Debt Dumpers - 2014

[dmross]

Just paid off another bill.

It's amazing how much gets paid off when you are watching your spending and sending in more than the minimum payment.

That makes 4 bills in the last month and a half paid off!!!!!

Nice. I get so much encouragement here from hearing about success! I want to see more of our bills go away!

 

[Eureka]

Happy May everyone. Can I just say how I love "extra" check months! DH gets paid every Friday so he gets 5 checks in May and our bill schedule is based on four months. Nice to have some leeway for whatever's needed (say, the new dryer we just bought).

Oops, I meant four weeks, not months!

 

[PrincessKymm]

Haven't updated since the big fall out. My apartment fell through so I took it as a sign to stay with my BF and we are trying to work things out. So far so good.

I have made payments on my car so that is almost paid off, paid off my new work clothes today too so my debt is shrinking which is making me less stressed and happier.

I got a rewards credit card with a pretty high limit considering my bankruptcy so I am going to try to pay my monthly bills on it to rack up some rewards to put towards whatever.

One day at a time!

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Haven't updated since the big fall out. My apartment fell through so I took it as a sign to stay with my BF and we are trying to work things out. So far so good.

I have made payments on my car so that is almost paid off, paid off my new work clothes today too so my debt is shrinking which is making me less stressed and happier.

I got a rewards credit card with a pretty high limit considering my bankruptcy so I am going to try to pay my monthly bills on it to rack up some rewards to put towards whatever.

One day at a time!

I'm glad things are working out. Hopefully things will continue to be good.
Yay on the car and clothes.

 

[hmack]

Happy May everyone. Can I just say how I love "extra" check months! DH gets paid every Friday so he gets 5 checks in May and our bill schedule is based on four months. Nice to have some leeway for whatever's needed (say, the new dryer we just bought).

Happy May day!

I to love 5 friday months.

 

[zurgswife]

Paid the extra on my student loan this month. Makes the second month. YIPPEE!!!! And I got a second job to help pay down these student loans too. Yet it's only a school year job so won't really kick in until September.

 

[pigletto]

Yay to extra pay weeks! Dh is paid bi-weekly so our extra checks are in July and October this year I think. They are being used to pay for the dogs neuter, to pad the emergency fund, the trip fund and the Xmas fund.
I'm feeling good and on target for all of my goals.
However, on the downside, dh started a new job that is too far to commute a few months ago. He was staying with a relative on week nights, but it was temporary and the relative has sold their house. So a nice chunk of money is going towards a small apartment for him for the next year or so. It bugs me to be paying for a house and an apartment and it's going to bug me every time I write that check. That money could be going towards so many better things. But.. the reality is, this job is a fabulous opportunity for him, we aren't prepared to uproot the kids and make a move, and it's just the way it has to be for now. We've committed to this arrangement for a year at least (at which point dd will be done high school and we can move or he will have found an equally good opportunity closer to home).

 

[jenny105]

I get paid bi-weekly and my "extra" check months are January and August this year. January was put to good use and August will be too! I am a bridesmaid in a wedding and I need to put some money away for it. Not going to be cheap! I get quarterly commission checks too which is always nice

 

[jennilynn510]

May is 5 pay month for me too. I pay my mortgage by-weekly so the an extra payment goes in this month

 

[hmack]

Paid the extra on my student loan this month. Makes the second month. YIPPEE!!!! And I got a second job to help pay down these student loans too. Yet it's only a school year job so won't really kick in until September.

Congrats on the extra and the second job!!!

I fell behind on my student loan, but I'm using a bit of extra $ to make two payments in May to catch back up.

 

[pryncess527]

Haven't updated since the big fall out. My apartment fell through so I took it as a sign to stay with my BF and we are trying to work things out. So far so good.

I have made payments on my car so that is almost paid off, paid off my new work clothes today too so my debt is shrinking which is making me less stressed and happier.

I got a rewards credit card with a pretty high limit considering my bankruptcy so I am going to try to pay my monthly bills on it to rack up some rewards to put towards whatever.

One day at a time!

Congrats on getting some debt paid off! I hope things continue to go well with your BF.

 

[pryncess527]

Paid the extra on my student loan this month. Makes the second month. YIPPEE!!!! And I got a second job to help pay down these student loans too. Yet it's only a school year job so won't really kick in until September.

Way to go!!!

We had a setback this month -- DH started a new job, and the hiring paperwork was slow which ended up delaying his start date and costing us 1/2 a month's income. We sat down yesterday with our May budget and had to make some serious adjustments to account for the temporary income reduction. The good news is that I had $800 ready to be sent to our HELOC as an extra payment, so while I'm a bit sad we could not make that extra payment, at least we can weather this temporary blip without taking on any new debt or completely emptying our savings. A year ago that would not have been the case, but after a full year of YNAB we had padding in quite a few budget areas that we were able to use to help handle the income dip. I'm ready for June to be here, when we get to budget with 2 normal salaries again

 

[huntland]

I am so glad to have found this board! My family and I aew on a no spend summer mission. We owe $6000 for my masters and a bathroom remodel that I am determined to pay off pronto, without working overtime. We also have committed to not touching our savings. We put 400 a month in there but always spend it when it gets above 1000 or so. I have loved reading your list and now I feel more motivated than ever! Oh and big point after all thus is paid for we are going to go to Disney!

 

[rusafee1183]

Well, my DH and I had our first setback in YNAB. We have only been using it for about 3 weeks, and (thought) we were finally getting the hang of it.

