Debt Dumpers - 2019

End of week update: Really started the house purge in earnest this week! DH had 12 days off for vaca. (stayed home) and tackled many house projects. Outdoor benches have been redone (although DH was overzealous with the spray paint and now the garage floor will need more scrubbing than he could finish before going back to work - on the next list!). Carpets are shampooed, which resulted in some other stuff getting deep cleaned before putting back (isn't that always the way?). Yard has been super deweeded, edged, insects sprayed for, and is looking tip top. House has been painted (yeah, we didn't sleep much). Annnd, took a huge load of unwanted goodies to the women's & children's shelter (called Safe Harbor here) that we had been working on since day 1 of vaca. That was a massive undertaking, and I feel like we have barely scratched the surface! DS 27 is special needs and has a problem letting anything go (his tshirt collection would rival any woman's closet - it fills his closet and the closet in the spare room that I call the fitness room since all my exercise equip. is there) and that is just one example. Bless him, I just have to find new ways to keep it corralled and organized. The rest of the house is fair game!! I don't care who owns it!! So, due to the extra cost of said projects, no progress has been made towards monetary goals in the past couple of weeks. But I feel like we made wise investments in getting some of this done. Happy weekend!

Wow! That is amazing amount of projects to get done! You will need a vacation from your vacation.
There is a company, don't know the name but you can probably google it, that takes t-shirts and turns them into a quilt. There are different sizes offered based on the # of t-shirts you have.
When my friend sent me the link, I was SO wishing I held onto all those t-shirts that my kids wore from school, different camps, WDW, etc. Our house isn't very big so we purge often.
 
While it's good news that I'm graduating with my PhD in two weeks, we came to the sad conclusion that my student loans are going to absolutely cripple us. Of course, there's always the hope that I can now get a higher paying job, but since who knows if that will happen, we've decided to sell our (too small) condo and zero out our debt. While part of me feels like this is us taking a step back, going from owners to renters, we ran the numbers and it's the only way we can really start saving for ANYTHING else. Otherwise we're going to be working at like a -$1400 budget every month starting in six months. And it's entirely my fault for not realizing how QUICKLY interest accumulated on those loans while I was in school! It's absolutely horrifying.

But there are upsides: it will get rid of ALL of our debt. The car will be paid off and it will allow us to probably move into a new space paying less a month than we would all of our debt bills plus mortgage. Especially since one of our kids is starting "real school" this September. We'll still be paying nearly 3k in care fees every month until the youngest is out of daycare in two years, but at least there's light at the end of this tunnel and it's probably not a train.


i think what you are doing is BRILLIANT. while not for the same reasons, when we sold our last home we paid off all of our then existing debt. the amount of relief and stress reduction was IMMENSE.

good lord-i remember those crazy high daycare paying years. even though i'm talking over 20 odd years ago we were paying about half what you are looking at. it came as a tremendous financial relief when both kids were out of daycare.

now that you will be totally out of debt you can try to stay that way with only a potential mortgage again somewhere down the line. any pay increases you can pay to yourself, any newly realized savings you can keep for yourself (when we rented it was so nice not to get the monthly bills for water/pest service...because it was all included in the rent).
 
While it's good news that I'm graduating with my PhD in two weeks, we came to the sad conclusion that my student loans are going to absolutely cripple us. Of course, there's always the hope that I can now get a higher paying job, but since who knows if that will happen, we've decided to sell our (too small) condo and zero out our debt. While part of me feels like this is us taking a step back, going from owners to renters, we ran the numbers and it's the only way we can really start saving for ANYTHING else. Otherwise we're going to be working at like a -$1400 budget every month starting in six months. And it's entirely my fault for not realizing how QUICKLY interest accumulated on those loans while I was in school! It's absolutely horrifying.

But there are upsides: it will get rid of ALL of our debt. The car will be paid off and it will allow us to probably move into a new space paying less a month than we would all of our debt bills plus mortgage. Especially since one of our kids is starting "real school" this September. We'll still be paying nearly 3k in care fees every month until the youngest is out of daycare in two years, but at least there's light at the end of this tunnel and it's probably not a train.

Owning a home is overrated. Congratulations on your PhD and enjoy your newer (larger) rental home. Being debt free is much more freeing than always living on the edge of always running out of money.
 
