7 pm, we received word that the doctor was not going to be able to do it then, but that she was 2nd on the list for having it done today. So, I stayed overnight in the hospital. Did not realize that mom likes late night Discovery Channel TV. Got to see WAY too many episodes of "Alaska: The Final Frontier". *shudder*

Anyway, this morning they came and got her to do the cath spot on at 8:20 after we had been told it would start around 6 am. The nurse that took her to surgery said it would take about an hour, and sure enough, at 10:45 we were called back for the consultation with the doctor. (Brief background, 3 years ago she had a triple bypass and valve replacement). The doctor checked everything out, and the valve and 2 of the bypasses were fine. But the third bypass (from what I understood, the one at the rear of her heart) had 100% complete blockage. However, her heart had "built" its own bypass around the blockage. There was enough buildup from the bypass that the doctor did not think he would be able to operate on it - he couldn't even identify where the replacement artery ran through the secondary bypass. On the gooder side, her heart was pumping strongly, with a steady rhythm, and moving blood at a sufficient rate through her body, so the doctor determined that with as well as her heart is working coupled with the problems he would have trying to operate through the mass, that the potential gain was far outweighed by the high risk of problems, so no surgery.

He also could not find anything that would explain why she was having chest pains, so mom was sent home early afternoon and they do some other tests through the office and keep an eye on her heart, knowing about this alternative bypass and to keep checking on it that it is functioning adequately.

So, I got home about noon after getting about 3 hours of sleep last night and took a 4 hour nap. And that is my life for the last little bit.

She might want them to see about her gallbladder. My mom was having bad pain in her chest and back for months that we first thought was her arthritis and then she went to the ER one day it was really bad and had a cardiac work up and they found nothing. Then she was talking to my sister who has had her gallbladder out and said that sounded like her symptoms. Sure enough, that was it. She had it out in Feb and has been fine ever since.

 

[gracie1]

She might want them to see about her gallbladder. My mom was having bad pain in her chest and back for months that we first thought was her arthritis and then she went to the ER one day it was really bad and had a cardiac work up and they found nothing. Then she was talking to my sister who has had her gallbladder out and said that sounded like her symptoms. Sure enough, that was it. She had it out in Feb and has been fine ever since.

That is true if she still has her gallbladder to have it checked! That's how I knew I had to have mine out - I thought I was having a heart attack!!

 

[gracie1]

I'm super late in getting on the train here, but Just found this site and this thread in the past few days. I have been trying to get everything paid off, I have been making a good bit of progress, I'm a photographer and just had to invest in new equipment, so I'm hoping the get that debt beat down soon and start really paying off our disney trip scheduled for this fall.

Your never too late to join us!! Welcome to the thread!! Feel free to jump in with any questions or advice!

 

[KearneyFam02]

Helloooo there!

Someone mentioned this thread over on the Free Dining thread so I thought I'd check it out. It's been a loooong time since I've followed Dave Ramsey so maybe this will give me the motivation again! Here is where we stand right now...

Van - 17200 pmt 316
Car - 15300 pmt 270
Lowes - 2700 pmt 100
Line of credit - 400 pmt 100

That LOC is the bane of my existence. It's set up as an overdraft for our checking and each pay period I pay 50 towards it... and low and behold we always end up transferring 100 once or twice a month. I can't seem to get it paid off so I can even start on the rest of our debt.

 

[stayhomemom77]

Hope they get your mom's symptoms sorted out soon Dayvewc! Welcome to the thread MrsHull1488 and KearneyFam02!!

 

[stayhomemom77]

Paris is booked!

I booked our flights and the hotel on Monday through Expedia which was about 2/3 of the budget. I didn't quite have all that I needed in the account to cover the charge so I stole a bit from our savings account. It will be paid back on Thursday (payday). In the meantime...we are broke, broke, BROKE!!

Thankfully, I have a house full of food, a tank full of gas and only six more days to endure a spending fast!

I'm pretty excited though!!

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Assorted updates:

So, I paid the law firm last Friday to represent me dealing with Diamond, and I have received 7 calls and 3 emails this week. , Kind of sure it is coincidence, since the law firm confirmed that they haven't sent out the representation letter yet. It's kind of funny, in an ironic sort of way. Though, the email that addressed my issues pretty much just said "tough luck, we've already done everything we are going to", so I'm still not feeling generous towards them.

