Getting out of debt in OCTOBER - Page 2

[MrsHin2002]

Just jumping in with a question here:

DH and I are setting up a debt repayment plan (likely following a mix of advice from Dave Ramsey + Gail Vaz-Oxlade).

Here's my question:

If we know now that this Spring we need to do some repairs on our back deck (to make it usable - there are rotten boards that have broken through) does it make sense to a) budget 1/5th of the amount needed each month from Jan-May so we'll have the cash on hand (in savings) to get the job done once winter's over, but therefore putting less on debt repayment for these same months or b) put the max on debt repayment for Jan-Apr and then taper back to minimum payments for one month to free up the repair cash - then going back to full pymts in June?

We have several things like this that we'll need to budget for - this is just an example (Christmas is another example). Some will be easy to manage in one month of minimum pymts (some might take two) - so just not sure if we should save while prioritizing debt repayment at the same time or do it another way?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Karen

Sent from my BlackBerry 9300 using Tapatalk

[mylilmonkeys]

Originally Posted by MrsHin2002 

Just jumping in with a question here:
DH and I are setting up a debt repayment plan (likely following a mix of advice from Dave Ramsey + Gail Vaz-Oxlade).
Here's my question:
If we know now that this Spring we need to do some repairs on our back deck (to make it usable - there are rotten boards that have broken through) does it make sense to a) budget 1/5th of the amount needed each month from Jan-May so we'll have the cash on hand (in savings) to get the job done once winter's over, but therefore putting less on debt repayment for these same months or b) put the max on debt repayment for Jan-Apr and then taper back to minimum payments for one month to free up the repair cash - then going back to full pymts in June?
We have several things like this that we'll need to budget for - this is just an example (Christmas is another example). Some will be easy to manage in one month of minimum pymts (some might take two) - so just not sure if we should save while prioritizing debt repayment at the same time or do it another way?
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
Karen
Sent from my BlackBerry 9300 using Tapatalk

Will you be able to finish paying off anything between now and then if you stick to the repayment plan?

I did stop paying on my last CC this last summer while we funneled that money to working on the house while DH was out of classes to do it.  But I had been able to transfer that last balance to a zero interest card while we did it.  I think you might need to compare interest rates and figure out what the actual cost of one plan vs. the other might be.  (There are a few people on here who are good at this kind of math if you share the numbers.  I am not one of them!)  But if you could potentially pay off a balance between now and then by not saving up for the deck, I would do that and make it work by paying minimums when the time came.  
 

[mylilmonkeys]

Originally Posted by Paigekitten 

I thought the debt snowball was paying the minimum due on all debt and putting any extra toward one debt at a time and after paying that adding the amount for that debt and any extra and putting that amount to another until IT'S paid off and so on, not just not paying certain debts, but still paying them off faster then if spreading the extra between all of them?

[mylilmonkeys]

I'm so so glad that I went ahead and paid off that last card when I did.  We normally have a decrease in income during fall/winter months, but it is dropping fast this year!  We are already down $450/month since August and it's not looking great.  I hope the hemorrhaging stops pretty quick and we can hit an equilibrium real fast.  I haven't had to adjust our savings plan yet, but it's looking like that might have to happen if we continue this downturn.  Yikes!  One of our funds is our gift fund, so that'll be first to cut short.  We really, really need to keep saving for our new vehicles.  Our van experienced an alternator failure a couple weeks ago.  It's just nearing the end of its useful life.  It is a '95 or '96.   Dh's car is running a little better since he added an additive to the transmission fluid, but it is still not great.  Since he drives almost an hour to work both ways we need this vehicle to run.  We did an experiment where he took the truck (our third vehicle, an inheritance from when his dad passed), and I switched to the car to run kids around, and it was at least double the gas for him to drive the truck.  So while he would at least still have transportation, the fuel expenses would kill us if the car fails before we replace it.  

On a positive note, technically our savings account is halfway to the FFEF status.  While everything but the $1000 is designated for a necessity, at least it proves that once we replace our vehicles and complete our planned move next summer (so we can cut out that commute!), saving for our FFEF for real shouldn't take very long.  I told DH that about this time next year, if all goes according to plan, we should really be cruising.  THAT is a fantastic feeling, considering where we have come from!

[AnkaJones]

Congrads!!!
 

Originally Posted by Paigekitten 

We finished Pre step 1 !!!!!  Now we can start socking money away for our $1000 EF!

[AnkaJones]

I finally got the DR book from the libary.  It's fabulous!  I got the idea for what I should do from the intro post to this thread and we started on it, but it was great motivation to read the book.  I read it in one sitting, and DH is reading it now.

Anka

[alaskanmomma]

-What is your number one played song on your ipod....or other musical device of any kind....
"Back to December" by Taylor Swift

 

-What is one of your favourite quotes?
"You don't raise heroes, you raise sons. And if you treat them like sons, they'll turn out to be heroes, even if it's just in your own eyes."-Walter M. Schirra, Sr.

