I'm getting out of debt, with the snowball method. Wanna play? - Page 4

[ma kettle]

OOOOHHHH, ME TOO ME TOO! Can I play too? I need to get out of debt! I've been getting my bills all together and listed. Most of them are doctor bills. Now the babies are all off monitors and healthy I can start paying them off.

[Red]

[QUOTE=ma kettle]OOOOHHHH, ME TOO ME TOO! Can I play too? I need to get out of debt! QUOTE]

PLEASE, join us!

[oneKnight]

We're trying it. Not exactly by the "method" but our variation of it.

Right now we're letting the "small" cards slide simply because a) they are on 0% interest for a few more months and b) they are all small-enough to finish paying off when the "free" time is up.

This debt management program that DH is on does the same thing for you. We have to pay them the same amount now even though it's all going to one CC bill instead of 3 (the smaller two have been paid off).

[ma kettle]

I listed all my bills (I think I got them all!) for a grand total of $259,769 debt. More than half of which is medical bills. All separate because they refuse to merge them all into one family account. Total of 72 medical accounts, 3 credit cards, and 2 loans :

I think I need a drink! So today I'm calling all the account holders to ask if they will forgive all my debts and make my day! I'm hoping they'll at least hold off collections! :

[LEAW]

Ooh Ma, that's a big pile of bills! You should be able to negotiate with the hospital for % of each bill in cash... but the catch is you have to be able to pay it when you offer the cash! So one at a time... they probably won't take you to collections as long as you are making SOME sort of payment on them.. even $1-10 a month.

CC companies aren't quite so nice. Good luck! And we'll all cheer for you when you get to $0.

[oneKnight]

Originally Posted by ma kettle

... Total of 72 medical accounts, 3 credit cards, and 2 loans :

I think I need a drink! So today I'm calling all the account holders to ask if they will forgive all my debts and make my day! I'm hoping they'll at least hold off collections! :

Originally Posted by lisa2976

CC companies aren't quite so nice. Good luck! And we'll all cheer for you when you get to $0.

Try to get with CCCS or some similar credit counseling/debt management program for the CC bills. Being in the program requires you to stop using the cards and they can usually negotiate with the mean ol CC companies to get the interest rate lower (as long as you stick with the program).

[Red]

Well, Ma, we all have a piece of advice for you.

I would call the hospital/drs involved, explain the problem...(kids were very sick: , only one of us was working, we fell way behind and med bills racked up...and ask if they might take less than the full amount or if they knew of any programs or organizations that might help.

Then call each CC and tell them about the med bills, the kids, etc, and ask if they'd be willing to take less than the full amount and if they'd please consider giving you a no interest deal. Tell them if not, you'll probably file for bankruptcy.

Don't be afraid to play on their heartstrings. Start every concersation pleasantly, smile while you talk, be friendly, etc. Get them on your side.

When they say NO, and some of them will, ask to speak to a supervisor. Don't sound irritated or aggravated, but be pleasant all over again.

Some of the cc's WILL drop the interest. Some of the supervisors will be helpful.

THe counseling places can't really do anything for you, (except show up on your credit report) that you can't do yourself.

If all else fails, I would consdier filing bankruptcy. THis isn't debt for DVD's and 'puters and trips. It's emergency situations that required care. You didd your best!

[ma kettle]

So, I called them all up. My mortgage bank is going to refinance our mortgage so that it's current but no cashout because the medical bills have completely shot our credit.

The credit card companies all said the same thing.... no, nada, nothing, they want full payments.

Medical companies all said the same thing as well.... they will NOT combine the accounts into one and set up a payment plan. They want payments every month on EVERY account minimum of $5 each. NOT gonna happen.

Collections medical accounts basically said the only thing they could do was continue efforts to collet payment until December at which time if no payment have been made they will write it as a charge off.

[oneKnight]

Originally Posted by Red

THe counseling places can't really do anything for you, (except show up on your credit report) that you can't do yourself.

The CC companies wouldn't give us the lower interest rate, or accept a lower minimum but they will reduce the APR and take lower payments from us through CCCS.

I checked both DH and my credit reports a few months back and CCCS doesn't show up on his at all, in fact I was surprised to see that he got good credit for my account that I added him to. Do I see the same credit report that the companies see? It's not showing anything against DH because of being in the CCCS program.

[Kleine Hexe]

Change of game plan. Now that we paid off the truck we were going to concentrate on a cc. Turns out we owe the same on the cc and our van. The interest rates are also almost the same. By sending extra money to the van we could pay it off faster than we could the cc. So that's what we're going to do. It should take about 16 months (as opposed to 25 months for the cc) to pay the van off and then we'll have $420 (van payment) plus $200 (truck payment) extra to send to the cc. YES!

I love having a goal within reach.

[LEAW]

Aaaarughh! We're moving! I just dumped most of our savings to pay off a cc, and now I really need that darn cash... so snowball is going on hold, at least through Jan. 1, but I'm going to keep reading and thinking and doing!

[leomom]

Hi all, I'm joining in! I'm reading DR's book right now. Just finished baby step #1 and am working on #2. Today I'm going to list all my debts and fill out our snowball sheet.

Last night, doing the budget was grueling. We were 500 in the hole for Oct.'s estimated expenses!: DH is pulling the money from some secret source....hmmm so we can get through the month paying the minimums without putting stuff on a cc.

But that means that in order to work on paying off our first snowball, I have to find some stuff to sell. I have some gift cards I can sell. And some diapers. Who knows what else. Would you guys suggest ebay or the TP?

