Debt Dumpers - 2019

[DisneyMandC]

Checking in!

Budget is busted for the month. Just too many first of the year expenses. We should be in good shape for February though. I put all of my info into Turbotax over the weekend and it looks like I'll get back about $1700 while DH will get back $2500! Mine will go straight to the student loan, which will be under $3000 by the time I file and get the refund. DH's will go into savings with half earmarked for Japan next year, and half towards a new car fund (which won't be tapped into for a while).

@dayvewc just wanted to say I'm sorry for the struggles you've been going through. I don't have any advice for you, but I hope you know you always have friends on this board!

 

[imbatman]

Hi all. I'm joining for the first time.

Hi! Sometimes, it's easier to put your numbers in front of you. Like I posted mine at the beginning of the month and I'm going to find that post and update it. It helps me mentally slap myself.

Hi all. It's almost the end of January and it's the end of my first month of my new year of spending more wisely. No "wants" were bought this month.

In InstaPot will actually help keep food costs down if you stick with it! And I justified a Keurig instead of Starbucks. SO.MUCH.MONEY.SAVED!

I'm a little late to the party (and new here!) I'm looking forward to following this thread to keep me motivated. I'm really tired of debt and not being able to do what we want with our money. Live and learn, right?!

Welcome!!! We'd rather you be late to the party than never come at all! Do you have a method to track your debt reduction (like a snowball)?

**
On my personal front, this weekend is the funeral. Lots o' family arriving. Already friction. Had $300 in unexpected expenditures last week. The crazy thing is that $3k my brother bailed on? He randomly showed up with a check for $500 to my work, so the expenditures were covered. No, I won't get the full amount, but that was a blessing. The flip side is now hearing his bleeding heart story about debt. Really?! You're the one that said you'd pay for the trip.

Feeling melancholy today--that spot between exhaustion and breaking into tears? Me. I need to work on my spreadsheets, order $500 in textbooks for my oldest, and buy creamer. All tonight. One foot in front of the other...

 

[imbatman]

1. CC #1: $2587.05 - Update 1/28/19 - moved to another card
2. CC #2: $7198.39 - 0% interest - $5584.79
3. CC #3: $6334.63 - Update 1/28/19 - moved to another card
4. CC #4: $8635.28 - 0% interest

Total: $16,120.07 - New total: $14,220.07

Not a huge amount of dumping, but at this rate, we are projected to be CC debt free in September!

**edit** For those of you joining us for the first time, this is how I deal with looking at my debt. I hide behind my avatar, but I know the debt is there. I log onto this board every single week to motivate myself that it's not worth going backwards. You may do it differently, but I wanted to say that if you share your figures, NO ONE here will judge you. They've been nothing but kind to me since I joined last year.
​

 

[barkley]

Total: $16,120.07 - New total: $14,220.07

congratulations! that is quite an accomplishment.

order $500 in textbooks for my oldest,

such a rip-off. i would scour every site to see if i couldn't find rentals or used copies each quarter for dd. tip-if no one is buying one he's done with at the end of a course just set it on a shelf and every once in a while check bookfinder's site (they check multiple sites and tell what each if any are buying back for). i sat on a few general ed textbooks of dd's for a couple of years that none of the sites wanted then all of a sudden they popped back up into demand so off they went for a cool $40 or $50.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

congratulations! that is quite an accomplishment.







such a rip-off. i would scour every site to see if i couldn't find rentals or used copies each quarter for dd. tip-if no one is buying one he's done with at the end of a course just set it on a shelf and every once in a while check bookfinder's site (they check multiple sites and tell what each if any are buying back for). i sat on a few general ed textbooks of dd's for a couple of years that none of the sites wanted then all of a sudden they popped back up into demand so off they went for a cool $40 or $50.

Ds has rented text books from Amazon or bought used there. It was so easy. We saved the packaging that they used to mail them to us. Just print a label and drop it in a UPS box before the deadline.

 

[KearneyFam02]

Welcome!!! We'd rather you be late to the party than never come at all! Do you have a method to track your debt reduction (like a snowball?

Typically we follow Dave Ramsey but this year we have to have that card paid off by May because it was a promo. Normally I would go smallest to largest but that put a wrench in the plans. Plus our van has a payment of $315 and only owe 3000 on it so that’s next to go so we can use that amount to quickly get rid of everything else. I’ll be glad when it’s all gone!

 

[crazycatstacy]

We get paid end of the week. Did our figuring and after the almost $500 to buy tickets for my nephew for Disney in March we will be able to make a $650 credit card payment! Pretty happy about that. My husband has signed up for overtime over the next month so hoping for a $500 extra payment March 1 as well.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

DH and I spend most of the weekend working on installing the ceiling insulation in our basement. We woke up early and worked before DD woke, DH continued working while I watched her during the day, we both worked again during her naps and then we worked after she slept in the evenings. We managed to finish it all by Sunday evening so the builders could continue the drywall installation. We ended up using just 12.5 out of the 20 bags that the builder purchased, so that should mean we get a credit of about $450. So that was good. And even without the drywall yet, it seems to have made a big difference in sound transfer between the floors, so I am happy that we spent the extra time and money to install it.

