Debt Dumpers - 2019

[amalone1013]

Ok, I'm finally officially mostly ready to jump in!

2019 Financial-y Goals:

• Pay off my car
• Set an extra amount to go towards DHs car each month
• Add to our house savings (will figure this out with DH this weekend… think that after base expenses, any OT/XT income will go into different goals on a percentage basis)
• Move my old 401k (~$1800) to an IRA
• Balance 401ks/IRAs savings amounts
• Make a Christmas budget - I keep saying this and it hasn't happened, maybe third time's the charm...
• Finish the last of combining accounts/changing names since getting married

2019 Lifestyle Goals:

• Eat out less - for health, but that's also our budget buster
• Get into a regular exercise routine
• Lose weight - I’ve got a goal in mind for June, before we go on a family trip

2019 starting balances:
Car Loans - $7616 + $33933 = $41,549

Progress as of 1/30/19:
Car Loans - $5216 + $33485 = $37,746 - $3,803 change from the beginning of the year
Weight goal - 0%, 20 weeks to go

 

[jen7233]

n DR’s defense, it’s only $1000 because if you truly follow his advice, you would get out of debt faster than most of us here. He doesn’t suggest a debt payments system “between vacations”.
He says to stop retirement contributions, cancel cable & cell phones, sell the car-pay back loan-buy a cheap car, cancel kids ice hockey camp, etc. Truly nothing bought except food, shelter, getting to work. Any deviation makes it only take longer to get out of debt.
Well sure, if I could stand to give all of that up, even temporarily, it would have taken us 6 months instead of 24.

I was too afraid it would feel like a starvation diet and that I’d give up too quickly.

True, I think the estimate I've heard before is typically 18-24 months. He repeats the same thing, and I've listened to his podcasts quite a bit so I'm pretty certain this is what was said. However, I still think 24 months is a long time for something to possibly happen. I'm imaging here let's say a person has $1000 tucked aside for beginner emergency fund, then something major happens while they're snowballing debt? How to get out of that scenario then? I do wonder how many people truly follow it to the fullest and if they stick with it afterward.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Lose weight - I’ve got a goal in mind for June, before we go on a family trip

I'm trying to get healthier as well. I'm not so much worried about the number as I am just getting my body into a shape I like more haha. My hips are looking a little on the large side so I've been doing some yoga in an effort to just get myself stronger and a little more lean and flexible.

That being said, I just ate two Reese's peanut butter cups. No regrets.

 

[AmyAnne]

I know your question wasn’t directed at me but I had to chime in...

Dh and I use a cc for everything. I don’t even carry my ATM card in my purse. He uses his only once per week usually at our local bank.

Our kids use ATM cards because they are only 18 & 22. They are just learning how to save, budget, spend. I am reluctant to encourage cc use for them; I was their age when I got my first cc and quickly got into trouble. Ds22 would be ok. Ds18 really needs to see that “$0.16 available” before he stops spending.
I tell them to never use an ATM at a gas station but a TD Bank nearby (Medford) was found to have a skimmer on it so it's not only gas stations you have to worry about.

I totally understand this. My kids all had a credit card (authorized users on my accounts) from the time they were about 14 and had rules about when and where and how much they could charge, and what we would pay for (necessary expenses like school supplies) and what they would have to pay us back for. A few years ago I realized that even though they all had great credit scores from being on my accounts, it wasn't a real credit score because the credit card companies could tell that they weren't legally liable for the balance. So I worked on getting each of them their own credit cards -- for the older ones this was easy because they were making decent money (at least enough for Chase to give them a card with a few thousand dollar credit limits). Credit scores are a big deal in our house (DH has a job that requires a security clearance, and a credit check is part of that) so they have been aware that missing payments will have bad consequences for a long time. For the younger ones, they started with a secured card from Discover that only had a $500 limit (because that's how much they paid for the initial deposit).

One other thought is that an ATM machine inside a bank is likely to be safer than one located outside, or in a random place like the grocery store.

 

[amalone1013]

I'm trying to get healthier as well. I'm not so much worried about the number as I am just getting my body into a shape I like more haha. My hips are looking a little on the large side so I've been doing some yoga in an effort to just get myself stronger and a little more lean and flexible.

That being said, I just ate two Reese's peanut butter cups. No regrets.

