what debt are you tackling now? how's it going?

[MoniqueU]

Well this sounds like a bragginiog thread to me and believe me if I were in as good of shape as most of you I would be bragging too. So no offense meant.

We paid off 4 credit cards this week as charge offs. Made arrangements to pay another 500 towards one with a 5000 balamce that is years deliquent. We owe HUGE amounts on another 3 that are also in collections.

It is easy to pay down debt when you have the money to do it but my DH has lost half his income (car business) and we live in CA where the cost of everything is sky high. In the summer with my ac set at 79 we get 1000 electric bills. We are modifying our mortgage. I no longer eat fast food and we rarely go out to a sit down meal. As of tomorrow no more landline. I can't see much else we can cut, I just switched to dish on a promo that was far less then we were paying with Fios or Direct before that. My son does go to private school and has one year left. I suggested pulling him last year and was vetoed by everyone in my family. One daughter does water polo and the other does nothing and my son plays football. 2 of our cars are paid for but we have no extra money to pay towards the third to get the balamce down. I have bought my youngest daughter alot of clothes at a good price off ebay. Sold a bunch of my own stuff on there and switched to shopping at the super walmart. I have huge prescription co pays each month as well. Not to mention gas out here where I live is alot higher and my husband commutes an hour to work for a job he is grateful to have.

We considered chapter 7 but make too much, then we considered Chapter 13 but igurgured we could do just as well at our own pace. We are doing the best we can. We did go to Vegas for about 36 hours with free roomsa in April. I have let my Disneyland passes expire and we just don't do much. We have friends over to watch sports and host get togethrs. I buy an amex gift card every time I go to the store and have them in a lock box for Christmas or emergencies.

We feel good about what we paid off this week but then we realized what we owe on the other 3 cards and got depressed. Add braces on 2 girls in and paying our health insurance which I am happy to pay for and there just isn't much else we can do right now.

I just don't get how one month we were making tons of money and the next month it was cut in half and hasn't recovered? My husband is commission only so there isn't much he can do about it and he doesn't get overtime, holiday pay, sick leave etc. Vacation and funeral days are highly discouraged too. It was fine when we were making alot but not it just wears on you.

 

[dvcgirl]

Well this sounds like a bragginiog thread to me and believe me if I were in as good of shape as most of you I would be bragging too. So no offense meant.

We paid off 4 credit cards this week as charge offs. Made arrangements to pay another 500 towards one with a 5000 balamce that is years deliquent. We owe HUGE amounts on another 3 that are also in collections.

It is easy to pay down debt when you have the money to do it but my DH has lost half his income (car business) and we live in CA where the cost of everything is sky high. In the summer with my ac set at 79 we get 1000 electric bills. We are modifying our mortgage. I no longer eat fast food and we rarely go out to a sit down meal. As of tomorrow no more landline. I can't see much else we can cut, I just switched to dish on a promo that was far less then we were paying with Fios or Direct before that. My son does go to private school and has one year left. I suggested pulling him last year and was vetoed by everyone in my family. One daughter does water polo and the other does nothing and my son plays football. 2 of our cars are paid for but we have no extra money to pay towards the third to get the balamce down. I have bought my youngest daughter alot of clothes at a good price off ebay. Sold a bunch of my own stuff on there and switched to shopping at the super walmart. I have huge prescription co pays each month as well. Not to mention gas out here where I live is alot higher and my husband commutes an hour to work for a job he is grateful to have.

We considered chapter 7 but make too much, then we considered Chapter 13 but igurgured we could do just as well at our own pace. We are doing the best we can. We did go to Vegas for about 36 hours with free roomsa in April. I have let my Disneyland passes expire and we just don't do much. We have friends over to watch sports and host get togethrs. I buy an amex gift card every time I go to the store and have them in a lock box for Christmas or emergencies.

We feel good about what we paid off this week but then we realized what we owe on the other 3 cards and got depressed. Add braces on 2 girls in and paying our health insurance which I am happy to pay for and there just isn't much else we can do right now.

I just don't get how one month we were making tons of money and the next month it was cut in half and hasn't recovered? My husband is commission only so there isn't much he can do about it and he doesn't get overtime, holiday pay, sick leave etc. Vacation and funeral days are highly discouraged too. It was fine when we were making alot but not it just wears on you.

