Debt Dumpers 2024

[barkley]

We will have a bit of a set back this month. Our daughter hit a deer on Sunday night. Thankfully she saw the deer quick enough to slam on her breaks and only hit the back end of the deer. If not she would have hit the deer head on and the damage would be a lot more. My headlight broke. The glass is broke and it pushed it off center. Their is also a crack in my bumper. Thankfully she had a friend with her and they are both ok. Her friend helped to keep DD calm. I am proud of DD. She did everything she should have. She has only had her license since early December.

so glad they are both ok! it's so scary with deer (and around us-elk and moose ). my local auto repair guy does a steady buisness of repairing damage due to these kinds of encounters-so glad your dd was able to break and did'nt have the scary too common occurance where the deer comes up over the hood into the windshield.

 

[pblack]

That's great progress @WDW_fan_in_TX!

 

[afan]

Glad she's okay! I remember getting hit by a deer (I was stopped and it came flying out of the woods and slammed into the front corner of my car) not long after I got my license. I turned around and went home absolutely shaking and bawling my eyes out and stayed home from school that day.

This totally makes me think of Gilmore Girls.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

congratulations now that you have that one tackled it's on to the next-what a great feeling!



gotta ask, cuz while that's a BIG chunk of change it's also ALLOT of transactions-were the bulk of these purchases smaller 'grab and go' kind of things (coffees, breakfast/lunch, something quick for dinner...)? if that's the case one way to help prevent those is to design your grocery shopping around some of the items you are most inclined to 'grab and go'-sure, prepared foods tend to cost more than making stuff from scratch but i find (found when we were addressing this as 2 commuters with young kids)-

if you are not used to cooking/have a work schedule that exhausts you most days of the week then your best laid plans for doing it all the time will have you quickly discouraged, reaching for the card to grab something, seeing the fresh ingredients you had the best intentions and plans of using going bad before you use them, feeling guilty about the food waste and then getting discoraged and spirling back into your old habits.

what helped us was to figure out what we tended to grab and getting the lesser expensive grocery store (frozen) options-breakfast sandwiches, asian foods, potato skins/appetizers, pizza...so we had it on hand vs. going out to get it. same with salads (big salad fan here), i would get bags of the greens and the stuff i liked on it, which i prechopped (put in fridge containers) and spent a bit more on a bottle of dressing that i really enjoyed. did it cost more than making it from scratch? yes, but it cost MUCH LESS than getting at eateries (esp. w/tax, tip, drinks....).

we worked our way to more day to day cooking by starting small and building up. did cooking projects on our days off-made enough for multiple meals (if you have a freezer do up individual servings and over time you have choices). in time we knew what was easily achievable when we got home from work (though-the crockpot is your friend) and what was best left for a day off.

baby steps, just like paying off the debt.

This is so true.

My SO would go and buy coffee everyday. We bought a keurig and some coffee and his favorite creamer and saved so much money. He also saves time in the morning now. He works from home now so it saves him a whole trip out in the morning.

I’ve also started prepping breakfast sandwiches and freezing them. I air fry them and they are delicious. I was really apprehensive about these sandwiches but they’ve worked out great.

I also started prepping our fruits and veggies by chopping and washing. It makes it easier to grab and go or to cook something very quickly.

 

[barkley]

I also started prepping our fruits and veggies by chopping and washing. It makes it easier to grab and go or to cook something very quickly.

i was in a rush and snagged a premade salad at the store. fell in freaking love with it-greens, apple, walnuts and blue cheese crumbles/sweet vidalia onion dressing. i get the blue cheese crumbles at trader joes (theirs are dated out forever) as well as walnut pieces, apples/greens/dressing at walmart. everything is on hand and quick to make at a fraction of the price.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

i was in a rush and snagged a premade salad at the store. fell in freaking love with it-greens, apple, walnuts and blue cheese crumbles/sweet vidalia onion dressing. i get the blue cheese crumbles at trader joes (theirs are dated out forever) as well as walnut pieces, apples/greens/dressing at walmart. everything is on hand and quick to make at a fraction of the price.

We’ve been doing a lot of that also. I know they’re pricier but I’m really enjoying some of Trader Joe’s preseasoned meats. Their shawarma chicken thighs are so good. I pop them in the air fryer and meal prep them for lunch. I do this when I’m really dreading meal prep or have a busier Sunday. I might be spending a few bucks more on the seasoned meats but it beats spending $15 a day on takeout at work.

