Debt Dumpers - 2019

[Birdie dog]

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.

I'm going to work on the claim tomorrow. I'll hope for the best. It's super annoying to worry about a hike in rates when it wasn't my fault to begin with.

 

[MamaBelleRN]

Jumping on the medical expenses band wagon! We finally heard from the genetics lab for my son’s test. Our expected cost is $2,760 I called right away and they were wonderful. They haven’t processed anything yet and it sounds like they have lots of programs that help with cost. I asked them to bill it to our insurance for 2019 since I’d rather put it towards this year’s deductible vs last. They need to run our estimation again since we got new insurance numbers at the beginning of the year (test was performed end of December) and will call back tomorrow with our options.

So far, February is going well! No catastrophes (knock on wood) and we should still be on track for a significant payment towards our van once the lease is up in May. I had hoped to pay it in full, but life happens!

 

[Birdie dog]

When I applied for my mortgage, I was told that medical debt was the #1 reason that people had dings on their credit. It's so terrible how insured people still can't pay their bill. I'm very lucky- we have tricare prime. We've never had even a $100 bill. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to have these huge bills and stay out of debt and I feel sorry for everyone who has this as a daily worry in their life.

 

[DisneyMandC]

I finally got my new student loan payment and my monthly payment dropped $30!! That's what I had estimated, but I'm always worried about it until I finally see that in writing.

While I would normally take that extra $30 and roll it into my other student loan, I'm planning to just pay that loan off in March or April, so no point in setting up a new recurring payment with the extra amount. Plus, they charge me an additional fee to make a one time payment.

 

[jen7233]

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.

Oh wow, sorry to hear that. My brother had lung cancer and a lung removed. He was in remission for a year or so, then a small bit of cancer cropped up elsewhere and was treated for that. He's hoping the next PET goes well. It's not been a good few years medically for my parents, with my father never recovering from a fall and his passing, mother becoming ill (well, the dementia had been there for a bit with some forgetfulness and repetition, but it's really taken a big stride downhill the last year) or one of my siblings.

 

[DLgal]

I scheduled my 2 credit card balance transfers to be paid IN FULL today, eliminated them from my "monthly bills" spreadsheet and took away the lines for my March bank account balance spreadsheet. Good riddance!

I know I literally just moved money from one account to another, but now we are officially in SAVINGS mode and that makes me feel so much less stressed out than debt payback mode.

So, updating goals:

Pay off balance transfers: $3500.- DONE. New balance $0

Increase Roth IRA contributions to maximum allowable amount starting in April. - Done. Automatic debit amount updated online.

Save $35,000 by end of December - Current status: $0/$35000. Projected status by April 15: $3000/$35000

Lose 20-30 lbs: Down 3 pounds from Jan 1. It's a start.

 

[jen7233]

I scheduled my 2 credit card balance transfers to be paid IN FULL today, eliminated them from my "monthly bills" spreadsheet and took away the lines for my March bank account balance spreadsheet. Good riddance!

I know I literally just moved money from one account to another, but now we are officially in SAVINGS mode and that makes me feel so much less stressed out than debt payback mode.

So, updating goals:

Pay off balance transfers: $3500.- DONE. New balance $0

Increase Roth IRA contributions to maximum allowable amount starting in April. - Done. Automatic debit amount updated online.

Save $35,000 by end of December - Current status: $0/$35000. Projected status by April 15: $3000/$35000

Lose 20-30 lbs: Down 3 pounds from Jan 1. It's a start.

That must feel good getting CC balances done and gone!

I think I need to look at my personal fitness goals myself.

 

[MN_Andi]

Had my wisdom teeth taken out yesterday, so now I'm at my own place to recover for the next 3-4 days. Cost including all of my prescriptions was about $371, which I don't think is too bad considering I had all 4 taken out. Plus I won't be able to each anything but mush for a while, so no going out to eat for me!
My federal and state refunds came in, so I paid off my credit card for the Grand Californian, put $400 into my savings account, and put $500 to my student loans this morning. My normal monthly payment for my loans comes out tomorrow, so my loans should be well under $34,000, which I am quite happy with!

 

[seb65]

While we are plugging along, putting all extra money toward our credit cards, February isn't proving to be lucky. We had bought a car off a relative, for my teenage son to get to work and school (he takes classes at a community college). We brought in for repairs, and turns out the undercarriage is completely rotted and it isn't safe to drive. We just got it in September. I am sick over the money we spent and shame on us for not bringing it to a mechanic to be checked! But I thought it was safe buying from a relative. So, we will continue to drive him and we are back to saving. It just seems like we can never get ahead. That is the frustrating part. On we go!