I am not solely focused on a number, because really I just want to feel better overall. I just picked about what I weighed a few years ago, before I let the family drama/work stress/crazy work hours/lack of sleep get to me - I think that's been my biggest issue, that all those things combined have made me less active and led to poor habits that don't help metabolism and such... and then they build on each other, like the lack of sleep leads to me hitting up the vending machine for a snack to feel more awake/give me something to do... at least the vending machine codes as dining?

 

[jen7233]

cautionary tale-consider having more than one (ideally no fee) savings account b/c if you only have one and it's attached to your checking account for overdraft protection, and that checking account (like most) has a debit card- then ALL THOSE SAVINGS are subject to risk in the event your debit card is compromised.

we had an instance w/dd's within the past year and fortunately the bank's fraud detection caught the charge as it hit the card and questioned the transaction b/c if it had gone through it would have over drafted the checking and emptied the attached savings (many thousands of dollar out of the country charge). just recently on our debit card someone tried to run a few dollar charge on what the bank figures was a fishing expedition to see if the card number was good before the crooks tried for something larger. fortunately we caught it but we only have a small savings attached to the checking b/c if we need to do a larger purchase we can just transfer funds from another savings that's not associated and therefore kept protected.
it's not that there's not fraud protection/hold harmless on our accounts for this but it can take several days at minimum to get the bank to reverse charges and if all your checking and savings have been drained..........

Yep, I can see how that can happen, considering I've had credit cards compromised several times, and a debit card once that was used as a credit card when DH had his wallet stolen. That sucked, because we had during this time one bank account, and one credit card, and we were out of state away from home and had to cancel the two cards we had in his wallet, that also happened to be our joint accounts. But anyway, if one uses the debit card anywhere, same thing, the card number can be compromised.

Personally though, my checking account, well the main one we transact most from, is all by itself with no attached savings accounts. I keep my savings and main checking in separate banks. I only use the debit card for the ATM and the internet payment, because they wouldn't take credit card without an extra fee. I don't even like going to the ATM thinking of a skimmer possibly being on there, or somehow the screen not going back to the welcome beginning when I'm done, so I watch. I think some people have some natural distrust on certain items, mine is using debit cards and ATMs, and my DH is not excited with the Ally Bank I opened for extra savings, the online bank. Although the percentage is good, I think because it's newer and isn't brick and mortar.

 

[DisneyMandC]

I am not solely focused on a number, because really I just want to feel better overall. I just picked about what I weighed a few years ago, before I let the family drama/work stress/crazy work hours/lack of sleep get to me - I think that's been my biggest issue, that all those things combined have made me less active and led to poor habits that don't help metabolism and such... and then they build on each other, like the lack of sleep leads to me hitting up the vending machine for a snack to feel more awake/give me something to do... at least the vending machine codes as dining?

I have been SO BAD about hitting up Starbucks... I actually made a line item in YNAB this year for Starbucks to hold myself accountable for going there. My goal this year for both weight and budget is to only buy myself Starbucks when I have a Bing reward I can use for it haha.

I'm actually really enjoying the yoga though. I am so beyond not interested in going to classes or the gym, so I've been doing Yoga by Adriene videos on Youtube. She's great and I feel like I'm really getting a good workout that's not totally kicking my butt and leaving me unable to walk.

 

[amalone1013]

I have been SO BAD about hitting up Starbucks... I actually made a line item in YNAB this year for Starbucks to hold myself accountable for going there. My goal this year for both weight and budget is to only buy myself Starbucks when I have a Bing reward I can use for it haha.

I'm actually really enjoying the yoga though. I am so beyond not interested in going to classes or the gym, so I've been doing Yoga by Adriene videos on Youtube. She's great and I feel like I'm really getting a good workout that's not totally kicking my butt and leaving me unable to walk.

I'll have to look up the yoga videos. I've never done it but am intrigued. I get you on Starbucks! I had really reigned in my habit when the well broke, and then I got really bad again. I've kicked it to the curb again now - I try to only go as a treat on a working weekend, just one of the days, and not necessarily every working weekend either. I'm wondering about splitting out DHs stops at the gas station for snacks - that's his vice. He's gotten bad again lately. Right now that kind of stuff comes out of our hobby money each month, and all birthday/christmas money goes in to that line, and it rolls over month to month... when we do budget stuff this coming weekend, I plan to point out to him that so far in January, he spent $88 of his hobby money and $20 went to a game, $15 to a personal subscription, and $53 went to the gas station snacks Hopefully that will also help with healthy lifestyle goals that he has too. Also may add up his lunches out... I don't mean to nag but he's one that doesn't realize where it all went unless he sees the numbers.

