Debt Dumpers - 2017

[LisaSunshine]

We started January strong, but after DH landed another job and I knew our income would be improving, we got off track a little. Thankfully, we came to our senses before too much damage was done and we were able to catch up quickly.

I'm thinking about putting "allowances" for each of us in the budget and putting a certain amount in there every week or every month to spend how we please, guilt-free. It wouldn't be a very big amount, but I think it would give us a sense of accountability while also letting us enjoy some fun money. Has anyone else done this?

 

[mrsabbott]

I have everything plugged in to file our tax returns except for one more W-2. Hubs said that he has it, so I will be able to file tonight after he gets home. Right now, we would get a very nice sized return.. so I expect it to go down considerably once I add the other income. Hopefully, it will be enough for us to pay off our one credit card and do a few repairs around the house. We need a new dishwasher, a new dryer, and the front side of our fence replaced. This credit card payment is very high, so it will be nice to free up that money each month and roll it over towards other debt.

I have stared an emergency fund. I have $350 in there right now. I am also going to try to leave at least a $100 balance in our checking at all times for those times my husband gets a little carried away at his gas station stops. I give him spending cash each week, so that has helped him keep track of his spending a little more.

I have resisted buying things I don't need. We are eating frozen pizzas instead of ordering in on our pizza movie nights. I am packing my own lunch with me to work each day. Hubs is also packing his lunch. I am buying snacks and things now for our trip to GWL in a couple of weeks. It is expensive to eat there, but they have a microwave and little fridge so we can make do and cut cost by bringing stuff with us. I like to buy things I don't normally get so it feels more "special" for the kids but less expensive then eating out.

Being more mindful of our spending is really helping me see that we COULD get out of debt faster than we have been. I am feeling more positive that this will be our year that we get a handle on our finances!!

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

We started January strong, but after DH landed another job and I knew our income would be improving, we got off track a little. Thankfully, we came to our senses before too much damage was done and we were able to catch up quickly.

I'm thinking about putting "allowances" for each of us in the budget and putting a certain amount in there every week or every month to spend how we please, guilt-free. It wouldn't be a very big amount, but I think it would give us a sense of accountability while also letting us enjoy some fun money. Has anyone else done this?

DH and I each have a monthly allowance. We use it for clothing, going out with friends (we have a separate family dining budget) and any hobby expenses. It gives us some freedom to buy what we want or do other things without always having to make sure it fits into other budget categories. I like it.

 

[Eureka]

We started January strong, but after DH landed another job and I knew our income would be improving, we got off track a little. Thankfully, we came to our senses before too much damage was done and we were able to catch up quickly.

I'm thinking about putting "allowances" for each of us in the budget and putting a certain amount in there every week or every month to spend how we please, guilt-free. It wouldn't be a very big amount, but I think it would give us a sense of accountability while also letting us enjoy some fun money. Has anyone else done this?

A few years ago, DH requested that I get him $40 cash back each week when I food shop. I don't give myself a set allowance, and actually rarely spend much money on myself except for getting a haircut and eyebrow wax every couple months. And when I was unemployed this summer, we temporarily stopped it until I started working again.

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

We started January strong, but after DH landed another job and I knew our income would be improving, we got off track a little. Thankfully, we came to our senses before too much damage was done and we were able to catch up quickly.

I'm thinking about putting "allowances" for each of us in the budget and putting a certain amount in there every week or every month to spend how we please, guilt-free. It wouldn't be a very big amount, but I think it would give us a sense of accountability while also letting us enjoy some fun money. Has anyone else done this?

We do! It helps tremendously with feeling like I "splurged" or had some money that I could just "blow" without having to mark it off in the budget and feel bad about it

 

[yupikgal]

Have you used undebt.it? I just heard of it and was wondering if it was useful.

I just looked it up, and started watching their Youtube videos! Thanks for this. I use Mint & Dave Ramsey's "Every Dollar" but I like how the undebt.it shows you all your debts & has tutorials. It's free right now, but who knows when they will start charging. I'm sure they have to charge for some things, or they get advertisers like Mint.com. Anyway, thank you! Every little thing helps!

