Debt Dumpers 2026

[Nettlelondon]

Today I have started filling a notebook with my 60 Before 60 tasks.

I feel I might need to get creative with my budgeting as most of them involve spending money! I have only filled 46 of the slots so far so I have scope to come up with more free ideas! At the moment "List 60 items on eBay" is currently carrying a lot of weight.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Happy New Year Debt Dumpers!

I hope this year brings you everything you're hoping to achieve, many adventures, a healthy family, and maybe a little luck.

We ended last year by switching our living room and playroom and I have 2 large boxes of things to take to donations already! I'm feeling extra motivated to continue with the purging of stuff in my house and make it feel calmer and more relaxing.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

We ended last year by switching our living room and playroom and I have 2 large boxes of things to take to donations already! I'm feeling extra motivated to continue with the purging of stuff in my house and make it feel calmer and more relaxing.

That's awesome. We woke up this morning, and DW started pulling shirts out of her closet. Said if she hadn't worn them in 3 years, she's not going to wear them. So we're going to put them in a big black trash bag and take them to the dumpster at work. I've already pulled a couple of boxes out and getting stuff organized to sell with plans of using funds to help pay stuff off.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

That's awesome. We woke up this morning, and DW started pulling shirts out of her closet. Said if she hadn't worn them in 3 years, she's not going to wear them. So we're going to put them in a big black trash bag and take them to the dumpster at work. I did the same thing with my closet last summer, and I've got a box of men's shirts (tees, button downs, jackets) to throw out myself. Also, I've already pulled a couple of boxes out and getting stuff organized to sell with plans of using funds to help pay stuff off.

 

[Bellex917]

Happy New Year! I'm going to do the following today:

- Print my paper trackers for the year (I plan to track my progress towards my savings and decluttering goals)
- Write down my starting balances for my accounts to see where this year takes us
- Begin my low spend Q1.... with my H's job being a contract and being iffy (he started with 6 new people, all were let go except him... so YAY, but... feels like if they need to cut obviously it's him!) we want to save as much as we can Q1 in case we are back dealing with unemployment after that!

 

[barkley]

Happy New Year! All of your energies are impressive! As for myself today-kind of a kickback day. I managed to clear out the end of the year budget paperwork right before the end of the year and I've got the new year's budget pretty much nailed down-it's the unknowns that drive me nuts on specific budget items but I can't do anything about it except plump my holding account (property taxes we pay in April but don't find out amount until February, there's always the unknown with insurance premiums, and of course income tax-i pay estimated and I hope to overestimate so I end up with what could be a refund but I let it stay on their books so I can apply it if I underestimate). such fun!

so my oldest wants to watch the new 'wicked' and we are going to stream it (less expensive than the 2 of us going to the movies), dh is making fresh pasta to dry, oldest mixed meatballs which will be formed to cook mid-wicked. I made the sauce yesterday so i'm good to go.


again-happy new year all!

 

[QueenIsabella]

Starting the new year with a bang--the wrong kind! We had a routine inspection of our dehumidifier under the house, and they found a broken sewage pipe. The fix will be a few thousand dollars. Bonus: the squirrels have gotten in down there, too, so we'll have to call an exterminator. Did I mention that there are two tuition bills due in a couple weeks? Good times! On the good side, we do have the resources to manage these things, but it didn't feel like a good start to the year.

OTOH, I did donate a bag of clothes, a box of books, and a couple old towels (to our vet).

 

[MattB2G]

Said if she hadn't worn them in 3 years, she's not going to wear them. So we're going to put them in a big black trash bag and take them to the dumpster at work.

Salvation Army or any of the clothes collection boxes out there are a better option, even if they are pretty worn.

Luck for us we have a Salvation Army right around the corner from us, and be donate a ton of our old clothes.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

Happy New Year! I'm going to do the following today:

- Print my paper trackers for the year (I plan to track my progress towards my savings and decluttering goals)
- Write down my starting balances for my accounts to see where this year takes us

This is so awesome. I'm a spreadsheet, make a checklist and mark it off type. So I love this idea. I started a spreadsheet with my debt payoff in November, and I've been updating it every time I pay on a loan, a CC, whatever. So frustrating to watch it go down so slowly. But then you see the progress, and that makes it a little better.

 

[barkley]

Starting the new year with a bang--the wrong kind! We had a routine inspection of our dehumidifier under the house, and they found a broken sewage pipe. The fix will be a few thousand dollars. Bonus: the squirrels have gotten in down there, too, so we'll have to call an exterminator. Did I mention that there are two tuition bills due in a couple weeks? Good times! On the good side, we do have the resources to manage these things, but it didn't feel like a good start to the year.