 

[jen7233]

I'm actually really enjoying the yoga though. I am so beyond not interested in going to classes or the gym, so I've been doing Yoga by Adriene videos on Youtube. She's great and I feel like I'm really getting a good workout that's not totally kicking my butt and leaving me unable to walk.

I used to truly hate yoga when I first tried it at some classes, it wasn't my definition of physical exercise from what I was used to, thought it was a hype or a clique thing. So, I did jump on the bandwagon eventually once I stopped thinking of the old ways I used to do things and some of the limitations of wear and tear, and somewhere along the way I decided I love it.

 

[pblack]

I'll have to check out those Yoga videos, thanks @DisneyMandC ! I was doing really well with walking/pilates every day during the first half of the month...and then we got back from Disneyland last weekend and I caught the cold from hell that i'm still fighting off. Today's the first day that I've felt pretty decent in over a week. (We had a 4 day work week last week and I only worked 1.5 days the rest of the time I was stuck in bed.)

Tomorrow is pay day for myself and DH and I should have our smallest credit card paid off by next week. (Once our housemate gives me his rent check.)

 

[Tygerlilly]

I'm trying to get healthier as well. I'm not so much worried about the number as I am just getting my body into a shape I like more haha. My hips are looking a little on the large side so I've been doing some yoga in an effort to just get myself stronger and a little more lean and flexible.

That being said, I just ate two Reese's peanut butter cups. No regrets.

I'm also in the weight loss camp. My goal is to have enough progress by April to put the final measurments in on my wedding dress and NOT have to pay the extra $100 for "plus size". So far I'm down about an inch in hips and chest after a month.

If you guys want some free videos, I follow Fitness Blender on YouTube! They're fantastic, range from 10-60 mins, and all you need are dumbbells. I picked mine up for under $20 for 2 sets at Wal-Mart.

 

[barkley]

As for gas, if you have a Wal-Mart that's convenient, you can get 5 cents off per gallon by using a Wal-Mart gift card. And I think the Citi Costco card offers 4% back on gas, and Discover and Chase Freedom usually offer 5% back on gas stations once per year as a quarterly promotion. No way would I ever use a debit card at a gas station -- those card readers have to be the easiest target for installing skimmers.

walmarts have gas stations? none convenient-closest is 30 minutes away so any savings would be offset by mileage. even if costco's is 4% it's still less back than the up charge for using a credit card here (and costco is an hour away). i will NEVER deal with discover again-worst customer service ever. we had a 1 year nightmare with them when there was a fraudulent charge (that they recognized WAS fraud but kept flaking on taking the charge off and putting it back on over and over...). awful.

i really don't use my debit card much-maybe 2 or 3 times per month but i don't want to abandon the ability to get cash in a pinch and we keep a bit on hand b/c sometimes things happen where those electronics don't work so well-we had a wind storm a few years back and for the first few days none of the businesses in several of the cities were able to use do anything but a manual electronic payment, those with cash were in and out of a store in minutes-others might have had an hour or more's wait (and some places just said 'cash only' transactions).

 

[Birdie dog]

I need to look at this. I use my debit card for every penny I spend. Groceries, gas, everything. I don't carry a check book or cash. I need to look at (responsibly) using a credit card.

Today was a weird day. Kind of like a diet cheat day, I just wanted to shop. There's nothing I was actually hoping to buy, I just wanted to shop. But I didn't. I made my January goal...LOL now to keep this up for at least a year.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

That being said, I just ate two Reese's peanut butter cups. No regrets.

Definitely not since that is the best candy ever.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I have been SO BAD about hitting up Starbucks... I actually made a line item in YNAB this year for Starbucks to hold myself accountable for going there. My goal this year for both weight and budget is to only buy myself Starbucks when I have a Bing reward I can use for it haha.

I'm actually really enjoying the yoga though. I am so beyond not interested in going to classes or the gym, so I've been doing Yoga by Adriene videos on Youtube. She's great and I feel like I'm really getting a good workout that's not totally kicking my butt and leaving me unable to walk.

I love yoga. I am planning to start doing some Cosmic Kids Yoga videos on Youtube with DD. I plan to buy her a kids yoga mat to go along with mine.