 

[barkley]

We’ve been doing a lot of that also. I know they’re pricier but I’m really enjoying some of Trader Joe’s preseasoned meats. Their shawarma chicken thighs are so good. I pop them in the air fryer and meal prep them for lunch. I do this when I’m really dreading meal prep or have a busier Sunday. I might be spending a few bucks more on the seasoned meats but it beats spending $15 a day on takeout at work.

i do so much better on this during the summer when we can grill. i'll do different seasonings on multiple chicken breasts and have dh do them up then use them in different dishes but what i really enjoy is having him grill sliced eggplant, baby bells and mushrooms (i use flavored olive oils or flavored salad dressings to marinade first). he grills a bunch and i like like them equally as much cold as a side as warm.

 

[huggybuff]

Weekly update! I didn't get to post last Friday because I had a huge migraine. Was it because my in-laws were visiting? Who's to say???

Week 7

2024 Financial Goals

1. Pay off my credit cards and car loan in 2 years by using the debt avalanche. I paid the minimum and extra (total of $380) on my Lane Bryant card. That balance is down to approximately $115 and will be paid off next month at this time. I've already scheduled my credit card minimum payments to be paid for the first half of March.

2. Increase my monthly payments to my husband for household expenses by $800 a month beginning in May and open a joint checking account where we will each contribute monthly. We figured giving me until May to sock some extra cash into my checking would be a good idea since my personal loan is now paid off and that was sucking $1000 off the top of my paycheck once a month. Snoozed until May.

3. Set aside $285 per month from January-June to cover the cost of our hotel for our anniversary trip in July to Monterey. $285 more into my HYSA (2/6)

4. Begin paying for our 2025 spring break cruise to Mexico in March. Payments will be $400 a month from March-December. Also set aside $50 per month during that time period to cover our upgrade package. Snoozed until March.

5. Continue using the YNAB app and website to track my money daily. I'm still tracking my money the old fashioned way with a register but I really like the budgeting aspect of YNAB and am getting more and more used to it. I'm still struggling with reconciling. Second week in a row that I was off. (6/52)


2024 Personal Goals

1. Finish deep cleaning and organizing my kitchen. My husband is basically the Swedish Chef so he makes quite a mess when he cooks. I appreciate the fact that he does all of the cooking but it's a lot to keep on top of TBH. I need to do a better job and put in more effort. I will track this weekly. My in-laws visited from last Thursday to yesterday (Monday). I got about a third of what needed doing done in my kitchen. Progress! (3/52)

2. Once I feel like my kitchen is back under control I'll transition to organizing my clothes that are in boxes in our bedroom. I will tackle this at least one of the days of my weekend. Snoozed.

3. Reorganize and deep clean my bathroom. I have too much on the countertop and need to make use of the cabinets in a more organized manner. Snoozed.

4. By July I'd like to be at the point I can begin to tackle my boxes that are still unpacked in the garage. I had a storage unit for years and now they're just sitting untouched since we moved into the house 3 years ago. Snoozed.

5. In August I'd like to make my stepson's room into a workout room. He's a senior in high school this year and he'll be starting college next fall. He's only staying over 1 or 2 nights a week at most at this point since he lives with his mom so I don't feel I'll be booting him out or anything. I am at my highest weight ever and I honestly don't even know what that is since I'm scared to get on the scale. I can have all of the DVDs and online workouts in the world but they do no good if you don't use them. I think having a space set aside will really help me out. Snoozed.

6. Get my passport at some point this year to be ready for the cruise in 2025. This probably won't happen for at least a few months.

7. I came up with a new goal. Get back to baking on a weekly basis. This will begin when my kitchen is 'done'. JK, I know a kitchen is never truly caught up on. Snoozed until I cross #1 off of my list.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

 

[Tygerlilly]

i do so much better on this during the summer when we can grill. i'll do different seasonings on multiple chicken breasts and have dh do them up then use them in different dishes but what i really enjoy is having him grill sliced eggplant, baby bells and mushrooms (i use flavored olive oils or flavored salad dressings to marinade first). he grills a bunch and i like like them equally as much cold as a side as warm.

My favorite thing on earth is grilled meat on cold salad. We always marinade a bunch of chicken and beef in random salad dressings/marinade mixes and then grill in huge batches. Whatever hasn't gotten eaten after 3ish days gets put in individual serving bags and then tossed in the freezer for whenever we need something quick.

 

[slightly_obsessed]

Checking in.

Financial:

• Mortgage Extra Payments. Goal - $12,000 over the year. $1470/$12,000 Payday is Friday and I'm not sure yet where the numbers will fall with my husband's new contract but I will be able to put at least $350 towards this, hopefully more.
• Cash flow vacations..
  • RV trip to Arizona Goal - This Friday, I should be at $1345/2500 A good chunk of the rest will come from tax refund.
  • Hawaii. Done
  • Alaskan cruise in September? Still not booked.
  • Girl's Trip to WDW - tentatively planning one for next February. I'm trying to fund this with half of my sub paycheck and the rest from selling stuff we don't need. I need the motivation to go through things! $275/?
  • Japan in 2025? 0/$10000 Won't start this one for awhile.
• Max out 401K/403B/IRAs for my husband and myself. Continue additional contributions we are making to our non retirement investment account. On track.

