Debt Dumpers - 2019

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

Alright, so I applied for the BoA BankAmericard which has the $0 transfer fee and 0% APR for 15 months. I got instantly approved for $15k. I will order a balance transfer check and use that to transfer $15k of the HELOC to the credit card. This should save us about $1250 in interest over that time. And then when the promo on this card is close to expiring, I will look into opening the Chase Slate, which offers the same $0 transfer fee and 0% APR for 15 months. DH is also going to apply for the BoA BankAmericard too so that we can do the same thing with more of the HELOC balance. And then I have to decide if I want to use a balance transfer offer on my Capitol One card that gives 0% for 12 months with a 2% fee. It would cost us about $200 in fees, but it would save us about $663 in interest, so a net savings of $463. I will just have to make sure that I am on top of all of the payments and when the APRs expire so that I don't get any unexpected interest or penalty fees.

Congrats. I forgot the Slate is one that does offers like that too. I have a Slate with no balance on it. Hmm, wonder if I should close that one to try again some day. That said, I'm WAAAAAY over the 5/24 and not dropping anytime soon, LOL.

 

[DnA2010]

Picked up an extra day of work for Friday. I'm not expecting to be super busy on Monday, so this will help a little with the shorter day. Thinking about picking up a day next week too. If I do that, I can probably knock out that last loan I was hoping to pay off this year.

In a bit of a frugal note, this morning I made a double batch of waffles, 2 dozen egg muffins, and some mini pizzas for the freezer. Hoping that helps with the urge to buy my breakfasts at work and helps DF with some easy breakfast and dinners for him and the kids when I'm working/sleeping. Next up is a giant crock pot full of shredded chicken and a couple lasagne and pasta freezer dishes and breakfast burritos. Really trying to reign in the extra convenience food spending in the upcoming year.

Nice work on the meal prep! Not eating out/picking up fast food has been a major savings for us, and def contributed to our weight loss too!
I need to get some done too!

 

[jen7233]

Alright, so I applied for the BoA BankAmericard which has the $0 transfer fee and 0% APR for 15 months. I got instantly approved for $15k. I will order a balance transfer check and use that to transfer $15k of the HELOC to the credit card. This should save us about $1250 in interest over that time. And then when the promo on this card is close to expiring, I will look into opening the Chase Slate, which offers the same $0 transfer fee and 0% APR for 15 months. DH is also going to apply for the BoA BankAmericard too so that we can do the same thing with more of the HELOC balance. And then I have to decide if I want to use a balance transfer offer on my Capitol One card that gives 0% for 12 months with a 2% fee. It would cost us about $200 in fees, but it would save us about $663 in interest, so a net savings of $463. I will just have to make sure that I am on top of all of the payments and when the APRs expire so that I don't get any unexpected interest or penalty fees.

That's great! That saves a lot in interest. Citibank must have something on me, now I had a mailer from them today about a 0% card for balance transfers.

In a bit of a frugal note, this morning I made a double batch of waffles, 2 dozen egg muffins, and some mini pizzas for the freezer. Hoping that helps with the urge to buy my breakfasts at work and helps DF with some easy breakfast and dinners for him and the kids when I'm working/sleeping. Next up is a giant crock pot full of shredded chicken and a couple lasagne and pasta freezer dishes and breakfast burritos. Really trying to reign in the extra convenience food spending in the upcoming year.

I like the idea! I'm trying to scale back on groceries, keeping dinner recipes just simple like baked chicken and a side, for example, rather than too many ingredients.

 

[Tygerlilly]

I like the idea! I'm trying to scale back on groceries, keeping dinner recipes just simple like baked chicken and a side, for example, rather than too many ingredients.

Most of our lunches are pretty easy. Since we work midnights, lunch is the only meal we eat together, but neither of us wants a huge meal. So it's been nice to not have to make the big dinners most nights.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

So I called this morning to take advantage of the balance transfer offer on my new credit card. When I called, they asked me if I would like more than the $15k and I said sure, if that was an option. Well, I have a Royal Caribbean card with BoA (my very first credit card) with a $10k balance. I never use that card anymore because I get much better rewards with other cards. They transferred $5k of the balance on that card over to the BankAmericard, giving me $20k at 0% interest for 15 months! They also initiated the balance transfer to the HELOC for the full $20k. This will save us over $1600 in interest over that time, so I am pretty happy that they offered to transfer the balance from one card to the other.

