Debt Dumpers 2025

[afan]

My parents made homemade bread this past weekend. It was so, so good. So much better tasting than store bought. I know there's not much difference health wise becuase it's bread. But I'd be curious to know the price difference.

Homemade is so much better than store bought. It's not as processed and doesn't have crap in it.

With sales It's probably cheaper per loaf buy only if you both continue making bread to use up the ingredients and you eat the bread. Not a savings if the commitment isn't there.

French baguettes are often proved in the very cold conditions but for a long time - 48 hours is not uncommon

I would love to learn to bake these but I know I wouldn't commit to it as often as I should/would need to. It's on the list for someday so I can stop buying the serviceable rolls/bread at the store. Fresh baguettes is one of the few things I like/miss about Paris.

 

[pblack]

A tip for those that maybe struggle to see their accomplishments and how budgeting/discipline can really affect your life - keep a spreadsheet of your goals and then at the end of the year (or more often) update those goals to show how much you've accomplished. As i've been reworking my bills spreadsheet today and adding/deleting things I decided to add my 2025 goals/accomplishments to my goals tab and just reading back through my goals from 2019 (when I started keeping track and I believe joined this thread) until now....I realize we've actually accomplished quite a bit. 2019 and 2020 is when we really started buckling down on our CC debt and student loans and seeing how much we've paid off over the last 6 years is a big morale booster. Plus whenever you're feeling discouraged you can look back at those goals/accomplishments to see how far you've come.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Update: the bread wasn't a total fail, but it was definitely not a big win. Ah well, I can only improve from here.

In other news, the random things I threw together to make a stroganoff-type meal turned out amazing. So I'll take that win!

 

[firefly_ris]

Thanks for the thoughts all.

The main thing I was concerned about was if throwing a lump sum makes sense due to our interest rate vs what that is making in market accounts. I have a sum that is liquid, spread out across a number of different types of accounts but getting an average annual return of 14-16% in my brokerage, around 4% in HYSA and then some other assets. Our mortgage rate is 3.75%. So lowering the overall balance is very enticing to me, but then I'm also concerned about laying too much down and losing that cash liquidity.

So it might be a better idea instead of a large sum all at once, to just say in 2026 I will commit to X number of additional principal payments. This way I'm still making a small extra dent instead of having a massive amount of equity but less liquidity (and flexibility). Then after the kids are closer to done with college I can re-assess where the balance is down to at that point and consider a larger sum at that time.

 

[barkley]

A tip for those that maybe struggle to see their accomplishments and how budgeting/discipline can really affect your life - keep a spreadsheet of your goals and then at the end of the year (or more often) update those goals to show how much you've accomplished. As i've been reworking my bills spreadsheet today and adding/deleting things I decided to add my 2025 goals/accomplishments to my goals tab and just reading back through my goals from 2019 (when I started keeping track and I believe joined this thread) until now....I realize we've actually accomplished quite a bit. 2019 and 2020 is when we really started buckling down on our CC debt and student loans and seeing how much we've paid off over the last 6 years is a big morale booster. Plus whenever you're feeling discouraged you can look back at those goals/accomplishments to see how far you've come.

likewise keeping track over the years of certain payments to see with your own eyes how much certain costs have increased year to year through NO action/inaction on your own part can help you see how much come despite added expenses. in particular I keep track year to year of-

insurance premiums
utilities
property taxes.

all take a big chunk of change on a yearly basis and can negatively impact one's budget.

The main thing I was concerned about was if throwing a lump sum makes sense due to our interest rate vs what that is making in market accounts. I have a sum that is liquid, spread out across a number of different types of accounts but getting an average annual return of 14-16% in my brokerage, around 4% in HYSA and then some other assets. Our mortgage rate is 3.75%. So lowering the overall balance is very enticing to me, but then I'm also concerned about laying too much down and losing that cash liquidity.

So it might be a better idea instead of a large sum all at once, to just say in 2026 I will commit to X number of additional principal payments. This way I'm still making a small extra dent instead of having a massive amount of equity but less liquidity (and flexibility). Then after the kids are closer to done with college I can re-assess where the balance is down to at that point and consider a larger sum at that time.

I get you with wanting to retain some liquidity. I forgo earning higher interest on some of our savings just to keep it liquid/withdrawable without a penalty because I need to know that if an emergency hits I can get it paid for in a heartbeat. we were very glad in '24 to have that liquidity when 2 major systems for our house that totaled over $35K to replace both happened within months of each other. 2025 has largely been a rebuilding of that liquid fund but we also ended up having to buy a new car. I could have pulled from a non liquid fund but like you-our non liquid fund was/is paying more in interest than a new car loan was offered to us at. we ended up financing and paying the regular payment on the car (while rebuilding our liquid fund at the same time) with some large extra payments over the course of this year. thankfully it worked out where those extra payments enabled us to pay off last month.

you can run the numbers over and over but you have to make a decision that allows you to sleep at night.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

It didn't help that I had literally nothing - had been living at home so just brought my clothes.

