Debt Dumpers - 2017

[Dentam]

Ugh, when it rains, it pours.

Yeah, I know - my coworker said it looks like I've reached the magic number of three bad things, so maybe I'll be good for awhile after this.

 

[Shmily1]

Had an apartment collection removed from Experian today and hoping its removed from Equifax as well. Sadly my score dropped a lot due to being unemployed and missing one payment. I'm considering investing in a credit rebuilder program like Lexington law firm (there is one in Phoenix that is much cheaper then them) to try to help clear my credit report once taxes come around and help with debt management.

Starting my Disney Certification as well a couple of days ago and can't wait to start earning income. Also got another Data Entry gig as well to make some money as well as an offer to do part time at amazon.

You might do better working on it yourself. It's not that hard if you read up on it and you wouldn't be spending the money on it. Try looking at myfico forums and see what help you can get there first.

 

[Eureka]

Heard back from the Carmax guy. He said he'll reimburse me for half, "since you already had the work done." Seems the notes say that the brakes were still on half-life. The service advisor told me they were "in the red" and should be done immediately, and because I drive 500 miles/week, I said I will do them now. Didn't realize red = half life. Still think Carmax is trying to not pay, but half is better than nothing, so I said okay, I'll take it. I just get so tired having to keep up with things, follow up, be assertive, etc. etc. you know?

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Heard back from the Carmax guy. He said he'll reimburse me for half, "since you already had the work done." Seems the notes say that the brakes were still on half-life. The service advisor told me they were "in the red" and should be done immediately, and because I drive 500 miles/week, I said I will do them now. Didn't realize red = half life. Still think Carmax is trying to not pay, but half is better than nothing, so I said okay, I'll take it. I just get so tired having to keep up with things, follow up, be assertive, etc. etc. you know?

It is very exhausting to try and get what you are owed sometimes. I think that is part of the strategy that many companies have. They just assume most people will give up or concede, allowing them to keep part or all of the value owed. It really is frustrating and I find myself also having to pick my battles.

 

[Dentam]

Heard back from the Carmax guy. He said he'll reimburse me for half, "since you already had the work done." Seems the notes say that the brakes were still on half-life. The service advisor told me they were "in the red" and should be done immediately, and because I drive 500 miles/week, I said I will do them now. Didn't realize red = half life. Still think Carmax is trying to not pay, but half is better than nothing, so I said okay, I'll take it. I just get so tired having to keep up with things, follow up, be assertive, etc. etc. you know?

Yep, it can be exhausting as Jen said. It drives me crazy to have to try to get people to just do their jobs sometimes.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

The cleaning lady comes for the last time this week. That will save $120 a month. We are trying not to eat out at all for the month of January. I'm doing Swagbucks after I get home from work at night. We are selling a bunch of stuff, and are donating what we can't sell (we deduct from our income taxes so won't recognize that gain until next year). It's going to be a tough year, but hubby and I are on the same page so we can do it.

 

[Miss Whimsy]

Taking my dog to the vet this afternoon. Sigh, this year has not started off ideally here.

oh no. good luck!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

The cleaning lady comes for the last time this week. That will save $120 a month. We are trying not to eat out at all for the month of January. I'm doing Swagbucks after I get home from work at night. We are selling a bunch of stuff, and are donating what we can't sell (we deduct from our income taxes so won't recognize that gain until next year). It's going to be a tough year, but hubby and I are on the same page so we can do it.

Awww... It's been 6 years since we've had a cleaning lady. Ds16 was 2 when we started and 10 when we quit. It was nice at the time and I considered it part of the cost of working FT but when you add it all up per month, per year, it weighs on you. I had an easier time justifying it when I was chasing 2 preschoolers around and still spent half of my weekends doing laundry. Not so much when they're 13 & 10. Now they're 20 & 16 so if I'm going to pay anyone, it will be them.

Besides going out to eat occasionally, we'd also order pizza on Friday nights. We just felt like we deserved a break from cooking after a long week of work. Well to get 2 pizzas delivered plus tip, would be close to $30 each week ($120/month!) Dh does all the cooking and he said he doesn't mind it at all so now we barely ever go out to eat. Well, we just do birthdays and our anniversary. And while we're on vacation.

