Debt Dumpers 2023

[barkley]

I love making big batches of cooked ground turkey which I then either season for soup/spaghetti or tacos. Obviously this could also be done with ground beef, I just prefer using turkey. Once it's cooked and cooled I portion it out and freeze it. Then I can easily take it out and throw it in the microwave to defrost in just a few minutes.

used to do this allot when we were both working and the kids were young. now i still do it for 'taco meat'-small plastic containers that i fill with taco seasoned cooked ground beef. this is a throwback to when i got fed up with too many fast food purchases. i started thinking about the most common items the kids would ask for/order and realized taco bell was at the top of the list so i started making batches of taco seasoned ground beef and keeping a supply of taco shells, flour tortillas, canned refried beans and taco sauce on hand. when i discovered the 4 packs of individual microwavable nacho cheese sauces our menu expanded to include nachos

i used to do massive batches of plain ground beef about once per month-such a time savings on work nights what with pasta sauce, sloppy joes, stuff that could be thrown into the crockpot with it in the morning...

 

[Eureka]

Happy new year everyone. Hope it’s off to a good start for you all. We got into a minor fender bender (nobody hurt) when we were away visiting relatives. In the car we had just paid off. Luckily minor (yet expensive) damage, it’s driveable until the parts come in and our deductible is only $250, so not too bad. Other than that, this month we’re enjoying the boys being home for a little while before their spring semester starts, working on paying off some holiday spending we put on the credit cards, and we just paid the first installment of spring semester tuition. January is never a fun month with the financials! But, with the turn of the new year, we’ll be paying another car off in six months and only have four years left on the mortgage, so I‘ll look forward to that.

 

[DLgal]

2023 is off to a good start here! My son (18) finally got his driver's license. I was expecting a monumental increase to our auto insurance premiums, but it was only +$155/month. I mean, it's more than a 100% increase (we were paying about $150/month for DH and I and 2 cars) , but I feel like that's not TOO bad. I've heard some crazy numbers. He doesn't qualify for the student discount anymore, so not sure how much that would have saved us, but whatever. He has agreed to pay $100/month and we will cover the rest, since he doesn't (and won't) have his own car for a quite long time. He has no job yet, but he is in the Adult Transition program for special needs students 18-22 so he isn't yet ready to find a job. Maybe this summer. He needs some more social skills training. He has a LOT of money saved up, though. He never buys anything, so he will be able to contribute his portion easily.

We also put down a deposit for DHs military retirement party in March. $500. We booked an outdoor space at a brewery with a $2500 minimum spend. Hoping the party doesn't go too far above that cost. I also have to order a cake, which I'm guessing will be about $250 or so.

DH also found out yesterday that he was accepted into the MBA program he applied to, so we are doing a happy dance about that! It will be completely free (it's a program that has a price tag of $168,000). He will actually be paid to go via the Post 9/11 GI Bill, which provides a tax free housing allowance on top of tuition, fees, and book money. Over the course of the program, just the housing allowance will be about $70,000. It's already earmarked for a house down payment.

 

[jackers]

So I mentioned in my goals that I am doing a cash budget. Only 5 days in, but I am doing absolutely fine with the budget I have set for myself and I definitely think it's going to make a huge difference in my spending this year. I'm on track to spend less than half of what I have actually budgeted for myself this week.

However, I'm struggling with the logistics of it. It's just very cumbersome and also so inconvenient compared to just swiping your card. I have set 5 separate categories for my cash budget, but many times I may use 3-4 different categories in the same transaction (food, gifts, pet, household, for example). In my previous world of tracking expenses, I would just lump things together into whatever was the prevalent category - buying at Kroger? it all went into the grocery category, even if I also bought cat food and toilet paper. But with separate cash budgets, it feels inaccurate that way. For example, I went to the store today and bought $40 of food and $20 of cat food/litter. I paid using cash from the food envelope and then moved $20 from the pet envelope over to the food envelope when I got home. It's minor, but a pain - I have enough stuff to think about without having to track that level of detail. Would it be better to just have $X total dollars for the week, without pre-assigning it to a certain budget category? I would still track the different spend categories by breaking down the receipts, but I wouldn't have to worry about pulling from the right envelope to pay for each transaction.

Maybe it just takes some getting used to but if anyone has done this and found a solid method, I'd love to hear about it.

