Debt Dumpers - 2019

[DCLfam]

February is starting off well and i'm extending my no spend from January. I have even posted some items of local FB garage sell site and sold some stuff that has been just sitting in the basement. I also have a couple side jobs this month that will help.

 

[DCLfam]

February is not starting well.
I spent $1300 today and will have another $500 next week.
I needed a new business phone so whilst it is fully deductible it was still ouch to cash-flow.

Medical expenses, feel like I am falling apart these days. Up until last year I didn't even have a GP. I would just go to any medical centre when I needed to e.g pap smears so maybe once every 3 years. Then last year I herniated 2 back discs and it has been non-stop every since.
I had another Dr appointment this morning my 3rd this year. My second ear infection this year, probably due to swimming. I have to swim daily due to the back injury. Appointment was $80 and I get approx half back. Script was $25.

Next week is my car service and I need new brakes. Quoted $480 so fingers crossed it doesn't cost more.

Sorry about your injury! Back problems are no fun.

 

[jen7233]

UGH!

My car is going to cost almost $2000 today for all the maintenance service and repair it needs to the A/C (basically needs an entire new system).

So much for my $2000 to savings in March...

This is the part of driving an old car that I don't like. At least the dealer was nice enough to loan me a car so I could come home and not sit there for the next 6 hours.

That's awful sorry to hear! I got my car in the fall before I was ready because it needed a new transmission and had some engine issues, very disappointed with GMC with that. It does suck when you have to put in a lot of $ into car repair.

Next week is my car service and I need new brakes. Quoted $480 so fingers crossed it doesn't cost more.

OK, hoping it doesn't!

I just paid off my car loan!

Awesome! That calls a time for celebration!

 

[Tygerlilly]

Found out we're getting a 35 cent an hour raise for our cost of living increase this year! Add on to that, my last 6 month raise before I top out will be in March, which is another 50 cents an hour. So I'm basically getting an 85 cent raise in March!
We also learned the new quarterly bonus policy. Basically if you have 1 or less points in a rolling 6 month period, you get 125% of the bonus. 1-2 points, 100%. 3 points, 50%. And 4 points you get nothing. It's nice to see they are finally rewarding those who show up every day!

Trying to decide how to do the budget for the month. I have to try and talk to the furniture place and see if I can skip this months $250 payment since I will be paying it off once my tax refund comes in. It seems ridiculous to pay the monthly payment when I'll be getting it paid in full, especially since that payment DOES NOT go to principal. We've also had our rent direct depositing into our landlords rental account, 1/2 month each biweekly check, plus an extra $100 for late/convenience fee. Before we started paying things off, it was essential to do this. Now I'm thinking we can finally go back to doing one regular deposit and save $100 there!

And last, we got the new wedding quote after we made our food changes. It went from $11500 to $7500!! Huge savings there!!

 

[Deffenm]

I am so excited I accepted an offer for a new role within my company! It is a step down from my current role but I get to keep my salary and all my other benefits. Plus this role should not be eliminated anytime soon like my current role is. DH was also offered a part time job starting in March doing something he loves. This will give him 3 part time jobs but he loves what he does (coaches soccer and now will work at a cycling shop). I paid off our March Spring Break trip and we sent $700 to the credit card. DH will also receive the reimbursement from the soccer club on Friday so we can send them another $2,400. We are on track to have it paid off before May when interest kicks in.

It is such a relief knowing I have a job now. The plan for Feb is to continue to only pay for bills, groceries, and gas. I am trying to reduce grocery budget again this month. Jan my goal was $800, which we met, and Feb. is $700. I also plan to do our taxes myself vs hiring someone. I am a little nervous about this.

We decided to visit South Dakota for our 20th anniversary this summer. We have a goal to visit all of the National Parks so we will visit both Badlands and Wind Cave in addition to Custer, Mt. Rushmore, Spearfish Canyon and ride the 109 mile bike trail from Deadwood to Edgemont. The biggest expense for us will be lodging. We thought about camping but if we are hiking and biking I want a real bed.

We are meeting with a financial advisor today to get some advice. The situation with my position being eliminated was an eye opener because I just assumed I would work for the company until I retired. Now I am assuming my position is going to be eliminated at anytime and if so how long can we financially afford for me not to work.

Sorry for the long post. I have been so focused on finding another job that is nice to have other things to focus on now!

 

[pblack]

We got a escrow refund check in the mail yesterday for just shy of $650 which will allow me to pay off our supplemental property tax bill early. I was going to pay it off in March when I received my rent check from our housemate, but i'm glad to be able to get it out of the way early. Once this is paid there will be roughly $175 leftover which will probably go to savings for now until we decide if we want to just save it, pay it towards our CC debt, or take an overnight trip somewhere just to get away.

Congratulations on the job @Deffenm !

