Debt Free in 2007 - Did you make it?

[starwishing]

Do credit cards care, or does it matter I guess, if you make as many payments on line that you wish?! I would suppose just as long as at least the minimun is paid by due date, that's all that matters right!?

Some cards have limits on how many times you can pay online a month, my one says you can only make 4 payments a statement. (Not that I ever have )

 

[brookelizabeth]

Awww, what a cute little guy

After thinking about it, I decided to pay off my car anyway. I kept $1000 in emergency savings and we will work hard to get that up to $15,000 ASAP (it will take a while). We still have the student loan debt of about $8600 but because the interest rate is so low (3.37%), and the payments are only $76 a month, I am not counting that right now. This is as close as I will be to debt free by December. Well, I guess I could count the three $76 payments toward the student loan too.

Thanks for motivating me everyone

Thank you!!!

Congrats on paying off your car! One step closer... I'm keeping my Student Loan as the last thing to pay off too b/c the interest is so low, my payments are also right around $76/month. It will be quite a while before we even get to the Student Loan though...

 

[brookelizabeth]

Just curious though, (I have only gotten through 5-6 pages, so bear with me if this is already answered somewhere), for those of you paying off credit cards- how are you doing this? I mean, anytime of the month you get extra cash, do you send it in? Or, do you send in one lump sum on the due date? I am not sure how to make that work.

DH and I pay minimum on everything and then after doing our budget we figure out how much we'll have left over and put about 75% of that toward the debt we are focusing on. We focus on one debt at a time. We do our budget every time we get paid (every 2 weeks). So the debt that we are focusing on usually gets paid twice a month.

 

[brookelizabeth]

I think I failed to mention this earlier...we are almost a month ahead on our mortgage payment-we WILL be a full month ahead in October! This is due to being very diligent about writing a budget every pay period and saving half our mortgage payment on the pay period it's not due.

It's a real miracle to us, considering earlier this year we BARELY made the payment each month. Living on cash and being strict about our budget has seriously changed our lives! Thank you to everyone for your continued encouragement!

 

[brookelizabeth]

As of October 2nd, our BIGGEE that was at $5,000 and 30% interest is GONE! DONE! ZERO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YEAAAAAAAAA!

Now, onto the next highest interest rate one (not doing that part Dave Ramsey style, we have too many at way too high of an interest rate!), this one is only $700 and we just paid an extra $300 on it today!

One down, 9 to go...

 

[MagicalMom]

Congrats Brookelizabeth! That is great!

I just found out that I have received a 2.00/ hr raise! That's gone to help a lot towards our debt reduction!

 

[TwistofLemon]

Way To Go Brookelizabeth!!

You are an inspiration!!

 

[isyt]

Congrats BrookeElizabeth!!

I have been in a overbudget slump. Although I only have 1 cc with about $4700 (I hoped to have it paid off by December), my car is being worked on for about $1200. I really felt the need to get away last weekend and we did a road trip to Niagara Falls. We had a great time but now I am so upset that it cost so much. I guess that will teach me. Now we need a liner in our chimney for another $1200. I know I will have to dip into emergency funds and my vacation fund to cover all these costs so I hope I can build it back up while trying to pay off the debt.

 

[jenm2878]

I really felt the need to get away last weekend and we did a road trip to Niagara Falls. We had a great time but now I am so upset that it cost so much. I guess that will teach me.

I feel your pain. I made my final payment on our December Disney trip today and now I feel HORRIBLE about spending the money. We both really need a vacation and have saved up for this all year. No credit cards involved, (well I paid for it w/my credit card to get miles and then am going to pay it off with what we've saved) we've planned and saved for the trip, but I hate seeing what we saved disappear!

We've done really well this year paying things down though so I can't feel too bad. We paid off all of our credit cards and my DH's car got paid off this summer. Now we just need to keep chugging away on the HELOC, my car, and the dreaded student loans. If we manage all that, THEN we'll worry about the house. I'm not overly concerned about the house though - we bought a fixer-upper a few years ago and our mortgage is much less then most people pay in rent.