 

[EilonwyWanderer]

I'd be nervous walking around with that much cash--I'd absolutely drop it! But I admire the technique.

What we've decided to do (and this is the first month so I'll let you know if it works!) is stop putting so many things on the credit card. We have a bunch of recurring payments on there (activities, water bill, electric bill, etc), but we've also been putting things like grocery store runs and restaurants on there. Instead we're now using our debit card so that we HAVE to watch how much we're spending. Only so much goes into our checking account, most of our take home pay stays in a money market savings account (lol what savings these days, it goes to debt most months!) so no more just going to the store and picking up whatever, we need to be more thoughtful. And no more going out to eat and putting it on the card, we need to make sure we have enough in the checking account first, which should curb a LOT of spending.

But again we're on day 5 of the new year so...let's see if it lasts!

 

[dreamer17555]

So last year I totally overspent. I own it. It was fun but now- eek. I have some digging out to do.

1.) Pay off around 10k in credit card debt. Most of this is extremely low interest or interest free but I still want it gone. Hopefully by July.

2.) Add another 5k to emergency savings. I would also like this done by the summer. August at the latest.

3.) Try to avoid any big trips to WDW. My DD is a CP and will be turning 21 in January and will be coming home in the Spring so hopefully those two quick trips will be our only WDW but it is hard not to get sucked into more!

4.) Workout 3/4 days a week. As much as I don’t love it it really does make me feel better.

 

[disney-inspired]

So I mentioned in my goals that I am doing a cash budget. Only 5 days in, but I am doing absolutely fine with the budget I have set for myself and I definitely think it's going to make a huge difference in my spending this year. I'm on track to spend less than half of what I have actually budgeted for myself this week.

However, I'm struggling with the logistics of it. It's just very cumbersome and also so inconvenient compared to just swiping your card. I have set 5 separate categories for my cash budget, but many times I may use 3-4 different categories in the same transaction (food, gifts, pet, household, for example). In my previous world of tracking expenses, I would just lump things together into whatever was the prevalent category - buying at Kroger? it all went into the grocery category, even if I also bought cat food and toilet paper. But with separate cash budgets, it feels inaccurate that way. For example, I went to the store today and bought $40 of food and $20 of cat food/litter. I paid using cash from the food envelope and then moved $20 from the pet envelope over to the food envelope when I got home. It's minor, but a pain - I have enough stuff to think about without having to track that level of detail. Would it be better to just have $X total dollars for the week, without pre-assigning it to a certain budget category? I would still track the different spend categories by breaking down the receipts, but I wouldn't have to worry about pulling from the right envelope to pay for each transaction.

Maybe it just takes some getting used to but if anyone has done this and found a solid method, I'd love to hear about it.

When I first started budgeting, I followed the all cash method and found it very inconvenient as well. Now that I'm consumer debt-free, I don't do it anymore. Some places only took card - especially since COVID. I don't have a ton of expenses or budget categories being a single person but I have created multiple sinking fund high yield savings accounts thru Capital One and whenever I need to use money from a particular fund, I just transfer it to my Cap 1 checking acct and use that debit card. The transfer is immediate and super easy to do on my phone.

At this point in my budgeting, I have surplus money so if I don't have the time, I just swipe it on my general debit card (not cap 1) or credit card and then transfer money back as needed.
Through the past several years, I learned how to use my CC responsibly so don't mind swiping and then at the end of the day, or week (depending on the amount), I just pay it off.

 

[jackers]

It’s not that much cash - my weekly budget total is $400 and I only take with me what I intend to spend. I live in a small rural community, its just not really a concern.

 

[barkley]

if you can control your spending you can try what we do for 'household expenses'-

every month the account our income direct deposits to does a direct deposit of the amount i have budgeted for household expenses to a separate account. for all these expenses i use my credit union credit card so that as i charge i can do a quick transfer from that holding account. yesterday i went grocery shopping and we grabbed a bite to eat and got some gas so today i went on-line and transferred those amounts directly to the credit card so i can look at the balance on the holding account and know where i'm at every day of the month.

 

[goofytinkerbell]

We're about a week in, so I guess I should update.