Owning a home is overrated. Congratulations on your PhD and enjoy your newer (larger) rental home. Being debt free is much more freeing than always living on the edge of always running out of money.


absolutely-and who knows with the housing market how it will be a couple of years down the line when you are out from under the daycare costs. it could be a mad buyer's market and with no existing home to sell you could be in a prime position to snatch up a great deal if you so desire.
 


Wow! That is amazing amount of projects to get done! You will need a vacation from your vacation.
There is a company, don't know the name but you can probably google it, that takes t-shirts and turns them into a quilt. There are different sizes offered based on the # of t-shirts you have.
When my friend sent me the link, I was SO wishing I held onto all those t-shirts that my kids wore from school, different camps, WDW, etc. Our house isn't very big so we purge often.
That is such a great idea! His tshirts are all expensive, specialty shirts that he's picked out on Uni and Disney trips over the years, and from comic cons we go to every year. His collection is immense and probably worth $$, but he can't bear to let any go. He also still has every game system and game he has ever gotten, every glow thing he got at a Disney park ever, etc. And don't get me started on Disney cups.....
 
That is such a great idea! His tshirts are all expensive, specialty shirts that he's picked out on Uni and Disney trips over the years, and from comic cons we go to every year. His collection is immense and probably worth $$, but he can't bear to let any go. He also still has every game system and game he has ever gotten, every glow thing he got at a Disney park ever, etc. And don't get me started on Disney cups.....


my 22 yr old special needs son is the same way about his gaming stuff and certain other items. i was REALLY surprised though-about a week ago his older sister mentioned about a co-worker of hers whose little girl of 5 or 6 has gotten totally hooked into pokemon cards. ds waited till his sister came over a few days later and gave her a binder with sheets and sheets of plastic pages that he used to keep his cards in with the first few pages filled with cards he specifically thought a beginner pokemon card player needed. seems he will let go of some things-it just has to be with the knowledge that it's going to a good and appreciative home/owner.
 


Did a preliminary budget for September this weekend and husband and I made a plan of what to do with the excess. Also made a budget for Christmas- we have a Christmas account we are scheduled to contribute to 2x per month, but we have skipped some deposits this year and we just needed a plan of what we are going to spend. Also made a budget for Disney- I always seem to get caught up in the souvenirs and then have buyers remorse. This time I know there are specific things I want and we made a list and attached a dollar amount to it. This will keep us more on track in Disney I hope.
 
This thread is amazing. I haven't read through everything, but I am struggling with loads of debt too. We had a rough few years and had to put nearly everything on credit. Thinks have finally improved for us financially and now we are trying to pay it down, but it never seems to get any lower. We always pay over the minimum too. I just need lots of tips and advice on how to really get this going while trying to save some money and save for our vacation next fall or winter. I know they say pay the smaller ones off first, but its the big ones that scare me and I would rater get rid of them. I really don't even know how to go about making a budget...I need to ASAP.

We have considered selling our home to pay it all off and just renting for a bit, but rent around me is higher per month than we pay out now. I'm just desperate and need some direction.

I am also on the losing weight and getting healthy train. I feel awful, look awful and we will be married 25 years in 2020 and I want to look great. I just turned 50 and I am feeling it. I never wanted to be fat at 50 but here I am.

Thanks!
 
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Did a preliminary budget for September this weekend and husband and I made a plan of what to do with the excess. Also made a budget for Christmas- we have a Christmas account we are scheduled to contribute to 2x per month, but we have skipped some deposits this year and we just needed a plan of what we are going to spend. Also made a budget for Disney- I always seem to get caught up in the souvenirs and then have buyers remorse. This time I know there are specific things I want and we made a list and attached a dollar amount to it. This will keep us more on track in Disney I hope.
I have buyer's remorse on just about everything. Currently it's the car in my driveway. I wish I had bought something a whole lot cheaper, and that I started car shopping before my last car became a road hazard and needed to be off the street.
This thread is amazing. I haven't read through everything, but I am struggling with loads of debt too. We had a rough few years and had to put nearly everything on credit. Thinks have finally improved for us financially and now we are trying to pay it down, but it never seems to get any lower. We always pay over the minimum too. I just need lots of tips and advice on how to really get this going while trying to save some money and save for our vacation next fall or winter. I know they say pay the smaller ones off first, but its the big ones that scare me and I would rater get rid of them. I really don't even know how to go about making a budget...I need to ASAP.