Every Friday evening (when we get paid) we have our weekly 'budget meeting' and determine what we need to spend for the week. Then on Saturday morning, we stop at the ATM across from our grocery store and take out the cash for our envelopes and then do our grocery shopping. We had seperated cash for our cats litter and for them to get groomed. Well, we had cash for all of that stuff and went to SAMS club, but the register that we waited forever for only took credit/debit. So, instead of waiting like we should have - we just used the debit card and said we would redeposit the cash for later use.

Long story short - I don't know how, but somehow throughout the day we screwed up and our budget wasn't matching up by $30. We had done a lot of stupid money 'shifting' throught the day and we really confused ourselves. So, we learned a valuable lesson about ONLY using the cash allocated for THAT specific thing. I think we were getting too comfortable and thought we knew what we were doing. It was nice that it kind of put us back in our place, and we now know that we need to be more careful.

Still loving YNAB, and definitely plan to buy it once the trial is up.


In other news, I am starting training for my second job on May 12th. I am nervous about giving up all my free time, but if I can dedicate to it - we are hoping to be almost debt free (minus our largest snowball debt, and the mortgage) by this time next year.

 

[NYDisGuy]

This thread is great. Have any of you considered a home equity loan for your higher interest debt? I will be elgigble for it in a couple of months and am wondering if it's worth it to pay my credit cards/higher interest loans

 

[zy144622]

This thread is great. Have any of you considered a home equity loan for your higher interest debt? I will be elgigble for it in a couple of months and am wondering if it's worth it to pay my credit cards/higher interest loans

I personally would never consider a home equity loan. I don't think putting insecure debt into the secure debt category is ever a good idea.

 

[southlakejr]

This thread is great. Have any of you considered a home equity loan for your higher interest debt? I will be elgigble for it in a couple of months and am wondering if it's worth it to pay my credit cards/higher interest loans

My first question would be how long has it been since you have added to your debt? If you have added to higher interest debt within the last 6 months to a year, I would automatically say no. In that case, you haven't developed strong enough habits yet to be able to avoid accumulating more debt.

If you have been dutifully paying on your debt without increasing it for a year or so, I would consider

What is your current interest rate vs. what you can expect with home equity

How long will it take to pay off your debt with your current payment plan

Can you pay off your debt faster with a home equity loan? How much will it save you in interest?

Unless you can pay off the debt in half the time, or save a large amount of $$ in interest, I wouldn't do it.

Overall, I think it is way too risky to take money from your house to pay off high interest debt (which is usually credit related) There are very very few people who do this successfully- most people just end up with a home equity loan AND credit card debt.

 

[rusafee1183]

My first question would be how long has it been since you have added to your debt? If you have added to higher interest debt within the last 6 months to a year, I would automatically say no. In that case, you haven't developed strong enough habits yet to be able to avoid accumulating more debt.

If you have been dutifully paying on your debt without increasing it for a year or so, I would consider

What is your current interest rate vs. what you can expect with home equity

How long will it take to pay off your debt with your current payment plan

Can you pay off your debt faster with a home equity loan? How much will it save you in interest?

Unless you can pay off the debt in half the time, or save a large amount of $$ in interest, I wouldn't do it.

Overall, I think it is way too risky to take money from your house to pay off high interest debt (which is usually credit related) There are very very few people who do this successfully- most people just end up with a home equity loan AND credit card debt.

I second this. I have "bailed myself out" quite a few times, and it always resulted in just moving debt from one place to another. I always swore that this time would be different, but it never was. We took out a $20,000 personal loan to pay off credit cards and student loan debts, just to end up with a $500 a month payment for the loan AND $10,000 more in credit card debt in just a few years.

If you are still currently using your credit cards, or have in the past few months I would avoid this route.

Please don't be me.....

 

[NYDisGuy]

My first question would be how long has it been since you have added to your debt? If you have added to higher interest debt within the last 6 months to a year, I would automatically say no. In that case, you haven't developed strong enough habits yet to be able to avoid accumulating more debt.

If you have been dutifully paying on your debt without increasing it for a year or so, I would consider

What is your current interest rate vs. what you can expect with home equity

How long will it take to pay off your debt with your current payment plan

Can you pay off your debt faster with a home equity loan? How much will it save you in interest?

Unless you can pay off the debt in half the time, or save a large amount of $$ in interest, I wouldn't do it.

Overall, I think it is way too risky to take money from your house to pay off high interest debt (which is usually credit related) There are very very few people who do this successfully- most people just end up with a home equity loan AND credit card debt.

We don't spend frivolously, it was accumulated because we relocated for my job and it took a while for my wife to find employment. We also purchased a house that had major issues that needed to be fixed immediately. Otherwise, we never had credit card debt. This was more to avoid the 0% promotional apr that will come off before we are able to eliminate all of the debt.

 

[southlakejr]

We don't spend frivolously, it was accumulated because we relocated for my job and it took a while for my wife to find employment. We also purchased a house that had major issues that needed to be fixed immediately. Otherwise, we never had credit card debt. This was more to avoid the 0% promotional apr that will come off before we are able to eliminate all of the debt.

Then that's a bit different. But I would still compare what the different interest rates are, what the closing costs would be, and weigh from there. We considered using equity to pay off our debt at one point. But, we realized that it wouldn't change the timeline that we would pay it off by more than a month or two, and would save us less than 1500 on interest, before factoring in closing costs and other expenses. For us, it really would not have been worth it.

How long will it take you to pay off the debt with your current rate of payment, and how much interest will you pay in that portion of time?