Debt Dumpers 2022

[zebrastreyepz]

Yesterday I used cash back rewards on a paid off credit card to pay money towards another credit card that I want paid off.

IOW, Credit Card Company A gave me money to pay off Credit Card Company B.

Debt free for me!

 

[crazycatstacy]

Decided to take a mini trip next week to see my Dad. I haven't seen him in about 5 years and he hasn't been doing the greatest healthwise. We will drive down Saturday, see him Sunday and return home Monday. 10 hour drive each way but at least we will have seen him. Hoping to make it an inexpensive trip.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

My dad’s 80th birthday party is this weekend.

I ordered the most amazing cake for him. It’s 2 tiers with a blue marlin swimming up toward the top and his boat on the side of the bottom tier and they’re even putting the name of his boat on the side of it. He loved to go deep sea fishing and sadly his boat was totaled in Hurricane Sandy.

I only wish my mom could be there to see all of this.
Visit your parents peeps. Drive, fly, make amends, whatever it takes. Life is short.

 

[jen7233]

My dad’s 80th birthday party is this weekend.

I ordered the most amazing cake for him. It’s 2 tiers with a blue marlin swimming up toward the top and his boat on the side of the bottom tier and they’re even putting the name of his boat on the side of it. He loved to go deep sea fishing and sadly his boat was totaled in Hurricane Sandy.

I only wish my mom could be there to see all of this.
Visit your parents peeps. Drive, fly, make amends, whatever it takes. Life is short.

That's the truth. I did take time for granted. In hindsight I sometimes now among other things, I think about this.

 

[428mom]

I haven't updated in awhile because January was a rough month. I got sick and missed a week of work plus Ohio has gotten some snow storms so I missed 3 days last month and already 2 days this month. I was able to pay off a credit card and I'm still hoping to pay the last one off by the end of March. If we get anything back from taxes it will go towards paying off the credit card then we can move to paying off our Disney trip!

 

[barkley]

i have'nt posted much b/c i've been getting bids/pricing out materials on some home reno work. OMG THE COST after learning how much the different elements of some not horrifically invasive renovations cost i am so glad we upped our insurance coverage b/c the cost of a major claim let alone a complete rebuild has to be horrific.

 

[pblack]

My DH and I are currently talking about replastering our pool instead of just cleaning/painting it like we planned. We may still go with the cleaning/painting option, but I'm not sure. We have someone coming out today to work up a quote for what it would be to replaster/retile/upgrade our filter system (this part definitely needs to be done). The paint would more or less be a "band-aid" and we would end up needing to replaster at some point down the road, especially if we stay in this house longer than I originally intended. I've looked into taking out a home equity loan, which thanks to inflation/demand, we actually qualify for this year. If we do this, we would then take the money from our tax return + a little bit of savings to pay off our Camry loan. The home equity loan, over a 10 year period, would cost us about the same monthly as the Camry payment and essentially take the place of that payment. So we'd be swapping a loan for a loan. We started a wish list of things that we'd like to do in our backyard/side yard and if we decide to take out the home equity loan we'll try to maximize that money as much as possible to get the most stuff done.

Side note not related to that, but I haven't seen @Jen and Ashwin post in awhile. Hope everything is ok with them!

 

[barkley]

We started a wish list of things that we'd like to do in our backyard/side yard

that's the other big project for us this year that we committed to last summer (so we could get penciled in for spring). our front lawn needs to be leveled and re-sodded and dh wants a mow strip around it. again-costly BUT when there were fires in our area over the last few years the homes with healthy, green lawns fared better because the lawns acted as a fire break.

 

[EilonwyWanderer]

Wellllll January wasn't the best. A combination of a number of things sort of catching up to us and then us booking a Disney vacation for March to surprise the girls for their birthdays. I feel like we're basically just throwing money out the window at this point.

Goals:
-Credit card went down a little against all odds. Will go back up a bit because we need a new fridge which we'll probably buy over President's Day weekend. It never ends!
-YNAB eh. It's definitely giving me more of an idea where my money is going, but I can't quite make it work how I want and I haven't reached out to support yet.
-Eat out less. Was doing well on this until the last week or so when a birthday came up and we had storms that knocked out power. Then it was pizza and McDonalds all the way.
-Start 529 -- this has to wait until we've got the credit card down. Really hoping to be able to open accounts for both by summer.

Slow gains but hopefully getting there?

 

[bababear_50]

Check in day........
Well Jan went better than I thought...I've updated all my financial files and have a better picture going forward.
4 1/2 months till retirement. I closed 2 bank accounts and got rid of two credit cards I am not using.

I got a quote on extended health and dental benefits but I've still got a few questions for them because I really don't need the medical part of it...just want the dental...I'll call this week and see what they say.

I started a Christmas 2022 fund and feel confident that I'll be able to fill it up.
I'm also having the talk with family members re Christmas over spending and new rules and expectations....I am the biggest offender here....I always over spend.

Anxiously waiting for some opening dates for Universal Orlando hotels to come out as I really want to book something....anything....lockdown has been hard.

Still waiting on Tax receipts so I can file my taxes,,,, who knows maybe I'll get a refund this year.

This winter has increased my eating-out spending budget and I need to rein it in.
Time to take time on Sundays to pre pack weekly work snacks.