 

-If you could choose to stay a certain age forever, which age would it be?
I'd want to be 5 again, back when things were carefree and simple .

 

-If you won the lottery/came into a financial windfall, what would you do?
Pay off any outstanding debts, pay for my med. school, save some for my childrens college funds, buy a house..

 

-If you have 30 minutes of free time, what will you most likely be doing?
I'm an internet junkie.

 

-How did you come up with your username?
I'm from Alaska and a momma... I know, I'm a simple folk.

 

-The best part of waking up is ____________.
Foldger's in my cup(actually, we drink a local coffee brand, Kaladi Bros. buuuuut for the sake of the song).

[alaskanmomma]

I just paid off a $605 credit card balance, and am working towards paying off a $650 medical bill and $2000 student loan (I made some financial mistakes big time, I know, I know.) I'm just trying to pay off as much of both as much as possible. I'd like to stop borrowing, but I'm a college student and can't afford paying out of pocket for school. My husband and I are admittedly spenders when we don't have it, and we're just trying hard to not buy anything unless we truly need it.

[mylilmonkeys]

Good job, Alaskanmomma!

[Wolfcat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paigekitten 

I thought the debt snowball was paying the minimum due on all debt and putting any extra toward one debt at a time and after paying that adding the amount for that debt and any extra and putting that amount to another until IT'S paid off and so on, not just not paying certain debts, but still paying them off faster then if spreading the extra between all of them?

Most of my debt is medical bills, mostly from the birth of my kids. They don't HAVE minimum payments, and some months, paying them off equally is about $15-20 each. So rather than risk getting one of them in a tizzy and get sent to collections, I pay equally on all of them each time. I've gotten about half of it done doing this, so it works for my specific situation.

[EmsMom]

BS1 $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund
1.1 Chop up/freeze CC's (You have an EF now) (I use these appropriately and always pay the balance)
1.2 Get Health insurance NOW if in the US
1.3 Get Life insurance NOW if you have considerable debt/your family couldn't make it financially if you died.
1.4 Amputate cars that you can't pay off within 24 months

BS2 Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball
2.0 Do the debt snowball, paying all your debts from lowest BALANCE to highest.(There is still some student loan debt but it is not due yet and not accruing interest.  As soon as the divorce is final, there is enough to pay it)

BS3 Three to six months of expenses in savings
3.1 Start car replacement fund
3.2 Save up 20% for home purchase OR pay down existing mortgage to the point you can drop PMI.
3.3 Start furniture or other non-essential stuff replacement fund

BS4 Invest 15 percent of household income for retirement (I am currently investing 5% but it will increase shortly)

BS5 College funding for children

You know, I didn't think I would get this far.  I left my financially secure marriage about two years ago with nothing, not even a job, actually.  $24000 a year in alimony and child support.  Found a part-time job and going to grad school, paying some of my tuition in cash, paid off a 10000 car loan, paid off my attorney.  My last year of grad school I got a full tuition and stipend scholarship.  I also tutored, worked an extra part-time job in the summers, sold books on Amazon, even picked up pennies in the street if I saw them!  So now I am completely debt free.  I actually also  have a decent down payment on a house if housing prices remain at current levels until I get a full time job. 

I have followed this thread but never posted much.  But I wanted to post this. 

 

[CookiePie]

Adele~ Rolling In The Deep!!!!

Beleive (More of a Mantra)

I don't know, I have yet to have a ground breaking year, or age that I'd like to stay in forever.  Growth is a good thing, I'm still learning...although ageing can be scary!

If I won lottery or came into a significant amount of money, I would pay off all debt first, establish a significant nest egg and possibly go back to school. 

Online job searching, or reading

It is a nickname of DD2

The best part of waking up is white tea with cinnamon, honey & milk!

We are at baby step 2 we are using up most of our savings to replace the roof before winter!  Will keep $500 in savings though!   I decided after struggling the last year that it is time to go back to work full time now that the kids are older.  I hope to get a decent job offer soon!!!!  Also wondering how the heck we are going to swing Christmas!!!  Would love some advice on this topic!!!!  Started using Mint.com to help me stay accountable with budget!  I like it a lot, it really helped me save for the roof, but wish it allowed me to start budgeting for the following month! 

Edited by CookiePie - 10/20/11 at 6:40am

[pranamama]

thanks to this website,   we have started the schoolyear without the usual spending !!

I am enjoying adele's latest

slogan trust your guy

lottery,   I would probably take the yearly payout and keep at zero debt and spend it for kids college , the best part of waking up is "cheapest i can find" coffee in my cup.   Weird my enter key quit working.      I have to restock the emergency fund, and fist goal is to pay off 2 service providers and 2 small other bills :)

[kitteh]

Originally Posted by eirual 

To help us better get to know one another, feel free to answer any or all of the following questions in your reply.

-What is your number one played song on your ipod....or other musical device of any kind....

We listen to a lot of Joni Mitchell and Jaco Pastorius around here.

-What is one of your favourite quotes?

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain

-If you could choose to stay a certain age forever, which age would it be?