 

[brookelizabeth]

Congrats Brookelizabeth! That is great!

I just found out that I have received a 2.00/ hr raise! That's gone to help a lot towards our debt reduction!

Thank you! And Congrats to you on the $2.00 an hour raise!!!! That is awesome!

Way To Go Brookelizabeth!!

You are an inspiration!!

Thank you! We have a long ways to go, but these little milestones certainly encourage us!

Congrats BrookeElizabeth!!

I have been in a overbudget slump. Although I only have 1 cc with about $4700 (I hoped to have it paid off by December), my car is being worked on for about $1200. I really felt the need to get away last weekend and we did a road trip to Niagara Falls. We had a great time but now I am so upset that it cost so much. I guess that will teach me. Now we need a liner in our chimney for another $1200. I know I will have to dip into emergency funds and my vacation fund to cover all these costs so I hope I can build it back up while trying to pay off the debt.

And thank you to you as well! I know what you mean about using money for a getaway, we have done that as well. We have our anniversery coming up and while we want to get away, at the same time we don't want to take a step back in paying off our debt. I'm thinking the little trip will win-out though, just an overnight thing probably-but we are REALLY good at spending money! lol Look at it this way, at least you don't have to CHARGE to get all those things done. You have the money saved! You might have to touch the savings, but it's much better than touching the plastic!

 

[MinMouse]

We have our anniversery coming up and while we want to get away, at the same time we don't want to take a step back in paying off our debt. I'm thinking the little trip will win-out though, just an overnight thing probably-but we are REALLY good at spending money! lol Look at it this way, at least you don't have to CHARGE to get all those things done. You have the money saved! You might have to touch the savings, but it's much better than touching the plastic!

Brooke-- Just a suggestion for your anniversary . . . A few times my DH & I did an overnight trip at a local Inn that has a restaurant and hotel. They offered packages that included dinner and accommodations for the evening. We always choose the cheapest package which was around $150 (it went up a lot higher if you wanted a bigger room, suite, jacuzzi, etc.). It was only about 1/2 hour from home so it was great when our girls were small. We could quickly come home if necessary. We also knew exactly how much it was going to cost which helped the budget. Congrats on your first year!
Mindy

 

[MagicalMom]

Brooke, I'm not sure where you live but DH & I celebrated our 9 year anniversay Monday night. We stayed at a nice hotel on the water in Oceran City, MD (The Carousel). Since it was off season we only paid 65.00 (including tax & stuff) for the night. We had the beach to ourselves for a romantic evening stroll.

 

[girli565]

Well as of tomorrow I will be totally debt free!! I even have enough to get the car problem fixed without making a dent in any savings!! Thank you guys for all the support!

All CC's balances I have paid off since June 2007:
Chase - $2000
Citicard - $3000
Dell - $1587
Capital One - $987
Credit Union Visa - $350
Bank of America - $1193

Balance on all cards as of 10/11/07... $0.00!!

Now all I need to do is direct the money into my savings account and keep the remaining CC's active with small charges every month (paid off before interest can accrue) and my credit score should be a lot better by the time we go mortgage hunting in February!

 

[mickeyfan2]

Well as of tomorrow I will be totally debt free!! I even have enough to get the car problem fixed without making a dent in any savings!! Thank you guys for all the support!

All CC's balances I have paid off since June 2007:
Chase - $2000
Citicard - $3000
Dell - $1587
Capital One - $987
Credit Union Visa - $350
Bank of America - $1193

Balance on all cards as of 10/11/07... $0.00!!

Now all I need to do is direct the money into my savings account and keep the remaining CC's active with small charges every month (paid off before interest can accrue) and my credit score should be a lot better by the time we go mortgage hunting in February!

Great job!!!!

That is over $9K in 4 months.

 

[storybookstory]

Now all I need to do is direct the money into my savings account and keep the remaining CC's active with small charges every month (paid off before interest can accrue) and my credit score should be a lot better by the time we go mortgage hunting in February!