Once we make another payment to the builder, I am going to take advantage of the Capitol One transfer offer and then later on have DH apply for the BoA card. This should give us about $35k-45k in 0% offers, saving us up to $2700 in interest payments over that time. That is basically 3 months worth of extra payments, which is pretty huge.

And I told DH to ask his boss about when the job would be posted. It turns about that they posted it last week! There is an internal newsletter that they send out weekly with the latest job postings, but this position wasn't in last weeks newsletter. I am glad that I bugged DH about asking his boss again as to when the position would post. The deadline is Jan. 8, but I would like him to get his application in much sooner, so we will be working on updating his resume. Fingers crossed that he gets it as it would be a very significant pay jump for him.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

So I called this morning to take advantage of the balance transfer offer on my new credit card. When I called, they asked me if I would like more than the $15k and I said sure, if that was an option. Well, I have a Royal Caribbean card with BoA (my very first credit card) with a $10k balance. I never use that card anymore because I get much better rewards with other cards. They transferred $5k of the balance on that card over to the BankAmericard, giving me $20k at 0% interest for 15 months! They also initiated the balance transfer to the HELOC for the full $20k. This will save us over $1600 in interest over that time, so I am pretty happy that they offered to transfer the balance from one card to the other.

Once we make another payment to the builder, I am going to take advantage of the Capitol One transfer offer and then later on have DH apply for the BoA card. This should give us about $35k-45k in 0% offers, saving us up to $2700 in interest payments over that time. That is basically 3 months worth of extra payments, which is pretty huge.

And I told DH to ask his boss about when the job would be posted. It turns about that they posted it last week! There is an internal newsletter that they send out weekly with the latest job postings, but this position wasn't in last weeks newsletter. I am glad that I bugged DH about asking his boss again as to when the position would post. The deadline is Jan. 8, but I would like him to get his application in much sooner, so we will be working on updating his resume. Fingers crossed that he gets it as it would be a very significant pay jump for him.

That's awesome you're saving so much on interest. Like you said, that's like 3 months of payments. And now you can hold off and get more 0% months! I'm jealous. Working this game now solo, I only have myself to apply for these cards, LOL. Well, and IF the BF was to turn DH, he just got the BOA for his balances, LOL. But the lucky duck only has $1600 to my $8500! Grrrr!

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

Oh and on a debt dumpers front....I managed to flip the PS4 I had bought for my son on black friday. I wasn't even thinking of flipping it, but my HS students told me the bundle was selling for $300+ online. So I made $80 on it I wasn't expecting, I was honestly going to just return it to best buy. That helps to pay down the Switch I did get for him, since they don't really discount that. I did get it for about $230 w/ amex offers and ebates. Today I grabbed a fitbit versa at a crazy low price in hopes of maybe flipping it. It'll help me meet the spend I need on my Aspire, and maybe get me a little more money in the pot to go against Christmas.

I got a $1000 amex card for taking a bump on my flight back from Vegas in November. I have to decide the best way to use that since I've been working towards meeting minimums on the new cards I have (yes, I know, many say no new cards when paying down debt. But I'm using the cards and paying them off monthly. And it's how I get to travel with my kids now). I'm thinking I accept the fee I'd get running it through Venmo and use it to pay my son's ice bill (since that normally comes out of my bank account). I mean it's still $970 free after taking the $30 fee hit.

 

[pblack]

I'm about to head out on my winter break from work. I'll probably still pop in occasionally over the next week or so, but just in case I wanted to wish everyone here a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

[Tygerlilly]

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope everyone is having a great time today!