We have considered selling our home to pay it all off and just renting for a bit, but rent around me is higher per month than we pay out now. I'm just desperate and need some direction.

I am also on the losing weight and getting healthy train. I feel awful, look awful and we will be married 25 years in 2020 and I want to look great. I just turned 50 and I am feeling it. I never wanted to be fat at 50 but here I am.

Thanks!
Welcome to the thread! So much information out there on budgeting and methods to use. I hear you on being 50 and weight! I never had a problem and could eat or drink anything, now it sticks. I am just about cresting the 50 hill!
 
This thread is amazing. I haven't read through everything, but I am struggling with loads of debt too. We had a rough few years and had to put nearly everything on credit. Thinks have finally improved for us financially and now we are trying to pay it down, but it never seems to get any lower. We always pay over the minimum too. I just need lots of tips and advice on how to really get this going while trying to save some money and save for our vacation next fall or winter. I know they say pay the smaller ones off first, but its the big ones that scare me and I would rater get rid of them. I really don't even know how to go about making a budget...I need to ASAP.

We have considered selling our home to pay it all off and just renting for a bit, but rent around me is higher per month than we pay out now. I'm just desperate and need some direction.

I am also on the losing weight and getting healthy train. I feel awful, look awful and we will be married 25 years in 2020 and I want to look great. I just turned 50 and I am feeling it. I never wanted to be fat at 50 but here I am.

Thanks!
Welcome!
What worked for me was following Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps. I didn’t get super strict on cutting back on spending like he suggests (stop contributing to retirement, cancel cable, cancel smartphone, sell cars with loans, etc).

Basically you list all debts in order, smallest to largest, keep paying minimum on all except the smallest, and attack that little one with all your might.
Once that is paid off, move that money from paying the first one and attack the 2nd one, in addition to the min payment of the 2nd one you had already been paying. As each debt gets paid off, your monthly payment toward larger debts keeps increasing (hence the nickname snowball) so that when you get to the last larger debts, your snowball is huge and you’re paying off large chunks at a time.

The rationale behind paying off the small ones first is that usually it doesn’t take very long to knock out the little one. It’s a quick win. If you were to start with the larger one, you’re still trying to knock it out with small amounts of “extra” money each month. It’s very discouraging.

Our snowball was about $150/month when we started and it was $2500 by the time we were done.
It’s very motivating to watch it grow. Like we’d be excited to pay bills. Lol

If there’s $5 leftover in checking the day before payday, it goes toward whatever goal I’m attacking with our snowball.

It can be done!!
 
This thread is amazing. I haven't read through everything, but I am struggling with loads of debt too. We had a rough few years and had to put nearly everything on credit. Thinks have finally improved for us financially and now we are trying to pay it down, but it never seems to get any lower. We always pay over the minimum too. I just need lots of tips and advice on how to really get this going while trying to save some money and save for our vacation next fall or winter. I know they say pay the smaller ones off first, but its the big ones that scare me and I would rater get rid of them. I really don't even know how to go about making a budget...I need to ASAP.

We have considered selling our home to pay it all off and just renting for a bit, but rent around me is higher per month than we pay out now. I'm just desperate and need some direction.

I am also on the losing weight and getting healthy train. I feel awful, look awful and we will be married 25 years in 2020 and I want to look great. I just turned 50 and I am feeling it. I never wanted to be fat at 50 but here I am.

Thanks!

The rents around where we are are higher than we are paying in our mortgage now BUT not if you add up all the debt bills we're paying per month. And if we sell our place we zero those out, so really we end up paying LESS a month to rent than we would if we kept our current home.

I'd suggest writing down every monthly payment you have and then adding it to your mortgage. If renting would cost less than that, you'll still be able to save.
 
This thread is amazing. I haven't read through everything, but I am struggling with loads of debt too. We had a rough few years and had to put nearly everything on credit. Thinks have finally improved for us financially and now we are trying to pay it down, but it never seems to get any lower. We always pay over the minimum too. I just need lots of tips and advice on how to really get this going while trying to save some money and save for our vacation next fall or winter. I know they say pay the smaller ones off first, but its the big ones that scare me and I would rater get rid of them. I really don't even know how to go about making a budget...I need to ASAP.