It takes time. All the stuff you've been using at your parent's house was bought in a month so give yourself some mercy. Ds25 is going through the same thing. He left with nothing but his clothes.

Dh bought him some kitchen stuff at Good Will so he at least has some cups, bowls and plates. I bought him a set of pots & pans when I had a 40% off coupon at Kohls. Every few weeks I send him little things here and there. Some kitchen towels, BBQ utensils, a whisk, a crock pot.
Dh and my BIL (dh's brother) went there over the weekend to refinish his LR hardwood floors. BIL is a retired painter, has painted bridges and all kinds of stuff. He has experience refinishing gymnasium floors so he was a huge help.
The list is neverending but at least once this floor is cured, he can start getting furniture set up and have a place to sit down and relax at night. We're giving him our old LR sofa/loveseat/chair and ordered a new one for us.
The armrest where dh sits at night is kind of gross so I will be using the upholstery attachment from my carpet steam cleaner to clean it later this week.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Thanks for the thoughts all.

The main thing I was concerned about was if throwing a lump sum makes sense due to our interest rate vs what that is making in market accounts. I have a sum that is liquid, spread out across a number of different types of accounts but getting an average annual return of 14-16% in my brokerage, around 4% in HYSA and then some other assets. Our mortgage rate is 3.75%. So lowering the overall balance is very enticing to me, but then I'm also concerned about laying too much down and losing that cash liquidity.

So it might be a better idea instead of a large sum all at once, to just say in 2026 I will commit to X number of additional principal payments. This way I'm still making a small extra dent instead of having a massive amount of equity but less liquidity (and flexibility). Then after the kids are closer to done with college I can re-assess where the balance is down to at that point and consider a larger sum at that time.

I think with kids in college, I'd be more inclined to invest it vs. paying down the mortgage. That is, unless you could paying it off completely in the next year, thus freeing up that payment money for better things.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

Homemade is so much better than store bought. It's not as processed and doesn't have crap in it.

With sales It's probably cheaper per loaf buy only if you both continue making bread to use up the ingredients and you eat the bread. Not a savings if the commitment isn't there.



I would love to learn to bake these but I know I wouldn't commit to it as often as I should/would need to. It's on the list for someday so I can stop buying the serviceable rolls/bread at the store. Fresh baguettes is one of the few things I like/miss about Paris.

How long does homemade bread last? And can you freeze it? If so, how long in the freezer? We probably won't because we don't want to spend the money on a bread maker right now as we're trying to pay down debt. But it's a though.

 

[Tygerlilly]

How long does homemade bread last? And can you freeze it? If so, how long in the freezer? We probably won't because we don't want to spend the money on a bread maker right now as we're trying to pay down debt. But it's a though.

You don't need a bread maker. I mixed it and kneaded it by hand. A bread maker is just a nice perk if you plan to make it a lot.

It only will last a few days if you keep it in the fridge. Probably a couple months in the freezer.

 

[Nettlelondon]

Definitely don't need a bread maker - you can view kneading as an upper body workout. And a great stress reliever.

 

[Nettlelondon]

Thanks for the thoughts all.

The main thing I was concerned about was if throwing a lump sum makes sense due to our interest rate vs what that is making in market accounts. I have a sum that is liquid, spread out across a number of different types of accounts but getting an average annual return of 14-16% in my brokerage, around 4% in HYSA and then some other assets. Our mortgage rate is 3.75%. So lowering the overall balance is very enticing to me, but then I'm also concerned about laying too much down and losing that cash liquidity.

So it might be a better idea instead of a large sum all at once, to just say in 2026 I will commit to X number of additional principal payments. This way I'm still making a small extra dent instead of having a massive amount of equity but less liquidity (and flexibility). Then after the kids are closer to done with college I can re-assess where the balance is down to at that point and consider a larger sum at that time.

I agree that given those interest rates, and without any external factors that makes having no mortgage useful, I would make regular smaller overpayments from cashflow rather than utilising other funds.

 

[Nettlelondon]

Update: the bread wasn't a total fail, but it was definitely not a big win. Ah well, I can only improve from here.

In other news, the random things I threw together to make a stroganoff-type meal turned out amazing. So I'll take that win!

The joys of home cooking - always a school day

I was at an event the other day and someone had brought some cheesy nibbles along that were made with lots of cheese and potato chips. I had to change seats or I was going to consume the entire plate. And it was a large plate! I did get the recipe before I left. There is no way they would ever be made commercially but they were amazing.