 

[MamaBelleRN]

When I applied for my mortgage, I was told that medical debt was the #1 reason that people had dings on their credit. It's so terrible how insured people still can't pay their bill. I'm very lucky- we have tricare prime. We've never had even a $100 bill. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to have these huge bills and stay out of debt and I feel sorry for everyone who has this as a daily worry in their life.

Yes, medical debt was the catalyst for digging ourselves a huge hole. We used to have a standard PPO with a max out of pocket of $12k which we were unlucky enough to hit three years in a row. This is actually why we switched to a HDHP and I love it. Even though our deductible is high ($5k) I know exactly what our max medical costs will be ($4k for us as my DH’s company contributes $1k/year, then we’re covered at 100%). We could pay the nearly $2,800 in full now from our HSA, but I’d rather not if we can avoid it. Nonetheless, I think it’s a shame that paying for medical care causes people such immense stress.

 

[MamaBelleRN]

While we are plugging along, putting all extra money toward our credit cards, February isn't proving to be lucky. We had bought a car off a relative, for my teenage son to get to work and school (he takes classes at a community college). We brought in for repairs, and turns out the undercarriage is completely rotted and it isn't safe to drive. We just got it in September. I am sick over the money we spent and shame on us for not bringing it to a mechanic to be checked! But I thought it was safe buying from a relative. So, we will continue to drive him and we are back to saving. It just seems like we can never get ahead. That is the frustrating part. On we go!

Ugh, that is awful. Any possible recourse with the relative?

 

[PhoenixStrength]

DH and I just got back from WDW yesterday. Not been a great week though for my family, though our trip itself was great. Last Tuesday, the day before we left, my 19 year old cousin was killed in a car accident while on duty (he was a Sheriff's Deputy). Then on Thursday his mother, her boyfriend and her sister were in a car accident after leaving from making the funeral plans for him. Thankfully they are all okay, his mother fractured her wrist but her car was totaled in the accident so they were quite lucky to be okay, physically at least. My cousin's funeral was Sunday, then Monday I fell while walking through the lobby of ASMo and got a huge lump and bruise on my knee. And that afternoon my mother fell and fractured her wrist in my parent's RV as they were driving back home from the funeral.

In good news, my state refund was deposited on Friday and federal was deposited today. State refund was pretty small but will cover our Valentines Day dinner next week and help offset the fact that neither my DH or I will get paid for the week we were at WDW. I'm an independent contractor so part of the federal will be used for paying estimated taxes for the first half of the year at least, part will be the rest of the offset from losing a week's pay and the rest (about $300) will go to debt payoff. And my DH found out today that his work has a quarterly meeting tomorrow that he will get a 4.5 hours pay for tomorrow along with free lunch. Oh, and I paid off my totaled car on Monday so that's one debt gone, and our Care Credit card will be paid off next month.

 

[seb65]

Ugh, that is awful. Any possible recourse with the relative?

No....they just said that it stunk. I know they used the money for a down payment for another car, so didn't expect anything. I know when buying a car, you should have a mechanic check out the car. I guess I should have instead of relying on his mechanic's word. A hard lesson. I did look up the lemon law for our state and I wouldn't have had recourse for that either.

 

[seb65]

@PhoenixStrength Sorry for your loss.

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

@PhoenixStrength I'm so sorry for your loss. That all sounds just awful.

 

[DisneyMandC]

DH is at the doctor this morning (after I all but had to threaten to divorce him if he didn't go). Turns out he has the flu AGAIN. The nurse told him she is seeing a lot of people that get this year's flu strain twice, so apparently that's what has happened to him, plus a sinus infection on top of it.

 

[Birdie dog]

Budget wise, this is going to be a long month. Along with regular bills, I have my husbands and BFFs birthday, I need to buy new Seresto collars for my dogs, and I need to buy more heartgard. I also have Valentines (which I'd like to just ignore, frankly, we're good and don't need a Hallmark holiday) and my BFFs birthday dinner. PLUS a gift for other very good out of town friends who are married and have birthdays within two days of my husbands. January didn't seem bad. February seems daunting.

 

[Birdie dog]

Oh, and the deductible for having my (hit and run) new car fixed. Yippee.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

@PhoenixStrength Sorry for your loss. And hope everyone else makes a quite recovery.

 

[amalone1013]

Any new YNAB users have any input on this? I'd love to figure this out too!

@amalone1013 since you brought up ynab....I am on month 2 of my conversion from ynab 4 to new ynab.
Love the auto import!
However...I can’t roll a category balance. In ynab 4 I would roll the balance of dh’s reimbursable work expense and apply the checks as they came in. Can’t do that anymore it seems. So for Jan I just paid them from our personal funds to clear out the month.
Any suggestions how to handle this?