 

[dayvewc]

Spent ~$85 at Red Robin last night. (I did NOT Charge this, this came out of debit card/checking acct).
I envy those of you who can go weeks/months without eating out. Its just laziness on our part.. i could have made spaghetti and will most certainly make that tonight!

When i was young, WE NEVER ate out.. i swear to you that once i got older and went off to college, sitting down at a restaurant was very WEIRD for me.. I certainly had eaten at fast food places a few times but rarely did we go somewhere and sit down to eat.. i bet i could count on 1 hand the number of times we (mom, dad, brother, sis) went to a nice restaurant and sat down to eat when we were young..

When i visit my mom and dad today.. we still don't go out to eat much... nor do i want to.. mom is a great cook and i love eating her cooking. so does at least 2 of my kids.. the older one.. well, he is weird! HA

For me/us, we love eating out but we love travel more- when we want to spend money, we just reiterate that we want to travel and can eat out then...
I'm the same- we NEVER ate out when I was growing up- like maybe once a year if that for my grandma's birthday and it wasn't anything fancy...my mom and dad (separated) both still don't eat out, my DH on the other hand, his family ate out a lot and his parents still do- that's one thing actually that I do use as motivation- I don't want eating out to become a "norm" for our kids - it's a bad habit to get into and a huge waste of money- DD is 12 and we are already trying to show her what bad value it is- ie when we are at the hockey game and she wants one of those $4 lemonades- we talk about what it takes for her to earn $4 and what else she could spend on etc...

I like being on the "Eat at Home" thread- it gives me ideas, and I go back to my post of our week meals and edit with what we actually had- it has helped me stay accountable

This was me when I was young. Eating out was a BIG deal. And even then, it was more likely to order from the local pizza restaurant and eat at home. I think the only real exception was there were a couple of years when Sonic used to run 1/2 price burgers on Tuesdays, and mom would get those.

The big thing I remember, though, is we NEVER traveled. When I was about 6, we took a family vacation to visit family in South Carolina, drove down the east coast to Florida, and then back home. Was about 2 weeks total. The next family vacation was when I was 16. Another trip to visit family in Pennsylvania, down to Baltimore, then D.C., on to South Carolina and back home. That is part of the reason I love to travel so much now, I never did growing up.

In other news, for about 2 hours this afternoon I had no credit card debt. I managed to pay off the last of my credit card, and then got a text from one of my roommates that the garage door on the shed broke. It had been having problems, but today it just completely fell off the tracks. So, after work meant a trip to Lowe's and a new door. At least it cost less than what I paid off, so I'm not completely back where I was. And I'm hoping that when one of my former roommates pays me the last of what is owed I can pay this charge off also. (Supposed to get the final back-rent sometime early next week).

Haven't started my taxes. I've only gotten 2 of my 3 W-2's, 2 of about 6 1099INT forms, and never hear anything from my stock broker (for the 9 shares of stock I own in Wal-Mart) until after Feb 15. So, I'm just going to wait until after groundhog day and then start inputting everything. Fingers crossed that I will get something similar to the past couple of years, but I know it will be a bit less. I quit one of my part-time jobs in June, and I had them hold an extra $40/week out of my check to boost my refund. I'm hoping to get about $2500 this year, down from the $3k-$3.5k the past several years. (And yes, I know that having an extra $300 a month would let me do more each month, but getting the lump-sum chunk works better for me. I don't have to worry about saving it each month, and I try to file the last of February so it comes in right before I take my spring break trip. That way, I get the refund just in time for my trip).

 

[hmack]

Hi everyone. Checking in for my weekly (or so) accountability - debt temperature check.

This week I had about $6.00 left in general account before pay day hit, but I didn't have to dip into savings when DH registered his car which was about $168.00 so even though it was a lean week, I feel good about that. Normally, I would have taken that money out of savings to give me an extra cushion, but instead I made it a bit of a challenge.

