Debt Dumpers - 2017

[Jen and Ashwin]

I suggested this to my budget this morning and YNAB was kind of like "really?" but I think we can make it work.

Thank you for making me smile. It is nice to keep some humor in this process.

 

[hmack]

Day 2, and the goal is to do something that I haven't been doing a very good job of - Meal Planning. In my head I know all of the reasons why meal planning is good but for some reason it's a chore that I just struggle with.

Going to the grocery store every day of my life (being only slightly over dramatic here) has got to end.

 

[sweetpeama]

Day 2, and the goal is to do something that I haven't been doing a very good job of - Meal Planning. In my head I know all of the reasons why meal planning is good but for some reason it's a chore that I just struggle with.

Going to the grocery store every day of my life (being only slightly over dramatic here) has got to end.

I haven't done daily trips to the store since the summer of 08 when we lived in town less than 2 blocks from a scratch and dent store that a good friend ( my maid of honor) managed. I would load the kids in the stroller and walk down to visit with her every afternoon making a small purchase ( usually under a dollar) if there was something that caught my eye but mainly it was get out and have some interaction while DH was sleeping and I had a 2 toddlers wanting to make noise.

I do a general meal plan but it's not really strict because sometimes things come up and I need to revamp it such as we are going to have left overs because what I am making should have extra servings and the extra is gone for what I was going to put in something else usually along the lines of cook a ham and plan to have some extra for dicing in scalloped potatoes.
I have a pork roast in the crock pot right now and will fix some potatoes, carrots, and possibly a gravy to go with it ( no room to add them to the crockpot the roast barely fit) with plans to have the extra as sandwiches. Unless I decide that since we have no milk ( thanks to a kid who goes through close to a gallon every 2 days-not a teenage boy but a 9 year old girl, she has feeding issues and it is easier for her to just drink than to work on chewing and swallowing actual food) and I will have to mix powdered) I might just do pulled bbq pulled pork.

 

[Dentam]

Well, it looks like I'm starting the year with the flu that's been going around so it's chicken noodle soup and crackers for dinner. At least that's cheap... lol.

 

[disneyduonj]

By

 

[disneyduonj]

Well, it looks like I'm starting the year with the flu that's been going around so it's chicken noodle soup and crackers for dinner. At least that's cheap... lol.

Feel better.

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

I'm in. I will go back and finish reading in a bit.
Lots of goals for the year, many of which I want to cash flow while paying down everything else.

I've been using Dave Ramsey's Every Dollar app but not with a huge amount of success. Once we get our first 2017 paycheck I'm going to start using the app again.
We also just switch insurance to an HSA and we did an FSA account too. So I need to see new take home numbers after all that is taken out.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Then we have to decide if we keep paying extra on loans, or switch to a car - we save a bit more staying with loans because they have higher interest rates (it works out to around $1500 total over seven years), but the total payments would be around $200 a month and the cars currently take up $800 a month, so knocking out a car would free up more cash. I know that is what DF leaning towards, and it'll be easier to funnel extra money towards one account once everything is combined.

We made the decision to put our car payment to the forefront last year instead of our higher-interest student loans. Our car was only at 1.9% and we have a student loan at 6.5%, but the car payment was $577/mo versus $108/mo. While we may have saved more in the long run if we paid down the student loan, it meant more to us to have that $577/mo open up this year. Now that we have that gone, I feel like we have so much extra money to budget each month! (Most of it towards the student loan )

 

[Shmily1]

I just signed up for the free month trial of YNAB. Now, I am a smart person, (2 Bachelor's degrees, some masters work, and 3 years of software support experience in my long ago life!) but I am just not getting it. I know a lot of you use the program, but a lot of you don't, so I don't want to bog down the board with my questions. Is there a forum somewhere else for YNAB users that might be helpful for me? I'm just not understanding the concept. Credit Card debt, for example. It says to add it as an account, but when I do that, the column makes my budget way negative, and on the monthly budget the monthly payment is green, but I can't figure out how to indicate what has been paid and what hasn't, how to enter the due date, or indicate I paid more. The software says to add transactions, but it just seems like duplicating the work I've already done. Thanks for any help you can give me.

