Debt Dumpers 2024

[pblack]

Everything is plugging along here. We're in the final stretch before our vacation so it'll be busy around my house while we get ready for that. Tomorrow's our 10 year wedding anniversary and we're going on an overnight trip this weekend as a pre-celebration before our bigger celebration (the cruise).

 

[huggybuff]

Everything is plugging along here. We're in the final stretch before our vacation so it'll be busy around my house while we get ready for that. Tomorrow's our 10 year wedding anniversary and we're going on an overnight trip this weekend as a pre-celebration before our bigger celebration (the cruise).

Congrats on your 10 year anniversary!!!

 

[Bellex917]

Plugging along! The end of the high expenses is happening tomorrow ($800 car repair) so HOPEFULLY we will be back to saving much larger numbers next month. As I keep saying I am so thankful we were able to bankroll all these huge expenses this summer (car repairs, surgeries, braces, vacations, booking airfare and MNSSHP tickets, etc.) but it has made it so we weren't saving as much.

 

[pblack]

Congrats on your 10 year anniversary!!!

Thank you!

 

[dpswift]

I've gotten to where I buy and eat tuna a lot. I keep a loaf of bread in the freezer and toss it out and replace it about every 10 days. I'll take 2 slices, toast them, cut off the edges and make up a thing of tuna. The ones that come with tuna, mayo, relish, etc is $2 per pack. Buy a bag of chips to go with it, and that's a cheap lunch. I will buy 3 or so packs of tuna at a time. I went to buy more yesterday, and they were out of those little lunch packs. So I've got to figure something else out, lol.

A far cry from just 6 months ago when I ate lunch out every day. I'd spend $50-$75/week just on lunches. Now I spend maybe $20 by eating out just 1 time or so (or letting the office pay like they are today and tomorrow, lol). Plus, that saves me from eating that tuna.

You have come a long way

 

[firefly_ris]

I've gotten to where I buy and eat tuna a lot. I keep a loaf of bread in the freezer and toss it out and replace it about every 10 days. I'll take 2 slices, toast them, cut off the edges and make up a thing of tuna. The ones that come with tuna, mayo, relish, etc is $2 per pack. Buy a bag of chips to go with it, and that's a cheap lunch. I will buy 3 or so packs of tuna at a time. I went to buy more yesterday, and they were out of those little lunch packs. So I've got to figure something else out, lol.

A far cry from just 6 months ago when I ate lunch out every day. I'd spend $50-$75/week just on lunches. Now I spend maybe $20 by eating out just 1 time or so (or letting the office pay like they are today and tomorrow, lol). Plus, that saves me from eating that tuna.

Nice work. These small habits will all start building up over time and accumulate. Not to mention it is so much healthier for you not to be eating out every day on top of saving the money.

 

[huggybuff]

Eep! I didn't realize that I hadn't updated in a month.

Week 34

2024 Financial Goals

1. Pay off my credit cards and car loan in 2 years by using the debt avalanche. I'm 'only' paying $1000 to my Q Card on payday next Friday. I had planned to pay off the balance but I spent a wee bit too much last month.

2. Increase my monthly payments to my husband for household expenses by $800 a month beginning in May and open a joint checking account where we will each contribute monthly. We figured giving me until May to sock some extra cash into my checking would be a good idea since my personal loan is now paid off and that was sucking $1000 off the top of my paycheck once a month. COMPLETED

3. Set aside $285 per month from January-June to cover the cost of our hotel for our anniversary trip in July to Monterey. COMPLETED

4. Begin paying for our 2025 spring break cruise to Mexico in March. Payments will be $450 a month from March-December. Paid up through August. I'm waiting for the next statement to post for our community credit card and then I'll charge the September payment. (4/8)

5. Continue using the YNAB app and website to track my money daily. I'm still tracking my money the old fashioned way with a register but I really like the budgeting aspect of YNAB and am getting more and more used to it. I'm back using EveryDollar. Not a Ramsey fan per se, but it's not a bad app.


2024 Personal Goals

1. Finish deep cleaning and organizing my kitchen. My husband is basically the Swedish Chef so he makes quite a mess when he cooks. I appreciate the fact that he does all of the cooking but it's a lot to keep on top of TBH. I need to do a better job and put in more effort. I will track this weekly. The husband is going to be busy and out of the house most of the weekend so I've got zero excuses to not get this situation improved upon. Right now my kitchen is a Category 3. (7/52)

2. Once I feel like my kitchen is back under control I'll transition to organizing my clothes that are in boxes in our bedroom. I will tackle this at least one of the days of my weekend. Still waiting to start this.

3. Reorganize and deep clean my bathroom. I have too much on the countertop and need to make use of the cabinets in a more organized manner. Snoozed.

