Debt Dumpers - 2017

[Jen and Ashwin]

Is it too late to join? I need to learn how to create a budget then stick with it. I need to pay off credit card debt and start saving for a different car. Sounds like the 2016 thread as some good ideas/advice. I will have to go find it.

It is never too late to join and start debt dumping! These are great goals, so you have already done the major work of setting your priorities. DH and I use a budgeting software called YNAB (youneedabudget.com) that helped us pay off all of our credit card debt and save for medical expenses in 2016. We have since adjusted our goals towards extra payments on our cars and mortgage, plus a little more fun money in 2017. There are others on the board that use other budgeting programs and methods. The key is to find what works for you and helps you stay accountable.

For me, having this great group to get ideas and share victories with has been a major motivator and accountability method. So please, jump in.

 

[bababear_50]

Looking for some ideas please
Low carb--high protein quick and easy (inexpensive if possible) lunches to pack for myself.
*Shellfish allergy*.
I kind of eat on the run.
On a positive note I paid down my credit card debit by 2/3.
I am hoping to pay it off by the end of Spring but with our Spring Disney trip coming up it may make that an impossible goal--but I am going to try.
Thanks Mel

 

[Eureka]

Looking for some ideas please
Low carb--high protein quick and easy (inexpensive if possible) lunches to pack for myself.
*Shellfish allergy*.
I kind of eat on the run.
On a positive note I paid down my credit card debit by 2/3.
I am hoping to pay it off by the end of Spring but with our Spring Disney trip coming up it may make that an impossible goal--but I am going to try.
Thanks Mel

I made tacos last night and packed myself a rice bowl for lunch today with refried beans, a little taco meat and veggies. You could use brown rice to make it better carbs. Also, what about hard boiled eggs...make a dozen at a time and then just throw them in your lunch bag.

 

[Ngwira]

Great job! Minimums keep people in debt forever and that one is extremely low. What's that, 1%? Sheesh, that should be illegal. It would be time for new windows again by the time it would be paid off.
At this pace you could probably be done by next July.

Exactly. They're not fooling anybody with their low minimum payment requests. It gets better as I got the $800 check and DH and I agreed that it's going to the window loan.

 

[saucymb]

Saved $80 yesterday by cutting my 3 boys and DH's hair. Also, the new Credit Card with 0% interest for 15 months came in, we went to our new bank and initiated the transfer, so we will save $360 every month (that's how much we were paying in interest!). The old card is not being closed as it is practically our entire credit history. We just won't be using it. Both cards have gone into the safe.

It's taking longer than we realized to get all of our automatic payments, direct deposits, etc. transitioned from our old bank account to our new one. I don't know if I mentioned we are finally opening a checking/savings account with a bank that actually has a branch in our town? Prior to this, the closest branch to us was an hour away.

 

[bababear_50]

I made tacos last night and packed myself a rice bowl for lunch today with refried beans, a little taco meat and veggies. You could use brown rice to make it better carbs. Also, what about hard boiled eggs...make a dozen at a time and then just throw them in your lunch bag.

Why is it that I never think of eggs,,,my mom used to pack me them all the time--great idea.
I do like chick peas but don't know how to make them into a salad.Maybe someone has a recipe they can share.
Thanks for the ideas.
Hugs Mel

 

[Aurora_Australis]

I roast the chickpeas (and pepitas too mmmmmmm) with some olive oil, paprika, salt, pepper... whatever is lying around! About 10-15 mins in the oven on 180C and throw them in a salad. Or you could do some cubed veggies at the same time and toss that through some salad leaves for more bulk.

 

[bababear_50]

I roast the chickpeas (and pepitas too mmmmmmm) with some olive oil, paprika, salt, pepper... whatever is lying around! About 10-15 mins in the oven on 180C and throw them in a salad. Or you could do some cubed veggies at the same time and toss that through some salad leaves for more bulk.

sounds delicious--love pepitas toooo!
I found this recipe and it says it stores well in the refrigerator up to two weeks.
Chickpea salad.
http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipe/chickpea-salad/9377/

thanks for sharing
Hugs Mel

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

Well tomorrow night I'm going to run out to the thrift store and sell some old purses and shoes I don't use. Even if I get $30 back that will help! DH wants to take whatever we get and put it towards a gift for my birthday in early March. I'm thinking that's probably a good plan because it will keep us from getting off track with gifts. I'd rather use the money to buy one purse I will use than look at 15 that I haven't touched! Been checking eBay and one of the Disney vrea Bradley bags I want looks like it's within budget for us!

 

[AmyAnne]

The old card is not being closed as it is practically our entire credit history. We just won't be using it. Both cards have gone into the safe.

Just a note that if you don't use the credit cards at all, after a certain point the issuer will close them. Had this happen to one of my older cards - by the time the issuer sent the notice that they were closing it due to inactivity, it was too late to change their mind.

 

[chewysmom]

@dayvewc I'm so very sorry about your dad.

Debt busting wise, we are just treading water-getting ready to go under. Dh's hours have gone from 50 /week to ~24 quite unexpectedly. Well, it happens every year, I just wasn't expecting it to be *now*. Right now I'm just focusing on getting the bills actually paid. LOL Thank goodness for my check! It has kept us afloat all these years. (Dh works in furniture which can be very roller coaster-y.)