[Mizelenius]

Originally Posted by leomom

Would you guys suggest ebay or the TP?

I'd try the TP first just because it is free . . .but I know some people say they get more with e-bay anyway. I'm no help!

We are not really snowballing any more. We just have one big ball! We have all debt (minus mortgage and DH's school loan, which isn't too big thankfully) on one cc with 0% interest for a year. We have a detailed plan of how we are going to pay it off. Basically, the cc payment is going to be fixed (we'll treat it like we would a car payment). I've estimated the rest of our expenses for the year that come irregularly, then divided them by 12. It is very tight, but we are trying to save for those things monthly as another fixed payment. We do have a small savings as our cushion, one TRUE savings (for dire emergencies) and the other is for these irregular expenses.

I find that I have to keep refining the budget and how I am tracking everything. It is getting better and easier, though, and I feel that DH is fine with everything as is now . . .I feel like we are much more of a team than ever PLUS we know where all our money is going. It makes decision making much easier.

Slow and steady wins the race, I keep telling myself!

Hope everyone else is well!

[oneKnight]

I paid off 2 cards this paycheck and I'm planning to pay off 2 more next month, then all we'll have left is the big one! Instead of paying out $ in different directions it does make better sense to concentrate all the extra money on one at a time.

[Ruthiegirl]

I didn't make my goal of paying off the cc this month. My youngest spent some time in the hospital and that blew our budget a bit. I did scrape up $414 to send anyway, so I will be able to pay it off next month. Then it is one to a student loan that will be paid in full by Christmas! I am getting so excited to see one of these debts eliminated!

Snowballling is the life for me.

[lmonter]

I'm in. We're planning to only have dh's student loans and the mortgage left in exactly two years. And that's if he doesn't get a raise or holiday bonuses or the IRS comes after us for my IL's debt (hey, you never know).

[lmonter]

Okay, now I'm back with no munchkins needing attention...

First, Red, I think it's fabulous that you're proactively doing something about your finances, even though you guys are close to retirement. My IL's are 53(MIL) and 66(FIL), and have nothing to show for their married life together. Well, except a daughter who mooches of them... FIL was pulling down $300K for a number of years. They didn't save a dime, didn't buy a house, didn't help dh with college, nothing. And now they complain to us all the time about it (even though it's not our fault - dh and I even paid their car payment for a year and a half to two years which spanned our engagement and early marriage because they couldn't afford it, argh). So I'm thrilled that you're not going to follow in their footsteps. We're getting the IL's the "Total Money Makeover" book for Christmas.


So, onto us...
We just recently started really getting into this whole no-debt thing - like 2 months ago. And dh is already starting to see how cool it is. Because we can both just be lackadaisical about the money in our checking account, we opened a second checking account for 'irregular' expenses. Like our car insurance, car repair, life insurance, gardening supplies, clothing, gifts, saving for furniture (we need a new mattress/bed in the *very* near future - the kids keep getting bigger for some reason ), and a few other things. We budget a certain amount for each category each month, and I transfer the amount into the second checking account. Last week I ordered some clothes for the kiddos so they have pants that are long enough and long-sleeved shirts in the right size. Then a few days ago the u-joint on dh's truck just fell off (luckily he was backing it up onto our lawn). We had the money for both those things in the second account and didn't have to freak out about where we were going to find the money to handle it. It was so cool.

Besides that... we've got 3 or maybe 4 credit cards with balances (the spreadsheet's in the other room), the car, dh's student loans, and the mortgage. The credit cards and car will all be zero'd out by September 2008 (2 years from now, yay!), student loans 5 years after that, and our big goal is to have a mortgage burning party by 2020. That's also assuming dh doesn't get any more raises or anything (which apparently isn't realistic - all the older guys in his profession are retiring and there's not enough younger ones to replace them, which rocks for us!).

Still trying to get off our butts and list a bunch of un-needed stuff on ebay (anybody need a designer asize 16 or 18 wedding gown with good vibes?), which is proving to be difficult with a 3yo and 5mo. Especially since they both want to be fed and wear clean diapers all the time....

[zavierchick]

I just had to post a quick bit of encouragement to all you snowballers here- it really can work! We paid off both our student loans three years ago, and finished up the credit cards two years ago and have kept it away- only what we can pay off each month. We are going to need to do a big budget revamp in the next couple months because we are planning to have DH quit his full time and come WAH with me, which will of course wreak massive havoc on our income, but we're hoping to stay on the debt free wagon, so to speak

GOOD LUCK and HANG IN THERE!

[LEAW]

I just did some payment math, and barring any crazy crazy emergencies (which we all have!) we'll have cc1 paid off around 1/1, cc2 about 9 months after that, and my student loan another 9 months after that... so 2 years! Woohoo! And even with a little problem or cash for some emergency, it shouldn't take more than 2.5 years.

[heathenmom]

I talked to dh about "snowballing" our debt today and he seemed to think it was a good idea ... surprising, since he's one to think that cc's are fine to use for fun stuff. He even agreed that, if we budget well, we should be able to pay off our bad debt, set aside an emergency fund, AND pay cash for a good used vehicle for him in the spring!

Anyway, we really don't have a TON of debt: less than $1K in cc debt, my car payment ($220/month with 2 years left on the loan), and the mortgage on our new house (currently under construction). We do have 2 outstanding loans against my 401K, but I don't know that it makes sense to work towards paying them off, since (a) we can't just add a little extra on each month, you have to make the scheduled payments or pay the entire balance; (b) we're paying ourselves interest on the money. I'm interested in other's views on that.

Are most of you working towards being *completely* debt-free ... including your mortgage?