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

They are taping and mudding the basement walls now. They finished the bathroom last week, so over the weekend, DH and I primed and painted it. We chose exactly the same color as most of the rest of the house is painted. It is a nice neutral beige and looks nice with bright white trim. So far we have spent about $360 on paint and supplies, but I know that this amount will increase once we have worked through the current 5 gallons each of primer, wall paint and ceiling paint that we purchased.

And since the walls are all in now, I scheduled a carpet measurement for this Friday. We have already picked out the carpet that we are interested in and since it will be laying on the cement slab, we have decided to buy the highest quality pad to ensure comfort. Not sure exactly how much this will cost, but I am anticipating around $4k, maybe a bit more depending on the cost of the pad. It is a large space, probably 1,000 square feet or more.

I got the $9,790 check from my Capitol One and cashed it so that once it posts I can apply it to the HELOC and stop accruing some of that interest. DH also called over the weekend and set up his $7k balance transfer from his new BoA card. That will probably take about 3 weeks to actually post though. So that means that $37k of our basement project will soon be on 0% interest cards for the next 12-15 months. This should save us about $2500 in interest over that time. The equivalent of another 2.5 months worth of our planned payments.

And in other news, I think we have finally worked out a medical billing issue that has been plaguing me since DD was less than one month old. We had trouble breastfeeding and went to a physician lactation consultant from another health system to our regular one. They kept sending me bills without running them through our insurance. I had to call my GP, DD's pediatrician, our insurance company (under both my plan and DH's plan which includes DD) and the billing company for the other health system for what seems like a million times over the past 13 months or so. I finally got another bill with just the $30 co-pay, so I think this is finally the last of it. I will never go to that other health system. It was so much work.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Found out we're getting a 35 cent an hour raise for our cost of living increase this year! Add on to that, my last 6 month raise before I top out will be in March, which is another 50 cents an hour. So I'm basically getting an 85 cent raise in March!
We also learned the new quarterly bonus policy. Basically if you have 1 or less points in a rolling 6 month period, you get 125% of the bonus. 1-2 points, 100%. 3 points, 50%. And 4 points you get nothing. It's nice to see they are finally rewarding those who show up every day!

Trying to decide how to do the budget for the month. I have to try and talk to the furniture place and see if I can skip this months $250 payment since I will be paying it off once my tax refund comes in. It seems ridiculous to pay the monthly payment when I'll be getting it paid in full, especially since that payment DOES NOT go to principal. We've also had our rent direct depositing into our landlords rental account, 1/2 month each biweekly check, plus an extra $100 for late/convenience fee. Before we started paying things off, it was essential to do this. Now I'm thinking we can finally go back to doing one regular deposit and save $100 there!

And last, we got the new wedding quote after we made our food changes. It went from $11500 to $7500!! Huge savings there!!

What about those months that have 3 paychecks? You’re basically paying 50% extra rent those months.

 

[Tygerlilly]

What about those months that have 3 paychecks? You’re basically paying 50% extra rent those months.

I only had one of those months since we started doing this and for that one pay period I removed the direct deposit from her account and just set it all to mine. Then once the pay period ended, I added her account back in. Super easy and only took a couple minutes of my time to do.

 

[crazycatstacy]

We decided to visit South Dakota for our 20th anniversary this summer. We have a goal to visit all of the National Parks so we will visit both Badlands and Wind Cave in addition to Custer, Mt. Rushmore, Spearfish Canyon and ride the 109 mile bike trail from Deadwood to Edgemont. The biggest expense for us will be lodging. We thought about camping but if we are hiking and biking I want a real bed.
!

You have to eat at Latchstring Restaurant in Spearfish Canyon and if you go through Lead you have to stop at Chubby Chipmunk for a trufle

 

[DLgal]

Ok, so I just withdrew $4500 of my Roth IRA contributions. After yesterday's fiasco with the car, I changed my mind. I will use that to pay off both credit card balance transfers in full ($3500) and keep the additional $1000 in our checking account to cover the inevitable glasses purchase later this week and some incoming medical bills (we will have $300 in deductibles to pay plus our cost shares for a few appointments.)

We will be able to cover the car repair using our regular income.

I am on track to start our significant monthly savings ($3000/month) in April. I will also increase my Roth IRA monthly contribution to meet the maximum allowed amount, which will be around $590/month, in March. I have to skip this month's contribution because Vanguard has a "frequent trading rule" for Roth IRAs that only allows one transaction every 30 days so my Feb contribution will be skipped.

Fingers crossed that nothing major comes up in the meantime!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Mine and DH's student loan debt dipped below $8000 for the first time this morning! Still waiting to get my new payment amount for my bigger student loan (I don't count that as part of my 8k since it's on track to be forgiven).

Plugging along for the first five days of February. MORE medical expenses... DH has ANOTHER cold. I can't believe it. I took whoever's advice it was on here and bought us some Vitamin D at Walgreens BOGO free sale yesterday and have started both of us on it. I told someone at work whose husband is a doctor and they said they had seen more lingering flu symptoms in a lot of patients this year. That what he seems like- said he was freezing the other night when we went to bed but felt hot to the touch, and then was sweating all night. He's rarely sick so this is very unlike him.

