Debt Dumpers 2020

[ruadisneyfan2]

I'm currently enjoying talking to someone in my workspace slack who is claiming that a single parent living below the poverty line can save 70% of their income by just following some blogging tips.

Like, I just need some more money, not internet guru nonsense

It's actually not guru nonsense. Do you ever read Mr. Money Moustache? He and his wife saved something like 75% of their income from the time they finished college to approx. the age of 30. By then they were millionaires and retired. Retired before their first child was born. He is super thrifty but has lived on < $30k/yr.
https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/

 

[rosegoldmonorail]

It's actually not guru nonsense. Do you ever read Mr. Money Moustache? He and his wife saved something like 75% of their income from the time they finished college to approx. the age of 30. By then they were millionaires and retired. Retired before their first child was born. He is super thrifty but has lived on < $30k/yr.
https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/

i think its possible to live on less than <30k/yr, but OP's right, there's no way any person could save 70% of their income while living below the poverty line. That would be living on less than 10,000 assuming they are right on the poverty line

 

[rosegoldmonorail]

Haven't checked in for a while. Things are not going great fam. I've been sick with some kind of virus for two weeks now, which means a.) i haven't worked and b.) been ordering take-out cause i'm "too sick to cook." Thank god for Christmas money or I would have been using my credit cards. Even though the budget has already gone out the window, I'm feeling much better and going back to work tomorrow.

I shouldn't focus only on the negatives, as good stuff has happened these few weeks too. They finally gave me my financial aid, which is a relief. Now I won't have to drop any classes. Also, I've made $100 from Swagbucks in less than a month which I've used to buy Disney giftcards!! Gonna use those to fund a potential WDW trip this year.

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

I know we can’t discuss politics and I’m not - but depending on how things go, student loan debt may get wiped out. I’d be so happy for so many people I know if it could get wiped out. It would help so many!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

i think its possible to live on less than <30k/yr, but OP's right, there's no way any person could save 70% of their income while living below the poverty line. That would be living on less than 10,000 assuming they are right on the poverty line

Sorry, I must have misread the numbers. You're right, that is crazy low. The only way to do that is living with one's parents.

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

on the too lazy to cook front-we had allot of this when both of us were commuting long distances daily for work and the kiddos were little. the only thing that helped break the habit was to look at what food we always defaulted to and setting up our freezer/pantry so that it was as fast if not faster (and MUCH cheaper) to easily do it on our own. here are some things that worked for us (YMMV)-

pizza-we had frozen pizzas with the basics we knew we wouldn't always have on hand (for ds-cheese/pepperoni/olive, for the rest of us cheese and maybe sausage). we would top these with stuff that could be on the shelf or in the freezer at the ready-water packed artichoke hearts (like $2.49 a can and we would use the rest up in salads over the next couple of days), shredded bbq chicken (if i made chicken i shredded some and mixed it w/bbq sauce and froze in small containers), we always had onions on hand as well as other veg-easy enough to chop while the oven pre-heats.

Mexican-i would premake ground beef with seasoning, shredded beef with enchilada sauce (actualy did this yesterday). it went into small containers that could quickly microwave defrost. with tortillas at the ready (freezer) or taco shells on the shelf it was microwave defrost/heat and then either make the tacos or roll the enchiladas (top w/second premade container of sauce and whatever shredded cheese was in the freezer) and we were good to go.

food in general-ground beef can be browned, drained and frozen easily. put it in measured bags to pull out to make a quick batch of sloppy joes, season and add to pasta sauce. chicken and beef (pork as well) shred easily and can be frozen after cooking. pull out and add to sauces for bbq sandwiches, pasta alfredo w/chicken....

i'm a big fan of scratch made stuff but i've only been able to do more of it since i no longer have long work commutes/hours and more time to myself-it's just a simple reality of life so there's no sin in using premade store bought or homemade b/c both will save a ton over pickup or delivery food.

One thing that really helps us is meatballs. I buy 3 lbs ground turkey and 1 lb ground beef and mix it together with a chopped onion, italian seasoning, bread crumbs, etc. make meatballs and freeze them. It makes a lot! Keep spaghetti and a few jars of trader joe spg sauce on hand. Dinner can be ready quickly!