4. By July I'd like to be at the point I can begin to tackle my boxes that are still unpacked in the garage. I had a storage unit for years and now they're just sitting untouched since we moved into the house 3 years ago. Snoozed.

5. In August I'd like to make my stepson's room into a workout room. He's a senior in high school this year and he'll be starting college next fall. He's only staying over 1 or 2 nights a week at most at this point since he lives with his mom so I don't feel I'll be booting him out or anything. I am at my highest weight ever and I honestly don't even know what that is since I'm scared to get on the scale. I can have all of the DVDs and online workouts in the world but they do no good if you don't use them. I think having a space set aside will really help me out. We went over our plan for this room this week. It's becoming a workout room/office with a standing desk. We're going to get a TV mounted on the wall so the chest of drawers where the current TV is sitting can be moved into the closet and give me enough room for floorwork. The twin bed is getting moved to the garage so it can be moved back into the room when needed.

6. Get my passport at some point this year to be ready for the cruise in 2025. I filled out and printed the application. I have a USPS location near me that will take the passport photo and process the application too.

7. I came up with a new goal. Get back to baking on a weekly basis. This will begin when my kitchen is 'done'. JK, I know a kitchen is never truly caught up on. Snoozed until I cross #1 off of my list.


I hope everyone has a beautiful weekend!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Everything is plugging along here. We're in the final stretch before our vacation so it'll be busy around my house while we get ready for that. Tomorrow's our 10 year wedding anniversary and we're going on an overnight trip this weekend as a pre-celebration before our bigger celebration (the cruise).

Congratulations on your 10 year anniversary!!

 

[pblack]

Congratulations on your 10 year anniversary!!

Thank you!

It's definitely turning out to be an eventful week leading up to our vacation and not necessarily in a good way. My husband had a really crappy Monday at work and it looks like we're going to need to replace the tires on his car before vacation. Definitely not what we wanted to be doing, but it is what it is. Here's to hoping the next couple days are uneventful!

 

[goofytinkerbell]

1

 

[afan]

Update time This is all since the last time I posted., and the totals are with my updates included.

Financials:
1. Put an extra $2000 on my mortgage. DONE (I'll give the total at the end of the year)
Added an extra $160

2. Put $2000 in savings to help pay for yearly bills (comes out in November). DONE (I'll give the total at the end of the year)
Added an extra $550

I earned $5 in gift cards since the last update

Other:
1. Clean out 500 items of junk. 837/500 - DONE!!
+160. I'd like to see if I can get to 1000 now, but I'm not sure that's possible.
2. Make an "in case of death" folder (containing will, important info). 1/1 DONE
3. Get 60 minutes of exercise per week. 35/52
+3. I feel like I might have miscounted my weeks in my total, but so far I haven't missed a week.
4. Read at least 1 non fiction book related to professional development. DONE
5. Do 12 hours of skills development (example, take a course). 62/12 DONE
-1.5 hours on the online course I've been working on. Technically done the goal, but not done the course.
6. Find a new job! (carryover from previous year). 0/1
-Checked job sites, and applied for 5 jobs. So discouraging to not have even a nibble. I've tried tailoring my resume and cover letter, but nothing seems to work. I spoke with some friends, who are having similar issues. One person told me it took them 4 years to find a new position.
7. Finish some of the partially done craft projects I have (carryover from previous year). 1/2
-Nothing recently. Seems like there's always something else that needs to be done.
8. Organize my "stuff" - DONE
-Went through a cabinet
9. Do at least 1 home improvement project. DONE

Have you tried networking or figuring out who the hiring manager is and calling and selling yourself that way? While jobs are filled off job postings and resumes like you are doing they aren't all. I've found https://www.asktheheadhunter.com/ to have some helpful advice and the comments on his blog posts are also useful.

 

[CinderEmma94]

End of August update!

Financial:
1. Pay off card #1 (starting balance $11,600) Paid Off!
2. Pay off card #2 (starting balance $6,500) Paid Off!
3. Grow emergency fund to $15,000 (currently at $7,500) Paused, this goal will carry into next year and be the main priority in 2025, the goal amount will be bumped up to reflect that.
4. Pay off Affirm (balance $1400) - New goal/first priority, it is 0% interest and will be paid off with the second paycheck of next month (September).
5. Pay off Christmas cruise (starting balance $7000) - this will be paid off by the end of the year. It is a Disney cruise that we put on our Disney visa, so it is 0% interest for 6 months. Will be paid off well within the time frame, especially now that our only debt left is the Affirm mentioned above, this trip, and my husband's student loans (that are about 19k, down from the 70k we started with) so our snowball is much bigger. We aren't doing gifts this year, just the trip.

