Debt Reducers

[nowellsl]

Goals: To pay off DH's truck this year. We have saved $10,000 so far to put towards this debt so we should be able to do this in '08. My goal in 2009 is to pay off one of our student loans, start paying on the other, and save an additional $5,000 in our emergency fund.

Just curious why you wouldn't pay one of the student loans first since you're accruing interest on those? (As long as you can still pay off the truck before the 48 months are up)

 

[MinnieVanMom]

I thought I would check in here for your opinions:

We have a minivan for sale. We were offered $800 less then what we owe on it. It means 7 months debt free vs. 14 months with the van.

Should we take the loss to get rid of the van?

 

[8 Ears]

Wahoo! I just paid off another medical bill to the tune of $319.20! With that it brings our medical bills due to $2,826.15!!!!!

Now I have 2 that are over $400.00 each so that will take me 4 weeks to pay off. That is OK, slow and steady wins the race

Of course we still have the nearly $2,000.00 one left but I can not bring myself to think about that one too much. Depressing thinking it will take me about 7 weeks to pay it off

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

[bdcp]

I thought I would check in here for your opinions:

We have a minivan for sale. We were offered $800 less then what we owe on it. It means 7 months debt free vs. 14 months with the van.

Should we take the loss to get rid of the van?

If you sell it you still have to pay off the balance of the loan before title can be transferred to the new owners. Where's that money coming from? I'm not sure how beneficial it is to pay on something you don't even own anymore.

 

[minnie1928]

I thought I would check in here for your opinions:

We have a minivan for sale. We were offered $800 less then what we owe on it. It means 7 months debt free vs. 14 months with the van.

Should we take the loss to get rid of the van?

I'd sell it, $800 loss would be offset by the insurance savings (no longer need to insure a car you don't have). Also, the longer you wait to sell it the less it will be worth so take the loss and end it.

A friend of mine took her Honda Odyssey last year to Carmax and was quoted a sale price. She decided to keep it until a few weeks ago and the price dropped by $1500 in one year. So while she had no car payments, the Odyssey still cost her $125/mth in depreciation plus insurance.

 

[donnsuz]

20 months ago, I got my DH a glass of wine, and told him we needed to have a 'date' outside to talk. I let him know how much debt we had (lots), what the plan was going to be to pay it off, and that I needed his help. Bless his heart, he was totally on board, which was great, considering that he had no idea how deep of a hole we were in. Granted, it was for things like a new roof, a heating system, and (oh yeah) a 100 pt DVC add-on . He just assumed I was taking care of the bills, which I was, but not really aggressively paying anything off. Since he was in the dark, I was the only one up at night thinking about debt. Needless to say, I don't recommend the stealth household finance management system

OMG this sounds familiar. I do the money at our house and I am the one awake at night. My DH has no real clue. I've been trying to sort things out and hint around, but I guess it's time for that talk with the glass of wine.

 

[dreamin_disney]

Ok i need help getting DF on the same page as me. My main concern are the creditcards. We have a mortgage and i have a car loan which i consider ok debit because we have something to show for it. The cc bother me because most of it is stuff we cant show for. We did stupid spending. Getting my car is what motivated me to cut down on my debit.
This is my current debit
car loan 2007 20,000 @4.5% payments 317.00
currently ow $16,000something
disney visa 500.00 (will be paid at the end of the month)
citi 410.00 (will be paid at the end of the month)
btw- my old car was 18 years old over 250,000 miles. I live in CA and tyake the freeway to work M-f comute being about 45 min each way. In the am i drop of dd at school then drive 45 min away and vice versa. a few times my car would almost overheat if traffic was bad. Since i dont have anyone to help me with dd i needed to make sure i had reliable transportation.
Df on the other hand isnt on the same page. He should have paid of a lot in his debit but he keeps transering and i cant keep up with his debit. I've given him charts and budgeting sheet but he's not consistent.
he owes
Citi 6180
Chase 1505.8
Captial 1 3254
Home De 800 0% till jan 09
Lowes 999 0% till jan 09
Best Buy 587 0% till Dec 08
TOTAL 13325.8

whats the best way to pay this debit down. X-mas is coming in a few months and thats the hardest. He has a huge family and feel like he has to buy for everyone! I kid you not there were 37 people on his list. He now has the excuse that because he budgets for x-mas by looking for things on sale its ok to shop for 37 people. I remind him if he has to charge it all then its not ok.

