Debt Dumpers - 2013

[AlohaNow]

I got some very unexpected yet fabulous online deals on Black Friday. Things I was planning on buying for people anyway, so that worked out well! I just spent a bit of that morning online before going out with the family to cut down our Christmas tree. We brought home a 14’ tree! It didn’t look 14’ out in the forest or on top of the mini-SUV! We had to cut it down to 12’ to fit the vaulted ceiling in the living room. Talk about a bargain…..the forest service permit to cut was only $10! I think we have a new Colorado holiday tradition here……

We have managed to not charge a single Christmas gift thus far. A poster above spoke these words “I'm amazed at how much progress we make when we make a conscious effort to get rid of it all.” So true. Not adding any new debt is an absolute priority for us now. In fact, we don’t have the cash for a mattress set for our empty guest room, so our holiday houseguests will get the master suite and we will sleep on air mattresses in the guest room. When DH complains about this, I will simply say that we are sleeping on the floor in an otherwise empty room because we have spent a lot of money that we did not actually have. This is our reality. Hopefully this will be a real wake-up call!

We are not sending out cards this year either. We’ll do a photo card every other year because people do like seeing the boys, but I have found that the world does not end if you don’t send out holiday cards! I’ve been whipping up fudge like crazy and plan to start on some cookies this weekend. This is some holiday fun for me, rather than a chore. I love the December baking frenzy!

DH thinks it is funny that I come onto a message board regarding budgeting and debt dumping that has constant ads for Disney trips. Gee……can you define irony?

Hope everyone is having a happy holiday season! Bring on the 2014 board!

 

[disney-inspired]

I've been absent from the boards for quite some time but I had to update:
2/4 credit cards are paid off!



I was working full-time for about a month so I had a nice little cushion. I even had extra money to buy myself a xbox 360 bundle on Black Friday (got the console, kinect, and 8-9 games for $300!). It's great because now we can play Just Dance at home again

I'm back to working part-time but I'm in a good place, financially.

 

[Eureka]

I've been absent from the boards for quite some time but I had to update:
2/4 credit cards are paid off!



I was working full-time for about a month so I had a nice little cushion. I even had extra money to buy myself a xbox 360 bundle on Black Friday (got the console, kinect, and 8-9 games for $300!). It's great because now we can play Just Dance at home again

I'm back to working part-time but I'm in a good place, financially.

Great job!

 

[gracie1]

I got some very unexpected yet fabulous online deals on Black Friday. Things I was planning on buying for people anyway, so that worked out well! I just spent a bit of that morning online before going out with the family to cut down our Christmas tree. We brought home a 14’ tree! It didn’t look 14’ out in the forest or on top of the mini-SUV! We had to cut it down to 12’ to fit the vaulted ceiling in the living room. Talk about a bargain…..the forest service permit to cut was only $10! I think we have a new Colorado holiday tradition here…… We have managed to not charge a single Christmas gift thus far. A poster above spoke these words “I'm amazed at how much progress we make when we make a conscious effort to get rid of it all.” So true. Not adding any new debt is an absolute priority for us now. In fact, we don’t have the cash for a mattress set for our empty guest room, so our holiday houseguests will get the master suite and we will sleep on air mattresses in the guest room. When DH complains about this, I will simply say that we are sleeping on the floor in an otherwise empty room because we have spent a lot of money that we did not actually have. This is our reality. Hopefully this will be a real wake-up call! We are not sending out cards this year either. We’ll do a photo card every other year because people do like seeing the boys, but I have found that the world does not end if you don’t send out holiday cards! I’ve been whipping up fudge like crazy and plan to start on some cookies this weekend. This is some holiday fun for me, rather than a chore. I love the December baking frenzy! DH thinks it is funny that I come onto a message board regarding budgeting and debt dumping that has constant ads for Disney trips. Gee……can you define irony? Hope everyone is having a happy holiday season! Bring on the 2014 board!

Great job on getting those deals for Christmas without going into additional debt! It feels great to do that!!

 

[ceemys]

Hi Guys!! It's been a long time since I've posted. I have been super duper busy. I am loving my new home and I am loving the space I have. My boyfriend and I have gotten closer while I was on vacation. Things are looking up! My 6.5 foot Christmas tree is looking puny in my 9 foot ceilings. lol I put my LR furniture on credit and this is my first bill in a year! But I will have it paid off by January. My kids know that Christmas is going to be slim this year. But it's OK...we have our house!! I haven't had a chance to look through any posts, this is my first time on the DIS since before I moved. Hope everyone is moving forward one step at a time. If anyone has had any setback...big hugs!!
Here is a photo of my house. It's on the corner of a court. SO nice! Sorry....I don't know how to make it smaller.