Personal:
1. 30 minute workout at least 5 days/week
On track. Got my spot in the Springtime Surprise 10k so I am officially registered for all WDW race weekends in the 2024-2025 season! Weight loss has stalled out, but I am down a clothing size and I am just working to push through this plateau. This is the point where a lot of people give up because the scale isn't moving and I refuse to be that person. I have worked out consistently for 9 months now, which is the longest I have ever been consistent with exercise, so that is a win in itself.

2. Read 100 books
326 books read so far this year (added 34 this month)

 

[disney-inspired]

Haven't posted in awhile but still here, chugging along.

 

[goofytinkerbell]

1

 

[pblack]

End of August (almost mid-September) update:

2024 Financial Goals:

• Add at least $2000 to my main emergency savings on top of my auto contributions - Nothing new added $300/$2000
• Get our home equity loan down to $20k (currently at ~$26.5k) - This always gets paid mid-month for me. Current balance is ~$25,250.
• Increase my contributions to my other savings goals by at least $25/each pay period - This has now been completed.
• Look into a living will/trust (We have friends that keep telling us to do this and with everything going on in my life at the moment, I feel like I should actually look into this more.) - This has now been completed

2024 Personal Goals:

• Exercise at least 3 times a week for at least 30 minutes - I don't wanna talk about this
• Travel as much as possible - We just got back from our 8 day cruise, no other travel plans for the rest of the year as of right now.
• Replace the patio cover in our backyard - No progress.
• Finally do something with our side yard - not sure exactly what at the moment - No progress.

This update is a little late since I was on vacation, but honestly not a whole lot to update anyway. I'm not sure that I'll end up reaching any of my other goals before the end of the year, but that's ok.

Our 8 day cruise was great. Miami is ridiculously expensive (and that's coming from someone who lives in California). It definitely made for some long travel days going from one coast to the other. On our cruise we went to Aruba, Curacao, and 2 places in the Dominican Republic. I'd definitely go back to Aruba and Curacao, but if we were to do the DR again I'd want to go to a different area. Between our Miami hotel, food, uber, and beach massages/day passes in Aruba we spent about $1200. That's not including what we spent on the ship since I had bought a discounted giftcard to cover those expenses. Our single most expensive thing we bought was the massages/day passes in Aruba. On the last day of the cruise though I won just under $2k in the casino. That's the most I've ever won in a casino - land based or ship based.

I did come back from vacation with a head cold though. Seems to never fail that one of us, usually me, comes home sick lol. We also spent a ridiculous amount at Costco/Sam's/grocery store to replenish things we ran out of/ate through before we left on vacation. But I consider this par for the course since it also always happens when we come back from a long trip. As I mentioned above, nothing else planned for the rest of the year as of now. I am debating a trip to Pismo Beach for my birthday (Travelzoo deal), but we'll see.

Hope everyone here is plugging along!

 

[princesscinderella]

@WDW_fan_in_TX I read this article and thought of your car loan situation it sounds like this might be your lender. Just wanted you to be aware of their predatory tactics if it is. https://www.propublica.org/article/exeter-finance-skip-payments-debt

 

[disney-inspired]

FYI - ticker factory now has an iPhone widget!
I’m in the home stretch now!

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

That's not my lender. But how can they legally do this? Should be against the law. We had fallen behind on our old house, and I called to get help. They offered to move 2 payments to the end of the loan and didn't tell me anything about building up interest. Now I'm wondering if this happened to us. Anyway, should be illegal that they do this, just like the little fees on our credit cards I posted about just recently.

@WDW_fan_in_TX I read this article and thought of your car loan situation it sounds like this might be your lender. Just wanted you to be aware of their predatory tactics if it is. https://www.propublica.org/article/exeter-finance-skip-payments-debt

 

[Nettlelondon]

That's not my lender. But how can they legally do this? Should be against the law. We had fallen behind on our old house, and I called to get help. They offered to move 2 payments to the end of the loan and didn't tell me anything about building up interest. Now I'm wondering if this happened to us. Anyway, should be illegal that they do this, just like the little fees on our credit cards I posted about just recently.

How are you doing in general? Making any progress? Or at least not getting further behind?

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

I'm making minimum payments on all 3 cards. But because of fees (protection fee and monthly fees, not to mention annual fees on all 3), my balance is still going up on one of them despite not having used it in 4 months. It is what it is, I guess. As far as the car goes, I'm still paying minimum on it (bill is $496, and i pay an even $500/month). Haven't checked the balance, but I'm sure it's going down. Everything is still on go. Had a good little savings set aside, but we used it for rent last month. Started another that we'll use for rent with it comes due again. And just put the car back in the shop this morning. Needing oil change and inspection (headlight is out, so I bought that and they're going to charge me $120 to put it in). Just typical maintenance stuff. But staying afloat.

How are you doing in general? Making any progress? Or at least not getting further behind?