Debt Dumpers - 2019

[MamaBelleRN]

My weekend update has more to do with spending money vs debt dumping, but it involves WDW so that’s win

When we went to WDW in 2015, we brought my MIL who had never been and she totally fell in love with WDW. Sadly, my BIL lost his battle with bipolar in July 2017. Especially since his death, my MIL has been begging us all to plan another trip to ‘her happy place’. We have had a rough financial go since that time and haven’t been able to make it happen. We’ve been focused on trying to pay off our van (one of our financial mistakes ) and have saved up a good chunk to pay the $26k Balance way down.

We have been talking about making a late fall WDW trip, but my DH was totally against it until the van is paid in full. However, the other week my MIL was asking again if we can all book a trip for this year ASAP. She just wants a joyful event to look forward to with her kids and grandkids. After some discussion, my DH agreed we could take $5k of the van fund and book the trip. We will split the cost of the hotel stay and we will each cover our own tickets and food. It may cost a little more or a little less than $5k for a family of seven for a week+ at WDW, but I think that’s good starting point. It will mean a delay in getting the van paid in full and totally not a DR move, but in this case family is more important than debt.

SO we are officially booked in a three bedroom at WBC the week after Thanksgiving. We stayed at AKL for our first trip and my MIL would like to stay there for a few days after WBC. I contacted DVC Rental Store today, so we’ll see if we can tack a few days on after our WBC stay. If we do tack on a few nights there, we will certainly be over the $5k mark so we’re still debating this one.

I know we’ll be dealing with HUGE crowds because of SWGE, but I figure with a 7+ night stay and a good touring plan, we can deal.

So while we won’t have the van paid off this year, we won’t be adding any debt with this trip and we should be able to have the van paid in full by this time next year. Family and family memories are worth a few extra months of van payments

 

[jen7233]

My weekend update has more to do with spending money vs debt dumping, but it involves WDW so that’s win

When we went to WDW in 2015, we brought my MIL who had never been and she totally fell in love with WDW. Sadly, my BIL lost his battle with bipolar in July 2017. Especially since his death, my MIL has been begging us all to plan another trip to ‘her happy place’. We have had a rough financial go since that time and haven’t been able to make it happen. We’ve been focused on trying to pay off our van (one of our financial mistakes ) and have saved up a good chunk to pay the $26k Balance way down.

We have been talking about making a late fall WDW trip, but my DH was totally against it until the van is paid in full. However, the other week my MIL was asking again if we can all book a trip for this year ASAP. She just wants a joyful event to look forward to with her kids and grandkids. After some discussion, my DH agreed we could take $5k of the van fund and book the trip. We will split the cost of the hotel stay and we will each cover our own tickets and food. It may cost a little more or a little less than $5k for a family of seven for a week+ at WDW, but I think that’s good starting point. It will mean a delay in getting the van paid in full and totally not a DR move, but in this case family is more important than debt.

SO we are officially booked in a three bedroom at WBC the week after Thanksgiving. We stayed at AKL for our first trip and my MIL would like to stay there for a few days after WBC. I contacted DVC Rental Store today, so we’ll see if we can tack a few days on after our WBC stay. If we do tack on a few nights there, we will certainly be over the $5k mark so we’re still debating this one.

I know we’ll be dealing with HUGE crowds because of SWGE, but I figure with a 7+ night stay and a good touring plan, we can deal.

So while we won’t have the van paid off this year, we won’t be adding any debt with this trip and we should be able to have the van paid in full by this time next year. Family and family memories are worth a few extra months of van payments

That's great MIL loves WDW! I have a great memory of when my mom was still able to do things, she went to the park and enjoyed the parade waving at all the characters as they went by and smiling! No rides, but still I smile thinking about that especially now that she is homebound and unable to probably ever enjoy these things again.

I thought I had February down but a vet visit for my dog ended up being a hefty vet bill, plus her Bravecto and Heartguard refills I already was planning to refill this month, and of course food. Not a cheap month, but the vet visit threw me off. Dogs are expensive, love them so much, but expensive!

 

[pblack]

Dogs are expensive, love them so much, but expensive!

That's how we felt after we got our cat. 2 years ago right at Thanksgiving we spent $1000+ at the vet to figure out what was wrong with her. Darn our loving animals!

 

[StacyStrong]

I plugged in the numbers. Currently I'm set to pay off all credit card debt by November 2019.

If I put just about half of my tax return toward that debt, I will pay it off 3 months earlier but only save $143 in interest.

Is it really worth it to do that? Or should I put it toward different savings goals? Agh! I hate making decisions.

 

[barkley]

I plugged in the numbers. Currently I'm set to pay off all credit card debt by November 2019.

If I put just about half of my tax return toward that debt, I will pay it off 3 months earlier but only save $143 in interest.

