Debt Dumpers 2021

[imbatman]

Chase Card; $7,039.27 Happy to Report This has been paid off!!!! I am so happy!

 

[DLgal]

I've decided to adopt the snowball method to my savings.

Since our only debt is the car, which is on track to be paid off this year, I am going to focus my efforts on building our savings now.

I have 5 "buckets" in my Ally Account: Emergency, Vacations, Disneyland AP, Vehicles, and House ( for an eventual down payment)

My current amounts and goals are as follows:

Vacations: $5000/$12000 goal
Disneyland AP: $1775/$5000 goal
Emergency: $13500/$48000 goal
Vehicles: $0/$30,000
House Down payment: $0/$150,000 (this one is a LOOOONG term goal)

So my new main goal is to fully fund the Emergency bucket by December. Emergency savings are not technically needed until my husband retires from the military. Right now, he is eyeing April 2023, so as long as I meet the goal by then, we will be fine, but I would rather do it this year and then put it out of mind and focus on other things. This amount of money will provide us with a 12 month cushion if my husband either can't find another job right away or he gets laid off in the future. His pension will be enough to cover our montly obligations and we can live well off an additional $4000/month, by my calculations.

I plan to allocate the (potential) stimulus towards the vacation fund, to get that up to the max in the event that we decide to travel this year. That way, I won't have to worry about monthly savings towards that. So, the snowball starts there. Once that is done, I will move down the list.

Next, I will allocate the max to the Disneyland fund until it reaches my goal, since we will soon (hopefully) need to purchase either new passes or day tickets once they reopen and I want to have those funds available. We are still awaiting a $1325 refund from an AP that was purchased last May and never activated. I have heard those will be the last ones to be refunded, so the timeline on that is unclear, but hopefully it will post before the parks reopen.

Once I am done with the Disneyland fund, I will focus all my efforts on the Emergency Fund. By my calculations, we can meet that goal by December. And maybe use some of those vacation funds to do something fun this year.

Starting next year, I will start over, but will have eliminated the "Emergency" category from ongoing contributions, so will be able to save more aggressively towards the other goals and knock them out faster.

 

[pblack]

Chase Card; $7,039.27 Happy to Report This has been paid off!!!! I am so happy!

 

[imbatman]

I've decided to adopt the snowball method to my savings.

Someday, I'll get to do this! Great idea.

 

[dreamer17555]

I have 5 "buckets" in my Ally Account: Emergency, Vacations, Disneyland AP, Vehicles, and House ( for an eventual down payment)

My current amounts and goals are as follows:

Vacations: $5000/$12000 goal
Disneyland AP: $1775/$5000 goal
Emergency: $13500/$48000 goal
Vehicles: $0/$30,000
House Down payment: $0/$150,000 (this one is a LOOOONG term goal)

Wait does Ally savings actually let you break things into categories within a savings account or are you just mentally doing this? If its the first I need to look hard at opening an account.

 

[DLgal]

Wait does Ally savings actually let you break things into categories within a savings account or are you just mentally doing this? If its the first I need to look hard at opening an account.

Yes! They call it "buckets."

 

[FQLover]

Capital One 360 does this, too. You can have up to 25 separate savings accounts, named as you want. I have been saving in this manner for 6-7 years. It is so gratifying! Some of them are automatic savings every month, and some of them I give extra money to frequently, and some I have on a slower growth, based on what is coming up in my life, etc.

 

[dreamer17555]

Clearly I have been missing out. Must look at creating a new savings account.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Capital One 360 does this, too. You can have up to 25 separate savings accounts, named as you want. I have been saving in this manner for 6-7 years. It is so gratifying! Some of them are automatic savings every month, and some of them I give extra money to frequently, and some I have on a slower growth, based on what is coming up in my life, etc.

I currently have 4 savings accounts with Capital One also. It's so nice to open the app and be able to see everything in one quick snapshot and making transfers is SO EASY!