I also had to use Teladoc yesterday for a minor medical issue. $15 but our HSA will reimburse that and the prescription was free.

Going to try to keep restaurant meals really low this month. We had one double birthday lunch last Friday and a good friend and former coworker came into town Saturday night, so I got dinner with him. Not much else planned for the month so hopefully things move along smoothly.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Looking ahead to this month is DF's birthday at the end of the month. We're going to dinner at the good buffet in the casino our wedding will be at, but what he doesn't know is I scored a comp room at the hotel for free! He has $40 in free play to use and I'm budgeting an additional $260 for us (his birthday present money, valentines day, and usual date night budget). I can't wait to surprise him when we get there and I pull our overnight bag out of the car! I also took an extra day off work, which he doesn't know about yet either, because I had enough time to cover it too.

 

[imbatman]

Hello. I'm Batman. And I've been putting off looking and catching up my spreadsheet. It's been 2 weeks and I know it'll be painful. But I'm logging onto accounts now and doing it.

People lurking...this is what it is about...actually doing it.

It's time-consuming (can I get an amen?!). It's hard work. It's downright depressing at times. But we can help out each other, encourage and try to give help/opinions. I'm so not looking forward to this. But I tell myself that tomorrow, I will be happier for it.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Hello. I'm Batman. And I've been putting off looking and catching up my spreadsheet. It's been 2 weeks and I know it'll be painful. But I'm logging onto accounts now and doing it.

People lurking...this is what it is about...actually doing it.

It's time-consuming (can I get an amen?!). It's hard work. It's downright depressing at times. But we can help out each other, encourage and try to give help/opinions. I'm so not looking forward to this. But I tell myself that tomorrow, I will be happier for it.

Amen. So true. Sometimes I avoid looking into our everyday cc bill and when I finally do, it’s not always as bad as I was expecting.
Good or bad, it has to be done.

 

[Birdie dog]

I got an estimate to fix my car after my hit and run yesterday. Not bad ( luckily there's a ton of traffic in the area and speeds are low). $1100. I did call my insurance company and was told that because it was a hit and run and I filed a police report, my deductible would be $200 instead of the usual $500 and it should not affect my premium as I wasn't at fault and don't have any other recent claims. I'm going to try to do a little research that my premium won't be affected and if it's true, it'll only cost me $200 and not entirely blow this months budget.

I have some extras I have to plan for this month including my BFFs and my husbands birthday and Valentines unless I can talk my husband out of it. I truly feel like it's a made up holiday and won't be upset if my husband doesn't spend the $$ but I don't think he really believes that's true.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

My mother is not doing well, from one thing to the next medically and with her dementia. She lives with my sibling a state away, but her condition is getting worse it seems so rapidly this last year. I feel like by next year, I just don't know how her condition will be.

I feel your pain. My mom has inoperable stage 4 lung cancer. She's been getting chemo for over a year but I still can't help but feel I'm lucky to still have her a year later. She'll need to have chemo the rest of her life.

 

[imbatman]

People lurking...this is what it is about...actually doing it.

The other part is owning up to the mistakes you made. Like me. I spent too much money. Some of it was a business decision for later in the year. Still, I want to slap myself silly. But it's done and I just need to play catch up now to get everything where it should be.

*insert grumble here* Doesn't help that I have to pay back that $3500...

But there's money in the budget for truck registration and insurance increases. It'll be okay. I don't have to sell my kidney, yet.

 

[pblack]

One of my co-workers just offered her timeshare in South Lake Tahoe to my hubby and I for next Friday 2/15, so weather permitting (it's been snowing like crazy up there with these storms), I think we're going to take her up on her offer. We'll head up Friday night after work and come back Saturday afternoon. From where we are Tahoe is roughly 1.5 hours up the mountain. If we do take her up on this offer this will probably be where the "extra" money goes.

 

[DisneyMandC]

I got an estimate to fix my car after my hit and run yesterday. Not bad ( luckily there's a ton of traffic in the area and speeds are low). $1100. I did call my insurance company and was told that because it was a hit and run and I filed a police report, my deductible would be $200 instead of the usual $500 and it should not affect my premium as I wasn't at fault and don't have any other recent claims. I'm going to try to do a little research that my premium won't be affected and if it's true, it'll only cost me $200 and not entirely blow this months budget.

I have some extras I have to plan for this month including my BFFs and my husbands birthday and Valentines unless I can talk my husband out of it. I truly feel like it's a made up holiday and won't be upset if my husband doesn't spend the $$ but I don't think he really believes that's true.

Something similar happened to my DH a couple years ago. Giant plastic sign flew off the truck in front of him and hit his car at 70 mph and did some body damage. He filed a police report and our deductible was only $250 (lowered from $500) and our premium didn't go up.