 

[kleph]

i wrapped up 2016 by paying off the car and clearing all but one credit card. the latter was achieved during 2016 by paying off a couple of cards and consolidating balances from other. the result was a disturbingly high balance on a card i still use for regular purchases.

so the progress over the last two weeks has been in consolidation and planning. the result was reaching an unexpected milestone -- the end of paying interest on my credit card debt. i paid off my oldest credit card in the middle of last year and it's just been sitting idle. recently i got an offer on it for a balance transfer with no fee and no interest for 18 months. so i moved all of the old credit card debt to it and requested a increase on the spending limit to ease up the utilization rate.

the upshot of this is i now can pay off every card i use monthly. it's interesting because i can already see how much this changes how i view my regular budget and spending. i've been using a zero sum budget for some time but now i am REALLY using it. every single dollar has to be accounted for. there is no more cheating by just throwing something on the card. that realization was really eye opening.

even better, while this is certainly fiscally prudent, it also opens up a lot of savings opportunities. relevant example. i can now use a target redcard to purchase disney gift cards at a discount and get 5% whacked off the cost of my upcoming trip. (much more information on that is available in the Disney Gift Card Deals thread). the only way such savings strategies work is if you don't burn the discount by letting the balance roll over and accrue interest.

this is the result of about three years of planning, budgeting and saving. i still have a decent amount of debt to pay off but it is well within my budget for this year. the difference is now i have a new arsenal of tools to not just attack it, but also keep my overall finances in line. by the end of the year i should be able to 1) pay off the debt 2) take a trip to WDW 3) have an emergency fund and 4) begin focusing on retirement funds.

 

[mco65]

PUt 1k towards my CC this morning. My stock sell settled.
just over 5k on that card now!

Does anyone sell stuff on eBay to help supplement your income. I do but find that the extra money i get in paypal gets spent on frivolous stuff.. eating out.. movies, etc. I suppose it does help keep me from dabbling into my main bank account..

 

[DisneyMandC]

I received my end of year tax statements for my student loans yesterday. In case anyone was wondering, I paid $9300 in interest last year. And that's with a $900/mo payment.

The good news is I'm up to 22 public service loan forgiveness payments. Only 98 to go!

 

[ilovediznee]

I am wanting to sell two particular items - my Barbie collection (still in boxes and considered collectable) and some of my Dpt. 56 Snow Village houses and accessories. My problem is that I can't find a place to sell them where I'd actually make any money! Ebay prices are rock bottom! Any ideas or suggestions?

 

[DisneyMandC]

I am wanting to sell two particular items - my Barbie collection (still in boxes and considered collectable) and some of my Dpt. 56 Snow Village houses and accessories. My problem is that I can't find a place to sell them where I'd actually make any money! Ebay prices are rock bottom! Any ideas or suggestions?

If you do find anywhere for the Barbies, let me know! I have a ton of them from when I was little.

 

[mco65]

I am wanting to sell two particular items - my Barbie collection (still in boxes and considered collectable) and some of my Dpt. 56 Snow Village houses and accessories. My problem is that I can't find a place to sell them where I'd actually make any money! Ebay prices are rock bottom! Any ideas or suggestions?

A local consignment shop (antique shop)..
You can sell your stuff on Amazon..
Craigslist
Yardsale (probably the least profitable.. most folks expect you to GIVE stuff away at a yard sale..


What i do on eBay is BIN (Buy it NOW) not an auction..
It might set for 60-90 days with no bites but many times, someone comes along looking for that specific item and buys it.. It has to be a fairly unique item.. describe it well, highlighting its uniqueness and lots of photos..

 

[Dentam]

I have had good luck using Craigslist to sell items for close to what I paid for them, as long as they are in great condition.

I am anxiously waiting on my employer to issue our W-2's so I can file my taxes. This will be the first year in a long time that I won't have to deal with the complicated forms having to do with owning a house but renting it out via a property manager. Blech! I'm so happy my taxes will be simple and straightforward again! I should be getting around 1k back and will put it toward cc debt.

Found a great deal for the remaining two nights we needed to book for our WDW trip next month. I get newsletters from Mousesavers and they had great info on extra discounts through CheapTickets. I got us a standard room at Coronado Springs for $146/night - regularly priced at $214. We had wanted to stay at POFQ but it was even more expensive. Most of the standard rooms on property were booked for the weekend due to the marathon, so I was excited to find this deal. The rest of our trip is at the Beach Club Villas via renting points, which was paid up front months ago. Also got my park hoppers using Undercover Tourist so saved some money there. Now just need to book my flight using the voucher from United that I got over Christmas for volunteering to take a later flight.

I am really looking forward to this WDW trip - we will catch the opening days of the Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot and we're also hoping that Rivers of Light might finally be up and running while we're there. I have enough in gift cards and Disney Visa redemption card rewards to pay for any small items while we're there, so I'm pretty much set. We've had a lot of gloomy and snowy days here (spent five hours shoveling snow at work the other day) so I will be VERY ready for some FL weather!

 

[dayvewc]

even better, while this is certainly fiscally prudent, it also opens up a lot of savings opportunities. relevant example. i can now use a target redcard to purchase disney gift cards at a discount and get 5% whacked off the cost of my upcoming trip. (much more information on that is available in the Disney Gift Card Deals thread). the only way such savings strategies work is if you don't burn the discount by letting the balance roll over and accrue interest.

I did it slightly different. Instead of applying for a Target Redcard Credit Card, I linked the Redcard to my checking account. So, when I buy my Disney gift cards, I save the 5%, and it is deducted out of my checking account, so I don't have to worry about paying interest fees on a credit card - I just have to have the cash in my account to begin with.

 

[DisneyMandC]

I did it slightly different. Instead of applying for a Target Redcard Credit Card, I linked the Redcard to my checking account. So, when I buy my Disney gift cards, I save the 5%, and it is deducted out of my checking account, so I don't have to worry about paying interest fees on a credit card - I just have to have the cash in my account to begin with.

I did this as well. Especially nice if you don't feel like having another hit on your credit report or anything, as we had just bought a house at the time and taken out a Lowe's credit card for 5% off on some appliances.