Debt Dumpers - 2018

[Dentam]

I totally did!!

Woohoo! Congratulations!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Woohoo! Congratulations!

Thanks for your encouragement.

 

[Buzzsgramma]

After repairs here and there our daughter still drives our 2003 Ford Explorer (we bought new) and the granddaughter drives a 1999 Jeep...our gr -son drives a 2008 Honda Fit (bought used with 40,000mi).....
Son drives a 2007 Tahoe (did replaced trans) other gr --son drives a 2009 Jeep......daughter in law drives a 1999 Camaro.....just say'in...

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I got a call on Sunday from my mom letting me know that my cousin's wedding has been called off. I am sad for my cousin and disappointed not to be sharing a happy time with him. But also glad that he came to this realization now, rather than after getting married.

Well, that means that we won't be going to Phoenix. But since I already bought our Disneyland tickets, we have decided that we will still fly to California and take our Disneyland trip. I was able to rearrange our Southwest flights, cancel the Phoenix arrangements and rebook our airport/hotel transfers from LAX. We will still be there the same number of nights, so I didn't have to book any additional hotel. We will also end up spending less on food and airport parking now. This also means that we won't have to take a vacation day on the Friday before the wedding would have been, so we are instead planning to extend our Labor Day trip by another day instead. I put in DD's daycare vacation day request yesterday (saves $47) and booked another night's hotel. We chose to book a night in Traverse City so that we can spend the day at Sleeping Bear Dunes before heading further north. I was able to use my IHG credit card's free night reward to book at the Hotel Indigo. So instead of costing almost $300, it really just cost me the $49 annual credit card fee.

We spent the weekend putting flooring panels in our attic. We would put DD down for her nap and then get working. We were able to finish it all during nap times over the weekend! Now we can take boxes from our basement and put it up into the attic to make more room to do work on installing the basement insulation panels.

 

[crazycatstacy]

Went out of state (about 4 hours away) to visit friends this weekend. Actually came home $20 under budget! Yay us!

We love Subaru's. I used to have one but when we bought my car (8 years ago) we wanted something with all wheel drive for sure and my car totally loaded was significantly less than the non loaded Subaru so we got it. Next time we will get the Subaru no matter what. I have not had any major issues with my car (ford fusion) but really just love the space and drive of the Subaru's

 

[jen7233]

Does anyone have two checking accounts, specifically one for rent/mortgage and the other for other bills/spending? I'm debating on separating my rent due away from our other checking.

 

[Aurora_Australis]

We have joint accounts for DH and I. Pay goes into checking and all bar around $200 gets transferred to our mortgage offset straight away. Mortgage payment transfers to loan the next day and then over the weekend I look at what bills are coming up and sort out. That way the big payment is gone straight away but I get the interest offset.

 

[DLgal]

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, DD won't even be 32 inches by November, so a lot of the rides that she lists like Soarin', Radiator Springs Racers, Goofy’s Sky School, Silly Symphony Swings, etc. will all be out of her height range. The Bug's Land area was really a necessary place for really little ones to enjoy that park and taking it out leaves a huge void.

Does anyone know how strict they are with the height limits on some of the lower end, 32 inches rides? I feel like she could handle
Mater's Junkyard Jamboree or Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters, but she will still be an inch or two short probably.

Disney won't budge on height requirements at ALL, in my experience. Plus, those rides you listed are actually fairly rough. You get thrown around a lot on both of them.

You can still ride several things at DCA:

Little Mermaid
Golden Zephyr
Monsters Inc
Toy Story Midway Mania
Red Car Trolley

You can also go to the Redwood Creek challenge trail (There are some smaller play areas for little ones )

Go see Frozen show

Do Turtle Talk with Crush at the Animation building

Is there a reason why you chose DCA over Disneyland? I may have missed it in an earlier post, but DL is a far better choice for a toddler.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Does anyone have two checking accounts, specifically one for rent/mortgage and the other for other bills/spending? I'm debating on separating my rent due away from our other checking.

We have many checking accts due to churning bank bonuses but to pay the mortgage I felt it was much easier to keep that money separate from the general fund. The last 2 Thursdays of every month I put half the mortgage amount into our savings account.
The day the 2nd half goes in, the payment comes out.
This is just our local bank where we have our main checking account, not a high-interest online savings such as Ally or Synchrony.
I find that when the mortgage $ is kept separate, it gives me a more realistic view of what is available in checking.
When I requested to our mortgage bank to let us pay our own property taxes and insurance, I set up my own version of an escrow account with Capital One 360 first, now Ally and those same last 2 Thursdays I also set aside half our escrow amount.
Makes it simple to pay the bills when due and we earn some interest too.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Disney won't budge on height requirements at ALL, in my experience. Plus, those rides you listed are actually fairly rough. You get thrown around a lot on both of them.

