MamaBird06's Personal Debt Cutters Thread

[MamaBird06]

Debt Cutters

How much debt do you need to reduce?

35216.30

How did you get in debt?

student loans, bad money management, lack of income at times and dh's surgery

You've accrued debt. What are the main factors that keep you from reducing it now?

dh's settlement not coming in yet. Dh will be getting some type of settlement from his accident, we just don't know when. When that happens, it will probably be enough to pay off all our non mortgage debt. Until then, we are still chipping away at it as income allows.

Have you created a budget?

yes! We need a minimum of 4000$ take home pay for a month
List your top 5 budget busters?

1. unexpected expenses
2. impulse buying
3. family obligations
4. amc
5. eating out

What is your plan to get out of debt?

We have been snowballing our debt all of last year, plan to continue that in 2010, in 2009 we paid off 21,525.42 in debt eventhough dh didn't work 2 1/2 months of last year and he is the sole breadwinner, aside from my rebates, lol!

List your debt with balance, monthly payment, and interest rates.

overdraft protection: 98.50 27.53%~ 15.00/month Paid!

discover: 5092.61 : 25.99~159/month

boa: 4188.87 10%~ 100/month

citi/mc: 3163.50 25.99%~ 105/month

NFM card: 1729.15 0%~70/month

honda: 4270.70 9%~ 400/month PAID!!

student loans 8206.48 4.5 and 5% 112/month

taxes: 808.53 .5% ~200/month PAID!!!!
medical: 7665.28 Reduced 2/21 to: 6451.85 0% 0/haven't begun paying these, need to fill out more paper work, as the insurance company may be paying more of this amount soon.
Update 10/4: this is further reduced to 3532.24, making it more than half of what we originally thought it was.

How much will you try to reduce your debt by this year?

35216.30 I want to be debt free this year (other than the mortgage)

What kind of support do you need from fellow Debt Cutters to help keep you on track?

tips, advice, and accountability



Debt paid up to 10/4/10:

10,164.66/35,216.30 (over 4000.00 paid,was medical bills health insurance ended up covering)


28% Debt Paid off

[2mnyteens]

Mamabird, you have a plan to get your debt paid. I'm glad you are continuing to pay on it even though you know it won't be long until you get a lump sum to pay it all off. You didn't mention a plan to establish an emergency or savings fund. This may be very important to you because you listed one of your major expenses as 'unexpected expenses'. If you have an emergency fund, you will be able to pay cash for some of this without creating additional debt.

Julie

[nirwin24]

I think it's awesome how much you were able to pay off last year even with unemployment and medical emergencies! I'm sure you'll make your goal of debt free this year. And I know your rebates/couponing helps stretch that minimum of $4000 a month necessary(w/o coupons it would probably need to be $500 more a month for groceries).

Quick question? How are you doing your debt snowball? Lowest balance first? Highest interest first? Etc?

Thanks!

[MamaBird06]

Mamabird, you have a plan to get your debt paid. I'm glad you are continuing to pay on it even though you know it won't be long until you get a lump sum to pay it all off. You didn't mention a plan to establish an emergency or savings fund. This may be very important to you because you listed one of your major expenses as 'unexpected expenses'. If you have an emergency fund, you will be able to pay cash for some of this without creating additional debt.

Julie

yeah that is one area we are always having disagreements on, dh wants to just pay off debt, and i want a savings. With dh's variable income, it's hard to figure out when to put savings aside, but we will be working on building some type of EF up soon, i hope.

I think it's awesome how much you were able to pay off last year even with unemployment and medical emergencies! I'm sure you'll make your goal of debt free this year. And I know your rebates/couponing helps stretch that minimum of $4000 a month necessary(w/o coupons it would probably need to be $500 more a month for groceries).

Quick question? How are you doing your debt snowball? Lowest balance first? Highest interest first? Etc?

Thanks!

thanks, we have been paying off highest interest rates first, after we payoff the line of credit which we will probably go ahead and do this month as it under 100$, we are going to start working on discover card our next highest interest rate.

I use a pretty cool free debt snowballing site to keep track of all our debts it's Login - Become debt free at WhatsTheCost.com . When you register you can save your snowballs and make more than one if need be. On the site on the left there is a tab that is called snowballs and that's where you enter your debt info. I have been using it for a year now to track our debt and i think it really helps as I can see the progress in numbers and i'm no good at excel.

[kval07]

I keep trying to save my snowball on there but it won't save, even when I'm logged in. That site has me irritated right now.

[nirwin24]

thanks, we have been paying off highest interest rates first, after we payoff the line of credit which we will probably go ahead and do this month as it under 100$, we are going to start working on discover card our next highest interest rate.

I might suggest that to speed up your snowball that you pay off one or two of the smaller debts (taxes at $800 and the CC at $1600ish). This way you will have two more debts gone and you can use the minimum payments you were paying on them towards knocking out the larger debts faster. I always thought that going highest interest rate first was the best idea, but kicking the creditors out of my life felt better every couple months that working on paying the same debt for 6 months or more with no "real" success (still having all those debts in your life).

Oh and with you wanting to save.... please save a minimum of $1,000 while paying minimums on ALL debts. Once you have the $1,000 (non-touchable) you can feel safe knowing that if something were to happen you don't need to use a cc to pay since you have that $1,000 there for an emergency. If you make over $100,000 a year then I would say save $2,000 before sending all your extra income to debt. Just my thoughts. PM me your email address and I can send you an excel spreadsheet that will show you the benefits of smallest amount to highest amount vs highest interest to lowest interest, and even customizing to the debt you want to pay off first.

[MamaBird06]

I keep trying to save my snowball on there but it won't save, even when I'm logged in. That site has me irritated right now.

hm, that's weird, i was just on there today and didn't have any problems...I saved a new medical debt snowball too. Maybe you should send them an email..

[2mnyteens]

Mamabird, I would suggest getting rid of the debt. The amount you earn in savings is minimal when compared to credit card financing. Pay the debt then set aside so much every check to go into savings. Some credit unions will even deduct the money for savings before you ever get the check which is helpful to me :0) Good luck! Julie

[MamaBird06]

ugh, just got my citi bill in the mail and they increased my rate to 25.90%! I wasn't late last month, so I don't know what's up with the sudden increase, looks like i will be giving them a call.

[puakinikini]

ugh, just got my citi bill in the mail and they increased my rate to 25.90%! I wasn't late last month, so I don't know what's up with the sudden increase, looks like i will be giving them a call.

Oh - goodness! That is crazy. I know this has been happening to a lot of people. Definitely call them!