OTOH, I did donate a bag of clothes, a box of books, and a couple old towels (to our vet).

i'm sorry but such a good thing to have the reserves to cover it. we're facing over $7000 to replace one of the car's transmission but thankful we also have the ability to cover it (and thankful when it broke down it was'nt on the freeway or a high traffic area-and the tow truck took less than half the arrival time they projected).

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

Now that we're in a new year, I'm thinking about my budget, finances, etc, what are some good sinking funds to have? I've got 4 checking accounts, one is our main account, a second is for food/gas/tolls, a third is for bills to be paid and the fourth is our EF. On pay day, I figure out what bills will need to be paid, and I move that money over to that category. I figure up about how much we'll need to have for food and gas/tolls, and I move that to that category.

As far as our budget, we have bills, gas/tolls, eating out, groceries and extras. In our extras category, I have car/auto (so like oil changes, registration/inspection, any maintenance like tire rotations, new tires, etc), birthday/special (this also includes holiday stuff, so like gift gifting), clothing/jewelry, hair/nails, health/beauty, home goods, medical (doc visits, prescriptions), sports cards, entertainment and other.

I'm thinking about starting sinking funds envelopes for car/auto, birthday/special, hair/nails (I get my hair cut every 2 months, DW gets her nails done on the 15th of the month), medical (for doc visits, etc). Anything else I should make an envelope for?

I really want to focus on finances, getting out of debt and getting things back on track this year. I'm 50, DW is 43, so we're really getting older. We basically have no EF, and we don't have much in our retirement. And I don't want to be working until I'm 75, and I can hardly get out of bed, lol.

I know it's really too late to start, but I figured something is better than nothing at this point.

 

[QueenIsabella]

Salvation Army or any of the clothes collection boxes out there are a better option, even if they are pretty worn.

Luck for us we have a Salvation Army right around the corner from us, and be donate a ton of our old clothes.

So true! Salvation Army also bundles unusable clothing items to sell by the pound, for recycling. So, don't be afraid to donate holey jeans or stained shirts--they can still put them to use! Most Salvation Armys have donation boxes out front--sometimes even off-site. When we lived in New Hampshire, there was one at the bowling alley--much easier for me than the actual store.

 

[barkley]

So true! Salvation Army also bundles unusable clothing items to sell by the pound, for recycling. So, don't be afraid to donate holey jeans or stained shirts--they can still put them to use! Most Salvation Armys have donation boxes out front--sometimes even off-site. When we lived in New Hampshire, there was one at the bowling alley--much easier for me than the actual store.

we used to have a semi trailer that salvation army had set up in the very large parking lot of the hardware store in our small nearby town. it was SO nice to be able to drop off anything and everything there-i really miss it. now the closest thing we've got is a goodwill in a bit further town but they have a nice drive up arrangement with a large overhang. you drive up and staff immediately comes out to empty out anything from your car into rolling bins. I think someone at the waste managment place must have also caught on to people tossing usable clothing vs. donating it b/c they've put in large donation boxes (like porta-potty size) that you pass on the way to the categorized dumpsters.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

we used to have a semi trailer that salvation army had set up in the very large parking lot of the hardware store in our small nearby town. it was SO nice to be able to drop off anything and everything there-i really miss it. now the closest thing we've got is a goodwill in a bit further town but they have a nice drive up arrangement with a large overhang. you drive up and staff immediately comes out to empty out anything from your car into rolling bins. I think someone at the waste managment place must have also caught on to people tossing usable clothing vs. donating it b/c they've put in large donation boxes (like porta-potty size) that you pass on the way to the categorized dumpsters.

I don't even know where a Salvation Army might be. But I'd much rather do something like that over giving it to the greedy buzzards at Goodwill. But, we do have a clothing ministry at our church. So we might donate there.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

That's awesome. We woke up this morning, and DW started pulling shirts out of her closet. Said if she hadn't worn them in 3 years, she's not going to wear them. So we're going to put them in a big black trash bag and take them to the dumpster at work. I've already pulled a couple of boxes out and getting stuff organized to sell with plans of using funds to help pay stuff off.

Do you have Purple Heart Pick up near you? I just schedule a pick up and put it on my front porch that morning and it's gone when I get home from work. Someone can find a use for those things. They sell it and the money goes toward helping veterans. So they say. Your church might have connections on donating to the needy too.

