Debt Dumpers 2020

[RamblingMad]

Sometimes you just need it to stay sane, even while paying on debt. I have 9k in a 401k loan, but we are doing two trips this year and planning a move. Life must go on even while saving to pay off debt

Maybe because I was raised by my depression era grandma, I have a hard time getting my head around this. You have to have a lot of confidence in the economy to go ahead with trips.

I spent far more than I wanted to with my move last year, so I’m mostly doing camping trips this year to save more than normal. I’m cutting back on my trips.

What’s your timeline to pay it back?

 

[MermaidLagoonResident]

I’m trying to wrap my head around going on vacation while having credit card debt. What rate are you paying on that $9500 of remaining debt?

Sometimes you just need it to stay sane, even while paying on debt. I have 9k in a 401k loan, but we are doing two trips this year and planning a move. Life must go on even while saving to pay off debt

3.95%

@MantaRider - exactly We've also had some big things happen within my family with loss and trauma where having a vacation on the way to look forward to has really helped.

Opportunities came up and I had to jump for it. Doing a RunDisney event had been a long term goal of mine and with the popularity of the events the registration is very far in advance. There are also other big life things that my husband and I are possibly looking into over the next few years where doing run events or larger travel adventures may not be as possible so if I want to experience them, it needs to be a now thing.

 

[MermaidLagoonResident]

Maybe because I was raised by my depression era grandma, I have a hard time getting my head around this. You have to have a lot of confidence in the economy to go ahead with trips.

I spent far more than I wanted to with my move last year, so I’m mostly doing camping trips this year to save more than normal. I’m cutting back on my trips.

What’s your timeline to pay it back?

Ideally if I stick to my plan of a minimal of $500 per pay check, that would take me to September. But I am also hoping when there is extra after dividing up my pay checks to put it towards my line of credit.

 

[pblack]

• declutter living space, aiming to take 400 items out of our space (clothing, books, dads, etc etc

I’d really like to know how many dads you have living in your house???

i also feel like having some kind of vacation, be it big or small, to look forward to while paying off debt helps. I feel like it helps curb impulse spending. Instead of going crazy with unnecessary purchases because you have nothing to look forward to, instead you tend to put that money aside for vacation.

 

[MermaidLagoonResident]

I’d really like to know how many dads you have living in your house???

i also feel like having some kind of vacation, be it big or small, to look forward to while paying off debt helps. I feel like it helps curb impulse spending. Instead of going crazy with unnecessary purchases because you have nothing to look forward to, instead you tend to put that money aside for vacation.

Oh shoot! Autocorrect! That was suppose to say dvd's!

For sure! I've also set up with the prepaid cc I've been using a saving goal, pretty much it's figured out if you want x$ saved by y date and then it automatically takes money from my card spendable and puts it into a saving account.

 

[kbelle8995]

I calculated using my budget organizer and was surprised how much I was spending per month. This will help me in the future to keep track and not let it get so out of control. This purchase has been a benefit already

I also plan to set a budget on how much I can purchase on Amazon. I also am joining Jenny Craig to lose some weight. That should stop the additional spending on the vending machine. I have cancelled a January trip to Disney. I will wait until late March. When I go I plan to purchase one loungefly backpack and that's it. I will watch my souvenir spending and set a budget.

 

[bethwc101]

Sometimes you just need it to stay sane, even while paying on debt. I have 9k in a 401k loan, but we are doing two trips this year and planning a move. Life must go on even while saving to pay off debt

100% yes!
DH and I are childfree by choice. So other than our dogs, we have no responsibility to other people. No college fund, no dental work for kids fund, school clothes, daycare, extra food, etc costs.
Vacations are my motivation to get up and go to work at 4am every day at a high stress job. I am working hard for my next vacation. Otherwise, i would have a much lower paying job, but would not be able to afford vacations.
We have a mortgage, car loan, cc debt, and a dirtbike loan, but it is all money we can easily pay each month as well as put aside money for vacation.
I get 4 weeks PTO while my husband only gets one. We are doing one nice trip do DLR this year, but most my PTO will probably end up being staycations as it is use it or loose it.

 

[RamblingMad]

i also feel like having some kind of vacation, be it big or small, to look forward to while paying off debt helps. I feel like it helps curb impulse spending. Instead of going crazy with unnecessary purchases because you have nothing to look forward to, instead you tend to put that money aside for vacation.