Is it really worth it to do that? Or should I put it toward different savings goals? Agh! I hate making decisions.

do you have any kind of emergency fund? if not then i would say put at least half your refund towards creating one (that way you won't add to the debt if one comes up). IF YOU DO...........does that mean if you applied your entire refund you would be paid off 6 months earlier than 11/19? 5/19? that's less than a little over 3 months from now. that would mean the majority of 2019 with NO CREDIT CARD DEBT, and a chance to save what you've been paying to them (plus savings of at least double the $143 in interest costs). if you could swing it, i would go for paying it much earlier.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Filing our taxes today! DH is getting back $2500 from federal and I'm getting $1750 from federal. Definitely was not expecting to get that much this year. I set both of our withholdings to 0 last year out of concern over the new tax laws. We managed to hit that sweet spot of married with no dependents and it worked out well for us even though we file separately. All of mine will go towards my student loan. We'll probably put DH's in savings right now. Based on how some things shake out with DH's job (potentially him getting a car with his next promotion), then we will likely sell both of our current cars and then buy me a newer car. Obviously I'd like to pay cash for this, so I want to have some sitting around in savings.

Unless anything catastrophic happens in the next 9 days, it looks like I'll have about $1000 left in this month's budget since we've been pretty frugal this month. I'm planning to put $500 towards my student loan, taking it down to $2600, and then put $250 towards our Tokyo 2020 fund and $250 towards next month's horse shows. I know March will be an expensive month for us since horse show season starts back up and my horse will need about $250 of veterinary work next week.

 

[StacyStrong]

do you have any kind of emergency fund? if not then i would say put at least half your refund towards creating one (that way you won't add to the debt if one comes up). IF YOU DO...........does that mean if you applied your entire refund you would be paid off 6 months earlier than 11/19? 5/19? that's less than a little over 3 months from now. that would mean the majority of 2019 with NO CREDIT CARD DEBT, and a chance to save what you've been paying to them (plus savings of at least double the $143 in interest costs). if you could swing it, i would go for paying it much earlier.

I have about 5k in an emergency fund. Aiming for closer to 8.

The idea of all that money just disappearing is depressing! I know it would go to good use. One of the things holding me back is that I'm MOH in a wedding this September and have an April Disney trip. I have some funds set aside for both, but it would be nice to have a bit more.

I checked and if I applied almost all my refund, I would be paid off in June and it would save me $226 in interest.

Having all my consumer debt paid off would give me about $432 a month "extra". Though most of that is my car payment and that last payment is next month regardless.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I have about 5k in an emergency fund. Aiming for closer to 8.

The idea of all that money just disappearing is depressing! I know it would go to good use. One of the things holding me back is that I'm MOH in a wedding this September and have an April Disney trip. I have some funds set aside for both, but it would be nice to have a bit more.

I checked and if I applied almost all my refund, I would be paid off in June and it would save me $226 in interest.

Having all my consumer debt paid off would give me about $432 a month "extra". Though most of that is my car payment and that last payment is next month regardless.

If your car payment is eliminated next month, then I would would take the money that you would have used towards your April payment as extra spending money at Disney and then put the entire refund towards your debt. This will allow you to be completely debt free by June and open up extra money that you can save towards the September wedding.

 

[jen7233]

I have about 5k in an emergency fund. Aiming for closer to 8.

The idea of all that money just disappearing is depressing! I know it would go to good use. One of the things holding me back is that I'm MOH in a wedding this September and have an April Disney trip. I have some funds set aside for both, but it would be nice to have a bit more.

I checked and if I applied almost all my refund, I would be paid off in June and it would save me $226 in interest.

Having all my consumer debt paid off would give me about $432 a month "extra". Though most of that is my car payment and that last payment is next month regardless.

I'd hold off spending the tax return until after Disney, then reassess and see where you are with the wedding plans as in what else needs to be purchased for it, and if everything looks good and don't have any absolute need for something else like car repair or other big thing, I'd go ahead and make the payment to pay off the debt then.

 

[StacyStrong]

Those are both good options! I might go with a mixture of the two! Thank you!

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

I've been getting all of my checks from my new part time job direct deposited into our long term/ emergency savings account and I've been able to put in almost $600 this month! DH had to get some x-rays done on his knee (old injury acting up again) so some of it may be pulled out to cover that since we won't have hit our deductible (why couldn't it have started hurting in November?! lol!! ) but that's ok! That's what emergency funds are for.

Not much else to report. My grandmother sent us $50 for our wedding anniversary so we dropped that in the vacation fund for now until we decide if we're still taking our cruise or not. Gotta make the tax appointment today or tomorrow. I had anticipated a few expenses this month I didn't end up needing (rainboots for me and DS and a raincoat for DS) but My grandmother ended up buying me rainboots for my birthday and my mom suggested she just buy DS his raincoat and rainboots as early Easter gifts, so between the three of them that was over $60 saved. I think we'll go a little over in household expenses this month so hopefully I can plug some of that in there to bridge the gap.