I got dh new socks for Christmas, among other things. I told him I already washed and folded the old ones that are in his drawer and I'm not going to toss them after all my efforts so he was throwing them out each time he'd take them off.
There are homeless people in the city where I work and they sleep in the train station that I use so I gathered up the rest of the old ones and put them in a bag. The elastic is not so great but they probably haven't worn clean white socks in long time.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Go to Salvation Army online you can schedule a free pick up from your home. I used it multiple times while going thru my mom's house.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

Do you have Purple Heart Pick up near you? I just schedule a pick up and put it on my front porch that morning and it's gone when I get home from work. Someone can find a use for those things. They sell it and the money goes toward helping veterans. So they say. Your church might have connections on donating to the needy too.

I forgot our church as a food and clothing pantry that they serve the needy on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays. We will most likely donate there.

 

[Bellex917]

Now that we're in a new year, I'm thinking about my budget, finances, etc, what are some good sinking funds to have? I've got 4 checking accounts, one is our main account, a second is for food/gas/tolls, a third is for bills to be paid and the fourth is our EF. On pay day, I figure out what bills will need to be paid, and I move that money over to that category. I figure up about how much we'll need to have for food and gas/tolls, and I move that to that category.

As far as our budget, we have bills, gas/tolls, eating out, groceries and extras. In our extras category, I have car/auto (so like oil changes, registration/inspection, any maintenance like tire rotations, new tires, etc), birthday/special (this also includes holiday stuff, so like gift gifting), clothing/jewelry, hair/nails, health/beauty, home goods, medical (doc visits, prescriptions), sports cards, entertainment and other.

I'm thinking about starting sinking funds envelopes for car/auto, birthday/special, hair/nails (I get my hair cut every 2 months, DW gets her nails done on the 15th of the month), medical (for doc visits, etc). Anything else I should make an envelope for?

I really want to focus on finances, getting out of debt and getting things back on track this year. I'm 50, DW is 43, so we're really getting older. We basically have no EF, and we don't have much in our retirement. And I don't want to be working until I'm 75, and I can hardly get out of bed, lol.

I know it's really too late to start, but I figured something is better than nothing at this point.

I've been following your journey closely bc when I first starting posting in these threads in 2024 you were very active then. Bc of that, I am going to include some steps based on what you've said in the past before getting into the sinking funds stuff.

In Dave Ramsey world, step 0 is getting current on all bills. I know recently you mentioned you were paying several bills late and getting monthly late fees. To me, this is the MOST important goal. Get to the point where this isn't happening. Have the buffer in your accounts to prevent this. THEN save the $1,000 emergency fund. Forget about sinking funds for now. You're trying to do too much at once, which is really the point of the Ramsey way- get gazelle intense about the ONE step you're on.

After that, what's your current debt situation? What did you have left and at what percentage of interest? I'd really try to get rid of that before worrying too much about sinking funds.

Also, I think your system sounds really complex. If it works for you, that's great. I do see a potential for over drafting or having insufficient funds when you do it this way though. Is there a reason you have four checking accounts?

Now, to what you actually asked. We don't do a ton of sinking funds. We have our emergency fund, a house emergency fund (I look at the first one for job loss, the second for home repairs, although obviously it's all one in that if we had a huge emergency these two accounts would both fund it), a new car fund, and a vacation fund. That's it. I know some people have tons, but this works for us.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

Go to Salvation Army online you can schedule a free pick up from your home. I used it multiple times while going thru my mom's house.

Thanks. I remembered our church has clothing and food pantry. So I'm going to donate there. I'd rather do that than have some stranger come to my house. But I appreciate the comment.

 

[barkley]

Do you have Purple Heart Pick up near you? I just schedule a pick up and put it on my front porch that morning and it's gone when I get home from work. Someone can find a use for those things. They sell it and the money goes toward helping veterans

we used the Vietnam Veterans of America group to do pick-ups of some larger items-they were great. we also had an organization that was set up at our (then) local air force base-it was called 'the airman's attic'. they took donations of usable furniture and housewares to loan out to newly relocated service members and their families while they awaited arrival of their personal belongings. both did pick-ups.

we have a local vet's charity that takes all proceeds to use for repairs and disability renovations on vet housing. they are the only place that will take entirely usable and frequently wasted spare/leftover building materials. some items they stockpile for future projects while the rest is sold in their shops (always free to vets though).