This weekend's goal is to sit down with all of my recently accrued medical bills and make a plan of how to conquer them. Sticking my head in the sand isn't going to get me anywhere. With knowledge comes power and with a solid plan comes empowerment. So - that's the mission.

I do confess that after paying bills I did have some $ left over and instead of putting in towards savings or debt I left it in there because it's my birthday this weekend and I want to play just a little bit. Nothing too crazy, but I know that if I make this budget too strict I know that I'll resent it and out the window it will go.

I suspect DH will work in the taxes this weekend and then we'll enter into our annual negotiations of what to do with any money we might receive back (if we do).

 

[momof2gr8kids]

We started January strong, but after DH landed another job and I knew our income would be improving, we got off track a little. Thankfully, we came to our senses before too much damage was done and we were able to catch up quickly.

I'm thinking about putting "allowances" for each of us in the budget and putting a certain amount in there every week or every month to spend how we please, guilt-free. It wouldn't be a very big amount, but I think it would give us a sense of accountability while also letting us enjoy some fun money. Has anyone else done this?

Yes we do this. Started a few years ago after frustrations of seeing the debit card used for stupid things sometimes. I know a lot of people that do this. I think it saves a lot of arguments about $$. Maybe saved a few marriages. LOL

 

[momof2gr8kids]

I'll be reading along here as well. We are doing a good job of tackling our debt. Just have our LOC which is what we used for our vehicle loan and an RRSP loan which we make weekly above average payments towards. I'm waiting for a reimbursement cheque for work travel from November to pay of my credit card and boost our emergency fund.

We do have a budget and follow it fairly closely, but what I've found is it's hard to put that money away for upcoming events or kids stuff, Christmas, etc. and come September to December there's a huge amount of $$ flying out of our account and it's hard to keep up. Then in Jan we're back to 0 in our emergency fund and some cc debt! So what I did this year was add up what I'd spend for Christmas, Birthdays, Kids sports registrations and divide by 26 and have that taken off my cheques each pay into a Canada Savings Bond account. I can withdraw money from it when I need it, but I don't have instant access to it. That way it's not in our account tempting us to splurge on something because we've got some extra $.

I'm hoping that will make next fall and Christmas season less stressful around here!

 

[mco65]

I used to have my company take out an extra $50 from my check just to help cover the EOY tax gap.. it helped but now i simply reduced my # of dependents and keep the $50.. i think its a push.. who knows. regardless, i will be paying in this year.. can't remember the last time i got $ back..

 

[mrsabbott]

Well, I filed our federal tax return last night. We are getting back a considerable amount LESS than we did last year. It will NOT be enough to pay off that one large CC that we were hoping to pay off but we can maybe pay off one of our smaller ones and still purchase a dishwasher and dryer. Hubs is feeling very discouraged right now about it and claiming that he "doesn't understand where our money goes". I have to remind him that he spends a considerable amount of money on "nothing" each week (sodas, cigarettes, candy, etc..) and that we have a lot of debt that we have to pay. And gas and groceries cost money.. We will get there eventually, but it seems that we will just be getting there a little slower than we anticipated.
I haven't filed state yet because we have to PAY this year.. $180. I could pay it now out of our little emergency fund, but I would rather wait and just try to budget it in later this month.
We are still going to GWL next weekend (that is already paid for) and we will still go to Jellystone Campground this summer for our family reunion. My mom got the kids a zoo membership, so we will utilize that this year. But we won't be taking any other trips or get to have a vacation this year. Sigh.. Maybe next year..

 

[Shmily1]

I just looked it up, and started watching their Youtube videos! Thanks for this. I use Mint & Dave Ramsey's "Every Dollar" but I like how the undebt.it shows you all your debts & has tutorials. It's free right now, but who knows when they will start charging. I'm sure they have to charge for some things, or they get advertisers like Mint.com. Anyway, thank you! Every little thing helps!

I signed up for it too and I think it is working great. I love that I can change how much I'll have to put towards debt and can also change the way my debt is paid off. It did already motivate me to pay one off yesterday and I could pay off another today but I may wait until Monday when I get paid to make sure I have plenty of extra to pay those bills. Either way, it will be gone soon. I did see where they asked for donations on the page so they could keep it free. Hopefully it will stay free for a while anyway.