Well, I don't think people are bragging. The thread title is asking people where they are with respect to paying down their debt, so it's sort of an "atta boy" thread. Sort of like, "tell us how much weight you've lost". Just like losing ten pounds, losing 10K in CC debt feels good to people. I think it's great.

I think that you and a couple of other posters in this thread are going through tough times. You're certainly not alone in this department. People are hurting. Some of this is going to be more a permanent change. We were simply living way beyond our means in this country and some of the jobs are not coming back because all of the credit isn't coming back.

On the auto sales front though, right now we're scrapping more cars than we're making. A very rare phenomenon. I read an article in the Journal the other day about a study that predicts that we'll be back to pre-recession auto sales within two years. Right now we're at 11.7 million for 2010, down from a peak of 17 million......quite a drop. I think that's pretty bullish...to get back to 17 million by 2012. But more bearish studies show us back at 16 million by 2013, so still a huge improvement over where we are now.

 

[bored]

I'm thinking of paying off my mortgage 8 years early. I have enough money in the bank (small inheritance) to do so and still have an 12 month emergency fund. I've been maxing out my 401K contributions with this inheritance but started thinking about paying off the mortgage. If I pay it off now I will save $5400 over what I would have paid over the next 8 years. Turbo Tax had me file a 1040A the past 2 years because that was better than itemizing my mortgage interest and property taxes.Things holding me back are what if I might benefit in the future from itemizing? Also, property assessments have dropped in the last 2 years, what happens if/when they go back up? Not sure I am ready yet to give up the possibility that itemizing in the future could be better for me than using the Short form. On the other hand $5400 divided by 8 = $675, itemizing would never increase my tax refund by that much per year.

You are correct. Never pay anything you don't have to for the tax refund it generates. It will never payoff.

 

[iwrbnd]

We're tackling a car I wish we hadn't bought last summer!

 

[abmitch01]

I hear ya, I bought a Prius last summer. If I had a nickel for every time someone asks if I regret it, I could pay it off, lol


I think a lot depends on where you live. CA got hit so hard when the housing bubble burst. And I cannot even imagine a $1000 electric bill, awful

 

[Blessed_wth_Triplets]

Seriously?!? How do many of you almost have your HOUSE paid off? I'm envious!! Is everyone that much older than us...granted...we did just move and start the 30 yr. mortgage all over. But with 4 kids...I just can't see paying it off anytime sooner.

I'm 30 and DH is almost 32. Our goal is obviously just to have the house paid off by the time he retires!

Given that...I feel blessed given we have only DH's income, are living in our dream home, and can go to WDW! The house is our only debt...but we will eventually have to get back into a car payment when one of our dies...cross that bridge when we come to it...

 

[abmitch01]

I'm 40 and bought the house with a 30 yr in '02. I'm not close at all to paying it off but the principal is low enough that I should be able to do it sooner than 30 yrs. It's modest and I used to think it wasn't my dream home but I've grown to like it a lot.

Things were different at 30 when my kids were littler and I only have 2. It's amazing the changes that happen in a decade.

 

[DawnM]

You really have to do the math on this though. Paying $10,000 in interest on your mortgage for a write off of $2,000 makes no sense if that is your write off.

We have a mortgage but with 3 kids our deductions are pretty good and when combined with the standard deduction we are certainly paying too much in interest.

Dawn

You are correct. Never pay anything you don't have to for the tax refund it generates. It will never payoff.

 

[DawnM]

I don't know what a charge off is.....

The $1000 electric bills....we are from SoCal and we got out at the right time it seems, but we didn't have central air. We used a swamp cooler. Our bill was never over $150 total for gas and electric. That might be an option for you.

Is the school willing to work with you on tuition if you have low income? That might be an option for you to look at.

We are out of debt except mortgage and even though some may think it is because we have a high income, we don't. We have just made some drastic decisions and changed our lifestyle in order to get where we are. We went without any cable TV at all for a very long time. We have very old cars and don't plan to get new ones. We cut some of our children's extra curriculars and told them they had to choose ones that weren't as high priced. We don't buy much stuff.....we have a strict budget for spending and say no to a lot of stuff we would like to get.

Dawn

Well this sounds like a bragginiog thread to me and believe me if I were in as good of shape as most of you I would be bragging too. So no offense meant.