On a different front, my mom was having chest pains Tuesday night, so my sister took her to the heart hospital. She was admitted based on the initial test results. She was supposed to have a full catheter done on Wednesday afternoon, so I took off a half-day to go be there. At 7 pm, we received word that the doctor was not going to be able to do it then, but that she was 2nd on the list for having it done today. So, I stayed overnight in the hospital. Did not realize that mom likes late night Discovery Channel TV. Got to see WAY too many episodes of "Alaska: The Final Frontier". *shudder*

Anyway, this morning they came and got her to do the cath spot on at 8:20 after we had been told it would start around 6 am. The nurse that took her to surgery said it would take about an hour, and sure enough, at 10:45 we were called back for the consultation with the doctor. (Brief background, 3 years ago she had a triple bypass and valve replacement). The doctor checked everything out, and the valve and 2 of the bypasses were fine. But the third bypass (from what I understood, the one at the rear of her heart) had 100% complete blockage. However, her heart had "built" its own bypass around the blockage. There was enough buildup from the bypass that the doctor did not think he would be able to operate on it - he couldn't even identify where the replacement artery ran through the secondary bypass. On the gooder side, her heart was pumping strongly, with a steady rhythm, and moving blood at a sufficient rate through her body, so the doctor determined that with as well as her heart is working coupled with the problems he would have trying to operate through the mass, that the potential gain was far outweighed by the high risk of problems, so no surgery.

He also could not find anything that would explain why she was having chest pains, so mom was sent home early afternoon and they do some other tests through the office and keep an eye on her heart, knowing about this alternative bypass and to keep checking on it that it is functioning adequately.

So, I got home about noon after getting about 3 hours of sleep last night and took a 4 hour nap. And that is my life for the last little bit.

I hope they get your mom's issues figured out. It's frustrating when they run loads of test and can't pinpoint the issue.

 

[gracie1]

Paris is booked!

I booked our flights and the hotel on Monday through Expedia which was about 2/3 of the budget. I didn't quite have all that I needed in the account to cover the charge so I stole a bit from our savings account. It will be paid back on Thursday (payday). In the meantime...we are broke, broke, BROKE!!

Thankfully, I have a house full of food, a tank full of gas and only six more days to endure a spending fast!

I'm pretty excited though!!

How exciting!! When are you going? Are you doing a full week in Paris? Have you been there before?

 

[gracie1]

Helloooo there!

Someone mentioned this thread over on the Free Dining thread so I thought I'd check it out. It's been a loooong time since I've followed Dave Ramsey so maybe this will give me the motivation again! Here is where we stand right now...

Van - 17200 pmt 316
Car - 15300 pmt 270
Lowes - 2700 pmt 100
Line of credit - 400 pmt 100

That LOC is the bane of my existence. It's set up as an overdraft for our checking and each pay period I pay 50 towards it... and low and behold we always end up transferring 100 once or twice a month. I can't seem to get it paid off so I can even start on the rest of our debt.

If you only owe $400 towards the loc I would focus on getting that paid off first and then move on to the lowes card. Since the loc is so small I would bust that one out first! Welcome to the boards!

 

[KearneyFam02]

If you only owe $400 towards the loc I would focus on getting that paid off first and then move on to the lowes card. Since the loc is so small I would bust that one out first! Welcome to the boards!

That's the plan... but every time I pay it off, we end up using it again when our account gets too low. Never fails. I'm trying really hard to get it paid off and to not use it!

 

[stayhomemom77]

How exciting!! When are you going? Are you doing a full week in Paris? Have you been there before?

DH and I have been there twice before...we went on a 7 country European bus tour for our honeymoon (14 yrs ago) and spent about 36 hours in Paris with the tour group. We then went back 9 years ago and spent a week there...leaving the kiddies with my parents. Though the kids were 4 and 2 at that time, they have never let us live that down.

So THIS time, it's a family trip (DS just turned 11 and DD will be 13)...we will be there 9 days, will be hitting Disneyland Paris (both parks in one day) and will be going towards the end of August.

The kids are in French immersion at school and are craaaaazy excited about this trip. They are really looking forward to

a) going up the Eiffel Tower and
b) eating pastries for breakfast every day.

Disneyland is a distant third!

 

[toystoryduo]

Assorted updates:

So, I paid the law firm last Friday to represent me dealing with Diamond, and I have received 7 calls and 3 emails this week. , Kind of sure it is coincidence, since the law firm confirmed that they haven't sent out the representation letter yet. It's kind of funny, in an ironic sort of way. Though, the email that addressed my issues pretty much just said "tough luck, we've already done everything we are going to", so I'm still not feeling generous towards them.