 

[Eureka]

Spent ~$85 at Red Robin last night. (I did NOT Charge this, this came out of debit card/checking acct).
I envy those of you who can go weeks/months without eating out. Its just laziness on our part.. i could have made spaghetti and will most certainly make that tonight!

When i was young, WE NEVER ate out.. i swear to you that once i got older and went off to college, sitting down at a restaurant was very WEIRD for me.. I certainly had eaten at fast food places a few times but rarely did we go somewhere and sit down to eat.. i bet i could count on 1 hand the number of times we (mom, dad, brother, sis) went to a nice restaurant and sat down to eat when we were young..

When i visit my mom and dad today.. we still don't go out to eat much... nor do i want to.. mom is a great cook and i love eating her cooking. so does at least 2 of my kids.. the older one.. well, he is weird! HA

We rarely ate out either when I was growing up. We saved quarters in a big beer mug and when it was full, we went out. We also brought sandwiches in the car when we traveled. Ugh, warm tuna and peanut butter sandwiches...not the greatest memories...so now when we travel, I bring snacks but we stop and eat a meal on the road. Now as an adult, we still don't eat out much compared to how a lot of families do. We went out last weekend with the kids and it was the first time in a long while we'd all gone out together. (And half of our meal was covered with a GC) We don't even do takeout on a weekly basis. When there's a track meet and I go straight from work, I'll get DS and me sandwiches, and once in a while DH will get the kids subs when he's carting people around and tight for time. But we're making an effort a) to eat better-for-us meals at home and b) have some convenience food at home (frozen pizza, hot dogs, etc.) for those times when we don't have time to make something "real".

 

[MrsTurnerLovesDisney]

2 things to report back on since yesterday

We had been discussing going part time with our sitter as my husband schedule is changing to 2 weeks days 2 weeks nights. She would keep our daughter on the day shifts and he would have her for the nights. (He works 3-11pm so not overnight so he can come in and sleep and our DD sleeps in when daddy is home)

So that will save us about $200 a month (thankfully we only pay $400/month but things are cheaper in the sticks)

We also got our escrow refund check in for $180 which was a nice surprise so $100 went to Disney vacation account and $80 for DH birthday/valentine's day that we are celebrating next week.

 

[Shmily1]

I had a credit card that I liked but I looked at the bill and they had charged me $75 annual fee. That didn't go over very well so I called them, cancelled the card, then went online and paid it off. I don't like interest so definitely not paying $75 for a card with no rewards. BYE card!!

 

[LisaSunshine]

Thanks for all the feedback! I'm going to wait until DH gets his first full paycheck with the new job so we'll have a better understanding of how much of an allowance we can give ourselves. So glad it's worked well for others!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Something I do in place of personal allowances is to use any money I earn off of sites like Bing Rewards, Swagbucks, etc. for purchases. For example, I earned a $5 Amazon gift card from Bing the other day so I used that to purchase a used book from Amazon I've wanted. I know others on here have said they've redeemed for Starbucks gift cards since they like that as a treat as well.

 

[Ngwira]

Went to dealer to get my car repaired. Of course the issue wasn't covered by my power train warranty as it was a $4 hose in the emissIons system. $177 later... the good news is my w2 came and I made less this year due to maximizing 401k and Fsa withholdings. Hoping for a nice refund...

 

[Tygerlilly]

Well, had a good sit down with the other half about my tax return. I originally told him I was getting back $2k less than I am and was going to surprise him by paying off some of our debt to open up funds in our monthly budget.

Well, our small family trip has turned into an extended family trip, including DF's older son and his girlfriend. We really wanted to include them and know full well they can't afford to do everything so we are picking up the cost of their park tickets and if we go to an expensive meal (I was 100% for this from the get go). So, it looks like instead of paying off some payments, we will just use the cash towards vacation instead.

I did find out that one of our leases only has 4 payments left, so that should be paid off soon, especially if I can double a payment here or there.

At least we won't need to finance the trip.