We're staying super low key today because I'm picking up a shift with DF tonight. My parents went overboard with gifts for the girls, so I'm glad we stayed well under our budget and just got them a few things each. I got the 3 things I was really hoping for: an air fryer, a set of dumbbells, and a new planner! Hoping to be able to use all 3 of those to further our debt dumping this year.

With me able to pick up these few extra shifts, we've decided to plan for a date nights in January. Before kids we'd often go to the casino and play and eat. Since we haven't been in a while, we're going to take one day of my overtime pay (about $250) and have a nice dinner and play $100 each! I'm so looking forward to having a date night with him.
Also just got myself and my maid of honor tickets to the wedding show on the 5th and myself a $5 ticket into a fitness expo on the 12th. January is starting out being very busy!

 

[disney-inspired]

This past paycheck has been a total dumpster fire!
I'm looking forward to NYE for my next payday and I can get back on track!

 

[imbatman]

Hello all! I'm (mostly) new to this. I've been reading along in the 2018 thread for about a month now but never posted. My husband and I started working on our large amount of debt this year and did decently, and I wanted to start up with this thread for 2019 to keep us accountable and for the support and encouragement/advice you all seem to give!

Welcome!!! This board is all sorts of helpful. I stumbled in on 12/27/17 and have been here ever since.

I have floated in and out of this thread for years, but I think it's time I join y'all and stick with it.

Hurray for shedding your lurker status! You'll like it here.

I have been lurking here and on the Fire thread and decided you all are more speed as the Fire thread is just a little depressing. We are doing the best we can! I need to sit down and write down and think about my goals and join in here.

Isn't that just the key? I think having it in front of your does all sorts of "holy cow" to your brain. And yes, we do the best we can. In here, there is so much support. They really are the best.

Almost a year ago, to the day, I popped into the 2018 thread, desperate and broken and $21,982.97 in CC debt. Fast forward a year. I haven't dumped much debt because, as the peeps on this board know, we had more than our fair share of car/vehicle issues. Really, is it fair to have three alternators go bad in one week? Also, I fully take responsibility for overspending on our 25th anniversary trip to WDW.

I'm taking a deep breath and posting my goals. I know you guys understand. Here we go:

1. CC #1: $2587.05
2. CC #2: $7198.39 - 0% interest
3. CC #3: $6334.63

Total: $16,120.07

(something is weird on the alignment here, but I'll keep going)

Plans for 2019:

1. CC #1 - pay off ASAP. This will be my go-to card for regular expenses, as the point return is good. Until it's paid off, I will not use it.
2. CC #2 - Stay on payment schedule. It'll be paid off in June. I'll post a banana dance when that is done.
3. CC #3 - Just received an offer for a 0% transfer, but will call them and see if they will match the BoA 0 fee. If not, I'll be applying to BoA to roll it to 0% in the next two days.
4. Car loan - scheduled to be paid off in December 2019. Banana dance on that day.

DH is on board. We are horrible with budgets, but we've had a steep learning curve. I'm thrilled we are making progress instead of going backwards. We've stopped living paycheck to paycheck. We have a baby savings. We have bumped up our 401(k) contributions. It's okay that some people don't agree with that method, but I watched a friend retire and hardcore fail because he hadn't planned on unplanned expenses. We are too close to retirement to not contribute.​

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

Ok guys, I'm almost ready to post my 2019 goals! DH and I are having our year end/ year begin budget meeting most likely this weekend. We had two major expenses we wanted to get out of the way before we sat down. One was the day after Christmas shopping, which is a tradition for us- we spent about $95 today and knocked out 4 xmas gifts for next year, a birthday gift for next year, got ourselves a Disney candy dish we'd been eyeing since August, some holiday scented shampoo/ lotion that was half off (we don't care what scent it is), and got a few gift wrap type things we were low on for next year. Most of this will likely be ticked towards our next budget cycle just based on dates I think, but I'll have to see. As long as it's paid for before it gathers interest I don't care, which it will be.

The second thing we need to do is take DS to the Children's museum which was his big gift from us. I *think* we're still going to go, but we just have to double check prices and everything. We may end up putting that money aside to add to the budget for a trip idea we're tossing around for late next summer when he's a little older and more able to appreciate smething, which I'll talk about more when I post 2019 goals.