It was much easier for me after I saw the videos and did the classes. Maybe this will help a little bit. Your credit card debt shows as negative because you owe it and it's not income. Anything you want to be reminded of, put it in the name of the account. For me, I want to know my bill name, if there's a credit line how much, and the due date. So my account might say Discover 2500 due 3 which would be Discover card, credit line of 2500 and due on the 3rd of each month. Now, I may owe $1200 on this account and it would be showing a red negative. When I pay the bill, say I pay $100 of it, I would do a transfer from my checking account to my Discover account. This reduces my amount available in checking but also reduces the amount I owe Discover. Hope that helps!

 

[Eureka]

Well, it looks like I'm starting the year with the flu that's been going around so it's chicken noodle soup and crackers for dinner. At least that's cheap... lol.

Sorry you're not feeling well. Definitely something going around, we've all had colds and I have a doctor appt tomorrow bc I'm feeling like mine might have turned into a sinus infection. What a way to start the year.

 

[Deffenm]

I would love to join in. We did ok in 2016, paid off RV and one credit card. I have 2 more credit cards left to pay off this year. In order to meet this goal I plan to stick to my budget. If I do this I have an extra 1,500 each month that I can use to pay down debt. My biggest budget buster is groceries and eating out. We are a family of 5 with 3 teenagers who are also year round athletes. I also want to reduce food waste. It never fails I end up throwing away food because it goes bad before we eat because I plan to make a meal then we eat out and it just sits.

Best of luck to everyone! 2017 is our year!

 

[Eoywin]

We were considering getting a newer car this year but we've decided not to. We have two cars - a mini van and a Santa Fe. The mini van is a 1999 and it was my husband's grandmother's. She isn't able to drive anymore so she gave it to us. My husband uses that car to go back and forth to work (which is a mile from our house).

Our Santa Fe is still in good shape and my husband knows enough about cars to be able to do most repairs. He's probably saved us thousands of dollars in repair costs over the years.

Both cars are paid off and not having a car payment is so nice! While I'd love a newer car, we just can't justify a car payment. Maybe next year after we've paid down some of our other debt!

 

[Ngwira]

Chugging along here. Payday is Friday but I won't know what my 2017 pay looks like with my 2017 raise until January 21st because we are paid one week behind so pay will include two weeks ending 12/30/16. Any excess will go to paying debt. We have $4700 left on the window loan.

I got an email from my old company stating I have $1,000 left in an old retirement account. Instead of rolling it over into my current 403b, I plan to pay the 20 percent tax(withhold it now) and 10 percent ($80) penalty next year and use it to put on the window loan. When all is said and done, I should have a check for around $800 soon which is all going to debt.

 

[OregonMomToWDW]

I am new but want to join. I so badly want to plan a trip in 2017 for WDW, but know I need the debt taken care of. I have 2 maxed out credit cards and a car payment. I had zero debt (Dave Ramsey graduate) but then my kids turned 18 and child support stopped but college costs started. It took me a while to figure it out, but credit cards took a big hit while I was trying to make a new budget. My family still eats out way too much, so meal planning has got to be a bigger priority. I now have 4 crockpots (got a new one for Christmas) and should be able to knock out meal prep in one day (but I won't).

Short term goal (next 2 months) - pay off the balance of medical bills.

I would really like to get 1 credit card paid off this year ($5,000).

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Chugging along here. Payday is Friday but I won't know what my 2017 pay looks like with my 2017 raise until January 21st because we are paid one week behind so pay will include two weeks ending 12/30/16. Any excess will go to paying debt. We have $4700 left on the window loan.