You can still ride several things at DCA:

Little Mermaid
Golden Zephyr
Monsters Inc
Toy Story Midway Mania
Red Car Trolley

You can also go to the Redwood Creek challenge trail (There are some smaller play areas for little ones )

Go see Frozen show

Do Turtle Talk with Crush at the Animation building

Is there a reason why you chose DCA over Disneyland? I may have missed it in an earlier post, but DL is a far better choice for a toddler.

I have the list of all the activities we can do in each park. And good point about the roughness of the rides. I guess it has been a while since we were there and I didn't remember that.

We have 3 day park hoppers. Which means that we will be spending more time in Disneyland and less time in DCA. I was just so sad when I saw that Bug's Land would be gone by the time we got there. I was really looking forward to riding some of those rides again with her.

 

[jen7233]

I'm going back and forth on opening another checking for rent. We have one checking, but the owner takes a really long time to cash our rent check so I'm thinking maybe I'd like it separate so our checking account can be "cleaner". We are going to ask them to look into paypal or some other method other than personal check but we don't think they are going to get it. They are out of state.

I have the list of all the activities we can do in each park. And good point about the roughness of the rides. I guess it has been a while since we were there and I didn't remember that.

We have 3 day park hoppers. Which means that we will be spending more time in Disneyland and less time in DCA. I was just so sad when I saw that Bug's Land would be gone by the time we got there. I was really looking forward to riding some of those rides again with her.

Good you have park hoppers and can do both and you are still going ahead with that part of the trip. I plan to take my grandson next year he will be an early preschool age 2 or 3 depending when exactly we go. I would think Disneyland has some great ones for the really little ones, it's been so long for me.

 

[dina444444]

I'm going back and forth on opening another checking for rent. We have one checking, but the owner takes a really long time to cash our rent check so I'm thinking maybe I'd like it separate so our checking account can be "cleaner". We are going to ask them to look into paypal or some other method other than personal check but we don't think they are going to get it. They are out of state.



Good you have park hoppers and can do both and you are still going ahead with that part of the trip. I plan to take my grandson next year he will be an early preschool age 2 or 3 depending when exactly we go. I would think Disneyland has some great ones for the really little ones, it's been so long for me.

Do you send the check via online banking or do you write and send it? When I send a check via online banking the money is either immediately deducted on the day the check is sent (chase) or the day it’s to be delivered (bank of America).

 

[jen7233]

Do you send the check via online banking or do you write and send it? When I send a check via online banking the money is either immediately deducted on the day the check is sent (chase) or the day it’s to be delivered (bank of America).

No, they actually want us to mail them the check. I went ahead and signed up for another checking account for our rent. They have billpay where they can mail a check or do transfer of funds.

 

[pblack]

I'm feeling a little stressed out regarding our debt at the moment and having a little pity party for myself. Our housemate let me know yesterday that there's a good chance he'll be moving out soon for a job opportunity (which is great for him!), and while on one hand i'm excited to not have a housemate anymore i'm also a little stressed about losing the $600/month he pays. Now even though this isn't a for sure thing at the moment, it's still a little stressful. I know that between my husband and I we make enough to pay everything that needs to be paid, it just won't leave us much wiggle room for anything else. I'm debating the pros and cons of doing a personal loan to pay off all our debt (credit cards and student loans). It would technically add interest to the credit card debt since those are currently at 0% interest, but it should save us money on the student loans. Plus it has the added benefit of it would be paid off quicker and it would bring the overall total of what we pay a month down some. Another option would be to do a personal loan to just pay off the student loans and keep attacking the credit card debt as we are now. Or we just continue on with what we're doing and we find other places to trim down spending. (Definitely need to switch our car insurance. When we got our new car back in May + moving it jumped us up by $50/month.) Anyways, there's my mini pity party. On the bright side we leave for our cruise on Saturday and I so can't wait!