please give us tips on how we can

 

[Debbie]

He has a huge family and feel like he has to buy for everyone! I kid you not there were 37 people on his list. He now has the excuse that because he budgets for x-mas by looking for things on sale its ok to shop for 37 people. I remind him if he has to charge it all then its not ok.

He needs to start now and stop all that buying. 37? WOW! When our kids were little, (and we only had maybe 15 to buy for), my sister and I spoke up to the rest of the clan and let them know that we were only spending $5.00 on each gift. We were honest...we couldn't afford anything more. We debated between cutting out birthday gifts, but this is what we came up with. Gifts were things like: a mug from the dollar store, a chocolate bar (a BIG one), earrings, on sale items, pocket novels etc. Gifts from the heart are good, too: nicely wrapped chocolate chip cookies, a night of babysitting, a bowl ($store) with some microwave popcorn etc. I have tried and tried to convince my own kids-teens and early 20's- that it is the thought that counts. I really don't need anything, so a gift of time (or a bottle of cheap peach wine ) would suit me fine. Oh, and I'd jump 15 feet high if someone would just come and wash my car.

You and DF really need to sit down together (maybe with a professional?) to have a plan with his debt. Money problems can be the root of many others. Good luck!

 

[dreamin_disney]

Well i did get him to cut down last year , thats why there was only 37. Those 37 dont buy for everyone because they cant. Hello we cant either, I've pointed that out to DF. I've even said we can do one of those nice 10-13 cookie tins from costco for each family.
Since my debt of cc will be paid off, i'm also setting money aside for our disney trip airfare will be paid by nov and 0% for 6 month on disney visa. I promised dd this trip when she was lil so that will be our first family trip ever. We dont do entertainment anymore so we will do wdw on a budget.

He needs to start now and stop all that buying. 37? WOW! When our kids were little, (and we only had maybe 15 to buy for), my sister and I spoke up to the rest of the clan and let them know that we were only spending $5.00 on each gift. We were honest...we couldn't afford anything more. We debated between cutting out birthday gifts, but this is what we came up with. Gifts were things like: a mug from the dollar store, a chocolate bar (a BIG one), earrings, on sale items, pocket novels etc. Gifts from the heart are good, too: nicely wrapped chocolate chip cookies, a night of babysitting, a bowl ($store) with some microwave popcorn etc. I have tried and tried to convince my own kids-teens and early 20's- that it is the thought that counts. I really don't need anything, so a gift of time (or a bottle of cheap peach wine ) would suit me fine. Oh, and I'd jump 15 feet high if someone would just come and wash my car.

You and DF really need to sit down together (maybe with a professional?) to have a plan with his debt. Money problems can be the root of many others. Good luck!

 

[Gokstate]

Just curious why you wouldn't pay one of the student loans first since you're accruing interest on those? (As long as you can still pay off the truck before the 48 months are up)

I know it defies everything we are taught about money management but I do actually have a bigger plan here. Right now I work full-time from home but my DH and I are working to make sure we can live on just his income in case something happens to my salary. We know that his truck is at 0% interest but it is a $458 payment where the student loans are $240 total.

Also, I didn't fully explain my "logic". We are currently paying only the normal payment on his truck balance and sticking the extra payments into our high interest savings account. Once we have the $19,000 saved up by the end of the year, I will consider the truck paid off because we would have the cash on hand if we need it to pay for the pickup if we drop down to one income. We will continue to just keep that money in savings through next year and as long as I have my job still, we will use part of that cash to pay off the student loan. We plan on always keeping enough in the "truck payoff savings" to cover the balance. At the end of next year, we will only need $15,000 in that savings so the extra $4,000 plus any interest earned will go towards the student loans. Hope this makes sense, I sort of rambled!