First off, congratulations!! That is an AMAZING accomplishment!!

But, I don't understand the line "remaining CC's active ...". Aren't you going to close all your CC accounts except for one? You don't need more than one. You really don't need one even, but for boosting your FICA score I can see your point.

Suze Orman does a great job describing FICA scores in her book "Young, Fabulous, and Broke". You might want to pick it up at the library to really see what you need to do.

Awesome job!!

 

[girli565]

Great job!!!!

That is over $9K in 4 months.

Thanks!! yeah, I really buckled down this summer and all monies in went straight out to CC's!! defer my 10 month checks to 12 months and the 4 paychecks I get during the summer really helped. I took a professional development over the summer that paid $1875 for the week long class. I took that as cash and used that for incidentals all summer and all money that came in from paychecks went straight to the credit cards.

 

[girli565]

First off, congratulations!! That is an AMAZING accomplishment!!

But, I don't understand the line "remaining CC's active ...". Aren't you going to close all your CC accounts except for one? You don't need more than one. You really don't need one even, but for boosting your FICA score I can see your point.

Suze Orman does a great job describing FICA scores in her book "Young, Fabulous, and Broke". You might want to pick it up at the library to really see what you need to do.

Awesome job!!

I spoke with a family friend who is a mortgage broker and we sat down with all my finances and decided together which cards should be closed and which to keep open. They all got paid off but the BoA, Chase and Citi were closed because of specific reasons (BoA closed on it's own accord because they said I was not an ideal customer anymore) and I will be keeping the Cap1, Credit Union Visa and I also have a Household acct with a pretty high limit that has been used once and paid off since May. I'm keeping 3 cards and the rest have been closed.

The mortgage broker told me to do little things with the remaining cards, like I'm going to hook-up my Sunpass to one, because I always put $40 a month on the Sunpass so why not just pay it to the CC instead. And the others I guess I'll put my Blockbuster online on one and the DirecTV on the other. I pay those every month so why not just pay them to the credit card!?

Thanks for the help, I think I may just check out the book!

 

[brookelizabeth]

Brooke-- Just a suggestion for your anniversary . . . A few times my DH & I did an overnight trip at a local Inn that has a restaurant and hotel. They offered packages that included dinner and accommodations for the evening. We always choose the cheapest package which was around $150 (it went up a lot higher if you wanted a bigger room, suite, jacuzzi, etc.). It was only about 1/2 hour from home so it was great when our girls were small. We could quickly come home if necessary. We also knew exactly how much it was going to cost which helped the budget. Congrats on your first year!
Mindy

Brooke, I'm not sure where you live but DH & I celebrated our 9 year anniversay Monday night. We stayed at a nice hotel on the water in Oceran City, MD (The Carousel). Since it was off season we only paid 65.00 (including tax & stuff) for the night. We had the beach to ourselves for a romantic evening stroll.

These are great ideas! We live in the 'frozen tundra' of Minnesota, so I'm sure there are deals like this going on. Seriously, who wants to visit Minnesota when it's 50 degrees out?! Ugh. We could head down to Minneapolis for the night..

Thanks!!

 

[brookelizabeth]

Well as of tomorrow I will be totally debt free!! I even have enough to get the car problem fixed without making a dent in any savings!! Thank you guys for all the support!

All CC's balances I have paid off since June 2007:
Chase - $2000
Citicard - $3000
Dell - $1587
Capital One - $987
Credit Union Visa - $350
Bank of America - $1193

Balance on all cards as of 10/11/07... $0.00!!

Now all I need to do is direct the money into my savings account and keep the remaining CC's active with small charges every month (paid off before interest can accrue) and my credit score should be a lot better by the time we go mortgage hunting in February!

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!! Way to go!!!!!!!!!

What an EXCELLENT way to start off buying a house!!!

 

[girli565]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!! Way to go!!!!!!!!!

What an EXCELLENT way to start off buying a house!!!

Thank you!! Yeah, the Dfi and I are really excited about entering into our marraige with no unnecessary debt!

Thanks!!