 

[dina444444]

I currently have 4 savings accounts with Capital One also. It's so nice to open the app and be able to see everything in one quick snapshot and making transfers is SO EASY!

With Ally it’s all in one account and you can have up to 10 buckets. It’s helpful for compounding interest.

 

[FQLover]

I agree! I have 10 accounts, named clearly. They are linked to my checking account in my brick and mortar bank, so I can move things back and forth between my "real" bank, too. Their system is easy, and I like that "whole snapshot" look, too. It has made saving more fun and gratifying.

 

[Tygerlilly]

With baby #3 on the way, I've been doing some big thinking about life in 2022. We've been renting our house for 4.5 years now. It's a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom. It's a nice house, but I just don't see us really fitting in it once baby boy gets to be over 1. The two non-master bedrooms are not really big enough for the girls to share one comfortably so he can have his own room.

Which leads me to my new savings goal: house down-payment. My goal is to be debt free on everything except the car by July. When the next stimulus hits, I can make that happen easily. So I'm setting my sights on a pretty decent down-payment so we can buy in the end of 2022/early 2023. Homes the size we need are looking to be around $250-300k in our area, so I want to get at least a solid 10% (I know that's a low number, but I don't think higher is super realistic in just over a year). Fingers crossed I can actually pull this one off.

In other news, I snagged the pack n play I was looking for on 50% off clearance at Target yesterday! $110 instead of almost $250. And then, as I put it in the back of the car, I managed to lock my keys in the car. Luckily my mom came to get me so I could go get the spare, so I wasn't out any money, but man. At least it was a nice day outside while I sat there waiting.

 

[jen7233]

With baby #3 on the way, I've been doing some big thinking about life in 2022. We've been renting our house for 4.5 years now. It's a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom. It's a nice house, but I just don't see us really fitting in it once baby boy gets to be over 1. The two non-master bedrooms are not really big enough for the girls to share one comfortably so he can have his own room.

Which leads me to my new savings goal: house down-payment. My goal is to be debt free on everything except the car by July. When the next stimulus hits, I can make that happen easily. So I'm setting my sights on a pretty decent down-payment so we can buy in the end of 2022/early 2023. Homes the size we need are looking to be around $250-300k in our area, so I want to get at least a solid 10% (I know that's a low number, but I don't think higher is super realistic in just over a year). Fingers crossed I can actually pull this one off.

Ah, yes, the savings for house down payment. I've been doing that also a long time renter saving for our "retirement" house. Although, I personally don't commit to the term "forever house", not for me. Just thinking of forever homes, sorry! Not that you said it, I just have it on the mind. If we stay, our budget is going to be $750k-$850k (in DC area) but not a new build. I don't really want to, but high schooler and job market, so there's that. If we don't, then we'll start the process in two years, look into south or west (no confirmed place, just more so ideas) and entertain the new build process which I'll give a year to, then our budget will be about $400k in some of the areas we're considering. Adjusting for how the market is looking in two years, that is.

I've decided to adopt the snowball method to my savings.

Since our only debt is the car, which is on track to be paid off this year, I am going to focus my efforts on building our savings now.

I have 5 "buckets" in my Ally Account: Emergency, Vacations, Disneyland AP, Vehicles, and House ( for an eventual down payment)

My current amounts and goals are as follows:

Vacations: $5000/$12000 goal
Disneyland AP: $1775/$5000 goal
Emergency: $13500/$48000 goal
Vehicles: $0/$30,000
House Down payment: $0/$150,000 (this one is a LOOOONG term goal)

So my new main goal is to fully fund the Emergency bucket by December. Emergency savings are not technically needed until my husband retires from the military. Right now, he is eyeing April 2023, so as long as I meet the goal by then, we will be fine, but I would rather do it this year and then put it out of mind and focus on other things. This amount of money will provide us with a 12 month cushion if my husband either can't find another job right away or he gets laid off in the future. His pension will be enough to cover our montly obligations and we can live well off an additional $4000/month, by my calculations.