Personal:

• Complete - word of the year
  • February projects: Taxes, son's closet & nerf wall, cleaning up 2nd floor so it's usable for something other than storage, entertainment center transfer Finished taxes and submitted them over the weekend! Entertainent center is partially transferred - we got the tv hung on the wall and components moved but neither my husband havewanted to tackle the wires yet
• Mental health. Still doing well trying to make myself a priority. I got a pretty nasty little virus last week, woke up unable to talk and symptoms got worse over the next several days. I think I did really well not trying to do too much and wear myself out more. I'm putting that in the win column.
• Continue working towards getting healthier I forgot I was going to focus on activity. Whoops. There's still time in the month to turn this around! I missed 3 WW weeks due to subbing, travel to MN and then being sick and it makes a difference in how mindful I am when eating.

 

[huggybuff]

Resuming my weekly Friday updates! Non-payday week. Boo!

Week 8

2024 Financial Goals

1. Pay off my credit cards and car loan in 2 years by using the debt avalanche. My first card will be paid off at this time next week (Lane Bryant) and I'll be putting some extra towards my Q Card as well as the minimum on that one.

2. Increase my monthly payments to my husband for household expenses by $800 a month beginning in May and open a joint checking account where we will each contribute monthly. We figured giving me until May to sock some extra cash into my checking would be a good idea since my personal loan is now paid off and that was sucking $1000 off the top of my paycheck once a month. Snoozed until May. This may happen in April now, rather than May. My husband has 2 credit cards of his own he wants to get paid off and is getting antsy to do it.

3. Set aside $285 per month from January-June to cover the cost of our hotel for our anniversary trip in July to Monterey. $285 more into my HYSA (2/6)

4. Begin paying for our 2025 spring break cruise to Mexico in March. Payments will be $400 a month from March-December. Also set aside $50 per month during that time period to cover our upgrade package. This time next week I'll begin paying off the cruise!

5. Continue using the YNAB app and website to track my money daily. I'm still tracking my money the old fashioned way with a register but I really like the budgeting aspect of YNAB and am getting more and more used to it. I'm still struggling with reconciling. This week I was off by about $150 - but in the good way. I had more in the bank than in the budget. (8/52)


2024 Personal Goals

1. Finish deep cleaning and organizing my kitchen. My husband is basically the Swedish Chef so he makes quite a mess when he cooks. I appreciate the fact that he does all of the cooking but it's a lot to keep on top of TBH. I need to do a better job and put in more effort. I will track this weekly. My in-laws went home and this week I didn't get up early or stay up late to put in extra work. (3/52)

2. Once I feel like my kitchen is back under control I'll transition to organizing my clothes that are in boxes in our bedroom. I will tackle this at least one of the days of my weekend. Snoozed.

3. Reorganize and deep clean my bathroom. I have too much on the countertop and need to make use of the cabinets in a more organized manner. Snoozed.

4. By July I'd like to be at the point I can begin to tackle my boxes that are still unpacked in the garage. I had a storage unit for years and now they're just sitting untouched since we moved into the house 3 years ago. Snoozed.

5. In August I'd like to make my stepson's room into a workout room. He's a senior in high school this year and he'll be starting college next fall. He's only staying over 1 or 2 nights a week at most at this point since he lives with his mom so I don't feel I'll be booting him out or anything. I am at my highest weight ever and I honestly don't even know what that is since I'm scared to get on the scale. I can have all of the DVDs and online workouts in the world but they do no good if you don't use them. I think having a space set aside will really help me out. Snoozed. Suddenly not snoozed! My husband and I went out to a late Valentine's Day brunch last Sunday afternoon and we went to a bar that we like afterward. Well, we had to walk about 3-4 blocks to get there and I was sucking wind almost from the start from just walking. I was so embarrassed! This stuck in my mind all week and then Wednesday I just said screw it and I went online and bought a Peloton-like bike. I told my husband when I came home and luckily he didn't kill me. We're going to put it in the formal living room until my stepson goes to college and we can change the room over to a workout room. I know it's the opposite of debt dumping but I really need to do something for my health.

6. Get my passport at some point this year to be ready for the cruise in 2025. This probably won't happen for at least a few months.

7. I came up with a new goal. Get back to baking on a weekly basis. This will begin when my kitchen is 'done'. JK, I know a kitchen is never truly caught up on. Snoozed until I cross #1 off of my list.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

 

[slightly_obsessed]

Checking in.

