Debt Dumpers - 2019

[Shughart]

I don't remember all the details but this happened to a colleague. Bought a new truck and when in for oil change they checked for recalls and yep there was one. It was something huge that one assembly line had messed up on, needed a new under carriage or something, needless to say it took around 9 months for her to get her truck back. Hopefully for you it is not this long!

What a nightmare! I am definitely hoping that this does not drag on that long. That story about the Kia being there since July scared the out of me. I will be paying close attention to recalls though, to see if this issue I am having pops up.

 

[MN_Andi]

38 more sleeps until I check in to the Boardwalk. To say I'm jealous is an understatement!!! I'm getting so impatient.

My family stayed at the Boardwalk via rented DVC points this past November, and it was such a wonderful hotel! Perfect for our trip during Food and Wine, and with it being pretty centrally located on the resort, trips to AK and MK felt super quick. Have a lot of fun!

 

[Tygerlilly]

Well, spent a chunk at Sam's today. $300, but I think I got enough food to last an entire month, if not longer, plus some non-food things. I got some great deals on marked down meats (a giant pack of wings for $10, stew meat for $8, pork chops for $10, steaks for $12) that I was able to split into 2 meals each. I have a smaller trip to Aldi to do still and I'll have a weekly trip for milk and produce, but otherwise, I'll be under my $400 food budget.

 

[StacyStrong]

Phew. I am blowing through money this week. I scheduled a haircut for Saturday that I really really need. It's been like 2 years since my last. I need new contacts. I bought two dresses for Disney and I have a baptism to go to.

 

[StacyStrong]

My family stayed at the Boardwalk via rented DVC points this past November, and it was such a wonderful hotel! Perfect for our trip during Food and Wine, and with it being pretty centrally located on the resort, trips to AK and MK felt super quick. Have a lot of fun!

I'm so excited! It'll be my first time staying there. We are staying in a 2 bedroom Villa. My best friend's parents own DVC at Boardwalk and we are staying on their points for the Star Wars races + a couple extra days. I'm only spending $50 total for 5 nights because we needed a couple extra points! Talk about a steal.

 

[potterfanatic]

For those of you who are doing the Public Service Loan Forgiveness, I talked to Fed Loans today because some of my husband's payments weren't showing up on his account. We were told that when Navient had his loans they never reported the payments and they have to request the information from Navient. They said due to the backlog of requests they are currently expecting that it will take 1 year until the payments can be calculated. If you have had any of your loans under Navient and are trying for PSLF it might be worth it to give them a call.

 

[barkley]

MARCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

statistically, 80% of new year's resolutions are entirely abandoned by february-so if you are reading this post that means the topic is still on your mind, and you're still working towards your goals.

WE ALL NEED TO BE PROUD OF OURSELVES

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I'm so excited! It'll be my first time staying there. We are staying in a 2 bedroom Villa. My best friend's parents own DVC at Boardwalk and we are staying on their points for the Star Wars races + a couple extra days. I'm only spending $50 total for 5 nights because we needed a couple extra points! Talk about a steal.

That is so generous! Sounds like an amazing trip.

 

[Eureka]

Well, spent a chunk at Sam's today. $300, but I think I got enough food to last an entire month, if not longer, plus some non-food things. I got some great deals on marked down meats (a giant pack of wings for $10, stew meat for $8, pork chops for $10, steaks for $12) that I was able to split into 2 meals each. I have a smaller trip to Aldi to do still and I'll have a weekly trip for milk and produce, but otherwise, I'll be under my $400 food budget.

Yes, those markdowns can be a great deal. My downfall is the bakery markdowns at our supermarket. The kids like the store's huge muffins for breakfast and I will NOT pay $3.99 for a 4-pack, but $1.99? Sure. (I do make muffins too but don't always have time). I also find naan that we use as pizza crusts, each pack has two individual size ones and on clearance they are $1.49. That's a cheap meal for us and I make pizza usually every week. I'm not as lucky finding meat markdowns but do every once in a while.

 

[jen7233]

I'm so excited! It'll be my first time staying there. We are staying in a 2 bedroom Villa. My best friend's parents own DVC at Boardwalk and we are staying on their points for the Star Wars races + a couple extra days. I'm only spending $50 total for 5 nights because we needed a couple extra points! Talk about a steal.

That sounds fantastic, Boardwalk stay on friend's parents DVC! I wish I had a close relative or friend with DVC

I can't wait to go to WDW in April and feel some warm weather and get away! Seems like a long time ago this was planned and now coming up soon! We are all paid up, too. I'm going back and forth on dinner reservations, but I want to keep in mind Epcot has the F&G festival when we go and will have some amazing food from the look of the menu. I've never been during this time, are they set-up booths or tables, or something along these lines? Excited to try this out!