On a different front, my mom was having chest pains Tuesday night, so my sister took her to the heart hospital. She was admitted based on the initial test results. She was supposed to have a full catheter done on Wednesday afternoon, so I took off a half-day to go be there. At 7 pm, we received word that the doctor was not going to be able to do it then, but that she was 2nd on the list for having it done today. So, I stayed overnight in the hospital. Did not realize that mom likes late night Discovery Channel TV. Got to see WAY too many episodes of "Alaska: The Final Frontier". *shudder*

Anyway, this morning they came and got her to do the cath spot on at 8:20 after we had been told it would start around 6 am. The nurse that took her to surgery said it would take about an hour, and sure enough, at 10:45 we were called back for the consultation with the doctor. (Brief background, 3 years ago she had a triple bypass and valve replacement). The doctor checked everything out, and the valve and 2 of the bypasses were fine. But the third bypass (from what I understood, the one at the rear of her heart) had 100% complete blockage. However, her heart had "built" its own bypass around the blockage. There was enough buildup from the bypass that the doctor did not think he would be able to operate on it - he couldn't even identify where the replacement artery ran through the secondary bypass. On the gooder side, her heart was pumping strongly, with a steady rhythm, and moving blood at a sufficient rate through her body, so the doctor determined that with as well as her heart is working coupled with the problems he would have trying to operate through the mass, that the potential gain was far outweighed by the high risk of problems, so no surgery.

He also could not find anything that would explain why she was having chest pains, so mom was sent home early afternoon and they do some other tests through the office and keep an eye on her heart, knowing about this alternative bypass and to keep checking on it that it is functioning adequately.

So, I got home about noon after getting about 3 hours of sleep last night and took a 4 hour nap. And that is my life for the last little bit.

So sorry to hear about your mom! How is she doing? Praying she feels better soon!

 

[toystoryduo]

Happy Friday!

It's been a busy week here! Work issues, job hunting, eBaying, school, research for work, trip planning, etc. Whew!

The big news is that my DH has started looking for a job. He is self-employed (2 businesses) and work has been kind of slow lately. It typically picks up in May for him, but it is definitely slower than last year. This week, he decided to try and find a job, part-time or full-time, that will work with his self-employed schedule. He has already applied for a few jobs and actually has an interview next week. Please send good thoughts/prayers that his self-employed work picks up, and that he can find a job that works with his other schedule. Thank you!

The good:

* I cashed out two rewards programs for $37 total. Once that money comes, it will go into savings.
* We returned some things we decided that we didn't really need. Total= $100
* I listed 3 more items on eBay yesterday. I have 5 total listings up right now. When those items sell, the money will go into savings.
* We had enough $1 D's and F's that we could get another $25 Disney gift card.
* My DH's pay issue from last month was resolved. Not exactly the way we wanted it to be resolved, but it is resolved.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend!

 

[dayvewc]

So sorry to hear about your mom! How is she doing? Praying she feels better soon!

Thanks. She is at home, and my sister says she is just really tired and a bit bruised. Which, all things considered I can completely understand. I haven't heard anything since this morning, so I'm kind of going with the "no news is good news" concept. I'll be going there tomorrow afternoon after my second job and spend the night. I did hear that she is limited to picking up nothing that weighs over 5 pounds - and my nephews miniature yorkie is about 3 lbs, so mom was toting him around last night.

Paris is booked!

I booked our flights and the hotel on Monday through Expedia which was about 2/3 of the budget. I didn't quite have all that I needed in the account to cover the charge so I stole a bit from our savings account. It will be paid back on Thursday (payday). In the meantime...we are broke, broke, BROKE!!

Thankfully, I have a house full of food, a tank full of gas and only six more days to endure a spending fast!

I'm pretty excited though!!

Way to go!! Speaking of a house full of food, I was balancing my checkbook last night, and so far for this month I have only spent $61 on groceries!! I usually spend about $550 a month. I know that there are a few things I will have to get, but I'm really gonna try to keep it under $39 - just to keep that section of the budget under $100 for the month. And the really great part? I still have a chest freezer that is almost full, and both of the side-by-side freezers are over half full, and my pantry has a decent amount of stuff in it. I'm really kind of thinking this may be the "clean out the food storage summer" and try to not buy anything that isn't an absolute necessity.

Now, the bad part of it is that I have eaten out 4 times in the last 3 days. I refuse to feel bad about it, because 3 of those were while I was at the hospital with mom (and she paid for 2 of them). The other one was simply a fluke. Roommate had to go get a new tire for his minivan, and I offered to buy lunch if he would bring it by work. He actually bought it, but I wound up paying for his gas. So, actually a losing proposition on that one, but I'll survive.

 

[bcwife76]

@dayvewc thinking of your mom and hoping for a good outcome!! xx

@stayhomemom77 that's so exciting about Paris!! woohoo!!