Debt Reducers

[toledo13]

Count me in. I paid of my car in the past few months and am now focusing on the dreaded college loans. Oye...

I started with four loans to repay:

1- REALLY big consolidation
2- Big loan
3- Small loan
4- Small loan

I've paid off #4, and am working to pay off #3. Of course, I pay my monthly payments for all of them, but I'm putting more towards paying off the smaller guys, just to get them off my plate!!

No CC debt! We are SO frugal that everything we buy we ONLY buy it if we can pay for it 'in cash'. If we need to get something big, we wait it out as long as we can and try to find a place that offers like '6 months same as cash' deals. More often than not, I just clip coupons, buy only what I NEED, and do many things ourselves.

 

[8 Ears]

We just made a $2,000.00 payment on my vehicle! WE now only have 2 payments left!! It went from being sceduled to being paid off in October 09 to December 09 (when DS had his accident) to May of 09!!!

Then onto the remaining medical bills.

What a huge weight is off us now that we only have about $500.00 left on my vehicle, DH's is paid off and we have NO credit card debt/credit cards!!

 

[Kathi OD]

congrats on a job well-done! we'll be quite longer than I expected since DH has been unemployed for so long. but i know we'll get there as we're not adding to the debt.

 

[8 Ears]

Kathi OD, thanks! Keep up the good work of not adding to it! You will get there, just ask me, LOL

 

[momof4kid]

I'm glad I found this, We are going to truely try and get debt-free (eventually, but will take a long time). With each of my pregnancies I was on bedrest for at least half of pregnancy so needless to say the credit card debt seems like we will never get it paid off. We also have a large amount of school loans from my husband. A mortgage that is well over what we should be spending on a mortgage, and one car payment. Since I've taken over the bill paying about six months ago, we have cancelled cable and newspaper, and have a less expensive internet service,too. I know we really should not be going to Disney next month, but DH talked me into it. The debt does not bother him like it does me. So after this trip I mean business!! I just don't know where else to cut corners.

 

[cristbaby]

We have a humongous amount of cc debt but I am going to be strong and try so hard to get it down to at least where we can afford the payments. I had a heart attack and was unable to work for a long time and we just lived off of our cc. Now we are paying dearly for it. There will be no disney trips until I can get all of this to a safe level.

 

[littlelulu33]

I thought that we would have DH truck paid off in April over a year and half early, now I think we are going to have to wait until the end of May. We need to get the outside of the house painted...we put it off last year when the painter dropped our job. So there goes 1200. I also decided to repaint two rooms in the inside (I guess I could put it off, but without the $1200 it won't be paid off until May anyway so I might as well do it. Right? I am worried if I keep putting it off it would never get done.
Why is it that since the CC was paid off in Dec. something seems to keep coming up to stop us from getting the truck paid off. Jan was 6 months of car ins. Feb was DD birthday pic, party. March Garage door broke and went on a small 3 day trip for DD birthday, also first payment for preschool was due. Now April painting and projects oh and putting DD3 in gymnastics $118 for 9 weeks. Maybe May will be better and we will have the truck paid off.
It does feel good to pay cash for everything and not add it to the CC, but I so want the car payment gone even if it is interest free, but not enough to add it to the CC

 

[Kathi OD]

Lulu,

I think you're doing a great job!!!

I totally understand wanting to get out from under that car payment. But look at the POSITIVE! You're not adding to your debt and paying down the car at the same time. Last year we had planned to have both CCs and my car paid off by this time, but then DH lost his job and that plan went out the window real fast. Now the plan is to not add to the debt by not using the credit cards and pay our bills on time (but without the extra), which we've been able to do so far. I'm glad we're able to pay our bills without adding to the debt we already have. When he gets back to work (whenver that is, it's been close to 10 months already), we'll go back to aggressively paying down those bills.

One of the bad things about making a concerted effort to pay down your debt is that it never seems to go as fast as we want it to.

 

[Deffenm]

I am so excited I finally paid off DH's doctor bill today. Next is my Student Loan. I would love to pay if off in April but I think May or June is more realistic. I owe a little more then $3,000. I hope by the end of the year the only debt we will have is one vehicle and the house. We owe $12,000 on our RV, which my goal is to pay off by year end. DH and I are going to review our budget tonight for rest of year so we stay on the same page. He wants to pay off debt but also does not want to give up certain things. We have to find a solution that will fit both if we can.