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I'm feeling a little stressed out regarding our debt at the moment and having a little pity party for myself. Our housemate let me know yesterday that there's a good chance he'll be moving out soon for a job opportunity (which is great for him!), and while on one hand i'm excited to not have a housemate anymore i'm also a little stressed about losing the $600/month he pays. Now even though this isn't a for sure thing at the moment, it's still a little stressful. I know that between my husband and I we make enough to pay everything that needs to be paid, it just won't leave us much wiggle room for anything else. I'm debating the pros and cons of doing a personal loan to pay off all our debt (credit cards and student loans). It would technically add interest to the credit card debt since those are currently at 0% interest, but it should save us money on the student loans. Plus it has the added benefit of it would be paid off quicker and it would bring the overall total of what we pay a month down some. Another option would be to do a personal loan to just pay off the student loans and keep attacking the credit card debt as we are now. Or we just continue on with what we're doing and we find other places to trim down spending. (Definitely need to switch our car insurance. When we got our new car back in May + moving it jumped us up by $50/month.) Anyways, there's my mini pity party. On the bright side we leave for our cruise on Saturday and I so can't wait!

If the credit cards are at 0% for a while, then I wouldn't take a personal loan to pay those off. Are the student loans at a higher rate of interest than a personal loan would be? If not, then I wouldn't take out a personal loan for those either honestly. If the money situation is really stressful, have you considered finding another housemate? It might not be ideal longterm, but it could help you continuing paying down your debts until you feel more comfortable without the extra income. And I would also look for ways to cut back a bit too. That honestly is never a terrible idea, I think.

 

[pblack]

If the credit cards are at 0% for a while, then I wouldn't take a personal loan to pay those off. Are the student loans at a higher rate of interest than a personal loan would be? If not, then I wouldn't take out a personal loan for those either honestly. If the money situation is really stressful, have you considered finding another housemate? It might not be ideal longterm, but it could help you continuing paying down your debts until you feel more comfortable without the extra income. And I would also look for ways to cut back a bit too. That honestly is never a terrible idea, I think.

We have, but I honestly don't want to do that since he's pretty much the ideal housemate (he's never there). Like I said we would be fine without the extra $600, it's just caused me a slight moment of "panic" since that money helps with paying down our debts. We will definitely be looking at ways to cut back either way. The personal loan would be a little bit of a lower interest rate than the student loans. I haven't really decided on if I want to go that route or not, but just considering it as an option. I need to work out the math on it and see what would really be most beneficial.

 

[imbatman]

We have many checking accts due to churning bank bonuses but to pay the mortgage I felt it was much easier to keep that money separate from the general fund. The last 2 Thursdays of every month I put half the mortgage amount into our savings account.
The day the 2nd half goes in, the payment comes out.
This is just our local bank where we have our main checking account, not a high-interest online savings such as Ally or Synchrony.
I find that when the mortgage $ is kept separate, it gives me a more realistic view of what is available in checking.
When I requested to our mortgage bank to let us pay our own property taxes and insurance, I set up my own version of an escrow account with Capital One 360 first, now Ally and those same last 2 Thursdays I also set aside half our escrow amount.
Makes it simple to pay the bills when due and we earn some interest too.

Someday, I will churn bank bonuses and CC bonuses...it is my destiny...

Opened up my Roth IRA with my pay increase. Yes, this flies in the Dave Ramsey face of "how to pay down debt," but I've watched so many people (my parents included) having to work years past what they wanted. My mom had to go back to work until she was 73 (Dad had serious medical issues and was out). So, I'll sock my $34/week into that Roth, knowing I can budget without it and it'll serve me down the road. I'm still right on track to pay off the CC and car loan next year, so I'm thinking this is a good plan for my family. DH and I already discussed being able to throw more into it, but the snowball rules over all. WE MUST OBEY THE SNOWBALL!

Was so incredibly stressed out about the cars breaking down this week, first my DD's car and then the truck alternator. Even DH was stressed (and that's a miracle considering a year ago...) Then, magic! I realize I've paid off the WDW trip and we have the money to pay it all off within the month. I've said it before and I'll say it again, especially to any lurkers or visitors on the board: it's hard work, but so worth it! And you may want a secret identity to post on the budget board, like I do, but you should jump in. We can listen and maybe help.

 

[imbatman]

You guys, you guys, you guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm crazy excited! I just checked our mortgage balance. It is significantly lower than my snowball tracker. I plugged in the balance as of today and WE WILL BE PAID OFF a year sooner! In three years! Excuse me while I banana dance across the screen:

 

[Eureka]

Does anyone have two checking accounts, specifically one for rent/mortgage and the other for other bills/spending? I'm debating on separating my rent due away from our other checking.

We have one that I opened when I did ebay so payments would go into there and not be with our other bills. Now, we have it attached to things like Netflix, Hulu, EZpass etc. We like having a separate account for the online bills that are not too large.

 

[Aurora_Australis]

More bananas for you @imbatman, because that's awesome!