If you can, put that $120/month right onto your debt. If you're going to sacrifice something for debt reduction, make it count!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Low cost weekend since we were snowed in! I did go out and pick up a few things today, including a pair of snow boots that I've needed for a long time since my feet inexplicably grew at the age of 26 (no, not pregnant). Trying to cut back on eating out this month, but I did go out for lunch with my mom today on my snow day. DH and I are attempting to diversify what we cook at home so we avoid going out. We discovered Costco has some pretty good prices on frozen shrimp and crabcakes so we started buying some seafood there to mix up with the chicken and ground beef.

 

[Dentam]

oh no. good luck!

Thanks - she got sick from being boarded. $112 later, I now have everything to treat her and get her on the mend.

 

[Eureka]

The cleaning lady comes for the last time this week. That will save $120 a month. We are trying not to eat out at all for the month of January. I'm doing Swagbucks after I get home from work at night. We are selling a bunch of stuff, and are donating what we can't sell (we deduct from our income taxes so won't recognize that gain until next year). It's going to be a tough year, but hubby and I are on the same page so we can do it.

That's one thing I'd love to do is having a cleaning person every couple of weeks or even once a month. We both have long days and I don't want to spend my weekends cleaning (and I'm not especially good at a lot of it either). But DH doesn't want to spend the money on it, so I haven't pushed.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

If you can, put that $120/month right onto your debt. If you're going to sacrifice something for debt reduction, make it count!

The cleaning lady money will almost cover 1 week of baby boy's daycare. When he gets here we will have 14 or 15 months with both kids in daycare - $1700/month! I don't want my little girl to grow up too quick, but I can't wait for her to go to Kindergarten!

 

[MrsTurnerLovesDisney]

The cleaning lady money will almost cover 1 week of baby boy's daycare. When he gets here we will have 14 or 15 months with both kids in daycare - $1700/month! I don't want my little girl to grow up too quick, but I can't wait for her to go to Kindergarten!

OMG $1700 that's crazy!!!

DH actually likes to clean/organize and does really well with it so he takes care of it. But if not I would so try to find a cleaning lady. I suck at cleaning I'm too ADD to stay on focus when I clean and my organization skills match that of a toddler!

 

[Eureka]

OMG $1700 that's crazy!!!

DH actually likes to clean/organize and does really well with it so he takes care of it. But if not I would so try to find a cleaning lady. I suck at cleaning I'm too ADD to stay on focus when I clean and my organization skills match that of a toddler!

I have organization coming out of my ears. It's the patience to clean, scrub, whatever that I lack! LOL.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

The cleaning lady money will almost cover 1 week of baby boy's daycare. When he gets here we will have 14 or 15 months with both kids in daycare - $1700/month! I don't want my little girl to grow up too quick, but I can't wait for her to go to Kindergarten!

I know what you mean. It was really crazy for a while. Our boys are 20 & 16.5 and with both in day care it was around $1300/month. My pay could cover that and the mortgage so staying home wasn't really an option. (Unless we opt to live in near poverty.)
At one point we had day care for 2 and 2 car payments. That's when we began to stagger our car payments, taking turns every 5 years, so we never have more than 1.
Right now, both of our cars are paid off. We took out a small car loan for ds20 ($170/mo) but he has been making the payments. It's soooo nice to have no car loan!!

 

[saucymb]

We've taken some drastic measures at our house in the past 18 months to get out of debt. We didn't have a TON of debt but because we were living paycheck to paycheck we couldn't seem to get ahead.

Our basic situation: in 2005 DH and I moved across the state for his job; we found out I was pregnant just a couple of months later, so we spontaneously/foolishly bought/built a cookie cutter house just before the bubble burst, so of course, we overpaid. Within a year, we were under water. My husband had a good salary, and I stayed home with my son. 10 years later, and 2 more sons later, we were stuck in the rut of paycheck to paycheck, even though DH had advanced in his career. We tried Dave Ramsey's FPU, and loved the idea, but couldn't commit (rather, I couldn't commit to the boundaries). So we struggled still.

