Debt Dumpers - 2017

[Dentam]

I'm ready to start focusing on 2017 - who's with me?!

 

[arlinar]

I'm with you. No point in trying to fix everything before 2016 now. The holiday season always seems to make budgets go off track.

2017 should be much better in financial goals for me.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Going to finish out my month on the other post and then join you here. Got some student loans to tackle in 2017!

 

[Moramoon]

I'm with you My goal is to get our 2 credit cards paid off next year. The holiday's always throw our budget off so the new year will give me a good chance to start fresh. Thankfully our medical bills from when our daughter was born should be paid off early next year so that extra bit will help a ton!

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I am planning to post a 2016 summary on the other thread, but I am ready to start thinking about 2017. Our goals are to save $6k in our emergency fund. I would also like to pay off my car or get within a few months of completing the loan by the end of 2017. We will also start extra payments on our mortgage, basically taking what we currently pay towards the principal+interest and matching it to all go towards the principal. If we could maintain these mortgage payments, our house would be paid off within 10 years.

 

[s3058]

I'm going to attempt to join this My debts is not official debt but rather I had to "borrow" from my college fund after I had to leave work last autumn, my income is limited to SW so only about 100 a week before expenses so it'll be small but constant payments! Hoping to reach about 1000 by this time next year

 

[fallonkendra]

Jumping in! I'd love to have all credit cards paid off by the end of 2017, and $5000 paid off my lines of credit (which I used to buy my car and furnish my house and pay for our last Disney vacation - $2000-$3000 would allow me to say my car is completely paid off).

I also have a Disney Cruise booked for January 2018 - I want that entirely paid for by the end of 2017 so we don't need to come back after the cruise and worry about paying it off.

 

[Dentam]

I ended up adding a bit to my debt this year instead of paying it off... sigh. So, my goal is to actually pay down my debt in 2017 and also save enough for a down payment on a RAV 4, which I hope to purchase in the fall. In order to achieve these goals, I will need to reduce my spending each month, mostly on eating out and trips to Starbucks which add up quickly, and by not traveling as much (no trip to China in 2017, so that should help!). I am going to WDW in late Feb/early March, but the hotel is already paid for and I am going to be buying my park tickets and airfare with my tax return (with the leftover $ going toward paying down the first cc on my list).

I already have my debt dumping spreadsheet all updated and ready to go!!

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

I was just wondering when this thread would be up! I'll be joining as well!

I actually did well in 2016. We got married and went on our honeymoon, so it was quite an expensive year, but between both my husband and I picking up some overtime and using a little bit of the money we got as wedding gifts to pay for our honeymoon, we were able to keep our wedding and honeymoon from putting us into more debt!

We also began rounding up student loan payments to the nearest 100 (so for example we paid $200 a month on our $180 bill). That will hopefully continue in 2017 and allow us to chip away at it faster!

My goals for this year

We are going to try to find a house to rent in 2017 and start trying to have a baby- so I want to get about 3 months worth of pay in an emergency fund this year.

Credit cards are almost entirely paid off- probably about 2 more paychecks to go. My goal is to start using the cash back offers more efficiently and continue to pay them off every month.

We have a tentative plan to take our next Disney cruise in 2019, so I want to start putting a little in savings every check for that! If I can save even just $25 a check for two years I can save $1200!

Finally- I want to keep hacking away at those dang student loans!

 

[Ngwira]

I'm here. Can't wait to dump debt in 2017!!!

 

[dayvewc]

I went backwards this year. Picking up the car loan did a hit on my progress. Then needing a new washer/dryer and area air conditioners this summer. I managed to make some headway on some of my credit cards, but lost on others. Other than the car loan, I think I at least didn't lose any ground, so I'll take that for a win.

Here's hoping next year has fewer problems!! And more success!!

