Debt Dumpers - 2017

[ruadisneyfan2]

October was our 21st anniversary. I think in the beginning we exchanged cards and went out to dinner. Now we just go out to dinner. For our wedding gift to each other we quit smoking.

I used to stress about Christmas, charge half the stuff, until I found this thread. Now I funnel my snowball for 2-3 months in the summer so come Oct I am ready. It is so stress free now! It took a year or two of paying down debt for my snowball to grow to a decent size so as to not derail me too long from my debt pay down.
For birthdays, we spend around $100 and go out to dinner.

 

[amalone1013]

@dayvewc I'm sorry for your loss.

Also, and this is really exciting, my boyfriend proposed to me while we were in Animal Kingdom last Tuesday! We haven't figured out dates or locations or anything, but we have decided we want to get married in 2018 - so that means we need to save/pay for a lot of wedding things in 2017.

Congrats! Beware when people hear the word wedding, they get dollar signs in their eyes! But I think staying on top of wedding costs and your trip costs is a great goal for the year. DF and I probably had around $65k in student loans combined when we got engaged, and I didn't want to take on debt for a wedding, but didn't want to wait forever, so we balanced what we could save each month with our budget (though now thanks to family drama we've ended up waiting about 2.5 years, but that's a different story...)

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.

I would also recommend YNAB. It's great! After the first few months while you tweak everything, it's just set and go... and you can play with the next month pretty easily too.

I am anxiously waiting on my employer to issue our W-2's so I can file my taxes.

Me too... mine comes electronically and it looks like last year it came Jan 20th. I'm anxious to do my taxes because I ended up making twice as much as I did last year, and I want to see if I need to tweak my W-4 for this year ASAP. I'm also waiting for my 3% cost of living raise (you're in Denver, right? Me too!) but ours doesn't come until April. I'm impatient lol.

My husband and I each set up a wishlist on Amazon with items in different price ranges from under $5 (used books and movies) to around $100.

I love this idea. I hate when people ask what I want for Christmas lol.

 

[amalone1013]

I almost dropped around $350 on a flight this week but ended up dodging that bullet, in a way... We're going to WDW for a long weekend at the end of the month, and I was thinking of tagging on a visit to my grandpa in Phoenix. I was going to go DEN>PHX>MCO or vice versa, but it wasn't the best time for him. Golf tournaments are very important Instead I'll look at going over a weekend in February. I was surprised how cheap it is to fly between Denver and Phoenix. Even at a week out, you could get a ticket for $40-$50 one way (it was the PHX>MCO that was killing me). Now it should be more like $90 roundtrip when I figure out when I'm going.

In other news, our DVC rental for our honeymoon came through yesterday. I'm hoping it will code as travel on my credit card because I have around $500 in points to use. If it doesn't it's not the end of the world, but I'm having trouble finding another place to use that $500 - I'd say room charges, but I've already picked up a good chunk of our dining budget via discounted Disney gift cards... We're doing a 3 night cruise, if I use it to pay on board charges that should code as travel? We're first-time cruisers lol. Otherwise, I guess we could save it for our next vacation... How awful - it would be just terrible if we used it towards, say, a quick/random WDW trip sometime in the next year... Especially as we got APs due to going this month and then for 12 days in September...

Overall, our budget is pretty on track for the month except for two places - eating out and DF's gas budget. We uh, started strong in the month eating out, due to a sick puppy... She had an infected uterus and had to have it removed. We didn't have to pay that surgery bill since it is technically DF's parents' dog, but we picked up dinner the first two nights when she needed to be watched to first, make sure she made it, and second, to make sure she wasn't leaping over the back of the couch. Dogs lol. Friday is our 5th dating anniversary, and we always go to Olive Garden, which is where we went on our first date (and to Beauty and the Beast in 3D ). We have a gift card from Christmas, but it'll probably eat up most of the rest of the eating out budget. So my goal is to eat in the rest of the nights until next Friday when we leave for WDW. We're going to have to bump up DF's gas budget, because gas prices have gone up a little here and he works in sales, and he's got some things going he has to go by and check on He was about 90% through his amount after he filled up on the 17th. Hopefully, it goes well for him and he'll get paid back in commissions

 

[fallonkendra]

Thank you everyone for your words of congratulations!

Now that my fiance and I have agreed on the wedding we want, I don't see myself coming ahead at all this year - our wedding is going to cost a little more than we thought it would...

Here's the breakdown of things:

I have 3 credit cards: one of them has a balance of $0, one of them has a credit (I had booked an expensive tour for our last WDW trip, had the credit card paid off and then cancelled the tour) - so I've been trying to charge things to that card to bring it back to a zero balance (and since I've previously paid off the tour, it's like found money!), credit card #3 has a balance of about $2500 owing.

