Debt Dumpers 2020

[Buzzsgramma]

My only 4% ones were the ones I got for prior to 1994 or 1995. I turned a good chunk of mine in 4 years ago when I bought my home, but didn’t touch the 4% ones cause of the interest rate. I’ll have to start turning them in soon though since they start to hit the 30 year maturity in the next year.

Correct he was born in 1990..we bought him $1000 bonds the first few years...so the rates were good...certainly higher than now...

 

[Scoobie]

@imbatman That is such great news!! Going to the conference sounds like it will be more pro than con - you gotta spend money to make money sometimes. Happy for you to have a second career you enjoy!

 

[Scoobie]

So far on track this year (hehe, all 30 days of it). Got the last cc 1/3 down, 2/3 left to go. On track with savings, unless I decide to mostly wipe that out by paying off said cc way early. Not sure if my heart can handle that, will have to keep considering for awhile. Older DS is the same (special needs), tried talking him into maybe a college class this year - nah. Ok. Younger DS (diagnosed bipolar 2018) still not where he needs to be with meds and counseling (struggling), but decided to take a couple college classes he thought he might enjoy (doesn't need either of them, but that's ok) that we can pay out of the 529. Starting Japanese and drawing, so far enjoying them but hard to pull himself out of bed for the day - working on his happiness. Will be taking the "boys" to Seattle comic con in March, they are looking forward to that! Younger DS is also working on his aquaman costume (he's also a leather artisan), that brings him some joy as well. Little furbaby is still plugging along, not using her leg much but otherwise has some energy and in good spirits (diagnosed with cancer in Nov.)! In fact, she isn't acting any different yet, and she turns 17 on March 17th - you would never know it to watch her. Her doc asked if we had been dipping her in formaldehyde since she looks and acts much younger - well I haven't been but maybe someone has! Cheers to everyone, haven't been on in awhile but good to read back and see how everyone is!!

 

[crazycatstacy]

Well sad news....someone from Florida won the lottery so I am still poor and am going to have to work to pay my stuff off!! So far we are doing okay the first month of the year. We have not been spending. Husbands pay got switched to every other week rather than 1x per month back in November and we are still figuring out how best to work that. I think we might finally have a plan for it that works. Fingers crossed!

 

[bellylaugh]

I’m so glad today is payday! Even with our WDW trip, we didn’t spend too much this month, but the credit card bills reflected the holiday spending so I definitely felt stretched at times. We managed to dump $1342 of debt this month and I’m expecting February to be better on that front since I am planning on putting a chunk of our tax refund towards the CC balances.

 

[Eureka]

I looked at DS' college bill yesterday - we have a 10-month payment plan, which is administered separately from the bill, and have three payments left. The bill actually has credited the entire semester's expenses even though aren't done paying, but when we did the estimation calculator to set up the payments for the whole year, we overestimated and have a large credit (over $3000) on the college account. So I can go in and adjust the payment plan and our last payments will be a lot less. DH would rather I just pay the next one (due next week; I'll pay tomorrow when we get paid) as normal and then adjust after that because the semester just started and it's possible that something else will show up on the bill. I'm fine with that, which will make the last two months much, much less. And then we have a two-month "vacation" before we start the payments for next year. I'm guessing DH will adjust the plan for next year so we are not paying as much and then will want to funnel some of that money back into retirement. But I'd much rather have this problem than seeing we're short and need to come up with more money. We're trying not to use his 529 until we have two in college at once.

 

[DLgal]

Well sad news....someone from Florida won the lottery so I am still poor and am going to have to work to pay my stuff off!! So far we are doing okay the first month of the year. We have not been spending. Husbands pay got switched to every other week rather than 1x per month back in November and we are still figuring out how best to work that. I think we might finally have a plan for it that works. Fingers crossed!

I'm going to suggest instead of having a monthly budget, start working with a 2 week budget. Monthly budgets work great if you only get paid once a month, but become inefficient with a more frequent payday.

We have always been paid on the 1st and 15th. What I do is split the monthly bills. I use a spreadsheet and it lists all the bills in order of when they are due. Then, I take the ones due before the 15th and those are paid with the first paycheck. The second half are paid with the second paycheck. I leave about $150 extra in the checking account after each payday for cash withdrawals. This system has worked for me for 20 years. I could never use a "monthly" budget system.

 

[pblack]

I'm going to suggest instead of having a monthly budget, start working with a 2 week budget. Monthly budgets work great if you only get paid once a month, but become inefficient with a more frequent payday.