 

[momof2gr8kids]

Hi Guys!! It's been a long time since I've posted. I have been super duper busy. I am loving my new home and I am loving the space I have. My boyfriend and I have gotten closer while I was on vacation. Things are looking up! My 6.5 foot Christmas tree is looking puny in my 9 foot ceilings. lol I put my LR furniture on credit and this is my first bill in a year! But I will have it paid off by January. My kids know that Christmas is going to be slim this year. But it's OK...we have our house!! I haven't had a chance to look through any posts, this is my first time on the DIS since before I moved. Hope everyone is moving forward one step at a time. If anyone has had any setback...big hugs!!
Here is a photo of my house. It's on the corner of a court. SO nice! Sorry....I don't know how to make it smaller.

Wow!! Congrats. What a wonderful Christmas your family will have in your new house!

OK, I wanna get this debt paid off now and buy a brand new house! LOL

 

[momof2gr8kids]

Are we going to start a new 2014 thread or just continue on this one?

I think we should start a new one, but at the end of the year we should all post on this one how much we paid onto our debt, and maybe what we could've done with that money if it wasn't going towards debt. Make us go AKKKK! LOL

 

[AlohaNow]

ceemys - WOW! Congratulations! I seriously got a little tear in the corner of my eye when I saw the photo of your fabulous new house after following your journey. What a great gift you have given yourself and your girls. Just stick a big red bow on it and call it Christmas!!!

You are an inspiration! Everyone on this board should look at this photo and think, "This can be done." Every. Little. Bit. Counts. and it can all add up to a house! Congrats again!!!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Hi Guys!! It's been a long time since I've posted. I have been super duper busy. I am loving my new home and I am loving the space I have. My boyfriend and I have gotten closer while I was on vacation. Things are looking up! My 6.5 foot Christmas tree is looking puny in my 9 foot ceilings. lol I put my LR furniture on credit and this is my first bill in a year! But I will have it paid off by January. My kids know that Christmas is going to be slim this year. But it's OK...we have our house!! I haven't had a chance to look through any posts, this is my first time on the DIS since before I moved. Hope everyone is moving forward one step at a time. If anyone has had any setback...big hugs!!
Here is a photo of my house. It's on the corner of a court. SO nice! Sorry....I don't know how to make it smaller.

Hey that's great! Congratulations!!
What a great reward for your family for all your hard work & sacrifice.

I think we should start a new one, but at the end of the year we should all post on this one how much we paid onto our debt, and maybe what we could've done with that money if it wasn't going towards debt. Make us go AKKKK! LOL

Great idea! We can make it a contest. The winner gets pixie dust from everyone onboard. lol!

 

[gracie1]

Hi Guys!! It's been a long time since I've posted. I have been super duper busy. I am loving my new home and I am loving the space I have. My boyfriend and I have gotten closer while I was on vacation. Things are looking up! My 6.5 foot Christmas tree is looking puny in my 9 foot ceilings. lol I put my LR furniture on credit and this is my first bill in a year! But I will have it paid off by January. My kids know that Christmas is going to be slim this year. But it's OK...we have our house!! I haven't had a chance to look through any posts, this is my first time on the DIS since before I moved. Hope everyone is moving forward one step at a time. If anyone has had any setback...big hugs!! Here is a photo of my house. It's on the corner of a court. SO nice! Sorry....I don't know how to make it smaller. http://s67.photobucket.com/user/ceemys67/media/Mobile Uploads/image.jpg.html

Your house is beautiful!! I want to see inside pics! You should be so proud of yourself - the journey you took to achieve this goal is fantastic! I know the kids have to be loving it!

 

[Deffenm]

Congrats on the beautiful house.

I would like to see a new thread for 2014. We made great progress in 2013 but still have a ways to go so would like to keep going for 2014.

 

[Eureka]

I think we should start a new one, but at the end of the year we should all post on this one how much we paid onto our debt, and maybe what we could've done with that money if it wasn't going towards debt. Make us go AKKKK! LOL

I haven't really kept track, I just keep paying the bills, you know? So I would not be interested in making it a contest. Just my two cents.

Edited to add, never mind. Just saw the pixie dust part...I thought it was going to be a real contest. Carry on...lol.

 

[momof2gr8kids]

I haven't really kept track, I just keep paying the bills, you know? So I would not be interested in making it a contest. Just my two cents.

Edited to add, never mind. Just saw the pixie dust part...I thought it was going to be a real contest. Carry on...lol.

I didn't mean as a contest - everyone's income is different so someone putting $1000 towards debt is as much of an achievement as someone else putting $10,000, kwim?