I also have 2 lines of credit, with a balance owing of a little over $18,000.

I have a decent emergency fund of about $6000. We will probably dip into this a little for wedding costs, but I have insisted it remains above $5000 at all times. I have also saved a decent amount to cover our DVC rental for our trip next January, but it's still not enough to cover it completely (especially when you factor in the terrible exchange rate).

We did the math, and it actually makes sense for me to buy a Premier Pass for Disney - the one that is valid in both Florida and California. It's crazy expensive, but with a trip to DLR next week, another one in November and then our WDW trip in early January, we'll come out ahead in the long run. Unfortunately I now have a $1500USD charge to put on my credit card next week (which is about $2000CAD). We are only buying one, since it is cheaper to just buy tickets for my fiance, but the annual pass will work out because of the Photopass pictures and food/merch discounts.

I think this is the year we try to create good habits when it comes to our money, but just accept the fact that we will be a little farther behind by the end of the year. But hopefully with good habits in place, we can crush 2018!

Luckily, my fiance and I don't buy each other presents for Christmas, birthdays, anniversarys, etc. We always take a trip in January, so we don't need the added costs of Christmas. Both of us have birthdays in January as well, so we call our vacations our birthday trips (my birthday was a day after returning from WDW, so we went for lunch at Olive Garden but kept it cheap). We actually fly to California on Luke's birthday, so I told him that's his birthday celebration haha. We do the same thing every year for our anniversary - go for supper at the hipster pub we had our first date at (the food is amazing!) and then go to Stars on Ice (yes, figure skating. It's always here the week of our anniversary, so it just works - plus both of us enjoy watching pretty much any sport). We're going to get our family on board with no presents for Christmas next year, since we are planning a destination wedding and everyone will be paying enough just to come with us.

 

[Dentam]

Me too... mine comes electronically and it looks like last year it came Jan 20th. I'm anxious to do my taxes because I ended up making twice as much as I did last year, and I want to see if I need to tweak my W-4 for this year ASAP. I'm also waiting for my 3% cost of living raise (you're in Denver, right? Me too!) but ours doesn't come until April. I'm impatient lol.

Yes, I'm in Denver - the cost of living raises are definitely appreciated with the cost of living here! We just got an email that our W-2's are ready to be picked up - woohoo!

 

[Eureka]

We don't do anniversary gifts. Some years when schedules align (our anniversary is in August), my parents stay with the kids and we take a weekend away. Other times, we just go for dinner together. We'd rather do things or go to a nice restaurant than buy stuff for each other. That said, this year is 20 years and I'm thinking I might want to get an anniversary band.

 

[Eureka]

Yes, I'm in Denver - the cost of living raises are definitely appreciated with the cost of living here! We just got an email that our W-2's are ready to be picked up - woohoo!

Our tax stuff is slowly trickling in. This year will be crazy for my part of it....two different full time jobs, unemployment (luckily I had them take out federal taxes) and some freelance work.

 

[disneyduonj]

UPDATE: Leaving for WDW on Sunday. First time. Been planning for a year and a half. Flight, hotel, and tickets all paid for with CC points. Even some spending money on points and from checking account sign up bonuses.

My goals this year are to increase my savings to 3 months emergency fund and seeing how I do spending less as I will have to pay private school tuition next fall for my daughter. If I can after getting my emergency funder fully funded pay down more on my home equity loan.

I was so inspired by this board that I thought I would put money in savings AND have a nice spending budget in Disney this month but it looks like there are so many things I keep overlooking that I won't be putting much in savings this month....but I have no CC debt so it's all good. There is always next month. I have over $1200 in checking account bonuses coming to me in the next month or so that will definitely more thsn make up for it.

 

[Dentam]

UPDATE: Leaving for WDW on Sunday. First time. Been planning for a year and a half. Flight, hotel, and tickets all paid for with CC points. Even some spending money on points and from checking account sign up bonuses.

Have a fabulous time!!

 

[Tygerlilly]

Well, our original tax plan was to take $1000 and put it as a down payment on a second vehicle. Well, after talking to a few places, payments on it would be $400 a month thanks to our crap credit scores.

So, after some debating and pro/con lists, we decided to take $1500 of it instead and buy him a run-it-til-you-kill-it work car instead. No monthly payments and it will be 100% ours immediately! I feel a million times better about this plan, even if it means paying more up front.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

In other news, our DVC rental for our honeymoon came through yesterday. I'm hoping it will code as travel on my credit card because I have around $500 in points to use. If it doesn't it's not the end of the world, but I'm having trouble finding another place to use that $500 - I'd say room charges, but I've already picked up a good chunk of our dining budget via discounted Disney gift cards... We're doing a 3 night cruise, if I use it to pay on board charges that should code as travel? We're first-time cruisers lol. Otherwise, I guess we could save it for our next vacation... How awful - it would be just terrible if we used it towards, say, a quick/random WDW trip sometime in the next year... Especially as we got APs due to going this month and then for 12 days in September...