I plan to allocate the (potential) stimulus towards the vacation fund, to get that up to the max in the event that we decide to travel this year. That way, I won't have to worry about monthly savings towards that. So, the snowball starts there. Once that is done, I will move down the list.

Next, I will allocate the max to the Disneyland fund until it reaches my goal, since we will soon (hopefully) need to purchase either new passes or day tickets once they reopen and I want to have those funds available. We are still awaiting a $1325 refund from an AP that was purchased last May and never activated. I have heard those will be the last ones to be refunded, so the timeline on that is unclear, but hopefully it will post before the parks reopen.

It's a good feature and way to see the goals process. Currently I just have everything together, I go back and forth with the tools or my savings ideas. We are also projected to retire in 2023. It will be interesting to see when Disneyland makes the opening date announcement!

Interesting note, I saw on Doctor of Credit the Federal Reserve permanently lifted the six withdrawals per month rule on savings accounts. Bank dependent still.

 

[jen7233]

In other news, I snagged the pack n play I was looking for on 50% off clearance at Target yesterday! $110 instead of almost $250. And then, as I put it in the back of the car, I managed to lock my keys in the car. Luckily my mom came to get me so I could go get the spare, so I wasn't out any money, but man. At least it was a nice day outside while I sat there waiting.

Admitting a mom fail car locking story here, once I accidentally locked my kids in the car, on a steaming hot day, in El Paso. When mine were still little, both in car seats. I set down my car keys for some odd reason in the car, rather than have in my hand, and I don't know how I locked the door or what, but I came around to take out baby 1 on one side and nope, doors locked. I panicked when I realized the door wasn't opening and what I did, went around to my 3 year old's side and talked (okay, panicked, banged on window desperately!) to him through understanding what I was saying, push the unlock button!!! It took him a few minutes of staring at me then staring at the door wondering what on earth I'm talking about, but he got it, whew!!!! Any longer and I was going to go get help!!! Just admitting my epic fail moment and possibly worst ever car locking experience!

 

[DLgal]

Ah, yes, the savings for house down payment. I've been doing that also a long time renter saving for our "retirement" house. Although, I personally don't commit to the term "forever house", not for me. Just thinking of forever homes, sorry! Not that you said it, I just have it on the mind. If we stay, our budget is going to be $750k-$850k (in DC area) but not a new build. I don't really want to, but high schooler and job market, so there's that. If we don't, then we'll start the process in two years, look into south or west (no confirmed place, just more so ideas) and entertain the new build process which I'll give a year to, then our budget will be about $400k in some of the areas we're considering. Adjusting for how the market is looking in two years, that is.


It's a good feature and way to see the goals process. Currently I just have everything together, I go back and forth with the tools or my savings ideas. We are also projected to retire in 2023. It will be interesting to see when Disneyland makes the opening date announcement!

Interesting note, I saw on Doctor of Credit the Federal Reserve permanently lifted the six withdrawals per month rule on savings accounts. Bank dependent still.

Good luck with your downpayment savings! It seems like such a daunting task! Our timeline to potentially buy is at least 5 years away, so I think we can do it! A lot will depend on the follow on job and whether we can stay in this area or not.

Interesting info about them lifting the 6 withdrawals per month. Wonder if that is permanent or just temporary?

 

[DLgal]

With baby #3 on the way, I've been doing some big thinking about life in 2022. We've been renting our house for 4.5 years now. It's a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom. It's a nice house, but I just don't see us really fitting in it once baby boy gets to be over 1. The two non-master bedrooms are not really big enough for the girls to share one comfortably so he can have his own room.

Which leads me to my new savings goal: house down-payment. My goal is to be debt free on everything except the car by July. When the next stimulus hits, I can make that happen easily. So I'm setting my sights on a pretty decent down-payment so we can buy in the end of 2022/early 2023. Homes the size we need are looking to be around $250-300k in our area, so I want to get at least a solid 10% (I know that's a low number, but I don't think higher is super realistic in just over a year). Fingers crossed I can actually pull this one off.