It was more for an eye opener. Like I give my dh all the time. LOL. We want new kitchen cupboards, but can't afford them. But, if we didn't have the debt, that money could've been put towards that and paid for. KWIM? Or a disney trip. LOL

 

[yupikgal]

Hi everyone, I haven't been posting on here, but I am continuing in the struggle to get out of debt. I have my moments of weakness, but all in all, have my eye on the prize! On a good note, I just paid $540 on our Sears bill, $996 to go! That is our smallest cc balance, with the largest interest rate. It was one of those that was 0% up until a certain date, and that date came and went quicker than ever. I am planning on paying it off by February, then I start with Discover. I have already been paying $50 more towards the Discover bill, but until the Sears bill is paid off, I will continue to add just that much extra. The Discover will be a longer payoff time, but nonetheless, I plan on throwing everything I can towards it. I can't wait to have the feeling of debt free!

We've done good with our Christmas shopping, I've paid everything with our debit card, therefore it comes out of our checking account, no charges. My DH is the only one who just charged something on our main credit union Visa, but I plan on having him pay that off before they charge interest on it.

We have one car loan with a small interest rate/payment, and will likely just pay the minimum on that until it's paid off, in order to pay off the much higher cc bills first. We purposely got an older truck with low miles. Once we leave here (moved here just to boost our retirement, we leave in 7+ years) the truck will be paid off, and then the sale of it will be total profit that we can add to our savings.

I know that we will be doing some vacations while we are here, it's a remote part of Alaska that is mostly cold, windy & isolated, but I will use miles + take advantage of some great deals that Alaska Airlines posts at times. For those trips, I will have a separate fund that I am adding to. We need to keep our sanity at the same time getting out of debt!

One major thing that is going to help a LOT is that we own a house where we lived before (different part of Alaska) our two grown kids and our daughter's boyfriend live there, we are still paying the mortgage & utilities on that (they pay a minimal flat fee for rent) but we plan on fixing it up and selling it, hopefully by fall. That will put about $2000 back into our pockets per month (including utilities) which will help a LOT on getting us debt free!! We figured in 5 years, it will save us $96,000, not including utilities, so that means it would be over $100,000 savings!! Since most of Alaska is remote and we have to fly there to get it done, we will have to go through a realtor to have them show/sell it, but it won't be ready for doing that until late summer, because we have to do the repairs/updates as we can, when we fly in, I'm going there for about a week at the end of May, my husband flies in for his job, he has meetings in April, he will either tack on days before or after his meetings, so he can start doing some things too. We are going to paint, repair/replace some things, etc. but that also requires us to get the kids out of there and into a place of their own, they have been warned! The goal is for them to be out by July.

 

[OhMari]

Hi Guys!! It's been a long time since I've posted. I have been super duper busy. I am loving my new home and I am loving the space I have. My boyfriend and I have gotten closer while I was on vacation. Things are looking up! My 6.5 foot Christmas tree is looking puny in my 9 foot ceilings. lol I put my LR furniture on credit and this is my first bill in a year! But I will have it paid off by January. My kids know that Christmas is going to be slim this year. But it's OK...we have our house!! I haven't had a chance to look through any posts, this is my first time on the DIS since before I moved. Hope everyone is moving forward one step at a time. If anyone has had any setback...big hugs!!
Here is a photo of my house. It's on the corner of a court. SO nice! Sorry....I don't know how to make it smaller.

Congratulations-You definitely need new furniture with a new house. Way to go.

Hi everyone, I haven't been posting on here, but I am continuing in the struggle to get out of debt. I have my moments of weakness, but all in all, have my eye on the prize! On a good note, I just paid $540 on our Sears bill, $996 to go! That is our smallest cc balance, with the largest interest rate. It was one of those that was 0% up until a certain date, and that date came and went quicker than ever. I am planning on paying it off by February, then I start with Discover. I have already been paying $50 more towards the Discover bill, but until the Sears bill is paid off, I will continue to add just that much extra. The Discover will be a longer payoff time, but nonetheless, I plan on throwing everything I can towards it. I can't wait to have the feeling of debt free!

We've done good with our Christmas shopping, I've paid everything with our debit card, therefore it comes out of our checking account, no charges. My DH is the only one who just charged something on our main credit union Visa, but I plan on having him pay that off before they charge interest on it.

We have one car loan with a small interest rate/payment, and will likely just pay the minimum on that until it's paid off, in order to pay off the much higher cc bills first. We purposely got an older truck with low miles. Once we leave here (moved here just to boost our retirement, we leave in 7+ years) the truck will be paid off, and then the sale of it will be total profit that we can add to our savings.