What unnecessary purchases? I’m trying to get my head around this.

 

[imbatman]

I love POP on general but am not a fan of the all stars at all. I loved the skyliner in October. Personally, even though I don’t spend much time in the room, the upgrade to POP will always be worth it to me.

I liked ASMusic! A lot! Their food court was one of the best in all of the WDW properties. What can I say? I like to visit food courts.

Have a will drawn up – my husband and I, despite being in our 40s with 2 kids (one out on his own) and lots of assets to our name, have not done this yet and really need to (please no lectures).

Lecture free from me! We finally got ours in place when I was 40. We're going to have another drawn up this year since our oldest is an adult and things have changed. You might look into a living trust versus a will, depending on the state you live in.

I’m trying to wrap my head around going on vacation while having credit card debt. What rate are you paying on that $9500 of remaining debt?
** snip **
Maybe because I was raised by my depression era grandma, I have a hard time getting my head around this. You have to have a lot of confidence in the economy to go ahead with trips.

How you deal with debt looks like it's different than a lot of us. There are some of us trying to death with tragedy, some of us just made bad decisions. My situation is a combo of both: my dad is dying (has 3 months left at the most) and I tried to buy myself happiness this year, knowing full well that it wouldn't work.

Try to be helpful and suggestive here. I would've left LONG ago had I received these messages. Grace always wins on this board. It's not about knowing the other person's situation, but about encouraging them to take the steps to move toward living debt-free.

 

[barkley]

When I purchased my home in November 2019, I barely saw any rate improvement from 30 to 15 year. The mortgage rate curve had mostly flatten. Are you seeing it steepen again? Have you priced out 5/1 or 7/1 rates as well? I know some folks at work that have 7/1 mortgages with 3% interest rates. That's far better than the 3.875% interest rate that I'm paying. And after rolling my proceeds from my previous home into this one, I'm pretty much paying it down at a 20 year payment amount.

in our neck of the woods a 30 year fixed is going for 3.65% while a 15 year fixed is at 3.0%, refinancing could save someone a few hundred a month. we bought in 2007 at a 30 year rate then re-fi'd at 15 a few years later but we opted to continue paying at our previous payment rate-as a result we've been paid off for several years now (also helps to throw any little dibs and dabs at the loan-even if it's just a few buck a month b/c it all adds up).

I also am joining Jenny Craig to lose some weight

if you have any used book or thrift stores near you check them out for jenny craig cookbooks. they usually have a wealth of them. easy, tasty recipes that are just as effective as their prepackaged stuff (but i think using their food to kick start weight loss works well-at least for me it did, and it helped get my mind used to what an appropriate serving portion should be).

 

[npatellye]

Happy new year to everyone! I have been following the Debt Dumper threads for a while now and understand that ideally, in order to reach your financial goals, a combination of spending less money and bringing in more income (whenever possible) is a favourable approach. I have noticed that some posters indicate that they plan on putting several thousands of dollars towards debt each month and I’m sincerely wondering how one does that. I make a decent income but I definitely don’t have thousands of extra dollars in my budget every month, even if I were to adhere to a strict budget. Am I missing something? Is there a strategy that people are using to be able to pay off such a large amount of debt every month?

I’m not sure there’s a strategy, to be honest. We are finally a full dual income family again after I took a few years off and then worked part-time for a year. And what we save in preschool costs (youngest is finally out of preschool in June) we will just set aside into a separate account for travel or some such extras. The extra money from me finally working full-time, combined with what I’ve saved up from working part-time for the last year, will pay off our DVC contracts. I anticipate paying off the first by June and the second by December.

We live well below our means in a home we can afford on my husband’s full-time income...because we only had one income when we bought it. Our house is 10 years old and much less ostentatious than many of the newer but smaller homes in our area. While our neighbors have luxury SUVs, we have a Sienna and an Explorer. We drive our cars until they fall apart whereas our neighbors trade them in every two years.

However, we should be saving much, much more than we do if we look only at income but we live in an area with a very high cost of living and high taxes so we save what we can by cutting little corners. We wouldn’t be able to pay off our contracts in 12 months total if I weren’t working full-time. I’m still looking for ways to cut down and save more.