Financially:
1. Pay off my credit cards (it's not a lot, but it's debt)
- I put a bit on the card on payday. I can't pay it off yet, but it's a start. I also contacted the government and straightened out some paperwork things with them, and they say I might have a small payment coming to me. If I ever see that, I'll use it to pay on the debt.
2, Figure out a way to put some sort of extra on the mortgage, even if it's the $100 minimum
-Going to try and do #1 first
3. Get some things I NEED to have (rims/tires for the car, etc)
-Going to try and do #1 first
4. Get a savings plan going for the big stuff that comes due in one lump sum payment (insurance, property tax)
-Going to try and do #1 first

General stuff:
1. Make a will. A marriage voids your existing will, a divorce does NOT. My Dad had a heart attack recently, so this is especially important to me now.
-Not yet
2. Continue to clear out the crap. I need to go through my clothes and that sort of thing. I got a pile done in 2022, but it really wasn't enough.
-14 items gone! This will be an all-year project
3. Look for a new job. The reason nothing has been getting done is because I'm burned out from my existing job and I'm being severely underpaid for the work I do.
-Looks like there are very few job postings, probably because we've just started a new year. That should get better in a few weeks
4. Get my passport. Mine expired during covid, when we weren't allowed to cross the border anyway.
-DONE!
5. Knock some half-finished projects off the list. Everything from making a scarf to some jewelry. Lots of stuff has been started, but not finished. Enough already!
-Finished 1 item
6. Get into better shape. I'd like to say 'lose weight', but I'd be happy to be able to run up my own steps without getting winded. The weight loss may or may not come, but it's not as important.
-Did 2 workouts. Not much, but to go from nothing to 2 is progress.
7. Spend more time with loved ones. I don't see friends/family much. I guess I really need to do #3 in order to facilitate this one.
-Spent some time with friends once this week

 

[amalone1013]

2023 Goals
Letting corporate talk overflow into my personal life, each has a list of deliverables to help meet the goal And there's definitely some overlap to the goals

Reduce grocery budget and dining out spending. Grocery $350/month, Dining $400/month

• Establish meal planning routine (have one we're trying currently)
• Less stops in the grocery store - aiming for one big shop and one to two small ones for perishables mid month
• Meal planning and less shopping should mean less food waste, use what we have, not picking up random things on a whim.
• This should help with dining out too. Also, I have some monthly dining credits on my credit cards etc so I'm trying to cut the actual cash spent back. They're like an extra $150 on top of what we're actually spending.
• 2022 averages: Grocery $476/month, Dining out $457/month

Home

• Household meetings monthly to review budget, meal plan, plans for month
• Get things in order related to wills, life insurance, etc - I have a checklist
• Establish cleaning routine
• Make project list for around house and prioritize (this would include diy, organizing, purchasing decor, etc)
• Complete projects that are started or already have materials purchased for, including master closet, pantry, and stair gate/front hallway project
• Finish chrsitmas projects for next year wore ornaments on outdoor trees, personalize stockings...

Budget

• Rework based on current base incomes
• Add budget lines for baby spending and home projects based on priorities
• Barn Savings Goal (and other specifics) should come from meetings

Personal

• Be active/ lose weight - I just want to get back to feeling better, clothes fitting better. I did good at the beginning of 2020 with a reward system when I hit a goal then covid happened and I stopped. The meal planning stuff should help here too
• Meet up with friends/time for myself - I recently found out an old friend lives nearby so we want to catch up. And just some general time where I'm not hauling the baby around or have her hanging off of me

Travel Goals - I have a bunch of credit card points stashed and need to make up for the last few years

• Disneyland trip - had to cancel in 2020, plus my brother in law out there is having a second child this year
• Disney World - I know a few people going later in the year so we may plan an overlapping trip
• Couples trip for Halloween Horror Nights in September
• Couples trip to Universal this summer since we have annual passes
• Make it back to my hometown twice with the baby, either just us or DH joins us later. He just has way less pto than I do
• Family long weekends - I'd love to do one soon, and we were talking about Niagara falls this summer.
• Start to replan our cancelled 2020 Europe trip

 