Then my husband landed a job with a company that would allow him to work remotely. Suddenly, the idea of not being tied to the house was not just an idea, it was a very real possibility (we had tried to sell years before, but were so far under water that the loss would have devastated us).

So last year we put the house on the market, sold it in just 1 month (still at a loss, but not as bad as it could have been, and we had to put several thousand $$ into new carpet and repairs, etc.). We moved back across the state to my hometown and rented a small house from my mom - we seriously downsized. 2500 square feet to 1150 square feet. 2 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms. All 3 boys in one bedroom (triple bunkbeds built for us by my brother). Tiny kitchen. My great grandparents bought this house in the 1930's, then sold it to my grandparents. Not a ton of updates, but the 96-year old hardwood floors we discovered under the 1960's carpet were gorgeous!

Anyway, we spent last year paying off the cost of selling our house and now we are chipping away at the other debt (one CC, one student loan, and a personal loan). Using Dave Ramsey's FPU guidelines, and some of his budget sheets, we have cobbled together a plan that works for us and gets us out of debt in 24 months. We did a "trial run" in Nov/Dec, and even though it was the holidays, we rocked it. It "officially" started Jan. 1.

One major deviation from FPU is that we did. The debt snowball was not going to work for us. I couldn't stomach the idea of paying all that interest. Since our credit is excellent, we were able to get a 0%/15 month CC through a bank and we transferred our 18% CC balance to this one.

Here's how we figured out how to get out of debt in 24 months. I added up all of our debt (including interest, which isn't much now). I divided it by 24. I Subtracted it from our monthly net income, then subtracted our invariable expenses (rent, insurance, monthly meds, grocery budget, gas, utilities, etc.). We are left with around $800 a month for everything else, which my husband thinks is a lot, but he doesn't think about things like doctor visit co-pays (2 in the past 2 months), oil changes, birthday presents, pet food, toiletries, and all of those incidentals that add up quickly.

I've started cutting the kids hair (they are all boys, ages 10, 9, and 5 - they don't care if it's just a buzz cut). DH even asked me to do his. Eating out is limited to once a week. Grocery budget is tight - $150 a week for 8 people (I also cook for my mother, grandmother, and brother every night - they do things to help us out, and it all works out). Aldi is the place to do it without couponing for hours. We have no car payments, but both cars have very high mileage. We've decided when one goes out, we won't replace it.

This has turned into a book. Good to get it out. I've been kind of obsessed with it for the past 3 months!

What I've learned: you have to be ready to do it, not just want to do it, but NEED to do it and commit to it. I never handled any bills or money or anything until 3 months ago. I had to take over the "budgeting" and everyday I look at receipts and input them into my excel worksheet. Categories are closely monitored.

 

[kleph]

What I've learned: you have to be ready to do it, not just want to do it, but NEED to do it and commit to it. I never handled any bills or money or anything until 3 months ago. I had to take over the "budgeting" and everyday I look at receipts and input them into my excel worksheet. Categories are closely monitored.

wow. this is amazing. the only thing i could possibly suggest is switching to a zero sum budget.

 

[saucymb]

wow. this is amazing. the only thing i could possibly suggest is switching to a zero sum budget.

That is what we did. Every dollar is assigned. A category. The "leftover" ~$800 each month is definitely put into categories, and at the end of the month, any unspent money is immediately applied to our CC balance.

 

[Eoywin]

Our washing machine croaked

Thankfully we have enough in savings to be able to replace it but not what we wanted to spend money on right now!

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

We officially have our cc debt paid off and now it's time to start building a savings! It seems like it's so much less satisfying to save money than tackle debt!! I want 3 month of bills in an emergency fund and then I want to pay off car loan (about $7000). I think I'm going to need a new car in about 2-3 years, so I have time but I figured I'd rather get the car done this year so we can snowball those payments into our student loans