Keep swimming everyone

Mel

 

[jackers]

Had a bit of a budget buster already for February. We bought a third of a beef from my nephew and filled our deep freeze over the weekend. So grocery spend will be extremely high this month, but I’m hoping it will balance out in the end. We had ribeyes last night for dinner and they were amazing.

Starting to accelerate mortgage payments even more than originally planned this month. If it’s something I can maintain, I can knock a full year off my payoff plan. I may be getting additional responsibilities at work in the next couple months and am hoping (and will ask for) a raise will accompany that which will help with this effort. I so badly want to be mortgage free - I’m not even sure where this obsession came from.

 

[disney-inspired]

January went okay - no excess spending and I was underbudget for my WDW trip. This works out perfectly because I have a nice chunk saved for my vacation in 2023.

I'll be revisiting my budget and start paying extra toward my student loans. The question is - private or federal?
The student loan pause is good until May 1st. I could work toward and make progress on paying off the remaining federal loan (about 15k) or I could put that money toward my private loan (~35k/ 3.6% interest).

Thoughts?

 

[zebrastreyepz]

As of today, I have paid off 10 open accounts (this is medical debt, phone, credit cards...anything that was debt or on a monthly plan) and put quite a bit extra towards the ones not paid off. I am very pleased with my results these past two months!

It can be done!

 

[piglet1979]

I'll be revisiting my budget and start paying extra toward my student loans. The question is - private or federal?
The student loan pause is good until May 1st. I could work toward and make progress on paying off the remaining federal loan (about 15k) or I could put that money toward my private loan (~35k/ 3.6% interest).

Thoughts?

My thought would be to put more money on the one with the highest interest rate.

 

[piglet1979]

I am late with my January check in. January was ok. Some medical bills are coming in so I am try to either pay them off right away or get on a payment play. I do have an FSA account so this will help some but I already know one of DD's bills will be half of the amount in that account.

Goals for 2022

• Pay off lower mortgage on the house -- Still working on this. It will be payed off by the end of the year.
• Fix the sun porch (This will be a huge cost but it has to get done) -- No movement here yet other then taking about what we are going to do to pay for it. DH's bonus and our tax return will go towards this. We should start getting quotes shortly.
• Save for trip to Disney in 2023 (kids are going with the marching band and DH and I are having our first no kids trip to Disney) -- We haven't officially started this yet but we have time. I need to get a budget together for this though.
• Lower the amount we spend on eating out. -- We did better at the beginning of the month but with DD still sick and seeing many doctors and some stressful medical stuff with me, we have let our guard down here. We need to rein this back in.

Person goals

• Lose 10 pounds (lost 10 this year and want to continue) -- Stress is really hindering this right now. I ended up gaining about half of what I lose back. I am working on getting back on track.
• Get a will put together (we have talked about this since we had kids. They are now 15 and 14. time to get this done) -- Nothing here other then saying we need to do this.

 

[barkley]

4 1/2 months till retirement

if you commute to your job and your retirement will result in a significant reduction in the mileage you put on your car you might want to contact your insurance company come retirement to see if they offer a discount for driving under a certain amount of miles per year (we get this).

I'll be revisiting my budget and start paying extra toward my student loans. The question is - private or federal?

i'm no expert on this but i know my kid's federal loans have all kinds of protections built in so that if (god forbid) a disability or job loss occured there are ways to put a pause on payments without major financial penalties so that's nice to keep in mind when choosing which to pay off later vs. sooner. the other factor which i will believe when i see it actually happens is-IF there is some kind of government forgiveness of a specific dollar amount on loans my understanding is that can only apply to federal loans.

 

[imbatman]

I’m here. Not as often as I used to be, but it’s tax seasons and the new job is all-encompassing in that way.

Budget wise: doing okay. I ended up taking a slight pay cut with this job because of the medical insurance. Long story. But we’ve been conservative with finances and are doing good. CC is still paid off each month.

Bought our plane tickets for our WDW trip that starts in November. My mom is excited and that makes me happy.

Flowers are growing in the field and pots all around my house, so I am looking forward to selling those. Irrigation, which would’ve been a HUGE expense, was cut in half by a generous lady who is retiring and gave me hundreds of dollars worth of hardware and landscape cloth. She surprised me yesterday with thousands of seeds. Even if only half of them sprout, it’ll be amazing. So between my flowers and taxes, I stay busy.
Today I’m surprising my DH with a birthday party at a friend’s house. He thinks it’s just for the Super Bowl.

 

[zebrastreyepz]

Last Friday, I completely paid off another debt and put extra towards the next one in line.

February is moving along nicely!

 

[pblack]

Last Friday, I completely paid off another debt and put extra towards the next one in line.

February is moving along nicely!

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

Check in for me:
Filed our taxes

We've earned enough credit card rewards to purchase 3 out of the 5 tickets we need for Hawaii

Cooking at least 5 night a week at home has been going well, but jjeessshhh, the cost of groceries for a family of 5 with two teen boys is coming close to the cost of eating out

The Money Maid has been doing her job well

Hawaii savings still going, when that's done, Im going to roll it over to saving up for a new oven range

Next on the list: Cutting our electric bill down. I want to start taking suggestions for app controlled thermostats. I think that could really help up cut down. Here in the South we can get all 4 season in one day