 

[piglet1979]

It started snowing (a dusting really, but people in Oklahoma don't know what to do when it snows and wreck their cars everywhere) and we ran out of bread this morning. I have zero desire to venture out for some so I'm attempting to make a loaf of sandwich bread and some rolls for dinner tonight. If this somehow works out, I may try and do this weekly. I had all the ingredients at home already and it was a fairly easy recipe. It's just taking a while to rise because the kitchen is so cold. Turned the oven on and set the pans on it and covered them so hopefully I see some kind of rise.

We got about 2-3 inches of snow with a few more inches coming in the next few days. This is nothing for us as I live in Northeast Ohio but people still can't figure out how to drive in it. Thankfully I work from home everyday but Thursdays. There were accidents all over the highways this morning. All the schools are closed in the area except the colleges. I am not worried about DS as he can just walk to class since he lives in a house on campus. DD though has to drive north to her college and I am a bit worried about her. Her class doesn't start until 10 so I am hoping I hear from her soon. I hate winter and would love to move further south but that has to wait until we retire or go fully remote.

DD just called. She is at school and roads were much better then an hour or so ago.

My parents made homemade bread this past weekend. It was so, so good. So much better tasting than store bought. I know there's not much difference health wise becuase it's bread. But I'd be curious to know the price difference.

It is a lot healthier because it does not have all the extra crap in it.

How long does homemade bread last? And can you freeze it? If so, how long in the freezer? We probably won't because we don't want to spend the money on a bread maker right now as we're trying to pay down debt. But it's a though.

We do not have a bread maker and we make bread often. Over 2020 DH really got into making bread. We always had fresh bread. It would only last a couple of days though. He also would make pita bread. This is a lot of work so we haven't had it in a long time. He still makes his own pizza dough though a few times a month. I will make cinnamon rolls. Making bread from scratch and kneading it yourself will also help you to burn some more calories as well.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

My husband and I still use stuff we had in college or furniture that was given by our parents or obtained by us long enough ago. We didn't sleep on a bed frame until we moved into our home in 2014 and had just been using dressers each from our childhoods just kept over the years. Our sectional is from 2014 but we have two additional pieces that don't match because they belong to a sectional in-laws gave us when they were getting a new one (the rest of the pieces are in the basement and two other pieces are at the in-law's house in their basement). Or we have things bought and used at apartments we've had or the rental house we had, etc. In our house the microwave for example went out just over 1 yr which it was only under a 1 yr warranty, repair person said honestly it's cheaper to buy new. We held off for more than 6 years and just use an old microwave that was a counter one from college days that was in the basement until the pandemic where we finally got a new microwave (ours is a built in one so it needs a trim kit and all that).

We're actually at the point where we are tired of some things and ready to get newer but it does become hard, especially for me, to justify spending money to get new when the old still works the same. And we've long since been out of college and ready to update certain things that are from shortly before and after we got married in 2013.

I will say when we were building our house we actually signed paperwork from the mortgage company that we would NOT go out and buy expensive/new things for the house most especially furniture because that is an easy route to change your loan worthiness...it was more tied to spending a large amount when not necessary (or buying furniture for example that actually doesn't fit) that then gets rolled into when they pull your credit. Our house took 7 months to build and we had two checks for credit, one when we got the pre-approval so we could go to a builder to build the house and the second very close to our closing date. I'm not sure if signing that paper made any difference for us but it did make us be very aware to pause on getting things.

Garage sales (which it's the wrong time of the year for many places with winter) are areas you can get stuff like lamps (which our downstairs and bedroom ones are lamps bought at garage sales many many years ago), depending on your area good enough or in great shape furniture (my couch at my apartment after graduating college was a so-so quality leather one from a garage sale where I just put a cover over it), glassware and more. And if you're looking for relatively inexpensive decor that can be an option. You'll typically have a better bargaining ability with a garage sale.

I would be very wary of certain thrift stores because they nowadays have the habit of selling things for too high of a price for what it should be. I think that's in part wanting profits in higher numbers than before and responding to how many people now go to thrift stores/second hand stores to find stuff. It's a VERY popular thing to do and drives up the demand and thus price they can sell something for. If you do FB marketplace always do transactions in safe places the best being if your area has transaction spots mostly located at police stations. Yes people are trying to get rid of stuff but others are just trying to do bad things to people. There's also a lot more scams that can go on because it's so prolific now to use FB.