 

[DisneyMandC]

That sounds fantastic, Boardwalk stay on friend's parents DVC! I wish I had a close relative or friend with DVC

I can't wait to go to WDW in April and feel some warm weather and get away! Seems like a long time ago this was planned and now coming up soon! We are all paid up, too. I'm going back and forth on dinner reservations, but I want to keep in mind Epcot has the F&G festival when we go and will have some amazing food from the look of the menu. I've never been during this time, are they set-up booths or tables, or something along these lines? Excited to try this out!

We went in April for our honeymoon 4 years ago and had great weather! F&G was great. I haven't been to F&W, but I think the setups are very similar in terms of there being booths around the World.

 

[Sarah'sMomfrom PA]

I have a question for those people who applied for the Chase Slate card to get the 0% interest and no balance transfer fees..my husband and I both applied for the Slate card and we both got the card because we have a small home equity loan that charges monthly interest and figured that the 0% interest and no balance transfer fee was attractive enough to use the available credit for 15 months and use this money to pay more towards our home equity pay down. Tried to do this on line with no success so I decided to call Chase last night to see what I was doing wrong. The guy told me that the balance transfer can only be done for credit cards not to pay on a home equity loan.

I know that someone (Jen and Ashwin I think) said that they were going to use this balance transfer to pay money towards remodeling on a home equity loan....how are you doing this? This was the only reason that we got this card and now I am frustrated that they tell me that I can't do this. Any advice would be very greatly appreciated!!! Thanks in advance!

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

2 more sleeps until Disney!

DD has been under the weather the past few days. I thought it was just because she has two teeth coming in, but then she vomited on Thursday night and DH and I had to get up at 4am to clean everything up. Yesterday I had to pick her up from daycare early because she got sick again and was mostly miserable with coughing and a runny nose. I also had a bad stomach ache for most of yesterday plus a runny nose. I was dreading that our entire WDW trip would be spent sick. Well this morning I woke up and felt much better. And DD was in a very good mood with no cough and no runny nose. I am hoping that it was just a quick bug and will be out of our systems completely by Sunday. Fingers crossed.

February went as well as I think could be expected. We went over a bit on groceries which I covered by borrowing forward into March, but since we have a week of no grocery spending this month, it should hopefully even itself out so that we are back to normal. Our state taxes were deposited today. I set that money aside (plus another $180) to pay our Federal taxes, which are scheduled to come out on April 15. I really wish that we didn't owe this year. It is just so frustrating given that we took 0 allowances, but I guess it could have been worse.

The basement is reaching final stages now. DH and I went down this morning and we are so pleased with how things are looking. It is going to be an amazingly functional space! Doors and trim have been completed. They built the elevated stage for the theatre room. We just need the toilet installed in the bathroom and the final work from the electrician. My mom will be coming for a few days the week after we return from our trip to help us with painting. Hoping we can get most, if not all, of the painting done by mid-March. And then we will just be waiting on the stuff for the wet bar. I ordered the wet bar cabinets this week because they were running a 20% sale. I didn't order the counter top because that wasn't on sale. I am hoping to get it at a discount since it costs almost as much as the cabinets. I also ordered an undercounter mini-fridge, microwave and bar faucet. I just need to order the tile for the back splash once I know the cost to install everything, so I can decide if we will go ahead with the fireplace or not. I am so excited that we are nearing the end!

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I know that someone (Jen and Ashwin I think) said that they were going to use this balance transfer to pay money towards remodeling on a home equity loan....how are you doing this? This was the only reason that we got this card and now I am frustrated that they tell me that I can't do this. Any advice would be very greatly appreciated!!! Thanks in advance!

So we actually got the Bank of America BankAmericard. It offers the same 0% APR for 15 months with a $0 transfer fee. I didn't do the Slate card because our HELOC is through Chase and I knew that I wouldn't be able to use the Chase card to pay off a Chase HELOC no matter what, so I didn't look too deeply into the terms of what qualified for a balance transfer on that card. I did make sure that the BoA card would allow me to apply the balance to our HELOC by calling them and asking questions before I applied for the card. The transfer time for the balance transfer to our HELOC was 5 weeks for my card. DH's balance transfer is still pending.

I also did a balance transfer from my Capitol One Quicksilver card. That card had a 2% fee, which is much less than our 6.5% HELOC, so I felt it was a good deal. For that card, I just requested a check for the amount of the full balance of the card. That took about 1 week to arrive and I deposited it into my Chase checking account and then transferred the balance to the HELOC. So you might see if Chase will issue a check and then apply the check to the HELOC balance. Otherwise, you could think about transferring balances from other credit cards and take the money that you would have used to pay the balance on those cards towards the HELOC.

Our plan is to apply for the Slate cards once the 15 month promo period on the BoA cards expire. But we will be transferring the balance from the BoA card to the Slate card, so even if Chase doesn't allow paying down a HELOC, it won't matter for us.

Sorry if you applied for the Slate card and aren't able to use it as you had hoped, but hopefully you can get creative and still benefit!