I'm not 30 yet (next week!) but something tells me it is gonna be a good year.

-If you won the lottery/came into a financial windfall, what would you do?

Pay off the rest of our cc debt (3k) and my student loans (23k) and pay for DH to complete his education here in the US. Then we'd definitely purchase a beautiful Victorian home somewhere with a big yard and enough room for my in-laws to move up here from Chile. Then we'd start trying for baby #2.

-If you have 30 minutes of free time, what will you most likely be doing?

Running. Usually. Not right now, because I have a nasty cold and low-grade fever. I haven't run in 4 days and I'm beginning to feel twitchy.

-How did you come up with your username?

It's from an old hs nickname thing, badkitty. It has morphed over time.

-The best part of waking up is ____________.

My dd's big eyes and smile shining back at me, and the little gibberish that she whispers to herself/her toys upon first waking. Now that I'm waking up early to work at an elementary school I end up sneaking out while she's still asleep, and I really miss that.

October has been another great month for us, thank god. Dh has been working a lot of overtime and his promotion to security guard at the hotel means that he won't see a decrease in hours this winter like he did as a valet. So that is awesome too. Waiting to see if I am eligible for an extension of EDD payments. If not we'll be bringing in $200 less each month than we did this month, so really crossing my fingers hard for that one. I'm underemployed and was getting benefits on top of my pay, and I'm not sure if that precludes me from being eligible for extension?

All but ~$1000 of our cc debt is at 0% til 2013 so we are putting that on the back burner for now. The ~$1000 is at 7% and we should have that gone by the new year. Student loans are on IBR plan for now, and any extra $$ is going into our EF which is at $1500. I'm hoping to have that fully funded (between $9k and $11k) by this time next year, but that is a pretty tall order and would require lots of discipline and some good luck,  so we'll see.

[AnkaJones]

Hi All,

DH and I are recently committed to becoming completely debt free and have cancelled all of our credit cards.  Question for all of you -- how do you deal with work related travel without a credit card?  We're both required to travel occasionally for work, and the way our company likes to do it is to have us buy hotel/airplane, etc on a personal credit card, then reimburse us later.  Aside from the obvious cash flow downside of doing this on a debit card, which we expected, we've found that hotels actually put a hold on a pretty large amount of money on the debit card which they wouldn't on a credit card.  Some of them take a really long time to release the hold after checkout (in one case over a month).

Anyone have any tips/tricks?  How do you all budget for this sort of expense (we're new to budgeting over the last month or so, so even 'dumb stuff' would be helpful here)?

Thanks,

Anka

[eirual]

AnkaJones,

I travelled over the summer and found out the hard way you pretty much need a credit card for EVERYTHING (buying meals or anything on a plane, booking a rental car, I'm sure hotels would require one).

I would get one, but keep it solely for travel. We have one, but I keep it cut up in a drawer. Next time I travel, I'll get a replacement card and be sure to use it....responsibly....

MrsHin,

Is the deck an absolute must? Can you tear it down if it's dangerous and just live without one for a year while you save to do it next summer? While you're paying off debt I'd try to keep the rest of "life" as creatively cheap as possible.

If it's a must, I would get a quote and start saving each month so that you can pay for it in cash when the time comes (so i guess that would be your plan A)....bringing in some extra income so you can still fire $$ at your debt would be ideal, IMO.

Trekkingirl,

Thanks :)

I'm in Canada so i'd imagine shipping would be $$!! but thank you. ... We do have a freecycle and I check kijiji often- there's tons of stuff out there, it'll just be getting the right stuff at the right time (I'm now 7wks....I had to stop myself from getting pre-folds off kijiji @ 5wks....we've still got a long ways to go!).

I've been so exhausted lately, so I'm anxiously waiting for the first trimester to be gone and on its way so I can get at least SOME of my energy back. We've been getting a little loosey-goosey with the budget lately (more eating out than I'd care to admit but we also saved nearly double what we were hoping to last month since we had lots of random income that we don't typically receive....we'll see if we have to pull some back out in order to make it through this month or not).

[MrsHin2002]

Eirual,

Thanks for your reply. We only need to replace 4-8 deck boards to make it usable (much cheaper than tearing it down). We have the wood but not the proper tools or skills. And some of the boards nearby might be damaged by pulling out a single one, so my DH decided not to try any more than what he did. We think it's close to needing to be replaced but are hoping to get 1-2 or more years by patching it up instead.

With then 5 year old DS home for the spring/summer while I'm on maternity leave with DC #2, I think the back deck will be a regular spot for us to eat and play outside.

I should have our handy guy come out for a quote before the deck is covered in snow for the winter. Thanks for the reminder!

Karen

Sent from my BlackBerry 9300 using Tapatalk

[trekkingirl]

we are officially out of our rental. lots of unexpected spending to get there but I'm excited for the future. eirual  your welcome, I'm glad you said thanks anyways because they are now buried in my storage. My ex landlords seem to be acting like slum lords so I won't be surprised if they keep most of the deposit. I have to run, will report back soon.