 

[StacyStrong]

Question to those who feel comfortable responding: How much $ do you keep in your check book?

I have $ in savings that I can get to but have no idea how much to keep in my checking account. Now that I'm really working on eliminating debt, I feel like I want to take the $$ to pay off debt but am afraid if I do that and something unexpected happens, I'm just creating new debt.

Approx 2k (separate from my savings and monthly spending) because I'm paranoid.

 

[tzolkin]

Approx 2k (separate from my savings and monthly spending) because I'm paranoid.

I must be too. It seems like most are saying in the $100 range but to me less than $5000 feels stressful. Like I may have something pending and not realize it when an auto draft hits.

 

[jackers]

I must be too. It seems like most are saying in the $100 range but to me less than $5000 feels stressful. Like I may have something pending and not realize it when an auto draft hits.

This is why I am a little old school and still keep a check registry. I rarely write checks and use all online services, but I still manually track every transaction that goes through my checking account and keep a running tally of my balance that includes any future payments (most are only a couple of days away). I want complete control over payments so I only have one thing on auto-draft but it's only $62/month so my cushion of $100 works perfect for me. My checking account is to pay for bills only and meant to basically go down to $0 in between paychecks. I keep the rest of our money in a savings account that I can easily transfer over for the big and/or unexpected things (like paying for trips or something).

My system is: DH and I get paid every two weeks. I have planned out in Excel, for the entire year, what standing bills (utilities, mortgage, car payment, education funds, etc) are paid with each paycheck and I can therefore go in and schedule payments, as the bills come up, for the right day to coincide with that particular payday. Because I have it so planned out, I also know exactly how much I have for all of the day to day stuff (groceries, household, clothes, eating out, etc) in between paydays. I use my cc for all of those expenditures, but treat them like I am paying cash by paying off my cc every few days or so. If I don't have the money in my checking account, I don't buy it (exceptions being the big things like vacations, which I will then transfer money from savings to cover).

May sound a bit tedious when I type it all out, but I have been doing it this way for 10 years and have it down to a science. I can do all of the above in a quick 15 minute session.

In other news - just discovered my federal return has already posted to my account. The estimate was for the 12th, so wowzers that it is already here.

 

[Tygerlilly]

In other news - just discovered my federal return has already posted to my account. The estimate was for the 12th, so wowzers that it is already here.

So jealous! I still have 2 weeks to wait. And I'm going crazy waiting!

 

[tzolkin]

This is why I am a little old school and still keep a check registry. I rarely write checks and use all online services, but I still manually track every transaction that goes through my checking account and keep a running tally of my balance that includes any future payments (most are only a couple of days away). I want complete control over payments so I only have one thing on auto-draft but it's only $62/month so my cushion of $100 works perfect for me. My checking account is to pay for bills only and meant to basically go down to $0 in between paychecks. I keep the rest of our money in a savings account that I can easily transfer over for the big and/or unexpected things (like paying for trips or something).

My system is: DH and I get paid every two weeks. I have planned out in Excel, for the entire year, what standing bills (utilities, mortgage, car payment, education funds, etc) are paid with each paycheck and I can therefore go in and schedule payments, as the bills come up, for the right day to coincide with that particular payday. Because I have it so planned out, I also know exactly how much I have for all of the day to day stuff (groceries, household, clothes, eating out, etc) in between paydays. I use my cc for all of those expenditures, but treat them like I am paying cash by paying off my cc every few days or so. If I don't have the money in my checking account, I don't buy it (exceptions being the big things like vacations, which I will then transfer money from savings to cover).

May sound a bit tedious when I type it all out, but I have been doing it this way for 10 years and have it down to a science. I can do all of the above in a quick 15 minute session.

In other news - just discovered my federal return has already posted to my account. The estimate was for the 12th, so wowzers that it is already here.

Your method does make sense. I’m meticulous about tracking and planning, but I do things a bit differently so that may be why I like/need a much larger cushion in the account.

Some differences:
-We are paid once a month.
-I have several things set to auto draft.
-I pay for all daily expenses with cc too but I pay it only once per month so that’s a big chunk rather than your little bit every few days.
-I prefer paying bigger bills less often (ex. Car insurance twice per year vs every month) so my transactions tend to be larger amounts.

I suppose I could keep it all in savings and transfer as needed, but for me it’s just easier to know that the money is there and I don’t have to worry if I pay my credit card off the same day my mortgage auto drafts.