[barkley]

aiming for one big shop and one to two small ones for perishables mid month

less shopping should mean less food waste,

this can make a huge difference. i had to do it out of necessity when we moved further away from stores/on roads that are ice skating rinks in the winter-i've seen big savings as a result. i have my basic produce that i always have on hand (restock maybe once every month or so)-potatoes, carrots, head of celery, red onions/sweet yellow onions all of which will last for ages in a cool, dry environment (for me-garage fridge). i've found that salad greens can have a much longer lifespan if you take them out of their packaging and put them into a gallon ziplock bag-roll the bag to push out all the air and zip shut/repeat after each use. any other veg i get at that once or twice trips per month and i end up buying less b/c i'm planning what i'm getting vs. impulse buying and having it go bad.

start eyeballing the difference between different dairy company's product's length of use. now i'm lucky to live in a state that carries a brand that is ultra pasteurized so i can get milk, sour cream and other dairy products that have best by dates quadruple the normal length (current milk on shelves is dated into march and april) but there are still differences between the store and name brands that not only yield a longer shelf life but some significant savings. you get into a rhythm where you know about how much you will use in a month and can buy accordingly-and even better, you can stock up when it's on sale and by knowing how much you can reasonably use you will save more money and reduce more waste.

have fun with the meal planning-if you've never checked it out try the yummly website b/c they have great tasty recipes that you can come up with by plugging in the ingredients you already have on hand.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

I would like to start eating at home more, and I'd like to get some ideas for stuff to eat. Especially stuff for someone who eats breakfast on the go, doesn't like to take cold sandwhiches or leftovers for lunch and eats lots of prepared/frozed foods (microwave pizzas, frozen chicken patties, pasta, etc). I know there used to be a eat at home thread I would get ideas off of from time to time. But I'm not sure what happened to it. Too bad we can't start another. I think it would give people ideas and help save them some money.

 

[afan]

Too bad we can't start another. I think it would give people ideas and help save them some money.

All you have to do is start a new one here or on the community board, if they don't have something like that.

 

[DLgal]

I would like to start eating at home more, and I'd like to get some ideas for stuff to eat. Especially stuff for someone who eats breakfast on the go, doesn't like to take cold sandwhiches or leftovers for lunch and eats lots of prepared/frozed foods (microwave pizzas, frozen chicken patties, pasta, etc). I know there used to be a eat at home thread I would get ideas off of from time to time. But I'm not sure what happened to it. Too bad we can't start another. I think it would give people ideas and help save them some money.

You can start by making those convenience foods homemade. Homemade chicken cutlets, pizza on naan bread or bagels, etc. Just make the things you buy prepared from scratch.

 

[barkley]

I would like to start eating at home more, and I'd like to get some ideas for stuff to eat. Especially stuff for someone who eats breakfast on the go, doesn't like to take cold sandwhiches or leftovers for lunch and eats lots of prepared/frozed foods (microwave pizzas, frozen chicken patties, pasta, etc).

think of the stuff you are most prone to grab and go for breakfast-so much as buying a pack of frozen breakfast burritos vs. buying them individually at a fast food or cafe is a huge savings, get a pack of bagels, pre-slice them and put them back in the bag to be able to grab and quickly toast and apply a topping in the morning.

lunches same thing-what are you apt to buy to eat? like nice salads? grill up some chicken breasts or steak, slice it up and container it in the fridge. do the same with cans of whatever you like on a salad (for me it's beets, artichoke hearts, asparagus and kidney beans), boil and pre-peel some eggs to ziplock bag, get one of those plastic containers of salad greens-takes less than 5 minutes to make a great salad the night before to take with you (dollar store sells packs of disposable containers perfect for salad dressing, heck they sell packs of small individual serving containers of olive garden dressing as well).

costco is a great resource for individual microwave stuff at a good price to nuke at work-chicken patties/strips, pasta bowls, their chicken ramen soup are great! they have burrito bowls in multi packs in the deli section as well as very good chicken salad w/pecans and crasins (similar to what arbys sells on a roll for much more per unit). some of the prepared stuff you cook in their meat department works well to break down into individual meals-their stuffed bell peppers run about $22 for 6 so that's less than $4 per meal, you could get many meals out of their chicken alfredo (and freeze in containers for future lunches). i had a neighbor who would buy a rotisserie chicken and put on top of frozen veggies to heat in a wrap, eat in a bowl, shred with bbq sauce on a roll-one $5 chicken fed him for a full work week.