I just double checked our statement from our Disney cruise last August. Our stateroom account charges did count as travel on my Chase Sapphire Preferred card.
Even though cruising is technically "all-inclusive" there are always opportunities to spend more money: photos, wine, excursions, spa/massages and just about all cruise lines recommend or automatically add gratuities at the end. The first time we left dinner with no tip on the table it felt weird but really you save it all up and give it the last night. You get used to it.
$500 is real easy to blow while cruising. Have no fear that you will be stuck with points.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I'm with you... 2017 is going to be _the_ year, I can feel it. :3

OMG! I see the Norwegian Fjords cruise in your ticker. I wanted to do that cruise soooo bad. I would have even taken a hiatus from debt dumping to do it. Alas, June 4 is while ds16 will be prepping for final exams. He told me on our last cruise that after he graduates he would like to do all the cruises that school prevented us from sailing. He's such a lovey.
I'm hoping maybe 2018 they will offer it for more than 1 sailing or make it after the school year ends. I will be all over it.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Thank you everyone for your words of congratulations!

Now that my fiance and I have agreed on the wedding we want, I don't see myself coming ahead at all this year - our wedding is going to cost a little more than we thought it would...

Here's the breakdown of things:

I have 3 credit cards: one of them has a balance of $0, one of them has a credit (I had booked an expensive tour for our last WDW trip, had the credit card paid off and then cancelled the tour) - so I've been trying to charge things to that card to bring it back to a zero balance (and since I've previously paid off the tour, it's like found money!), credit card #3 has a balance of about $2500 owing.

I also have 2 lines of credit, with a balance owing of a little over $18,000.

I have a decent emergency fund of about $6000. We will probably dip into this a little for wedding costs, but I have insisted it remains above $5000 at all times. I have also saved a decent amount to cover our DVC rental for our trip next January, but it's still not enough to cover it completely (especially when you factor in the terrible exchange rate).

We did the math, and it actually makes sense for me to buy a Premier Pass for Disney - the one that is valid in both Florida and California. It's crazy expensive, but with a trip to DLR next week, another one in November and then our WDW trip in early January, we'll come out ahead in the long run. Unfortunately I now have a $1500USD charge to put on my credit card next week (which is about $2000CAD). We are only buying one, since it is cheaper to just buy tickets for my fiance, but the annual pass will work out because of the Photopass pictures and food/merch discounts.

I think this is the year we try to create good habits when it comes to our money, but just accept the fact that we will be a little farther behind by the end of the year. But hopefully with good habits in place, we can crush 2018!

Luckily, my fiance and I don't buy each other presents for Christmas, birthdays, anniversarys, etc. We always take a trip in January, so we don't need the added costs of Christmas. Both of us have birthdays in January as well, so we call our vacations our birthday trips (my birthday was a day after returning from WDW, so we went for lunch at Olive Garden but kept it cheap). We actually fly to California on Luke's birthday, so I told him that's his birthday celebration haha. We do the same thing every year for our anniversary - go for supper at the hipster pub we had our first date at (the food is amazing!) and then go to Stars on Ice (yes, figure skating. It's always here the week of our anniversary, so it just works - plus both of us enjoy watching pretty much any sport). We're going to get our family on board with no presents for Christmas next year, since we are planning a destination wedding and everyone will be paying enough just to come with us.

You can call the bank and ask them to mail you a check. No need to try to keep spending.

 

[hmack]

just checking in to keep myself accountable.

The good (sort of) - DH and I decided to Christmas this past year - we would buy each other new laptops. We put them on a previously unused Best Buy CC with 0% until July. We are committed to paying it off before July so the interest doesn't all hit. I had a bit of money left over after paying bills this morning and decided to put the extra on there instead of keeping it in the 'slush/entertainment' fund.

The part that makes me anxious - my kids are normally super healthy but last weekend we had to call the ambulance for one kid who just passed out for no apparent reason (she's fine it was just a weird random thing, she just drank some really cold water really fast and her bp dropped and her body shut down - I didn't even know that could happen. Apparently it's called a vasovagal reflex). And my younger started PT yesterday because apparently my 17 y.o. has the hips of a 90 year old). any way - I'm waiting for the medical bills to start rolling in. And of course this all happened after I bought new glasses and drained my health savings account of about $225.00 and I was down to having only $150 left on a medical bill I've been paying down for 2 years. I know I can work out a new payment plan, it just stinks to have new medical debt. But - I know that it could be much worse.