Also made the second payment to the builder since we are past the rough inspection phase now. It was $31k and the largest check that I have ever written in my life. The final payment will be $11k, so we have already made the bulk of the payments now. DH is calling BoA today to start the balance transfer from his credit card to the HELOC for $7k at 0%/$0 transfer fee. I also ordered a balance transfer check from Capitol One for $9.8k for one of my cards ($200 transfer fee for a total of $10k). So we will have almost $37k on 0% cards. That will leave about $23k in the HELOC. We will still need to buy paint and carpeting as well, so I am budgeting about $5k for that. We have $1k per month set aside to make minimum payments to each credit card and the remainder will go towards the HELOC. I am also hoping to put the bulk of DH's extra March paycheck towards the HELOC and probably his extra paycheck in the fall as well.

But since we were so busy and worked so hard, we ended up eating out twice, which totaled about $60. I had to borrow forward from our February eating out budget, which means that we have $0 for that now so next month there is no eating out. We ended up completely covering our shortfall from December, but then incurred some more costs, all related to DD. Though she isn't ready for a toddler bed yet, the one that I had my eye on came back in stock, so I purchased it. And I bought her a busy book from Etsy for our plane trip. We also lost her diaper clutch last month and needed to replace it before our Disney trip because the diaper bag doesn't fit underneath her umbrella stroller. All in all, we are way over in the baby budget category. I think that I will hold off and cover this all with part of DH's extra March paycheck. This should will get us back into good shape with our budget.

 

[DnA2010]

DH and I spend most of the weekend working on installing the ceiling insulation in our basement. We woke up early and worked before DD woke, DH continued working while I watched her during the day, we both worked again during her naps and then we worked after she slept in the evenings. We managed to finish it all by Sunday evening so the builders could continue the drywall installation. We ended up using just 12.5 out of the 20 bags that the builder purchased, so that should mean we get a credit of about $450. So that was good. And even without the drywall yet, it seems to have made a big difference in sound transfer between the floors, so I am happy that we spent the extra time and money to install it.

Also made the second payment to the builder since we are past the rough inspection phase now. It was $31k and the largest check that I have ever written in my life. The final payment will be $11k, so we have already made the bulk of the payments now. DH is calling BoA today to start the balance transfer from his credit card to the HELOC for $7k at 0%/$0 transfer fee. I also ordered a balance transfer check from Capitol One for $9.8k for one of my cards ($200 transfer fee for a total of $10k). So we will have almost $37k on 0% cards. That will leave about $23k in the HELOC. We will still need to buy paint and carpeting as well, so I am budgeting about $5k for that. We have $1k per month set aside to make minimum payments to each credit card and the remainder will go towards the HELOC. I am also hoping to put the bulk of DH's extra March paycheck towards the HELOC and probably his extra paycheck in the fall as well.

But since we were so busy and worked so hard, we ended up eating out twice, which totaled about $60. I had to borrow forward from our February eating out budget, which means that we have $0 for that now so next month there is no eating out. We ended up completely covering our shortfall from December, but then incurred some more costs, all related to DD. Though she isn't ready for a toddler bed yet, the one that I had my eye on came back in stock, so I purchased it. And I bought her a busy book from Etsy for our plane trip. We also lost her diaper clutch last month and needed to replace it before our Disney trip because the diaper bag doesn't fit underneath her umbrella stroller. All in all, we are way over in the baby budget category. I think that I will hold off and cover this all with part of DH's extra March paycheck. This should will get us back into good shape with our budget.

Good for you on the insulation install Our carpenter is done the drywall now, and the mud/tapers started yesterday and will be back and forth this week, we are hoping to start painting this weekend, then the builder/electrician/plumber will be back for the final installs of lights/bathroom vanity and toilet (tub is in), doors and flooring. We considered doing the flooring ourselves, but decided that we would just get the builder do it as he will be much faster. The electrician's costs came in higher than we expected, but all said and done we should be under our budget (20K)

 

[crazycatstacy]

Non budget related question. My husband and I have annual passes for the first time ever- bought them last year but won't activate them until March. I was looking at the Disney World website and it said there is a Annual Passholder calendar that you can sync to your calendar. I don't really use our computer at home so it would make most sense to sync it to my office calendar but not sure IT would appreciate that. Is there anyway to add it to your phone? Or, am I just not able to view the calendar because I haven't activated my annual pass yet but once I do I can look on Disney website and see it? Hopefully this all makes sense. Thanks!

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Good for you on the insulation install Our carpenter is done the drywall now, and the mud/tapers started yesterday and will be back and forth this week, we are hoping to start painting this weekend, then the builder/electrician/plumber will be back for the final installs of lights/bathroom vanity and toilet (tub is in), doors and flooring. We considered doing the flooring ourselves, but decided that we would just get the builder do it as he will be much faster. The electrician's costs came in higher than we expected, but all said and done we should be under our budget (20K)

I am curious. How many square feet will the finished space in your basement be once the project is done?