 

[Kathi OD]

I am so excited I finally paid off DH's doctor bill today. Next is my Student Loan. I would love to pay if off in April but I think May or June is more realistic. I owe a little more then $3,000. I hope by the end of the year the only debt we will have is one vehicle and the house. We owe $12,000 on our RV, which my goal is to pay off by year end. DH and I are going to review our budget tonight for rest of year so we stay on the same page. He wants to pay off debt but also does not want to give up certain things. We have to find a solution that will fit both if we can.

WOW! That's a pretty aggressive repayment plan! I hope you and DH can come to an agreement on your budget. My DH likes his toys too and has had a hard time giving some of them up now that he's not working. If he doesn't get back to work soon, he'll be giving up even more of them. If it gets to that point, he won't be easy to live with.

 

[wendygrace]

I'm in. I posted on one of these last year. We have nearly eliminated our debt with Dave Ramsey's plan. We have paid down 65K and have about 10k left. As long as dh isn't laid off, we will be done by December. Possibly sooner. We just paid off a loan with our tax refund that has been over our head for nearly five years. We are soooo excited! Next up is a $5k cc. The goal for is is June 1st as I do not want to surf it to a new card and it goes from 0% apr to something ridiculous then. We have some money we're sitting on from this years bonus to throw at it but we're nervous about layoffs. We need to decide whether to save it or get rid of a payment. We're leaning towards getting rid of a payment so we never have to worry about it again.

Someone mentioned having issues with budgeting bills that are due only every other month or so. What we do is just pay a portion of the expected every month. So, for example, our water bill is between $30-40 every other month. On the month without the bill, I just pay $20. When the bill comes, I pay the difference. Same with bills that change from winter to summer. The gas bill I always pay more than the minimum during the summer (I pay $50/m, in summer the bill is usually less) and then in the winter, I continue to pay the $50 until it catches up. That means that usually I am paying extra one or possibly two months at most. I adjust as needed. I also adjust the thermostat as needed. The opposite goes for electricity. Hope that helps someone out there.

We have learned so much in our two year journey to being debt free. I am more than happy to answer any questions. Being this close to getting rid of our debt has made the threat of a layoff nearly a non-issue because we know that we can live at 50% of our monthly income and we can make that with two part time jobs. We are a one income family as well.

I also wanna say that its great you are all making a plan for eliminating your debt. It is sooo hard to do with the US mentality of spend, spend, spend.

 

[Vallie]

March was not the greatest month! My windshield cracked and I had to get a tire replaced so that cost me a good chunk of money but I still managed to get 400 dollars down on the mc and paid for those problems in cash!

The good news is I got a hugee tax return so between that and the free disney dining ill be able to take a debt free trip to disney this august! Its much needed after working my butt off all year with two jobs!

 

[8 Ears]

I paid off my vehicle today!

No credit cards, no credit card debt, no vehicle payments!

What have you been able to pay off this month?

 

[Kathi OD]

I paid off my vehicle today!

No credit cards, no credit card debt, no vehicle payments!

What have you been able to pay off this month?

That's AWESOME!!!!

I at your feet!!!

We're lucky to be paying the minimum and not racking up any more debt or hitting our savings.

If DH could find a job we'd be car and cc free too. It's so frustrating!

 

[nephthys43]

I'm trying very hard to join you all. I snowballed everything and paid off that first card. Unfortunatly, I had to register for my praxis and take my daughter to the vet. So that jumped it back up $400. Not horrible, but not fantastic.

 

[johnlal]

Post here if you want to join the debt reducers' bandwagon. Let's encourage each other to stay focused to pay off this EVIL debt.

Absolutely! It's an easy trap to fall into, but a difficult one to crawl out of. Just think of the feeling you'll get when it's off your back!

 

[wendygrace]

Alright, so what are your goals for this month?

Dh had a week furlough last month so his paycheck is 3/4 of what it usually is. So for this month we are cutting down all our expenses. The thermostat is off, the lights are off, the computer unplugged most of the day, we drive only when necessary and I clump my errands. Eating out is out and we are eating out of the pantry as much as possible. We are not going to dip into any savings.

So what do you want to accomplish in April?

 

[Deffenm]

I would like to pay off my student loan, I will stick to my budget, I am using cash envies so I don't over spend on groceries or gas. This is our first month working the Dave Ramsey plan. We are excited but we have stay motiviated and not give up.

 

[Robert 31320]

OK folks, a new year starts in a few days! Let's re-kindle the get out of debt flame!

We paid off our Suburban in September, a year early! Adding that payment money to other debt now and looking forward to the next pay-off!

 

[weewuvvdisney]

We just want the bills to be paid off. We don't have a lot compared to many others but it seems it never goes away.

Now is the time to start............




Jan