 

[MinnieVanMom]

We did end up selling the van. The buyer knows that the lien will be released and sent to him and we gave them a bill of sale as required until the lien releases.

I had to send a check for a bit plus the certified funds from the buyer. It was not terrible and the debt is gone! The amount I save in insurance will cover the difference.

It was a smart move to sell it and now for the rest of the debt!

 

[littlelulu33]

I was just able to make a extra $600 payment to the CC. I am so excited. A couple of months ago we got another checking account one account is for bill payments only and the other acct is for and spending including gas and food. Well it seems to be working we are not buying so many extras and that $$ is adding up to extra payments. We may be out of debt by the end of the year. YEAH!!!

 

[8 Ears]

Wow, littlelulu33! That is super, congrats!

I thought it would take me 2 weeks to pay off the next medical bill but it looks like we will be able to do it this week . That will make us a week ahead on my time line!!!

We have put several items on Craig's List and are hoping they are gone by the end of the month. We have lots more I want to put on but sorta doing a test run first.

We so want to be out of debt for the new year

 

[akmom]

I was just able to make a extra $600 payment to the CC. I am so excited. A couple of months ago we got another checking account one account is for bill payments only and the other acct is for and spending including gas and food. Well it seems to be working we are not buying so many extras and that $$ is adding up to extra payments. We may be out of debt by the end of the year. YEAH!!!

You know, I have been debating this plan many times. Opening a second checking account. I think that may be the best way to go. Hmmm

 

[littlelulu33]

I love having two accounts.
We have froze the CC and do not use it anymore.
We actually switched banks I got a offer from Chase bank and they said if we open a new account they will give us a bonus of $125 if we have direct deposit or 4 debt transactions. So I had a account at another bank then they said if I open a second account I can get the $125 again DH name is first on one and I am first on the other and we also would get another $25 for reference of the first accounts so I could not turn down the extra $275 so we switched.
I work about once a week sometimes two. I am working the holiday and get 2 1/2 times my pay for 12 hours. That is our fun $$ we also are trying to do food and gas out of it. It has been tight here and there, but it really is keeping my extra spending down. I can't belive how much extra stuff I was buying just because it was a good deal or on sale. The other account is for bills only and when I get to the end of the month and all bills are paid the extra $$ goes to the CC. DH gets a extra check in July so this is going to be a great month. We also just got back from a family reunion I took cash to pay for the entire trip and I came home with almost $300. Going to the CC.
It is getting fun to pay the bills and know by the end of the year knock on wood the CC will be paid off and by April 09 the car will be paid off. Then we can work on the house. I am thinking we may not have a house payment by time we are 40. 7 years to go.

 

[HenDuck]

I just paid off the small balance on my Discover card.

Now I can snow ball that payment onto my Sears card next.

I'm excited to be starting this process.

I've also started catching the bus to work. This will free up more $$ to pay off my debt.

Woohoo! (These 3 bananas are me, DH and DS, when we finally get to WDW - debt free!!!)

 

[HenDuck]

I have a little over $9k in CC debt:

Discover: $144 (will be paid off next month)
Sears: $1,185 (0% interest until 5/1/09)
WaMu: $2,000 (0% interest until 4/2009)
CitiBank: $6,200 (0% interest until 4/2009)

I also meant to add that I'm cutting up the WaMu card today too!

Yeah!

 

[Jiminygirl]

I just paid off my last CC balance online. Except for my mortgage, I'm
DEBT FREE!!!!

 

[Suzanna1973]

Just paid off another bill yesterday. The pile is slowly dwindling!!!

 

[8 Ears]

Wow! Nice job everyone!

Me on the other hand fell off the wagon this week Both DH and myself are off this week and we took the $$ to pay off another medical bill and used it for vacation, mostly food!!

But we have had a nice family week

Oh yes a little OT but we can say we are Disney snobs now! We went to a fun/water park and all we did was compare it to Disney and wish we had saved the $$ for our next trip to the world.

Next week I will climb back on the debt reducing wagon with the rest of you