We paid off 4 credit cards this week as charge offs. Made arrangements to pay another 500 towards one with a 5000 balamce that is years deliquent. We owe HUGE amounts on another 3 that are also in collections.

It is easy to pay down debt when you have the money to do it but my DH has lost half his income (car business) and we live in CA where the cost of everything is sky high. In the summer with my ac set at 79 we get 1000 electric bills. We are modifying our mortgage. I no longer eat fast food and we rarely go out to a sit down meal. As of tomorrow no more landline. I can't see much else we can cut, I just switched to dish on a promo that was far less then we were paying with Fios or Direct before that. My son does go to private school and has one year left. I suggested pulling him last year and was vetoed by everyone in my family. One daughter does water polo and the other does nothing and my son plays football. 2 of our cars are paid for but we have no extra money to pay towards the third to get the balamce down. I have bought my youngest daughter alot of clothes at a good price off ebay. Sold a bunch of my own stuff on there and switched to shopping at the super walmart. I have huge prescription co pays each month as well. Not to mention gas out here where I live is alot higher and my husband commutes an hour to work for a job he is grateful to have.

We considered chapter 7 but make too much, then we considered Chapter 13 but igurgured we could do just as well at our own pace. We are doing the best we can. We did go to Vegas for about 36 hours with free roomsa in April. I have let my Disneyland passes expire and we just don't do much. We have friends over to watch sports and host get togethrs. I buy an amex gift card every time I go to the store and have them in a lock box for Christmas or emergencies.

We feel good about what we paid off this week but then we realized what we owe on the other 3 cards and got depressed. Add braces on 2 girls in and paying our health insurance which I am happy to pay for and there just isn't much else we can do right now.

I just don't get how one month we were making tons of money and the next month it was cut in half and hasn't recovered? My husband is commission only so there isn't much he can do about it and he doesn't get overtime, holiday pay, sick leave etc. Vacation and funeral days are highly discouraged too. It was fine when we were making alot but not it just wears on you.

 

[minnie1928]

We have just made some drastic decisions and changed our lifestyle in order to get where we are. We went without any cable TV at all for a very long time. We have very old cars and don't plan to get new ones. We cut some of our children's extra curriculars and told them they had to choose ones that weren't as high priced. We don't buy much stuff.....we have a strict budget for spending and say no to a lot of stuff we would like to get.

Totally agree with this...we're down to only our mortgage and it's because we made some rather painful decisions in the past and continue to do so.

 

[scard192]

Seriously?!? How do many of you almost have your HOUSE paid off? I'm envious!! Is everyone that much older than us...granted...we did just move and start the 30 yr. mortgage all over. But with 4 kids...I just can't see paying it off anytime sooner.

I'm 55 and have owned my condo since 1993. My father left his 3 children a small house, that was our inheritance which is why I have the money to perhaps pay off the mortgage. I have had no car payment for 7 years and drive a 12 year old car; that sure helps with building up the emergency fund. Would I like a newer, nicer car....sure but I don't need it so I keep putting the $$ for a car payment into the bank.

 

[Jen_in_NH]

My goal for the summer is to pay off DH's tractor. Once that's done, I'll be paying off a heap of dental bills. Hopefully I should have both done by the middle of the fall. We've cut back on some stuff, and during the summer, we always manage to save more, as the grocery bills are less with the garden, no oil bills, etc.

Monique - I think these threads can sometimes come off as bragging. I used to hate them, until a smart poster pointed out that you can't compare your financial situation to anyone elses. I would feel horrible, thinking "I have credit card debt, I must be evil, I contributed to the collapse of the economy" Then I realized - I have credit card debt, I have a plan to pay it off, and it's working for us. So what if posters don't always agree with how I'm doing it - they don't live at my house, and they don't know my whole life story. Only you truly know your situation, and what will work for you. So, I defnintely have no advice for you, but good luck working on everything.

 

[abmitch01]

I def didn't mean for thread to have a bragging tone, more a let's keep each other motivated with whatever you're working on

I apologize if it sounded that way

 

[Jennifer in MI]

I love this thread!!! I'm sitting here with a smile on my face for everyone who is doing so well! Seriously - I'm really happy for you!!!!