We have considered selling our home to pay it all off and just renting for a bit, but rent around me is higher per month than we pay out now. I'm just desperate and need some direction.

I am also on the losing weight and getting healthy train. I feel awful, look awful and we will be married 25 years in 2020 and I want to look great. I just turned 50 and I am feeling it. I never wanted to be fat at 50 but here I am.

Thanks!
Welcome!
What worked for me was following Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps. I didn’t get super strict on cutting back on spending like he suggests (stop contributing to retirement, cancel cable, cancel smartphone, sell cars with loans, etc).

Basically you list all debts in order, smallest to largest, keep paying minimum on all except the smallest, and attack that little one with all your might.
Once that is paid off, move that money from paying the first one and attack the 2nd one, in addition to the min payment of the 2nd one you had already been paying. As each debt gets paid off, your monthly payment toward larger debts keeps increasing (hence the nickname snowball) so that when you get to the last larger debts, your snowball is huge and you’re paying off large chunks at a time.

The rationale behind paying off the small ones first is that usually it doesn’t take very long to knock out the little one. It’s a quick win. If you were to start with the larger one, you’re still trying to knock it out with small amounts of “extra” money each month. It’s very discouraging.

Our snowball was about $150/month when we started and it was $2500 by the time we were done.
It’s very motivating to watch it grow. Like we’d be excited to pay bills. Lol

If there’s $5 leftover in checking the day before payday, it goes toward whatever goal I’m attacking with our snowball.

It can be done!!

I agree - use Dave Ramsey's method. It works. I don't follow EVERYTHING he preaches, but the debt snowball works if you commit to it, use a written budget (his app - Everydollar is fabulous), and stop putting things on any form of credit. His book, Total Money Makeover gives step by step on his babysteps. I highly recommend it.
 
I'm just desperate and need some direction.
This was me when I came into this forum. I've been a DIS member for years and years. I was so embarrassed that I made a new login. This forum has been so supportive, so very helpful. Welcome and I hope we can help you!
I agree - use Dave Ramsey's method. It works. I don't follow EVERYTHING he preaches, but the debt snowball works if you commit to it,
LOVE the snowball! And I'm not a DR follower, but I stuck to the snowball and am ALMOST to the end.
Being debt free is much more freeing than always living on the edge of always running out of money.
I saved this quote for last because...the inheritance check just came in. And it's so much more than I'd even thought. I never asked DH because it seemed pretty hawkish to do. We've both been still dealing with the aftermath of missing Grandma. Just this weekend, we were talking about her and missing how she brought the family together. It's been a rough process with the inheritance, to the point that DH stepped back and refused to have contact with the cousin who was taking extra time to get the funds dispursed.

But now, with the check in front of me, I called him and he wasn't surprised about the total. At all. My guess was 1/4 of it. He wants to sit down with the snowball and look to see what we can pay off. If we apply it to the CC debt, we can pay EVERY SINGLE CARD in full!!!! That leaves us with the car payments, which I can pay off by the end of the year.

If I could have zero dollars and still have Grandma, I would. I miss her fiercely. It's taken me a while to type this because I keep crying about how generous she was, even in death. I'm absolutely overwhelmed at the prospect of being CC debt free. Kinda breathless. Giddy. Scared that I'll mess it up again. That DH will.

I'm not leaving this group. Not ever. You all have been my lifeline when I've wanted to chuck it and live payment to payment again. Hoping that the talk with the DH and I will go well tonight and we make some good decisions.
 
This was me when I came into this forum. I've been a DIS member for years and years. I was so embarrassed that I made a new login. This forum has been so supportive, so very helpful. Welcome and I hope we can help you!

LOVE the snowball! And I'm not a DR follower, but I stuck to the snowball and am ALMOST to the end.

I saved this quote for last because...the inheritance check just came in. And it's so much more than I'd even thought. I never asked DH because it seemed pretty hawkish to do. We've both been still dealing with the aftermath of missing Grandma. Just this weekend, we were talking about her and missing how she brought the family together. It's been a rough process with the inheritance, to the point that DH stepped back and refused to have contact with the cousin who was taking extra time to get the funds dispursed.