 

[barkley]

if someone is looking to set up their first home/apartment I think one means of getting some items of need is to let it be known among friends and family b/c (in my experience) it Is rare that people don't have odds and ends of extra kitchen items, yard tools, even furniture that they are just hanging on to b/c they are perfectly good but they either haven't gotten around to getting rid of them or (esp. in the case of furniture) have no means to. an example of this is when our oldest moved into an apartment and we asked a neighbor if he could help with his truck to move some items-he casualy asked if oldest had any need of a shelving unit/tv stand b/c he had one he had been 'meaning to get rid of but hadn't gotten around to taking to goodwill'. neighbors will be talking among each other and one will say they need to go replace a rake or other yard tool and another neighbor will reply with 'save your money-i've got an extra that's perfectly good-it's yours if you want it'. I know I personally have more casserole dishes than I need, an extra crockpot and more duplicate kitchen utensils than I can count (I need to do another kitchen purge). let people know-they may have curtains they took down when they redecorated that are in fine condition, a spare bed frame from when they converted a bedroom to an office, extra bookcases when they decluttered and downsized.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

if someone is looking to set up their first home/apartment I think one means of getting some items of need is to let it be known among friends and family b/c (in my experience) it Is rare that people don't have odds and ends of extra kitchen items, yard tools, even furniture that they are just hanging on to b/c they are perfectly good but they either haven't gotten around to getting rid of them or (esp. in the case of furniture) have no means to. an example of this is when our oldest moved into an apartment and we asked a neighbor if he could help with his truck to move some items-he casualy asked if oldest had any need of a shelving unit/tv stand b/c he had one he had been 'meaning to get rid of but hadn't gotten around to taking to goodwill'. neighbors will be talking among each other and one will say they need to go replace a rake or other yard tool and another neighbor will reply with 'save your money-i've got an extra that's perfectly good-it's yours if you want it'. I know I personally have more casserole dishes than I need, an extra crockpot and more duplicate kitchen utensils than I can count (I need to do another kitchen purge). let people know-they may have curtains they took down when they redecorated that are in fine condition, a spare bed frame from when they converted a bedroom to an office, extra bookcases when they decluttered and downsized.

Most people IME these days have already put those things largely up on FB marketplace, ebay, their local neighborhood site most especially Nextdoor, etc. Everyday there are posts about people putting things up for sale or in some cases free between Nextdoor and eNeighbors (that's what my specific neighborhood uses).

Certainly friends and family can be a good place to go but you gotta catch them before they have already given it up.

It does depend also where someone is moving from and moving to and their relationship beforehand. Like you said when you moved your eldest you asked your neighbor for help and it was on behalf of your son. But if you don't have that sort of relationship set up most especially if you've not lived in the same place with the same neighbors for long enough or if you're moving from apartment to apartment that can be quite different.

Many of us have benefited from hand me downs by elders (either our parents or grandparents). I'm 37 and truthfully most of my friends even when we were in our 20s we just didn't go around exchanging stuff between each other largely because they were hand me downs to begin with so something was rundown or not really realistic for the changing of the times. At most we borrow or lend things out as things come up like we lent our dethatcher to my husband's sister and her fiance for usage at their house but it isn't like we would have given them it. It's just something we have gained with time and necessity of homeownership and our yard's needs.

Still yes you could put feelers out there to friends and family.

 

[DanceDisney23]

On the bread front, I have a no-knead recipe for a crusty bread that is very easy to make. No bread maker needed but it requires a cast iron Dutch oven. I bought a cheap one on Amazon many years ago. It has served me well.

The dough needs to rise for about 20 hours, so I make it whenever I remember to make the dough ahead of time. We like it fresh as a side for soup. It doesn’t last long but that’s mostly because we eat it all.

 

[Tygerlilly]

On the bread front, I have a no-knead recipe for a crusty bread that is very easy to make. No bread maker needed but it requires a cast iron Dutch oven. I bought a cheap one on Amazon many years ago. It has served me well.

The dough needs to rise for about 20 hours, so I make it whenever I remember to make the dough ahead of time. We like it fresh as a side for soup. It doesn’t last long but that’s mostly because we eat it all.

I have an amazing no knead crusty bread recipe that I make in a regular old brownie pan. Lol. I'm pretty decent at that one. Sandwich bread is far more finicky.

 

[afan]

On the bread front, I have a no-knead recipe for a crusty bread that is very easy to make. No bread maker needed but it requires a cast iron Dutch oven. I bought a cheap one on Amazon many years ago. It has served me well.

The dough needs to rise for about 20 hours, so I make it whenever I remember to make the dough ahead of time. We like it fresh as a side for soup. It doesn’t last long but that’s mostly because we eat it all.

I have an amazing no knead crusty bread recipe that I make in a regular old brownie pan. Lol. I'm pretty decent at that one. Sandwich bread is far more finicky.

Can you both share?

 

[DanceDisney23]

Can you both share?

Sure thing. I sadly can’t find the website that I used originally. It had all kinds of recipes like pretzel rolls that always came out great.

But I found the bread recipe on several websites, including here:
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/281202/no-knead-dutch-oven-bread/