I know that we will be doing some vacations while we are here, it's a remote part of Alaska that is mostly cold, windy & isolated, but I will use miles + take advantage of some great deals that Alaska Airlines posts at times. For those trips, I will have a separate fund that I am adding to. We need to keep our sanity at the same time getting out of debt!

One major thing that is going to help a LOT is that we own a house where we lived before (different part of Alaska) our two grown kids and our daughter's boyfriend live there, we are still paying the mortgage & utilities on that (they pay a minimal flat fee for rent) but we plan on fixing it up and selling it, hopefully by fall. That will put about $2000 back into our pockets per month (including utilities) which will help a LOT on getting us debt free!! We figured in 5 years, it will save us $96,000, not including utilities, so that means it would be over $100,000 savings!! Since most of Alaska is remote and we have to fly there to get it done, we will have to go through a realtor to have them show/sell it, but it won't be ready for doing that until late summer, because we have to do the repairs/updates as we can, when we fly in, I'm going there for about a week at the end of May, my husband flies in for his job, he has meetings in April, he will either tack on days before or after his meetings, so he can start doing some things too. We are going to paint, repair/replace some things, etc. but that also requires us to get the kids out of there and into a place of their own, they have been warned! The goal is for them to be out by July.

I love reading your posts, you life style is so much different than mine, yet the same in some ways. I really enjoy reading how you budget and live in Alaska.


Now for mine.
I cut way back on Christmas shopping, and nothing is on credit, everything is paid for. I just have to buy 2 more presents, one for each of my sons. Last week my oldest son asked me what I wanted, and I gave him at least 4 jobs around the outside of the house and I told him that will mean more to me, than him buying me a gift. He actually made money, when he took a bunch of steal posts to the recycling center and turned in steal and aluminum. Now I just need to figure out what to get him for Christmas.

I have a questions, we have all of our credit cards paid off. So, do you still use your credit card for points and pay the card off each month, or do you totally get rid of the cards. I am putting everything on my Disney chase card each month, like utilities, groceries, gas, presents, but I pay it off each week. Sometimes I wish I didn't have it, because I will use it to wash my car, little things like that and sometimes, I will look at my statement on line, and think damn, that is a lot to pay off. If I didn't have my card with me, would I be making these smaller charges?

 

[fronkfam]

This is the first time I've posted here, but just have to share! For the past 3+ years we have been paying $400 a month to get rid of old credit card debt. This month is our last payment! I'm so excited! It felt like it would never happen!

 

[momof2gr8kids]

This is the first time I've posted here, but just have to share! For the past 3+ years we have been paying $400 a month to get rid of old credit card debt. This month is our last payment! I'm so excited! It felt like it would never happen!

That's fantastic.

Congrats for sticking to it! I can't wait to say the same thing, probably in a couple of years as well.

 

[gracie1]

This is the first time I've posted here, but just have to share! For the past 3+ years we have been paying $400 a month to get rid of old credit card debt. This month is our last payment! I'm so excited! It felt like it would never happen!

Great job!! You will have to celebrate!!! Of course, not by charging it! Haha

 

[gracie1]

Congratulations-You definitely need new furniture with a new house. Way to go. I love reading your posts, you life style is so much different than mine, yet the same in some ways. I really enjoy reading how you budget and live in Alaska. Now for mine. I cut way back on Christmas shopping, and nothing is on credit, everything is paid for. I just have to buy 2 more presents, one for each of my sons. Last week my oldest son asked me what I wanted, and I gave him at least 4 jobs around the outside of the house and I told him that will mean more to me, than him buying me a gift. He actually made money, when he took a bunch of steal posts to the recycling center and turned in steal and aluminum. Now I just need to figure out what to get him for Christmas. I have a questions, we have all of our credit cards paid off. So, do you still use your credit card for points and pay the card off each month, or do you totally get rid of the cards. I am putting everything on my Disney chase card each month, like utilities, groceries, gas, presents, but I pay it off each week. Sometimes I wish I didn't have it, because I will use it to wash my car, little things like that and sometimes, I will look at my statement on line, and think damn, that is a lot to pay off. If I didn't have my card with me, would I be making these smaller charges?

I use my credit card to earn points as well. I have done the same as you- look at my statement online and wonder how unowned that much! Those little things definitely add up. But I do enjoy the rewards that I get. Although most of my rewards are coming from my dental bills!!

 

[danielle79]

ceemys congrats on the new house and new furniture! Your house looks great!!! I hope you have a wonderful Christmas in your new house!!! You should be very proud of yourself.