 

[StacyStrong]

That is so generous! Sounds like an amazing trip.

Yes!! Her parents are there now actually paying out of pocket so we can stay at Boardwalk!

Usually when we go (she's my main Disney traveling friend), we pay OOP, but her sister, brother, and another friend are joining us for the races so the points are all ours!

I'm very grateful.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Yes, those markdowns can be a great deal. My downfall is the bakery markdowns at our supermarket. The kids like the store's huge muffins for breakfast and I will NOT pay $3.99 for a 4-pack, but $1.99? Sure. (I do make muffins too but don't always have time). I also find naan that we use as pizza crusts, each pack has two individual size ones and on clearance they are $1.49. That's a cheap meal for us and I make pizza usually every week. I'm not as lucky finding meat markdowns but do every once in a while.

You should see my freezer! A whole section is mark down breads and muffins I put in there! I should keep my eye out for Naan. I haven't seen that one lately. I love it all toasted up with chickpea masala. Mmmm....

 

[jen7233]

2 more sleeps until Disney!

DD has been under the weather the past few days. I thought it was just because she has two teeth coming in, but then she vomited on Thursday night and DH and I had to get up at 4am to clean everything up. Yesterday I had to pick her up from daycare early because she got sick again and was mostly miserable with coughing and a runny nose. I also had a bad stomach ache for most of yesterday plus a runny nose. I was dreading that our entire WDW trip would be spent sick. Well this morning I woke up and felt much better. And DD was in a very good mood with no cough and no runny nose. I am hoping that it was just a quick bug and will be out of our systems completely by Sunday. Fingers crossed.

February went as well as I think could be expected. We went over a bit on groceries which I covered by borrowing forward into March, but since we have a week of no grocery spending this month, it should hopefully even itself out so that we are back to normal. Our state taxes were deposited today. I set that money aside (plus another $180) to pay our Federal taxes, which are scheduled to come out on April 15. I really wish that we didn't owe this year. It is just so frustrating given that we took 0 allowances, but I guess it could have been worse.

The basement is reaching final stages now. DH and I went down this morning and we are so pleased with how things are looking. It is going to be an amazingly functional space! Doors and trim have been completed. They built the elevated stage for the theatre room. We just need the toilet installed in the bathroom and the final work from the electrician. My mom will be coming for a few days the week after we return from our trip to help us with painting. Hoping we can get most, if not all, of the painting done by mid-March. And then we will just be waiting on the stuff for the wet bar. I ordered the wet bar cabinets this week because they were running a 20% sale. I didn't order the counter top because that wasn't on sale. I am hoping to get it at a discount since it costs almost as much as the cabinets. I also ordered an undercounter mini-fridge, microwave and bar faucet. I just need to order the tile for the back splash once I know the cost to install everything, so I can decide if we will go ahead with the fireplace or not. I am so excited that we are nearing the end!

Exciting! Yes hopefully just a quick bug and be gone!

 

[AJollyHoliday]

Well, spent a chunk at Sam's today. $300, but I think I got enough food to last an entire month, if not longer, plus some non-food things. I got some great deals on marked down meats (a giant pack of wings for $10, stew meat for $8, pork chops for $10, steaks for $12) that I was able to split into 2 meals each. I have a smaller trip to Aldi to do still and I'll have a weekly trip for milk and produce, but otherwise, I'll be under my $400 food budget.

Do you have Dosh? It is an app where you link your debit (or credit if you use those) and when you spend $ at places such as Sam's club, you get 2% back. When you hit $25 in earnings you can transfer that money to a paypal account or bank account. I joined Sam's club to start earning points, plus it is closer to our home than BJs.

 

[AJollyHoliday]

That's a huge return, wow!

Federal return was deposited this morning. $3870 went to paying off a credit card. $1500 went to my kids sports for the year ($750 to each one). And we are shopping this weekend for a few things we've been putting off. State should be in this week as well and will go towards another credit card leaving a small balance. Then hubby will get his bonus next month to pay off the rest. I'm so ready to get out from under all this debt!

I agree with another poster, that is a HUGE return. You should reconsider how much you are having withheld. I know it is nice to have a lump sum like that come at you, but that meant that you gave the government an interest free loan for the past year versus you being out of debt sooner and having that money earn interest in your account or investments. Just my $0.02 (and that of Dave Ramsey).

I am hear you about getting out from that debt. We got out in November and I feel so free! However, I also notice that I have totally changed my shopping habits and how I feel about things, all for the better in my opinion.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Do you have Dosh? It is an app where you link your debit (or credit if you use those) and when you spend $ at places such as Sam's club, you get 2% back. When you hit $25 in earnings you can transfer that money to a paypal account or bank account. I joined Sam's club to start earning points, plus it is closer to our home than BJs.

No I don't, but I pay for $90 of things in cash anyway. It helps me stay on budget.