In other news, I snagged the pack n play I was looking for on 50% off clearance at Target yesterday! $110 instead of almost $250. And then, as I put it in the back of the car, I managed to lock my keys in the car. Luckily my mom came to get me so I could go get the spare, so I wasn't out any money, but man. At least it was a nice day outside while I sat there waiting.

Just want to say, my sons have shared a 10 x 10 room their entire lives in a bunk bed. We actually have a spare room that one of them could have now. They are 15 and almost 17. They want to keep sharing. Don't feel pressured to get a larger house just so your kids can each have their own room. Kids can do fine with long term sharing. My sister and I shared my whole life. My niece and nephew (yes, a boy and girl) have always shared a room in their 2 bedroom house (they're in San Francisco and a 3br is out of the question, rent wise). They are going to be 9 and 7 this year. They love it and are best friends. It can work. Their room is TINY, too, like 9 x 8.

 

[DLgal]

Ally recently also changed deposits so that you can specify which bucket you want the money to go into. It used to all go into one chosen bucket and you had to manually distribute it. No more.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Just want to say, my sons have shared a 10 x 10 room their entire lives in a bunk bed. We actually have a spare room that one of them could have now. They are 15 and almost 17. They want to keep sharing. Don't feel pressured to get a larger house just so your kids can each have their own room. Kids can do fine with long term sharing. My sister and I shared my whole life. My niece and nephew (yes, a boy and girl) have always shared a room in their 2 bedroom house (they're in San Francisco and a 3br is out of the question, rent wise). They are going to be 9 and 7 this year. They love it and are best friends. It can work. Their room is TINY, too, like 9 x 8.

I know they *could*, but they shared before and it really just didn't go well at all. I have one who goes to bed early and gets up early and one who stays up later and sleeps in. They constantly were keeping each other awake and it was a nightmare.

We also were planning to buy at the beginning of 2022, but with our new surprise, that had to be pushed back. We generally just want to own our own home.

 

[MerissaAndMomLoveDis]

Admitting a mom fail car locking story here, once I accidentally locked my kids in the car, on a steaming hot day, in El Paso. When mine were still little, both in car seats. I set down my car keys for some odd reason in the car, rather than have in my hand, and I don't know how I locked the door or what, but I came around to take out baby 1 on one side and nope, doors locked. I panicked when I realized the door wasn't opening and what I did, went around to my 3 year old's side and talked (okay, panicked, banged on window desperately!) to him through understanding what I was saying, push the unlock button!!! It took him a few minutes of staring at me then staring at the door wondering what on earth I'm talking about, but he got it, whew!!!! Any longer and I was going to go get help!!! Just admitting my epic fail moment and possibly worst ever car locking experience!

OMG I did this exact same mom fail! I was at the post office and had a mustang convertible and went around to the passenger side to take my almost two year old out of the carseat and it was locked with the keys in the car. There was a way I could nudge the door open just right when I was exiting where I would hit the lock and not realize it—I had done that several times but never locked the keys in the car. After my initial panic, and fighting rising panic, I was able to talk and mime my kiddo (she wasn’t even two yet) through unlocking herself from the car seat, climbing into the front seat, and unlocking the car. I was soooo relieved when that lock popped up!!! I am still amazed thinking back on it that she was able to push hard enough to unlock the three point harness on the car seat! A few weeks later I got a Ford Expedition with a keyless entry keypad so that I would never lock my kid in the car again LOL.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I've decided to adopt the snowball method to my savings.

This is how I saved for my car that I got 2 yrs ago. It works well and way more exciting than paying down debt cuz you get to see it pile up. I tried to save enough to pay cash for the car but caved in when I got up to around $16,000.
I am using the snowball to save for our Disney trip later this month. I