 

[RamblingMad]

in our neck of the woods a 30 year fixed is going for 3.65% while a 15 year fixed is at 3.0%, refinancing could save someone a few hundred a month. we bought in 2007 at a 30 year rate then re-fi'd at 15 a few years later but we opted to continue paying at our previous payment rate-as a result we've been paid off for several years now (also helps to throw any little dibs and dabs at the loan-even if it's just a few buck a month b/c it all adds up).

That’s a good rate for a 15 year. I’d take that.

 

[crazycatstacy]

I liked ASMusic! A lot! Their food court was one of the best in all of the WDW properties. What can I say? I like to visit food courts.

When we stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge last trip I told my husband that I thought POP had a WAY better food court than Animal Kingdom! We rarely eat at the food courts but I like options and variety! And I'm a fat kid that just likes to see food

 

[pblack]

Try to be helpful and suggestive here. I would've left LONG ago had I received these messages. Grace always wins on this board. It's not about knowing the other person's situation, but about encouraging them to take the steps to move toward living debt-free.

I second this. This is a judgment free zone. What works for one person wont always work for someone else. Each person here shares a very very small snippet of their life and situation and we just don't know what everyone else is dealing with. Most of us are here to gain knowledge, to vent, or to share in the joy of paying off that next debt.

 

[RamblingMad]

I second this. This is a judgment free zone. What works for one person wont always work for someone else. Each person here shares a very very small snippet of their life and situation and we just don't know what everyone else is dealing with. Most of us are here to gain knowledge, to vent, or to share in the joy of paying off that next debt.

I don’t want to encourage someone to take on more debt that already has debt. I don’t think this is helpful. What happens when the credit environment tightens? Forced deleveraging is more painful and less joyful than planned deleveraging. I’m all for joy, but I’m not going to encourage someone to take an expensive vacation who has debt, rather I’d suggest staycations or cheaper trips. Best to take it easy one year to get rid of debt to have it be much easier in the future while the economy is still good.

 

[imbatman]

I don’t want to encourage someone to take on more debt that already has debt. I don’t think this is helpful. What happens when the credit environment tightens? Forced deleveraging is more painful and less joyful than planned deleveraging. I’m all for joy, but I’m not going to encourage someone to take an expensive vacation who has debt, rather I’d suggest staycations or cheaper trips. Best to take it easy one year to get rid of debt to have it be much easier in the future while the economy is still good.

If you don't agree with the expenditures, you can also choose not to comment.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

As the kinda-admin of this page, I just want to remind everyone that this is a safe and encouraging space. We are all here with the goal of eliminating our debts but remember that everyone's path will be different. We are all human, dealing with what life throws at us day-to-day. If someone asks for advice, feel free to provide it but remember to also give grace. And if no advice is requested, please don't pass judgment on other's decisions. I want us all here to feel free to share, gain knowledge from others and celebrate our victories in a welcoming environment. If that for some reason doesn't jive with you, then you are welcome to just stop following this thread. Thanks!

 

[Ngwira]

Do you have a Chick Fil A in your area? My daughter worked there at 15 and it was a good experience, her first job just a couple of years ago. Also, if she will be 16 by summer she could get certified and work as a lifeguard at a local pool...just some suggestions! Good luck to her in her job search!

Rita's Water Ice also hires at 15.

 

[DisneyMandC]

As the kinda-admin of this page, I just want to remind everyone that this is a safe and encouraging space. We are all here with the goal of eliminating our debts but remember that everyone's path will be different. We are all human, dealing with what life throws at us day-to-day. If someone asks for advice, feel free to provide it but remember to also give grace. And if no advice is requested, please don't pass judgment on other's decisions. I want us all here to feel free to share, gain knowledge from others and celebrate our victories in a welcoming environment. If that for some reason doesn't jive with you, then you are welcome to just stop following this thread. Thanks!

Well said. Welcome, @MermaidLagoonResident! Glad to have you here!

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Non-budget update. I had my 7-week ultrasound today and got to see the little guy. I cried again. I have felt really nervous for the past several weeks and been very sick the past week too. Heartbeat is good and development looks good, so the fertility clinic has now released me into OB care. I have my first OB appointment in 2 weeks.