 

[dayvewc]

I'm still waiting on my W-(whatever that number is). We usually get them mid-month, but Turbo-Tax imports a lot of information from my previous year, and there is a lot of the deduction and credits and other things that I went through and filled in. Plus, I "ball-parked" the figures from my last pay-stub. I know I'll have to go back and correct them when I get my official document, because some of the "gross pay" doesn't count as pay for tax purposes.

The part that bothers me is less the papers from work, than having to wait on the ones from the banks and mortgage company. It'll be mid-February or later before some of those will show up. I plan to take Saturday afternoon and just go through all my statements and add up the interest manually to enter it. I won't be more than $1 off, and that can be written off as rounding errors.

I'm also a zero filer. I know it is a better option to not give the government an interest free loan for a year, but for me it's just always worked better to get the lump sum than to try to save it a little at a time. Though, with everything I had happening last year, I did change my withholding to just my withholding and not anything extra.

 

[RamblingMad]

It’s fascinating how many folks claim zero. My parents did the same thing. I prefer to owe or owe nothing. I’m good with paying taxes. But I can see how folks would stress about owing money.

 

[MantaRider]

Snowballing is a solid plan. Do you have an Excel spreadsheet to use?

For the snowball, no. I use a google sheet for my actual budget though. I'm just saving up money in a savings account until I have enough to pay on the phone, that should take maybe until March

It's actually not guru nonsense. Do you ever read Mr. Money Moustache? He and his wife saved something like 75% of their income from the time they finished college to approx. the age of 30. By then they were millionaires and retired. Retired before their first child was born. He is super thrifty but has lived on < $30k/yr.

That's just not close to realistic for us. We live with my wife's mother right now and even with that we couldn't save that much of our income. I don't understand how people's expenses could possibly be so low with bills and loan payments. Maybe they were lucky enough not to have student loans.

The part that bothers me is less the papers from work, than having to wait on the ones from the banks and mortgage company. It'll be mid-February or later before some of those will show up. I plan to take Saturday afternoon and just go through all my statements and add up the interest manually to enter it. I won't be more than $1 off, and that can be written off as rounding errors.

It always kind of bugs me that I'm not even sure what all I need to wait for. I know I need my work papers, then my student loan / bank figures, but beyond that I'm not sure what paperwork I will even need

 

[DnA2010]

I’m so ready to file our taxes so we can pay DH’s student loan off with our refunds. Unfortunately, my work always waits until the last minute to send out our forms.

Ugg I so feel your pain here...here in Canada employers have till the end of February and mine ALWAYS does it on the last day...so annoying

 

[DLgal]

I am just waiting on W2 form to be imported for my job now. My husband's is available today, mine won't be until next week or the week after. Really not in too much of a rush, because we can't e-file until Jan 27 anyway. I manually entered in my 1099-R info from my 2 banks, since they post interest paid to date online. I also manually entered in my Roth IRA withdrawal of contributions from earlier this year (no tax liability on that, but still have to submit form 8606).

We are set to get back approximately $800 between Fed and State so I want to file as soon as it's open.

We did alright this past billing cycle on expenses. On track to put $3500 into savings next month.

I'm anxiously awaiting the Ally Bucket feature to come online. I will be splitting my savings into 4 buckets: Emergency, Car loan payoff, Balance Transfer payoff, DL Annual Pass fund. Anyone know when this feature is set to debut?

 

[jen7233]

I'm anxiously awaiting the Ally Bucket feature to come online. I will be splitting my savings into 4 buckets: Emergency, Car loan payoff, Balance Transfer payoff, DL Annual Pass fund. Anyone know when this feature is set to debut?

No, I haven't seen a date for it yet.

 

[imbatman]

Haven't checked in for a while. Things are not going great fam. I've been sick with some kind of virus for two weeks now, which means a.) i haven't worked and b.) been ordering take-out cause i'm "too sick to cook." Thank god for Christmas money or I would have been using my credit cards. Even though the budget has already gone out the window, I'm feeling much better and going back to work tomorrow.

I shouldn't focus only on the negatives, as good stuff has happened these few weeks too. They finally gave me my financial aid, which is a relief. Now I won't have to drop any classes. Also, I've made $100 from Swagbucks in less than a month which I've used to buy Disney giftcards!! Gonna use those to fund a potential WDW trip this year.

If you have a crockpot, that can help with the too-sick-to-cook. Soups are easy to dump in and then eat for a couple of days. I sure hope you've kicked it for good!