We were blessed. Dh's and my parents both taught us how to handle money. My parents gave us info from Larry Burkett for our wedding. We took it to heart. Our only debt right now is our mortgage. Unfortunately, we bought when the market was high, so we're now upside-down. But, we're planning to stay here forever.

We made the decision not to pay huge amounts on our mortgage so that we can have fun while our kids are still in our house. We do pay a bit more, but not a lot. This way we're able to travel and the kids are able to participate in great extra-curricular activities. I can't wait to have it paid off though!!

 

[dizluvah]

We are working on paying off a $1063 water bill!!! Yes, you read that correctly - our typical 3 month water bill is $65 - but we somehow managed to let the basement toilet (that we never use - in an unfinished "room" in the basement - where we never go down to unless we need something from storage....)to run continously for many weeks - we had no idea until the water company called because our meter reading was so high (they only read the meter quarterly)

We called to request a payment arrangement and agreed to pay $200 per month - and it is really hurting the budget - so far I have made April's $200 payment then mailed $75 check and $60 check back to back weeks in May - but still owe$65 before end of May

Plus I lost my full time job back in 2008 and recently received a letter from our state informing me I was overpaid unemployment benefits (due to no error/fault of my own) and I owe $501 - so I have set up a $100 payment arrangement for that each month

Both car registrations are due in July and it will be $638 - plus inspection costs - about another $60, plus a $50 license renewal fee for me same month -for those of you who aren't used to huge personal property tax rates on vehicles - NH doesn't have an income tax so they have to get us with property taxes

And....we are pregnant with our first child - so lots of budget busters heading our way...

but I just want to say I know everything will work out for us and you all as well - we are all doing the best we can

I am enjoying my new frugality and I am diving into the challenge of decorating a nursery on a very tight budget - I am embracing craigslist and goodwill for gently used items such as decor for the nursery - comforter to hang on the nursery wall as decoration, etc...

 

[abmitch01]

OMG on the water bill and how high your car reg runs. I think NY is like $50. I had a toilet run for months had no idea it could do that much damage to your bill. Congrats on new baby! Garage sales were where I got most of my little ones' clothes and found great deals on Little Tykes stuff (it scrubs up great with comet and steel wool).

 

[Jen_in_NH]

We are working on paying off a $1063 water bill!!! Yes, you read that correctly - our typical 3 month water bill is $65 - but we somehow managed to let the basement toilet (that we never use - in an unfinished "room" in the basement - where we never go down to unless we need something from storage....)to run continously for many weeks - we had no idea until the water company called because our meter reading was so high (they only read the meter quarterly)

We called to request a payment arrangement and agreed to pay $200 per month - and it is really hurting the budget - so far I have made April's $200 payment then mailed $75 check and $60 check back to back weeks in May - but still owe$65 before end of May

Plus I lost my full time job back in 2008 and recently received a letter from our state informing me I was overpaid unemployment benefits (due to no error/fault of my own) and I owe $501 - so I have set up a $100 payment arrangement for that each month

Both car registrations are due in July and it will be $638 - plus inspection costs - about another $60, plus a $50 license renewal fee for me same month -for those of you who aren't used to huge personal property tax rates on vehicles - NH doesn't have an income tax so they have to get us with property taxes

And....we are pregnant with our first child - so lots of budget busters heading our way...

but I just want to say I know everything will work out for us and you all as well - we are all doing the best we can

I am enjoying my new frugality and I am diving into the challenge of decorating a nursery on a very tight budget - I am embracing craigslist and goodwill for gently used items such as decor for the nursery - comforter to hang on the nursery wall as decoration, etc...

Congrats on the baby!!!

And you're right about NH and the taxes. We may not have income or sales tax, but they get us with the vehicle registration and property taxes. Ugh.

 

[Jen_in_NH]

I def didn't mean for thread to have a bragging tone, more a let's keep each other motivated with whatever you're working on

I apologize if it sounded that way

I defninitely wasn't referring to you. I'm sorry if it came off that way. It was more of a "I used to notice this a lot" kind of thing. This thread has been really great for a moral support kind of thing!

 

[FINFAN]

hmmm, we are in the TRIFECTA of debt, ( we also pronounce it just a smidge differently )
College
Car
Braces
combined we pay $1400 a month to these. It hurts.
oh, AND our mtg. Anyone wanna trade?