 

[imbatman]

1. CC #3 - Just received an offer for a 0% transfer, but will call them and see if they will match the BoA 0 fee. If not, I'll be applying to BoA to roll it to 0% in the next two days.

Ha! Just applied and was approved for $11k. Popped over the balances on CC #3 and #1. Saved myself more than a few hundred in interest fees. Hurray me!​

 

[princessesintraining]

Long time lurker here. I'm trying to get a budget together for 2019. We only have our monthly expenses and mortgage, which I put into a spreadsheet. We pay off any credit card bills monthly. I've been looking into an envelope /online envelope based budget, but I have a question. What do you do with the month that you set aside for budgets, but you don't use. Like my security system is quarterly, I don't spend on car maintenance or gifts monthly, but I'd like to put money away each month. Do you have separate savings accounts for that or just keep a spreadsheet for 1 savings account designating, what's in there. Our goal is to payoff our mortgage hopefully in the next 5-8 years and be debt free. TIA

 

[imbatman]

Long time lurker here. I'm trying to get a budget together for 2019. We only have our monthly expenses and mortgage, which I put into a spreadsheet. We pay off any credit card bills monthly. I've been looking into an envelope /online envelope based budget, but I have a question. What do you do with the month that you set aside for budgets, but you don't use. Like my security system is quarterly, I don't spend on car maintenance or gifts monthly, but I'd like to put money away each month. Do you have separate savings accounts for that or just keep a spreadsheet for 1 savings account designating, what's in there. Our goal is to payoff our mortgage hopefully in the next 5-8 years and be debt free. TIA

I use Excel, so I keep the same spreadsheet, but use different tabs. I know Excel isn't for everyone, but it is what works for me because the envelope system was a tragic failure.

 

[princessesintraining]

Do you then move the money into different savings accounts? I know I can keep track of it on paper, but let’s say I don’t use all of the $150 a month for gifts, where do you put that money so it carries over?

 

[imbatman]

Do you then move the money into different savings accounts? I know I can keep track of it on paper, but let’s say I don’t use all of the $150 a month for gifts, where do you put that money so it carries over?

Personally, I keep it in an account on the spreadsheet. But, I use spreadsheets for keeps balances, not budgeting (I suck at budgets). So, it would show as a surplus on your budget spreadsheet? You can show it as "Unused, returned to cash" or note that you moved the funds to the mortgage and reflect the debit/credit there. (Okay, I don't suck at budgets...I suck at budgeting my finances). That way, your "gifts" column will be zero, if you don't want to roll the money, and will show in a different section of your budget.

i.e.: Gifts: $150
Mortgage: $1000

You could go:
Gifts: $0 (moved to mortgage payment)
Mortgage: $1150 (from Gifts)

That way it shows both transactions and the notes remind you where/what the money did.

 

[jen7233]

DH is on board. We are horrible with budgets, but we've had a steep learning curve. I'm thrilled we are making progress instead of going backwards. We've stopped living paycheck to paycheck. We have a baby savings. We have bumped up our 401(k) contributions. It's okay that some people don't agree with that method, but I watched a friend retire and hardcore fail because he hadn't planned on unplanned expenses. We are too close to retirement to not contribute.

Exactly for me, too. I’m saving regardless as we go because I’ve seen the impact of failure to save in my own family (not my household, but) and they had no debt yet also no savings.

Long time lurker here. I'm trying to get a budget together for 2019. We only have our monthly expenses and mortgage, which I put into a spreadsheet. We pay off any credit card bills monthly. I've been looking into an envelope /online envelope based budget, but I have a question. What do you do with the month that you set aside for budgets, but you don't use. Like my security system is quarterly, I don't spend on car maintenance or gifts monthly, but I'd like to put money away each month. Do you have separate savings accounts for that or just keep a spreadsheet for 1 savings account designating, what's in there. Our goal is to payoff our mortgage hopefully in the next 5-8 years and be debt free. TIA

Great question, I wrestle with this still and how I should best tackle it. I’m still playing around to see what will work best. Some categories just don’t get used up and I don’t save it over for the next month, I just have been either writing it back onto the budget again and just acknowledged my current checking balance, or lowering that item expected expense the next time. For example, this month was haircuts, a birthday, gifting (not Christmas), sports/entertainment, and movies that were budgeted but not used up. I’m not going to do anything with it either, just decide if next month if I’ll still allocate that much or not, and I’m just leaving it in checking. I know I’m not going to catch the month perfectly. Then, admittedly I go over in some (groceries especially) and I don’t save in a cash envelopes, so there’s that maybe for a reason.