The discipline of the process is harder than I thought it would be. But reading all of your posts and the sense of community on this thread really helps.

UPDATE: Leaving for WDW on Sunday. First time. Been planning for a year and a half. Flight, hotel, and tickets all paid for with CC points. Even some spending money on points and from checking account sign up bonuses.

- Have a wonderful time. I'm so excited for you!!!

 

[mrsabbott]

Joining in because I really hope that 2017 will be OUR YEAR of tackling debt! It is actually my year of minimizing! I want to minimize debt, minimize clutter, and minimize stress!

The good: Hubs got promoted at work last year and the increase in pay allowed us to actually GET CAUGHT UP on all of our late bills! It took awhile, but we did it! We are now in a position where we can, hopefully, start to pay off some debt.

We are also going to get back some money from our taxes (although, not quite as much since Hubs raise also bumped us up to a different tax bracket, I think) so we should be able to pay off one of our credit cards.

My job, which doesn't pay a ton but is decent, allows me to still work and be on the kids' school schedules.. so if they are off school, I am off work. It is pretty great because I don't have to worry about child care.

The bad: We are also going to have to replace our dishwasher and dryer with some our tax money, so not quite as much debt payment will be happening.

While Hubs is doing AMAZING in his new position, they are restructuring the company and there is a possibility that they may do away with his position. They have already cut some of his overtime and his monthly bonuses. We just don't know what is going to happen, so he is currently applying for new positions.

We also have some car and home repair issues that will need to be taken care of this year. Nothing too serious, but still somewhat pricey. We will do them as we can afford them.

It looks like we won't be taking a vacation this year, although we do have some small trips planned as a family.. (a night at GWL was a Christmas gift this year, family reunion at Jellystone Campground, and possibly a trip to a local amusement park).

The plan: I am determined NOT to buy anything extra that we don't need. I have plenty of clothes and shoes to get me by and will only buy for the kids what they absolutely NEED. Hoping for several no spend days, if possible. I plan to stick with my budget. I always make a grocery list but I plan to stick with it and not go over my budgeted amount. We will not be eating out or ordering pizza at all.

I have a separate account that I plan to put money in as I can so that it will not be touched! It may be $20 a week, maybe more.

We are hoping to pay off our smaller CC's this year. We have 3 small ones. We also have several that are a little more (1-2k) and 2 that have very large balances. Since our initial get out of debt journey, we have paid off our vehicles and several high interest loans and a few small credit cards. I am now focused on snowballing our credit card debt!

Please wish me luck! My husband is on board so hopefully this will be the year that we get a handle on our debt!

 

[Dentam]

Good luck @mrsabbott and welcome to the thread! It sounds like you have some great goals for the year and the determination to see them through!

 

[mco65]

Good luck @mrsabbott
Checking this forum Daily could be the motivation you need to stay the course!

 

[dayvewc]

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who expressed their sympathies. I have been an emotional wreck the past 2 weeks, and don't really see it getting a whole lot better anytime soon, but I know it will.

Random comment: I started my grad class this week. I'm not super happy with the online format, but it is what it is. The first assignment is always to post an introduction in the discussion board so we can all learn about each other. Under my personal information, I wrote that I had been suffering from a debilitating illness after being bitten by a rodent several years ago. The symptoms of the infection include an undeniable desire to travel to Florida, which is why spring break will see me, again, in Walt Disney World. (I also let them know that I don't take anything seriously).

The plan: I am determined NOT to buy anything extra that we don't need. I have plenty of clothes and shoes to get me by and will only buy for the kids what they absolutely NEED. Hoping for several no spend days, if possible. I plan to stick with my budget. I always make a grocery list but I plan to stick with it and not go over my budgeted amount. We will not be eating out or ordering pizza at all.

This reminded me of my sister. She has a refrigerator magnet that she lives by. It says "If the shoe fits, buy one in every color". We tease her about that periodically.

 

[mco65]

Clothes are something else.. I only have/keep and buy what I need and i don't need much. My wife on the other hand is out of control (IMO). I will never understand her affinity with clothes and shoes.. but then again she does NOT understand my affinity for baseball cards so there ya go!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Clothes are something else.. I only have/keep and buy what I need and i don't need much. My wife on the other hand is out of control (IMO). I will never understand her affinity with clothes and shoes.. but then again she does NOT understand my affinity for baseball cards so there ya go!

We all have things that we are passionate about. Mine is travel. I do own a pair of dressy shoes but they're years old. I only wear them a few hours per year.