But now, with the check in front of me, I called him and he wasn't surprised about the total. At all. My guess was 1/4 of it. He wants to sit down with the snowball and look to see what we can pay off. If we apply it to the CC debt, we can pay EVERY SINGLE CARD in full!!!! That leaves us with the car payments, which I can pay off by the end of the year.

If I could have zero dollars and still have Grandma, I would. I miss her fiercely. It's taken me a while to type this because I keep crying about how generous she was, even in death. I'm absolutely overwhelmed at the prospect of being CC debt free. Kinda breathless. Giddy. Scared that I'll mess it up again. That DH will.

I'm not leaving this group. Not ever. You all have been my lifeline when I've wanted to chuck it and live payment to payment again. Hoping that the talk with the DH and I will go well tonight and we make some good decisions.


so sorry for your loss but i think grandma would be thrilled if you put that money towards being cc debt free. have you considered that w/out the cc debt you could pay off the car early and be both cc AND car debt free before the end of the year? wouldn't that be awesome?????

i get being scared about falling prey to getting back into cc debt, but when you go and pay it off so you no longer have that monthly obligation give some thought to what created it. does your regular monthly budget need a bit of a tweek up so that actual needs don't have to be put onto a card? is it mostly vacation stuff that you could take some of that freed up money each month and throw a set amount into a designated vacation savings account to prevent defaulting to the cc in the future? if you realize that some/much was impulse buying you may find that when the stress of the cc debt is no longer hanging over your head you may not have the desire to default to stress/impulse buying.

whatever you do with the money keep in mind your short and long term goals. it likely took grandma some time and perseverance to save what she left to your dh-take time to make the big decisions as well.

whatever you decide
 
ave you considered that w/out the cc debt you could pay off the car early and be both cc AND car debt free before the end of the year? wouldn't that be awesome?????
Headed home soon. I think that we will keep the car payments for now (it'll be paid off in March, regardless) so that we can make some other purchases. I've made a list of things we've talked about buying. And long term, we've already been thinking that and had our pensions/401(k)'s in our budget. That said, it'll be nice to finally build a nice cash cushion.

Holy guacamole...I could feasibly pay off the house next year if I wanted to...
 
This was me when I came into this forum. I've been a DIS member for years and years. I was so embarrassed that I made a new login. This forum has been so supportive, so very helpful. Welcome and I hope we can help you!

LOVE the snowball! And I'm not a DR follower, but I stuck to the snowball and am ALMOST to the end.

I saved this quote for last because...the inheritance check just came in. And it's so much more than I'd even thought. I never asked DH because it seemed pretty hawkish to do. We've both been still dealing with the aftermath of missing Grandma. Just this weekend, we were talking about her and missing how she brought the family together. It's been a rough process with the inheritance, to the point that DH stepped back and refused to have contact with the cousin who was taking extra time to get the funds dispursed.

But now, with the check in front of me, I called him and he wasn't surprised about the total. At all. My guess was 1/4 of it. He wants to sit down with the snowball and look to see what we can pay off. If we apply it to the CC debt, we can pay EVERY SINGLE CARD in full!!!! That leaves us with the car payments, which I can pay off by the end of the year.

If I could have zero dollars and still have Grandma, I would. I miss her fiercely. It's taken me a while to type this because I keep crying about how generous she was, even in death. I'm absolutely overwhelmed at the prospect of being CC debt free. Kinda breathless. Giddy. Scared that I'll mess it up again. That DH will.

I'm not leaving this group. Not ever. You all have been my lifeline when I've wanted to chuck it and live payment to payment again. Hoping that the talk with the DH and I will go well tonight and we make some good decisions.

You will be fine. When dh received his inheritance from the sale of his parents house (split amongst 6 kids) I felt the same way. We immediately applied 2/3 of it to pay off our home equity loan that we had taken out a few years ago to add a home office. The other 1/3 we put in our Vanguard account. That was such a weight off of us.