Hubby's boss gave him a $100 bonus (Amazon gift card) for his 5 year anniversary. While that's sweet, we were hoping he'd get a raise. He hasn't had one in over 3 years. We are using the money to redecorate the main bathroom. We can get most of the main items, minus the paint for the ceiling and walls. Even the flooring! I bought a 3 piece canvas art on FB marketplace for $8 that I'll repaint. I'd LOVE to buy a new countertop, as ours has UGLY tile and linoleum, but that'll have to wait. I'll keep my eye on FB MP and CL for that. I'm so excited to finally redo the bathroom after almost 10 years!

 

[pblack]

I'm finally considering moving my Chase savings over to an online savings account. I'm currently between Ally and Capital One 360. Is one better than the other? I'm leaning towards Capital One since I believe you can make multiple umbrellas under your one savings account, but based off @DLgal's post it sounds like Ally will have the same feature.

 

[rosegoldmonorail]

If you have a crockpot, that can help with the too-sick-to-cook. Soups are easy to dump in and then eat for a couple of days. I sure hope you've kicked it for good!

hmm i think my mom might have a crockpot? or an instant pot? idk, she has something LOL! that's actually a really good idea though, ill go google some recipes!

 

[FQLover]

I love Cap One 360. I have 10 separate savings accounts (all indiviudally named) in there (the limit is 25). You can transfer from one to another or to my checking account in my home bank. Each separate savings account has its own "history" you can read, watch, etc. You can do automatic payments to one or any/all of them or just once in a while. Many ways to customize them. I love it! It has helped me save even more once I started with them about 4 years ago. I still have one general savings account with my home bank, but these are the ones I get excited about!

 

[imbatman]

hmm i think my mom might have a crockpot? or an instant pot? idk, she has something LOL! that's actually a really good idea though, ill go google some recipes!

Crockpots are the best friend of both the lazy and the busy. Dump ingredients in before work, come home to a meal. And if you use the liners, there is practically no clean up. This reason explains why I own...three.

 

[needsomesun]

I'm finally considering moving my Chase savings over to an online savings account. I'm currently between Ally and Capital One 360. Is one better than the other? I'm leaning towards Capital One since I believe you can make multiple umbrellas under your one savings account, but based off @DLgal's post it sounds like Ally will have the same feature.

You can have multiple savings accounts with ally. I have about 10 of them. I had capitalone 360, and did the same, for a bit but switched because ally had a much better rate at the time. Now I think they're even.

ETA: Even my dogs have a savings account. I decided to drop pet insurance and pay myself instead. So save up the premium in a savings acct monthly instead, in case I have a big bill in the future. They're always eating something they're not supposed to...

 

[WeatherLights]

With all you folks claiming zero exemptions and getting a refund, maybe you can help me understand why my spouse and I (we file jointly) claim zero and still end up owing A LOT in taxes every year. In fact, we've had to pay a penalty for under-withholding. I know we can request additional withholding beyond the normal zero exemption calculations but seems weird to me that we would need to and I keep putting it off so will likely be paying the penalty again this year. We make decent income but not crazy high, and our income is solely from our wages. We also have a good chunk of it as non-taxed income (going directly into retirement plans and HSA). I don't get it!

 

[DLgal]

With all you folks claiming zero exemptions and getting a refund, maybe you can help me understand why my spouse and I (we file jointly) claim zero and still end up owing A LOT in taxes every year. In fact, we've had to pay a penalty for under-withholding. I know we can request additional withholding beyond the normal zero exemption calculations but seems weird to me that we would need to and I keep putting it off so will likely be paying the penalty again this year. We make decent income but not crazy high, and our income is solely from our wages. We also have a good chunk of it as non-taxed income (going directly into retirement plans and HSA). I don't get it!

Have you tried claiming SINGLE and Zero?

That should do it.

I have no idea why you owe so much. What tax bracket do you end up in with your AGI?

We file jointly, claim 10 exemptions on my husband's W4 and 5 on mine from my part time job. We still get a refund every year. Our AGI puts us in the 22% tax bracket because a huge portion of our income is non taxable. We have 2 kids for the child tax credit but that's all we are eligible for. We take the standard deduction.

Have you tried using the IRS W2 calculator to see if your tax liability is matching up to how much is being taken out of your checks? The payroll department at your work could be screwing something up. You can use the tax tables to see how much should be withheld and make sure it matches up.