 

[DnA2010]

I will be on board as well- I am currently on maternity leave but so far our planning has gone ok- my company partially tops up my EI (amount we get from the gov't in Canada) but that stops in January, and we didn't travel in 2016 as we needed to make sure we would be ok on the savings we had for me being off (I'm a higher earner than DH) I plan to go back in late spring some time, but Feb-whenever I go back, we will take a big hit due to no more top up from my work...
We did well this year- had a few big hits (bought a new to us Honda CRV to replace ours that had 391k of miles on it, about 3K in vet bills for my horse), but thankfully we had the savings to pay for these expenses.
Plan for 2017 is to stay on track, work on the emergency fund if possible, when I get back to work check out upping the overpay on the mortgage a bit more and then look at what our next vacation is going to be.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Reading everyone's goals for 2017 is getting me excited for the new year. Though it is just symbolic, it is very powerful nonetheless!

 

[PrincessKymm]

My 2017 goals:
Refill baby emergency fund ($240) to reach $1,000 again
Pay off 5 credit cards
Pay off 2016 medical debt
Keep up with 2017 medical debt

I'm afraid to add up all the medical debt from this year but I want to tackle it full force. DS needs his braces (will put on Dec 27) and then he needs surgery again probably by June.

I have one girls trip planned to Universal that I have to pay off (went straight to CC ) and I hope to do some fun stuff with DS on the cheap.

2017 will be interesting to say the least

 

[DisneyMandC]

My 2017 goals:
Refill baby emergency fund ($240) to reach $1,000 again
Pay off 5 credit cards
Pay off 2016 medical debt
Keep up with 2017 medical debt

I'm afraid to add up all the medical debt from this year but I want to tackle it full force. DS needs his braces (will put on Dec 27) and then he needs surgery again probably by June.

I have one girls trip planned to Universal that I have to pay off (went straight to CC ) and I hope to do some fun stuff with DS on the cheap.

2017 will be interesting to say the least

Kymm how is your son doing?

 

[LisaSunshine]

Trying to join in again this year. I didn't keep up with the thread much last year, but we did introduce a budget and I think our amount of debt stayed about the same, which, considering all the surprise expenses we had early on (our dog got glaucoma at the same time we had car problems, and we got hit with a pretty big tax bill), is fine with me!

Next year, we're starting with a lower mortgage payment thanks to a refi. My goals are:
Pay off DH's closed credit card (we're so close!)
Maintain a zero balance on my Amex rewards card
Create a better emergency fund
Funnel extra money from DH's card and mortgage savings into credit card #3
...And still have enough to fully pay for a trip to Disneyland and D23!

We have two more years left on two loans: my car loan, and a personal loan from DH's parents. If everything else goes well and DH finds a new job, we might work on paying one of those off early, too. Otherwise, we'll focus more on shaving a few months off of them in 2018.

 

[chewysmom]

I'll join! I've been lurking for a while cheering everyone on.

2016 was not a good year for us. Between on going vet bills, my breast cancer scare (negative, thankfully!) and Dh falling off of our roof (he's ok), our credit cards took a hit.

I know ds needs braces, so I set up a FSA to take care of that as well as most of our prescription copay throughout the year-so that will help.

The big thing is dd finally decided she really does want to go to a 4 yr college. The bad thing is we make too much to get a lot of financial aid according to the online calculator I did. So Dh and I are in save, save, save mode. She's going to get a job too, but her course load is going to be heavy her senior year so I really don't want her to work a lot.

We'll also have to get her a car. We have a year and a half to get all of this done .

And of course, after being on overtime for 7+months, Dh is back on normal hours. But, we'll get it figured out.

 

[Dentam]

2016 was not a good year for us. Between on going vet bills, my breast cancer scare (negative, thankfully!) and Dh falling off of our roof (he's ok), our credit cards took a hit.

Wow, sounds like a tough year - so glad you are both okay! Welcome to the group!

 

[Gena001]

Kymm how is your son doing?

I've been absent from this group for a couple months, but it was the first thing I wondered.

 

[AquaDame]

I'm with you... 2017 is going to be _the_ year, I can feel it. :3