I got an email from my old company stating I have $1,000 left in an old retirement account. Instead of rolling it over into my current 403b, I plan to pay the 20 percent tax(withhold it now) and 10 percent ($80) penalty next year and use it to put on the window loan. When all is said and done, I should have a check for around $800 soon which is all going to debt.

If you are currently contributing to a retirement fund, you might just want to consider rolling over the $1,000 and just reducing your contributions for over the next few months by $1,000 instead. Then you won't take the tax and penalty hit at all. And then if you pay off the loan ahead or have money extra left over towards the end of 2017, you still add $1000 later to your retirement.

ETA: But might change the picture if you would end up foregoing an employer match. Just would need to figure out what makes the most sense.

 

[Aurora_Australis]

Ugh. We had a horrible end for 2106. Got charged interest on my card for the first time since March! I've been really good at paying slightly more off and it was only $40 but I'm annoyed!

DH has agreed to cancel his Audible and Netflix subscriptions for a little while though, there's $30 a month. And will look at his gym membership when that is up too. He's left defence last year and isn't used to not having workout time in his work schedule and never goes but does run so thinking of switching that.

 

[Ngwira]

If you are currently contributing to a retirement fund, you might just want to consider rolling over the $1,000 and just reducing your contributions for over the next few months by $1,000 instead. Then you won't take the tax and penalty hit at all. And then if you pay off the loan ahead or have money extra left over towards the end of 2017, you still add $1000 later to your retirement.

ETA: But might change the picture if you would end up foregoing an employer match. Just would need to figure out what makes the most sense.

Great advice as usual, Jen

 

[DnA2010]

We were considering getting a newer car this year but we've decided not to. We have two cars - a mini van and a Santa Fe. The mini van is a 1999 and it was my husband's grandmother's. She isn't able to drive anymore so she gave it to us. My husband uses that car to go back and forth to work (which is a mile from our house).

Our Santa Fe is still in good shape and my husband knows enough about cars to be able to do most repairs. He's probably saved us thousands of dollars in repair costs over the years.

Both cars are paid off and not having a car payment is so nice! While I'd love a newer car, we just can't justify a car payment. Maybe next year after we've paid down some of our other debt!

Good for you! We kinda did the same last year- we have a 2012 Hyundai Elantra wagon (paid off in the first year as we sold previous car and had savings) and had been putting money aside as we know we were going to need to be replacing DH's Honda CRV as it had over 630,000km, so had been saving towards that- wanted to buy a new new car but instead we bought a new to us car (another Honda CRV) that we could pay cash for and thus not get into a car loan...with me going onto maternity leave, just made sense not to get into anymore debt (we now currently only carry a mortgage)

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

If you are currently contributing to a retirement fund, you might just want to consider rolling over the $1,000 and just reducing your contributions for over the next few months by $1,000 instead. Then you won't take the tax and penalty hit at all. And then if you pay off the loan ahead or have money extra left over towards the end of 2017, you still add $1000 later to your retirement.

ETA: But might change the picture if you would end up foregoing an employer match. Just would need to figure out what makes the most sense.

I love this idea. Even though it probably feels like "found" money, it would really bother me to have to pay the $80 penalty. (The taxes would have been paid anyway if this had stayed with the rest of her paycheck so that part is unavoidable.)
This is a perfect solution & can use the full $1000 toward debt.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Sorry you're not feeling well. Definitely something going around, we've all had colds and I have a doctor appt tomorrow bc I'm feeling like mine might have turned into a sinus infection. What a way to start the year.

I am battling one too. Except this is my 4th one since summer. I had sinus surgery back in 09 which keeps me breathing through my nose no matter what, but it doesn't cure my allergies which is usually what triggers my SIs. I have a f/u ENT appt in Feb because it's much worse than usual. I was just thinkin last summer I hadn't had one in over a year and thought that was pretty good. I think I jinxed myself.
Hope you feel better!