Debt Reducers

[noopy]

Hoping I can moral support out there.This thread looks like a good place to start. Usually don't talk about my debt issues - not good at sharing my problems.Prefer to listen and support others.
"Short" version of my story:Single mom, no child support, 16 yr. teacher, became ill, "encouraged" to give up my position, now unemployed, applied for disability over a yr. ago - not granted yet, had to claim bankruptcy (Ch.13-I really want to pay off my debts), now facing foreclosure.
I'm really a positive person with a good sense of humor (thank goodness), but maybe sharing will lift me up a bit more - I'm a little down and hate, hate, hate the feeling.My little girl needs me.Want to teach her the importance of holding on to faith and hope.Want to be a model of strength like my mom- she battled breast cancer while we were living with her (we lost her in 2004).
My head is spinning from how quickly I slipped from financially stable with some retirement savings to using food stamps and deep in debt (used credit to pay medical debts, travel to out of state physicians, etc.). Also took out 2nd mortgage 2 years ago.
Sorry if this isn't the place for this. I'm still going to read this thread as the comments are encouraging and will help me when I climb out of this place I'm in. I don't ever want to be in debt again!
I admire all of you!

 

[minnie1928]

Hoping I can moral support out there.This thread looks like a good place to start. Usually don't talk about my debt issues - not good at sharing my problems.Prefer to listen and support others.
"Short" version of my story:Single mom, no child support, 16 yr. teacher, became ill, "encouraged" to give up my position, now unemployed, applied for disability over a yr. ago - not granted yet, had to claim bankruptcy (Ch.13-I really want to pay off my debts), now facing foreclosure.
I'm really a positive person with a good sense of humor (thank goodness), but maybe sharing will lift me up a bit more - I'm a little down and hate, hate, hate the feeling.My little girl needs me.Want to teach her the importance of holding on to faith and hope.Want to be a model of strength like my mom- she battled breast cancer while we were living with her (we lost her in 2004).
My head is spinning from how quickly I slipped from financially stable with some retirement savings to using food stamps and deep in debt (used credit to pay medical debts, travel to out of state physicians, etc.). Also took out 2nd mortgage 2 years ago.
Sorry if this isn't the place for this. I'm still going to read this thread as the comments are encouraging and will help me when I climb out of this place I'm in. I don't ever want to be in debt again!
I admire all of you!

I'm really sorry that you've had to go through all of this!

You mention that you applied for disability over a year ago, what seems to be taking so long? Forgive me if that's a dumb question, but my only experience with disability was when we applied for my dad (Parkinson's disease with a touch of Alzheimers) I thought it happened much quicker than that.

On another note, you mention that you were a teacher. Would you be able to tutor out of your home or do some online tutoring to get some income?

Your house...do you have any equity in it? If so, have you tried to sell it?

Like I said, I'm sorry that you've had to endure all this and I think your positive attitude will help see you through. I am a firm believer in a person's attitude can have a huge impact on how their life unfolds (or atleast their perception of it).

 

[dismom9761]

Hi. Just noticed this thread and thought I would join in.We are trying to pay off our debt,starting with the CC.The frustrating thing is we haven't used our CCs for at least 5 years but we still have about 10,000 in debt.Paying the minimum is getting us nowhere. We also have about 3,000 in medical bills.DS10 has had 7 surgeries and I had surgery with comlpications which meant I had to be taken to a different hospital.We have decided to sell my DH's truck.We will be able to pay off 8,000 in debt and then hopefully be done with all the CC by the end of the year.We are living on an even tighter budget than usual until I find a job.I have been out of work since the end of May.

 

[bubba]

What an eye opener ! We've implemented our budget at the beginning of August - everything was down on paper. And I mean EVERYTHING ! Every receipt is getting tracked in the appropriate categories. Changed to shopping with a list and not buying junk food. No last minute trips to McD's because we have nothing planned for dinner. It's amazing to me how much money we were throwing away ! I'm looking forward to the end of the month to see how much money we have leftover to add to our debt snowball. I budgeted for an extra $150 over and above our minimums, but it looks like we'll be able to add another $200 on top of that as long as everything pans out. Who knew I'd get excited about budgeting and debt repayment ?!?!

 

[surfergirl602]

I'll join. We need to improve our credit rating. Not sure how to go about that. We do not have any credit cards, but we're working on getting our truck paid off. No mortgage. Military housing, but my hubby's student loans are killing us! I would like to get a disney cc, but I'm to chicken to do it. We finally got everything like that paid off.

 

[jnzimm]

Just a word of encouragement. We have been debt free except for our house for ten years and we will be paying our house off 15 years early. You can do it. Just remember short of the bare essentials there are no I have to have its. Food, roof over your head, utilities and a working car. You will be amazed at how fast oyu can become debt free.

 

[tinaninea]

Hi everyone! I just pop in here once in a while and post how I'm doing. Bubba, I was reading your post, "Who knew I'd get excited about budgeting and debt repayment ?!?!" It's an amazing relief when you finally decide to do something about it. So, yeah, go ahead and be excited! I keep track of my snowball on whatsthecost.com & I can't wait to make payments so that I can go on there and see how much my debt has gone down.

So I'm working on a student loan now & I only owe $680 on it!!! I really want to have it paid off before Disney in 6 weeks. I got a few small bonuses at work (or at least Monday I'll get them). $20 for a game we were playing as a sales incentive & $50 for another sale. Both will go to this. I started doing the ChaCha thing last week too, & I've already made $50, so as soon as I get my card for that, I'm gonna apply it to debt.
Hope everyone else is doing good with their snowball! I see a lot of people joined here lately, so congrats to all of you in taking the first step to getting out of debt!