 

[jen7233]

January check in post-holidays, which I'm glad are over. Not that we went anywhere or spent much at all on holidays, I just wasn't feeling it and it was actually just a difficult time in general for me, glad it's over. I am feeling better. On the money topic, I may start my spending tracker back up before the month of January leaves and feels too far behind. We bought a house recently in this higher interest rate market, so housing costs actually went up for us and I think I'll get my tracker started. I believe it'll be about six months to sort of let all the expenses of switching housing flush out, and be familiar with the new costs.

I've been extremely busy, and recently started a different job with my same organization. This one has potential for promotion with it being a career ladder position, whereas my last one there was no more promotion potential, although so far I'm not sure I enjoy it any better than the one I previously was doing. I'll see how it goes with time. One Orlando trip is planned for summer.

 

[zebrastreyepz]

I think I was in the 2022 thread and went off the rails.

But 2023 is going to be different because there have been a lot of changes around here.

I have a budget laid out for the year...for every paycheck. We have assignments for all overtime, bonus money, and tax refund money which is debt freedom.

I have 12 goals altogether:

1. Lose 50 pounds
2. Reduce debt by $15,000
3. Teach 1 cardmaking class
4. Complete 48 new scrapbook pages
5. Finish editing four books from my friend's back catalog
6. Edit four new books for her this year
7. Complete my first book series, which means completing one book
8. Complete my second series, which means writing four books
9. Stick to the budget
10. Organize my scrapbooks and get completed pages into albums
11. Produce content for all four blogs consistently
12. Read and review 48 books

 

[megveg]

Update for first paycheck of 2023:
Paid off my Amex, wont be using it again until im back in WDW for food
Amazon card also paid off
All CCs with a balance are at even amounts and I have a payment chart to get them all paid off by (hopefully) July except for Lasik card which will be by December most likely.
As soon as W2s arrive, any refund will be split to lower all CC balances.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

think of the stuff you are most prone to grab and go for breakfast-so much as buying a pack of frozen breakfast burritos vs. buying them individually at a fast food or cafe is a huge savings, get a pack of bagels, pre-slice them and put them back in the bag to be able to grab and quickly toast and apply a topping in the morning.

lunches same thing-what are you apt to buy to eat? like nice salads? grill up some chicken breasts or steak, slice it up and container it in the fridge. do the same with cans of whatever you like on a salad (for me it's beets, artichoke hearts, asparagus and kidney beans), boil and pre-peel some eggs to ziplock bag, get one of those plastic containers of salad greens-takes less than 5 minutes to make a great salad the night before to take with you (dollar store sells packs of disposable containers perfect for salad dressing, heck they sell packs of small individual serving containers of olive garden dressing as well).

costco is a great resource for individual microwave stuff at a good price to nuke at work-chicken patties/strips, pasta bowls, their chicken ramen soup are great! they have burrito bowls in multi packs in the deli section as well as very good chicken salad w/pecans and crasins (similar to what arbys sells on a roll for much more per unit). some of the prepared stuff you cook in their meat department works well to break down into individual meals-their stuffed bell peppers run about $22 for 6 so that's less than $4 per meal, you could get many meals out of their chicken alfredo (and freeze in containers for future lunches). i had a neighbor who would buy a rotisserie chicken and put on top of frozen veggies to heat in a wrap, eat in a bowl, shred with bbq sauce on a roll-one $5 chicken fed him for a full work week.

Thanks for these tips.

We have started buying canned chicken for anything that calls for chicken. I don't like raw chicken anywhere in the house. I can deal with raw steak and HB medat becuase I can tell when it's cooked well enough (it's no longer red, haha). I eat lots of red meat. Basically every other meal. I would like to try salmon, but I don't think there's anywhere to get fresh fish here. Again, I'm afraid to cook it because I don't know how to cook it, and I don't want to undercook it (same reason we won't handle raw chicken in the house).

I tried to buy prepackaged salads, but they'd always go bad before I could eat them all. My wife doesn't eat anything green, so it's just me for veggies. I buy the frozen bags of veggies, but I end up throwing most of it away as I can't eat a bag myself. And I can't rewarm it since it's been cooked (at the factory) and warmed (by me in the microwave) already. So I feel those are a waste of money.

Anyway, as I said I'd like to see a thread. I don't want to start it becuase I don't want to get in trouble if there's already one out there that I can't find. But thaks for the tips. Will continue to go onlin for ideas.