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Non budget related question. My husband and I have annual passes for the first time ever- bought them last year but won't activate them until March. I was looking at the Disney World website and it said there is a Annual Passholder calendar that you can sync to your calendar. I don't really use our computer at home so it would make most sense to sync it to my office calendar but not sure IT would appreciate that. Is there anyway to add it to your phone? Or, am I just not able to view the calendar because I haven't activated my annual pass yet but once I do I can look on Disney website and see it? Hopefully this all makes sense. Thanks!

I would ask this question in the annual pass thread. I just got an annual pass too which we will be activating in March. No clue about the calendar sync, but that sounds cool.

 

[Shughart]

I'm a little late to the party (and new here!) I'm looking forward to following this thread to keep me motivated. I'm really tired of debt and not being able to do what we want with our money. Live and learn, right?!

Current debts

• My van
• Hubby's car
• Credit Union CC that we did a balance transfer to pay off our Disney Visa
• LOC
• Best Buy CC
• Lowe's CC

2019 Financial Goals

• Pay off Credit Union CC with tax refund
• Pay off Van by July
• Pay off Hubby's car by December
• Pay off Best Buy CC by November
• Save up to pay for Disney 12/19 trip so we don't have to add to our debt

2019 Personal Goals

• Lose 30 lbs (down 10 so far!!)
• Grow my business
• Be present more!

Welcome KearneyFam! We too are going in 12/19 and one of my goals this year is to pay for our vacation without incurring more debt as well! Good luck to you on your goals!

1. CC #1: $2587.05 - Update 1/28/19 - moved to another card
2. CC #2: $7198.39 - 0% interest - $5584.79
3. CC #3: $6334.63 - Update 1/28/19 - moved to another card
4. CC #4: $8635.28 - 0% interest

Total: $16,120.07 - New total: $14,220.07

Not a huge amount of dumping, but at this rate, we are projected to be CC debt free in September!

**edit** For those of you joining us for the first time, this is how I deal with looking at my debt. I hide behind my avatar, but I know the debt is there. I log onto this board every single week to motivate myself that it's not worth going backwards. You may do it differently, but I wanted to say that if you share your figures, NO ONE here will judge you. They've been nothing but kind to me since I joined last year.
​

PROGRESS

 

[Birdie dog]

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.

 

[dina444444]

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.

I keep at minimum what the bank requires to not charge a fee. I have direct deposit now (didn’t for several years since prior jobs didn’t offer it) so I don’t have to worry about the minimum, but I still keep at least that much in my account that I don’t touch.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

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.

We use YNAB for budgeting and they recommend that you consolidate down to as few accounts as possible (even one if you can manage) because it eliminates problems with overdrafting, etc. We have 3 main accounts. One is our USAA checking account that we use to pay all of our bills, so this is where our paychecks get direct deposited into. The way YNAB works, I am able to track all of our upcoming payments (we have all of our bills set to auto-pay) and know that we have enough money in our account to cover our credit card payments and other bills without worrying about an overdraft. I haven't actually worried about overdrafting at all since I started using YNAB. We also have an Ally bank account for longer term savings, such as our emergency fund. It earns a higher interest rate and so we like to keep money that we don't need immediately in that account. And finally, we have some money in a Chase checking account. We keep the minimum necessary to avoid bank fees. We have this account so that we have access to a local branch.

I don't think there is one single amount that is right for everyone. I would say that you should try forecasting your upcoming expenditures and make sure that you have enough in the account to both avoid bank fees and avoid any overdrafts.

 

[DLgal]

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.

I leave a floating $100 in the checking account at all times. I use every last bit of each paycheck (we get paid twice a month) for paying bills and paying down debt. Sometimes, we need to withdraw cash for something school or work related and I like to keep enough in checking to do that easily.

 

[imbatman]

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.

I think the answer will vary person to person. It ultimately depends on your spending habits. We have two checking and one savings, simply because we like the two banks. I'm able to transfer funds instantly, so it's fluid. Our savings is a baby account (after last year, we had nada). A set amount goes in every two weeks. Until our CC debt is zero, it'll stay that way. We look at it as our emergency fund for now. And what works for someone won't work for another. Like @Jen and Ashwin uses YNAB, and it was a face palm for me. I loosely follow Dave Ramsey, but don't agree with him biblically (per se). For us, putting the set amount in savings every two weeks lets us breathe.

 

[DnA2010]

I am curious. How many square feet will the finished space in your basement be once the project is done?

I think around 1000sqft

 

[jen7233]

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.

How much kept in checkbook? I like to keep at least $1000, typically. That is just my comfort level, but I do sometimes go down to about $300 if needed for a particular need at the time. We aren't on all automatic payments right now, various reasons, where in the past we were more automated. I will probably streamline my number of checking and savings accounts, I have way too many right now, and some of my savings are separated as electronic envelopes, I may just put it all in one savings, use an Excel spreadsheet, and go back to keeping it simple.