Financial:

• Mortgage Extra Payments. Goal - $12,000 over the year. $1470/$12,000 Payday is Friday and I'm not sure yet where the numbers will fall with my husband's new contract but I will be able to put at least $350 towards this, hopefully more.

Well... his paycheck was incorrect. It should be corrected by the next pay period, but it was significantly less this time than it should have been. So I am going to hold off putting this extra right now. I probably could, we have enough to cover. But it feels weird so I'm going to hold.

This did make me realize how lax I've gotten with keeping a budget for everyday things. I'm great at long term savings for semi annual/annual bills, vacations, etc. But I don't worry much about how much we are spending on food for example, because there's always enough to cover it. I'm going to have to dip in some buffers that I shouldn't have had to. It'll get paid back but it makes me kind of annoyed at myself for creating a bit of a headache I didn't have to have.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Just picked up our 1/2 cow today. Processing was just under $300 so our total was just shy of $1300. It's not as much as I *thought* it would be, but it's plenty of meat. I'm guessing a good 10 months to a year worth.

We're going to the zoo tomorrow with friends so I made a quick grocery order to get stuff to pack lunches for all of us so we don't spend fortune buying food there. We're going to be doing a lot of outside stuff so I'm planning on lots of packed lunches the next little while.

 

[barkley]

Just picked up our 1/2 cow today. Processing was just under $300 so our total was just shy of $1300. It's not as much as I *thought* it would be, but it's plenty of meat. I'm guessing a good 10 months to a year worth.

We're going to the zoo tomorrow with friends so I made a quick grocery order to get stuff to pack lunches for all of us so we don't spend fortune buying food there. We're going to be doing a lot of outside stuff so I'm planning on lots of packed lunches the next little while.

if you can sneak an ostrich out of the zoo they are delicious!

that's a great deal on the beef.

 

[DisneyHardin]

Just picked up our 1/2 cow today. Processing was just under $300 so our total was just shy of $1300. It's not as much as I *thought* it would be, but it's plenty of meat. I'm guessing a good 10 months to a year worth.

My parents bought a half a cow last fall and have hardly used any of the ground beef, so when we were over there yesterday, they gave us 5 lbs. We use tons of ground beef, so that was an awesome gift.

 

[disney-inspired]

Just picked up our 1/2 cow today. Processing was just under $300 so our total was just shy of $1300. It's not as much as I *thought* it would be, but it's plenty of meat. I'm guessing a good 10 months to a year worth.

We're going to the zoo tomorrow with friends so I made a quick grocery order to get stuff to pack lunches for all of us so we don't spend fortune buying food there. We're going to be doing a lot of outside stuff so I'm planning on lots of packed lunches the next little while.

LOL why does this remind me of the I Love Lucy episode where she buys too much meat and has to hide it in the furnace.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

i do so much better on this during the summer when we can grill. i'll do different seasonings on multiple chicken breasts and have dh do them up then use them in different dishes but what i really enjoy is having him grill sliced eggplant, baby bells and mushrooms (i use flavored olive oils or flavored salad dressings to marinade first). he grills a bunch and i like like them equally as much cold as a side as warm.

We grill all year round. As a teenager, I've actually stood outside at night trying to juggle an umbrella, flashlight and spatula.

Now that dh does the cooking/grilling, he added some spotlights shining directly toward our grill so he can see well.

 

[Tygerlilly]

if you can sneak an ostrich out of the zoo they are delicious!

that's a great deal on the beef.

One of my best friends got bit by a tick and has the meat allergy now and says ostrich is so good, just super expensive. They have a farm and actually bought 2 emu to raise to butcher since the meat is so expensive, but the things kept escaping so they sold them off. Her life is wild.

 

[barkley]

One of my best friends got bit by a tick and has the meat allergy now and says ostrich is so good, just super expensive. They have a farm and actually bought 2 emu to raise to butcher since the meat is so expensive, but the things kept escaping so they sold them off. Her life is wild.

the last time we were in orlando we were so disappointed not to get to have it. we used to live near a 'fuddruckers' when we lived in california and they had ostrich burgers. the location in orlando did not.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

That's awesome. My parents and sister try to buy half cows and split the meat. I could never do it as the meat would go bad before we use it. We're very strict about use by dates on products. If it's close to or hits a date, it goes in the trash, frozen or not. I know people say that you can go past the date if it's in the freezer, but not for us. We just buy meat weekly as we need it and keep it in the fridge. Usually HB meat or chicken have dates within a week or 2, while some things (ham sausage) have use by dates a month or thereabouts down the road. So we don't buy those as often. And we only shop at Walmart, so their meat is never on sale.

Just picked up our 1/2 cow today. Processing was just under $300 so our total was just shy of $1300. It's not as much as I *thought* it would be, but it's plenty of meat. I'm guessing a good 10 months to a year worth.