 

[DLgal]

Filing our taxes today! DH is getting back $2500 from federal and I'm getting $1750 from federal. Definitely was not expecting to get that much this year. I set both of our withholdings to 0 last year out of concern over the new tax laws. We managed to hit that sweet spot of married with no dependents and it worked out well for us even though we file separately.

Out of curiosity, why do you file separately? When we were newly married and both working, before kids, it was always WAY more beneficial to file jointly than separately. Turbo Tax always ran it both ways and joint always won out with a significant tax savings. I'm wondering under what scenario does filing separately end up being beneficial? I was always under the impression that certain tax credits were only available to married joint filers, thus one of the reasons why LGBT people fight so hard for marriage equality laws...

 

[Tygerlilly]

Out of curiosity, why do you file separately? When we were newly married and both working, before kids, it was always WAY more beneficial to file jointly than separately. Turbo Tax always ran it both ways and joint always won out with a significant tax savings. I'm wondering under what scenario does filing separately end up being beneficial? I was always under the impression that certain tax credits were only available to married joing filers, thus one of the reasons why LGBT people fight so hard for marriage equality laws...

Also wondering. I asked the same question to my tax lady this year as we will be married in November and was wondering the differences between married/joint and married/separate. She said it's always better to file together married.
We also have kids though too, so maybe that makes a difference?

 

[DLgal]

Also wondering. I asked the same question to my tax lady this year as we will be married in November and was wondering the differences between married/joint and married/separate. She said it's always better to file together married.
We also have kids though too, so maybe that makes a difference?

I have read that the only time it is beneficial is if BOTH spouses are high earners (like, over $100K each) and filing jointly would push them over $200K in earned income, at which point, taxes become much higher.

 

[pblack]

I added some more Disney touches to my kitchen yesterday. I went to the Disney store looking for the Gusteau journal I saw online (they had it but it was smaller than I thought it'd be) I found the cutest stuffed Mickey/Minnie cupcakes and a Minnie donut. Yesterday was also the last day of the friends and family sale so I got them a little cheaper than the sticker price. I also went to Hobby Lobby and found the "be our guest" sign/words and I couldn't pass it up.

 

[grumpy28]

I added some more Disney touches to my kitchen yesterday. I went to the Disney store looking for the Gusteau journal I saw online (they had it but it was smaller than I thought it'd be) I found the cutest stuffed Mickey/Minnie cupcakes and a Minnie donut. Yesterday was also the last day of the friends and family sale so I got them a little cheaper than the sticker price. I also went to Hobby Lobby and found the "be our guest" sign/words and I couldn't pass it up.

Where did you get the picture on the left? The one with the Disney food? It is adorable!

 

[pblack]

Where did you get the picture on the left? The one with the Disney food? It is adorable!

Thanks! I got it in Downtown Disney (CA) at the Wonderground Gallery. It's actually a post card (both of the pictures are) that I framed. I have 4 more in my bedroom of different Disney movies/characters.

 

[grumpy28]

Thanks! I got it in Downtown Disney (CA) at the Wonderground Gallery. It's actually a post card (both of the pictures are) that I framed. I have 4 more in my bedroom of different Disney movies/characters.

Great job! Looks great!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I read this thread last year and this year also. I've gotten good tips. One tip I always read about is changing car insurance companies. I've done quotes from time to time and I've never received a quote cheaper than my current company.

So my DS18 got his license on Friday and my insurance went up by more than $1200 to a total of $2287 for one car (only liability) and both of us as drivers. I decided to get some quotes again and called USAA and got a quote of $1503!! I can't believe it!! Saving almost $800.

We are also working on dumping some debt. We are doing DR and going pretty well so far. We started DR last July but started going hard core in January. We do a monthly budget and snowball. Hoping to be done by the end of this year.

I use Debt Payoff Planner app to input all of my debts and it gives me an estimate on my payoff date if I follow the snowball.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Out of curiosity, why do you file separately? When we were newly married and both working, before kids, it was always WAY more beneficial to file jointly than separately. Turbo Tax always ran it both ways and joint always won out with a significant tax savings. I'm wondering under what scenario does filing separately end up being beneficial? I was always under the impression that certain tax credits were only available to married joint filers, thus one of the reasons why LGBT people fight so hard for marriage equality laws...

Also wondering. I asked the same question to my tax lady this year as we will be married in November and was wondering the differences between married/joint and married/separate. She said it's always better to file together married.
We also have kids though too, so maybe that makes a difference?

I think that she had previously mentioned that it was more beneficial to file separately because it lowered her required monthly student loans payments that are subject to the loan forgiveness program.