We have always been paid on the 1st and 15th. What I do is split the monthly bills. I use a spreadsheet and it lists all the bills in order of when they are due. Then, I take the ones due before the 15th and those are paid with the first paycheck. The second half are paid with the second paycheck. I leave about $150 extra in the checking account after each payday for cash withdrawals. This system has worked for me for 20 years. I could never use a "monthly" budget system.

This is what I do as well. I get paid 1x/month on the last day of the month, but DH gets paid on the 15th and the last day of the month. So majority of our bills get paid on the last day of the month/the first. The bills that aren't due until after the 15th get paid out on the 15th. It's worked pretty well for us so far.

 

[DLgal]

Doing pretty good over here. Spending this month is WAY down. I've been consciously thinking hard about every purchase and trying to only buy the food that we actually NEED. We have only been out to eat once and that was a day at Disneyland where we only spent $34 all day.

I did have to buy new running shoes and ran into a lot of problems with finding a pair that didn't cause pain (THANK YOU ZAPPOS for your Runlimited Guarantee!!!). I've purchased 3 pairs of running shoes this month and returned 2 of them after trial runs. I finally found a pair that works. I hate it when shoe companies change shoe models from year to year and then the shoe feels completely different. Ugh! Of course,the pair that worked was the most expensive at $150, but the 10% military discount at Zappos helps.

I also had to buy a new Nutribullet blender which was annoying because the one I had was less than a year old and started leaking every time I used it. It's a design flaw and I bought a different design this time. It was a necessary expense because we make smoothies several times a week. I used a 20% new customer discount code and ordered direct from Nutribullet. So, spent only $80. While waiting for it to arrive, we visited Jamba juice and it was $17 for 3 smoothies. Sheesh.

I ALSO had to buy a new humidifier because I am getting over a cold and it is VERY dry here right now (yesterday was 11% humidity) and my sinuses were burning. Our old humidifier crapped out 2 months ago and I tossed it. Praise Amazon for one day delivery!

Even with these purchases, we are set to put a whopping $4500 into long term savings next month AND an extra $500 into our short term savings. Right on track with all my goals as of now.

 

[RamblingMad]

My spending is up with new house stuff. Once I get through this first year, my expenses will settle down to what I expect.

 

[DLgal]

Heads up to anyone with an AMEX card. Check your Amazon account for a 20% offer if you use at least 1 Membership Rewards point to pay for items sold and shipped by Amazon, up to $50 off! I had this offer in my account this morning and am so happy because I need to buy new air filters and a bunch of other random things in my cart that are "saved for later."

You can also redeem this deal by purchasing giftcards!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Got our first roof estimate tonight....$17k We'll still be calling around for a few other estimates, but this first one just blew my mind. We expected $10-12k...not $17k. We did really like the guy/company and if we go with him he will also include gutters at no extra charge (and we do need new gutters), but I guess we'll see what happens. Not quite sure how we plan on paying for it at the moment. I dont think we have enough equity in the house to refinance or take a HELOC out. <insert big sigh here>

Get several estimates. Our roof estimates varied a lot even though no one was including any extras like gutters. How bad do you need gutters? Is it urgent to get them now? If not just focus on the roof.
Once you start thinking with the “Might as well add in the xxxxx while we’re at it...” it starts getting into really big bucks.

 

[pblack]

Get several estimates. Our roof estimates varied a lot even though no one was including any extras like gutters. How bad do you need gutters? Is it urgent to get them now? If not just focus on the roof.
Once you start thinking with the “Might as well add in the xxxxx while we’re at it...” it starts getting into really big bucks.

We're definitely getting other estimates. The gutters are also pretty much a need, not a want. Our gutters now don't work properly, despite that my DH has spent countless hours messing with them. The $17k estimate doesn't actually include the price of gutters. He was going to "gift" them to us if we decide to use his business, as long as we let him know within the next few weeks. He also mentioned the fact that he can knock a few hundred or so off if let him advertise in our yard and leave him a yelp review, which I don't mind either of those if we decide to go with him.

@imbatman I know you said you have family in the roofing business, do you know anything about Owens Corning? Whether or not they are good or not? This is the brand that he works exclusively with, but since I know nothing about roofing I have no idea if they're decent or not.

 

[Eureka]

I'm going to suggest instead of having a monthly budget, start working with a 2 week budget. Monthly budgets work great if you only get paid once a month, but become inefficient with a more frequent payday.

We have always been paid on the 1st and 15th. What I do is split the monthly bills. I use a spreadsheet and it lists all the bills in order of when they are due. Then, I take the ones due before the 15th and those are paid with the first paycheck. The second half are paid with the second paycheck. I leave about $150 extra in the checking account after each payday for cash withdrawals. This system has worked for me for 20 years. I could never use a "monthly" budget system.