The good part about paying down debt the "hard way" is that it teaches us the budgeting skills needed to live below our means. When you scrimp and save and keep paying down every bit you can until you finally see that $0 balance and you log in just to look at it again and again, like you can't believe your eyes. Doing that for several cc's, you get the hang of it. You know how to be careful with your spending. You're more cognizant of the times that you're adding to your debt. Not just spending & charging out of control.
I've been bad lately and explained why earlier, but I haven't totally fallen off the wagon. I can jump right back in the saddle, and I have, but now working on a Christmas fund. By mid-Sept I'll be back to hammering out this cruise which should be gone by the end of 2019.

My point is, you know those skills now. Let's just pretend for a minute that you inherited enough to pay off all debt completely, like hitting the lottery. (This is paying down debt the "easy" way.) And let's pretend you received the money back when you first found this thread and immediately paid off all your debt, never even reading this thread and never heard of a debt snowball. Do you think you would be able to stay out of debt after that? I think it would be hard. All of this paying down has made us smarter with our money, and more careful to watch where it all goes and take a 2nd look at our priorities.

It's a similar to when dh and I refinanced our mortgage and took out some equity to pay off our debt several years ago. It took little effort and didn't teach us a dang thing about how to budget and reduce spending. Within a few years, it was creeping right back up. This time I couldn't turn to our equity to bail us out. I had to just hunker down and do it but it was very enlightening. I learned a lot about budgeting I won't ever forget.
 
You're more cognizant of the times that you're adding to your debt.
THIS.

We figured out that if we pay the CC's off completely, we can budget the things we'd like/need to buy in a timely fashion: (*note - we plan on buying with our one CC to get the points)
(off the top - we will tithe to our church and surprise the DD by paying for all of her books)
1. Flooring - buy and pay off same month (if we want to pay for installation, that'll be another month of payments, but I'm a decent DIY)
2. Fridge - buy and pay off in two months
3. Laptop - buy and pay off in same month
4. Braces - have an orthodontist in town that is 0% financing payments with half down. Insurance will pay 1/3 and we can pay the rest in cash, then go onto the payment plan.
5. DL in Nov - I'm still pounding through the SB's gift cards. Now, I'm not hyperstressed that I won't make the deadline to buy the tickets. It's still obscenely expensive.

I need to sit down and rehash the CC's after they're paid off. We have two with annual fees. Alaska Air. We got them for the free companion tickets for the Dec. 2018 trip. Now, it seems like a waste of $200/year. Not sure if closing them will affect our credit, but I have a few months to figure that out. I'll start reading the CC massive thread more carefully now to help with our future choices. We chose not to pay off the car until March. And are leaving the mortgage as is until at least June of next year, to build a cash reserve.

DH also asked for a loadable credit card so that he can put his weekly allowance on it and not worry about going over. Two years ago, he was charging without my knowledge and it nearly broke us, financially and our marriage. So when he suggested this, I readily agreed. He's depositing the check today and I told him that I'd wait to make pay-offs until he was absolutely certain that he is comfortable with this plan. He looked at me and said, "Pay it the day the check clears. Let's get out of this hole and look at the future. I want to go to Europe with you." I about burst into tears.

I'm making a small spreadsheet today to show him where it will all go, so that he is involved in this.
 
Ugh...DH just sent me a link to the new Lego Disney Train set and of course we NEED to buy it on Sept 1. Budget busted!

https://shop.lego.com/en-US/product/disney-train-and-station-71044
Gonna need to shift the budget around a bit, but there is no way we aren't buying this. It will look amazing under our Christmas tree this year with our Disney castle in the background!

This is why we can't seem to get ahead. LOL. Lego is an expensive hobby...

But, it helps that we are only renewing 3 Disneyland APs this month rather than 4, and I have decided to just keep doing the monthly payment option.. Since we are renewing before they expire, I won't need to make an additional downpayment so our monthly payment will remain the same as it was last year when we had 4 passes financed, but paid the cost of one as a down payment. Also, I thought our annual fee for the Chase Sapphire Reserve would post Sept 1, but looking at old statements, saw that it is actually Oct 1, so I was already budgeting in that $525 for Sept, which is now freed up. So, Lego store, we'll be seeing you on Sept 1!

I moved $1000 to our short term savings this month and will move $3000 to our Ally account on Sept, so we are right on track with the savings goals.
 

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