 

[bubba]

TINANINEA - Thanks for the words of encouragement. Minor blip on the radar today. Payroll messed up my paycheque to the tune of neglecting to pay me for one week. Instead of freaking out (this has happened before - payroll department not too reliable!) I knew that, even with half a paycheque, we have everything covered for the month of August. This is also a three paycheque month for me and I was planning on keeping the extra in my bill paying account so I can start covering rent early (I mean saving the $ to pay Septembers rent in August) so I have extra $ available if need be. Wow ! What a change to my mindset ! I know I'll get the cash I'm owed eventually and until I do, we're ok ! Oh, and thanks for the whatsthecost.com website. I'm at work right now and I can't get into it (but I CAN access disboards - go figure !) but I'll check it out at home.

 

[udsweetpea]

I can't find the poster now, but to whoever mentioned www.whatsthecost.com, THANK YOU! That was a HUGE eye-opener. It came as a big surprise that it will take me 105 years to pay off one of my CCs if I continue to pay the minimum payment (which already is $200/month!). I knew it would take a long time, but GEEZ! If I apply an extra $100 a month, I'll be rid of that card in 6 years. Woot woot!

 

[taraprather]

I only owe $230 more dollars on our furnace and ac! It has to be paid by Nov 1, 2008 or about $650.00 in finance fees will be added (12 months no payments, no interest). Then we will be working on a credit card that has 0% until June of 09 (started with a $4300.00 balance...now down to $3800.00).
Slowly but surely making progress......
It feels sooooo good to be getting rid of this debt!

 

[Karenj2]

I'd like to join - we are going to be paying off our car this year, and we're actually working on trying to sell our house so we can move into a smaller house. (1 - we don't need the house size since we haven't had kids, and 2 - we could use a smaller mortgage since we're earning a lot less than we did 4 years ago.)

We don't have any CC balances, but I'd like to keep it that way. We'd also like to add to our 401(k)s, and create additional savings accounts so that we won't feel guilty when we spend money on "unecessary" things.

So, hopefully we can inspire each other!!

I knew I had posted before, and I finally found it (from back in January). I'm happy to say that my car is officially paid off (don't tell it, I don't want it to break down now.).

PLUS, DH found a new job from the one he was in before, and he's making more now, so we're going to stay in our house - even though we still don't have kids... It just doesn't make sense for us to have our house for sale in a bad market when we no longer NEED to sell it.

Regarding the savings accounts - instead of opening a million savings accounts, I found the YNAB program, which helped me to make "virtual" envelopes/accounts, and budget and keep track of where I spend my money. I've talked about it ad nauseum on these boards, so I won't rehash it here. But it has another great forum with people dedicated to getting out and staying out of debt!

Good luck to all of you!

 

[mrsklamc]

We aren't doing as well as I would like but that's (kinda) by choice. DH thinks we have a comfortable level of debt and would rather add to our savings. I think any debt is too much and would poor every penny into it since we have a good amount in our savings...

BUT I think this week has been to teach me that I'm more fortunate than I tend to think I am. I thought I was going to have to buy a new tire ($140) and had one guy tell me I would have to buy the whole set and couldn't replace just one! I got it fixed for 14.99.

THEN our stupid homeowners association is tried to charge us a late fee for a check my DH personally delivers every month, because they have claimed it was 'late' before when we mailed in well in advance. They still claim they don't have the check he gave them on the first but he got them to waive the fee.

 

[WDW4TheGirls]

We aren't doing as well as I would like but that's (kinda) by choice. DH thinks we have a comfortable level of debt and would rather add to our savings. I think any debt is too much and would poor every penny into it since we have a good amount in our savings...

Could you compromise? Put a good amount to debt and the rest to savings? This is what I did, and although I would have paid off the cc faster without the $ going to savings, I really did feel more comfortable knowing that the savings was there in an emergency.

 

[mrsklamc]

Well, we have compromised in that we put 10% of our income into savings and we are paying some extra on our car loan every month. It's just that if it were totally up to me I'd be more obsessive about paying it down. DH thinks I have financial paranoia, but really it's just that I can't stand seeing all that money that could be our DCL cruise going down the drain on interest.

 

[bubba]

A

 

[jewjubean]

I just payed off my cc bill ($500) i've only got $5,000 left for my car!!! wahooo after i get that paid off!

 

[tinaninea]

Wtg!!!!

 

[tinaninea]

I have officially paid over $5000 of my debt!!! Just $56,748.74 to go. Paid another $120 on student loan, so I'm down to $493.90, still planning to pay off by Sept. 20! I am working on cleaning my aunt's house for her for a few extra bucks. I'm not sure what I'm gonna get, but I'll take it. As much as that woman's done for me, I would help her for free, but she offered, so I'm not refusing anything!

 

[Kathi OD]

Wow! Way to go everyone!

 

[debraW76]

I love the disboards!!! they have everything here.

My husband and I started the Dave Ramsey debt reduction plan. We have our emergency fund established and are currently working on paying off our CCs. It has been tough but we havent used our credit cards in over a year! Because of our emassive amount of debt though it has been very slow but we are seeing progress. The best part is that our upcoming trip will be paid for in cash! and we wont have bills when we get home. If we stick to our plan we will be out of debt in 5 years except our house, then our house will be paid for in another 5 years after that!