I do have quite a few no fee/no min balance savings accounts, likely too many (5), but these are more like my envelopes for categories I feel I get the most use out of. Currently I’m using the accounts for these categories:
car and rental insurance, vacation savings, Christmas, car emergencies, and the last one I’m kind of combining for pet emergencies/appliance/phone replacement/small medical expense (clearly this one needs some fine tuning). The insurance, vacation, Christmas are defined budget amounts usually I transfer once a month and I get good use out of for my purposes and am keeping, they just work for me. The last two, that’s more up in the air whether I will keep as is or combine into a catch all savings. I want to keep aside money for car emergencies, new tires, etc, the unexpected type of vet bills not routine, glasses replacement, braces, etc.

 

[jackers]

Long time lurker here. I'm trying to get a budget together for 2019. We only have our monthly expenses and mortgage, which I put into a spreadsheet. We pay off any credit card bills monthly. I've been looking into an envelope /online envelope based budget, but I have a question. What do you do with the month that you set aside for budgets, but you don't use. Like my security system is quarterly, I don't spend on car maintenance or gifts monthly, but I'd like to put money away each month. Do you have separate savings accounts for that or just keep a spreadsheet for 1 savings account designating, what's in there. Our goal is to payoff our mortgage hopefully in the next 5-8 years and be debt free. TIA

Welcome!

I do everything in Excel. I keep a budget at an annual level, vs monthly, which for me, solves the issues you are talking about. I just track my progress throughout the year towards that overall number, with the general idea that i should be using up 1/12 of my budget each month, but knowing it won't be perfect for every category. If I find I am not spending like I thought I would in a certain category, I can shift the dollars in between the different categories on my spreadsheet. My main goal, at the end of the year, is for my expense categories (which includes savings) to match up to my income. It's not perfect but it works for me and something I have spent almost 10 years evolving.

 

[barkley]

Long time lurker here. I'm trying to get a budget together for 2019. We only have our monthly expenses and mortgage, which I put into a spreadsheet. We pay off any credit card bills monthly. I've been looking into an envelope /online envelope based budget, but I have a question. What do you do with the month that you set aside for budgets, but you don't use. Like my security system is quarterly, I don't spend on car maintenance or gifts monthly, but I'd like to put money away each month. Do you have separate savings accounts for that or just keep a spreadsheet for 1 savings account designating, what's in there. Our goal is to payoff our mortgage hopefully in the next 5-8 years and be debt free. TIA

i have a separate bank account (savings-no fee) that i call 'reserve'. at the end of each year i look at how much we've spent in the past year on non monthly expenses, in our case-pest/yard service, insurances (not health or life), property taxes (mortgage paid off so we self pay), sirius radio, propane, hvac warranty plan and misc household/auto repairs-then i bump the cost up by 5-10% to allow for price increases (minimum wage is going up in my state by 50 cents per hour-that WILL get passed on, and i don't know anyone whose other insurance products aren't going up in cost with the recent huge payouts companies have had to make). i divide that number by 12 and that creates my monthly budget amount which i do an automatic monthly transfer from my checking (where direct deposits land). when i need to make a payment out of that account i transfer it into my checking and make a memo note of what that payment is for.

for gifts i've got another separate account that i call 'christmas' but it's used for bdays as well. again-it's a set monthly amount based on what i'm comfortable spending annually that is divided by 12 and then auto transferred each month. when a gifting need occurs i transfer the amount to checking and make a memo noting who/occasion it was for.