Debt Dumpers 2026

[Tygerlilly]

I've started slowly bulking up my stock for craft shows. They usually start ramping up around March. I've moved away from sensory kits being the main seller to more resin, ecoresin and acrylic projects. Just scoping out which little craft/holiday shows are coming up so I can apply.

 

[princesscinderella]

My daughter got in to USC!! She was accepted into the business for cinematic arts program too! I didn’t realize this because I didn’t help her at all with the application process or picking schools but this program major is special there and they only take 55 students for the program each year. She is so excited as it’s her #1 choice. We will find out about scholarships and her aid package in a few weeks.

 

[LadybugsMum]

Talked to a former coworker about his company and it sounds like a good place; so I submitted my CV while we were on the phone. He’s going to email all the right people and hopefully I’ll hear from someone next week.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Has a crazy month so far! First, holidays were extra busy with our families with things getting moved around a lot, then a few days later DH came down with a bad strand of the flu that lasted 2 weeks, with me getting it too a week after him so we both had it for a week together. Thankfully mine only lasted a week and we have both been healthy again for about a week now. Didn't get much together for goals during all of that, but I have worked on them this weekend so here are my 2026 goals!

Financial:

• Pay off my SUV loan. This will definitely happen, as I only have 5 payments left on it. Gonna pay a little extra each month to it to try to pay it off a couple months early so we can use that for other debt payments faster.
• No credit card balance, pay all off each month. We only have 2 small credit cards, but used them both too much over the holidays. One I just paid off yesterday, the other I paid half and should finish paying the rest next month so no more rollover balance after that.
• $1K EF funded by June. Now that we can pay our bills we can start to get an EF in place.
• Pay off old credit card balance of $2772. As said above, we have only 2 small CC now, but we had another card we closed a few months after my DH lost his job in 2023. Unfortunately in those few months before we closed it I had to use it for a lot of repairs to my SUV, and we are still paying those off. I was able to negotiate with them to let me close it and not accrue interest due to our financial issue as long as I made monthly payments to them. Now they we are better financially I want to pay it off. I'll start adding the amount of the SUV loan payments to this once it's paid off, as well as anything else I can throw at it.
• Start saving for a new vehicle for DH. His car is 12 years old and in ok shape, but we would rather start slowly saving for a good down payment for his next vehicle now rather then be surprised if it doesn't last much longer. Don't have a specific amount for this yet, as we hope to get another couple years out of his car, but want to at least start something.
• Pay for our road trip in September in cash. Our 10th anniversary is next month and we are planning on taking a 3 week road trip in September to celebrate it. Gonna put some money aside each week so we can pay it all in cash as we go.
• Start saving for 2027 Disney trip. My DH turns 40 in December 2027 and we are going to go to WDW to celebrate, so after our September road trip is funded we will start saving to book and pay for that trip. Thankfully that's almost 2 years away at this point so lots of time to save.

Personal Goals:

• Lose 50 lbs. We have a gym membership, so going to start going before work, hopefully all 5 days but may start at 3 to get back onto it.
• Stick with Meal Planning. I do well with this for a while, then skip one shopping trip due to various things popping up and it takes me weeks to get back in it again.
• Do (More) clearing out of the storage bins we have. So, to make a long story short, I started this a couple weeks ago, and found mold all in the corner of a closet we use almost exclusively for storage. Turns out when the house next door (it's a duplex, so shared wall and roof) was sold and renovated last year, the new roofers screwed up the barrier between our roofs and that led to leaking for a year every time it rained. One wall was about a third covered in mold and the ceiling in the corner is soft so those will be replaced very soon. Roof is already repaired and the mold on the wall has been killed and cleaned up, so it won't keep happening. Thankfully we rent so we paid nothing for this but I still had to throw away some things that were destroyed by the mold.

A big part of why I want to go through the storage bins is because we will be moving in several months so I want to get rid of anything we don't want to have come with us and have time to do it before we are right at moving. Basically, my DH and I currently rent a unit in a house that was split into 2 units. The homeowner lives in the other unit, and the homeowner is actually my sister. We rent from her. We've all collectively wanted to move for a while, the house is old and has problems, and the neighborhood sucks, but the old home issues would make it harder to sell and are expensive to fix. Enter my parents, who want a rental property to fund retirement. My Dad is very handy and has fixed up all their houses so they aren't bothered by the issues, in fact they like knowing exactly what the issues are for sure before they buy, and since we have all lived here for almost 7.5 years we know exactly what is wrong! They are currently selling a business property, once that sells they will buy this house from my sister, and then she will buy a house that we will all move to, once again made into 2 units so she has her space and we have ours. Once we get our debt paid off in full we will save up to buy our own house and she will then rent out the 2nd unit to someone else as her extra income, but we anticipate that being 3 years or so away.