I do something very similar. I get paid on the 15th and last day of the month and DH is paid every two weeks. Sometimes they coincide and other times we are getting a paycheck in every week. I have a list of the month's bills and every Friday (when he gets paid) I pay everything that's due before the next paycheck comes in. Our car insurance bill (2 teen boys, 2 adults and 3 cars) is the biggest bill aside from our mortgage and is due on the 18th so I always plan that to come out of my 15th paycheck.

 

[imbatman]

We're definitely getting other estimates. The gutters are also pretty much a need, not a want. Our gutters now don't work properly, despite that my DH has spent countless hours messing with them. The $17k estimate doesn't actually include the price of gutters. He was going to "gift" them to us if we decide to use his business, as long as we let him know within the next few weeks. He also mentioned the fact that he can knock a few hundred or so off if let him advertise in our yard and leave him a yelp review, which I don't mind either of those if we decide to go with him.

@imbatman I know you said you have family in the roofing business, do you know anything about Owens Corning? Whether or not they are good or not? This is the brand that he works exclusively with, but since I know nothing about roofing I have no idea if they're decent or not.

Couple of things: if you have gutters that don't work now, they are really a need. What'll happen is that they will cause rot in the fascia board or the supports will cause damage. That gets even more expensive with a partial roof tear off and reinstall. Make sure that he has experience installing gutters. My FIL never did gutters as a roofing company, he used a gutter company. It also makes a difference if they are seamless gutters (which are fabulous and have little problems when installed properly).

Make sure to get the reduction in price for the advertisement and review in writing.

Owens Corning is a good brand. Lots of roofers use it but it is a brand below Certainteed and Malarkey (I think those are their names...). Get at least three estimates and PLEASE use an established roofer who's done residential in your area for at least 7 years, 10 preferably. That means that they know which shingles will stand up to the heat of your area and which ones fail and need repairs. Also ask to see their Workers Comp and liability insurance certificates before you sign the final contract.

 

[pblack]

Couple of things: if you have gutters that don't work now, they are really a need. What'll happen is that they will cause rot in the fascia board or the supports will cause damage. That gets even more expensive with a partial roof tear off and reinstall. Make sure that he has experience installing gutters. My FIL never did gutters as a roofing company, he used a gutter company. It also makes a difference if they are seamless gutters (which are fabulous and have little problems when installed properly).

Make sure to get the reduction in price for the advertisement and review in writing.

Owens Corning is a good brand. Lots of roofers use it but it is a brand below Certainteed and Malarkey (I think those are their names...). Get at least three estimates and PLEASE use an established roofer who's done residential in your area for at least 7 years, 10 preferably. That means that they know which shingles will stand up to the heat of your area and which ones fail and need repairs. Also ask to see their Workers Comp and liability insurance certificates before you sign the final contract.

Thanks for the tips! I do know that they would be seamless gutters since my DH asked about that. I'm pretty sure some of the boards are already rotted since these gutters aren't new. I'm sure there has been a decent amount of damage over the years since they don't work very well.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Finally got my W2! Still missing a couple bank forms but so far it looks like I'll be getting around $1500 back total. Pretty happy with that! DH should get back about $3000. That will be more than enough to pay off DH's student loan!

 

[jen7233]

January was a terrible month financially here. Moving on to Feb!

OK, these housing repair costs are scaring me! Yikes. Same with topics on Social Security, LTC.

 

[StacyStrong]

I’m finding this convo on pay periods very interesting. I get paid semi-monthly but have started a monthly budget. All my major bills are due at the beginning of the month but I get paid the 15th and last day of the month. I usually just end up paying everything with a credit card for the cash back and then pay the credit card off in full. Obviously inefficient because then the balance gets reported (even though it’s not revolving).

So I guess my question is how asking to have due dates changed works? Does it mess up the bill (end up being higher for a month due to the adjustment)? Is there anything I should know or be aware of if I try to stagger my due dates?

 

[kymom99]

I’m finding this convo on pay periods very interesting. I get paid semi-monthly but have started a monthly budget. All my major bills are due at the beginning of the month but I get paid the 15th and last day of the month. I usually just end up paying everything with a credit card for the cash back and then pay the credit card off in full. Obviously inefficient because then the balance gets reported (even though it’s not revolving).

So I guess my question is how asking to have due dates changed works? Does it mess up the bill (end up being higher for a month due to the adjustment)? Is there anything I should know or be aware of if I try to stagger my due dates?

Your money from the month before should be used to pay the following month's bills. I get one check between the 27-29th of the month. I pay the next month's bills with that deposit.