Spanelli8706's Personal Debt Cutters Thread

[Kim1013]

Wow and yikes! Sounds like Murphy paid you a visit this summer. I'm sorry to hear about your DH's grandpa and hopefully your dad is in better health. I couldn't imagine trying to feed a teenage boy right now. Make sure he helps contribute in some way; do the dishes, his own laundry, mow the yard, etc... to earn his keep ;) That sucks that you had to charge some things on a credit card but at least it's interest free and you should have that $4500 knocked out in no time. Hang in there Elizabeth. Before too long, you'll have a fully funded emergency fund and you'll never have need for a credit card again!!!

[Spanelli8706]

Thanks again Kim! Unfortunately my dad has to admit his problems for any chance of recovering... this isn't happening as of yet. My biggest concern with my brother is that he nees to take responsibility & get a job. I called my CVS manager friend and she is hiring. She called him for an interview today so hopefully that will work out...especially since the store is only a block from my house! And I didn't mention the fact that DH's boss asked him to take a LARGE paycut & reduced amount of vacation days. So we have begun searching more diligently for a new clinic to buy. Ugh. That's a whole other LONG story. So the $4500 womn't be gone as quickly as I would like... smaller payments. But we're still chugging along. lol.

Thanks again!

[Spongebear]

Hey Kim! Things are pretty chaotic at the moment. Lol. Our beach vacation was great! We paid for everything in cash and it felt really good. And then we came home to reality. Things got hectic and things were sprung on us repeatedly.

First, DH's 98 yr old grandpa fell & broke his hip the morning we were supposed to leave for our vacation. He had other health problems and was put in the hospital for roughly 6 weeks before he ultimately passed away. During that time, we spent a lot of money on gas (he was 45 mins away from our house), toll tags (to cross the lake to visit him), and babysitters while we were driving back & forth every few days to spend time with him. Plus, after he died, there were four different services held... all of which cost us more of the same. Some of those expenses were charged.

Then after DH being in denial the ENTIRE summer, on a weekly basis, we had to replace our mower. Every single time DH went to mow the yard, the stupid thing was broken. Meaning he was repairing it on a weekly basis. Several hundred dollars after repairing it, I finally had enough and bribed him to just buy a new one. That was about $2000 charged.

My 18 yr old brother called & asked me to move in for his first semester of college. He is taking all of his classes online. The kid was Valedictorian of his highschool... extremely smart. But he's totally naive at the same time. He has no idea how to do online classes, he has no clue how to balance a checkbook and is totally overwhelmed. So I helped pay to move him out here. And OMG do teenage boys eat EVERYTHING. This has been an adjustment to my grocery budget that I was unprepared for.

And lastly, my Dad has gotten really sick. He has a lot of issues going on but is in denial about 75% of it. So I have traveled a few times home to try to deal with that. Again, more financial stress.

So, to sum it all up and face the facts... we have charged $4500 since July. UGH!!! The good part is it is all 0% interest until July 2012. I have also gotten our ER fund up to $3500. And while I could cut down our debt with the ER fund... I am more comfortable having it there since I don't know what else is going to pop up next (and we aren't being charged any interest). Oh and one other improvement... My credit score went from 762 to 789 in the past year thanks to all of this hard work!!!

Thanks for checking on me Kim. It feels good to put it all out there and have support.

Sorry about the loss of your grandpa and hugs to you for everything else.

[Spanelli8706]

Thank You Spongebear!

[My3sons]

Elizabeth, my heart goes out to you. You are one strong woman! Sorry about the loss of your Grandfather and your dad being ill.

Great job on your ER fund! I would not touch that either, just keep it tucked away until needed.

Has your brother gotten any news on a job? He should be able to help out with that grocery budget and moving expenses once he gets work.

Keep your head up, I know you'll get it all paid off eventually.

[Spanelli8706]

Another update: not much to update. Lol.

My brother stayed for about 6 weeks and got home sick (and missed his GF too much) so he moved back Thanksgiving week. My grocery budget is back to normal. :)

We have been making minimum payments thus far. However, we will be receiving a large inheritance from DH's grandpa as a Christmas gift. It will cover the CC balance and fully fund our 4 mos ER fund. So, after the holidays, I will make all payments and come back to update.

We have actively been traveling along the southeast region looking for a clinic to buy. We have our area of preference narrowed down and are actively working with a Broker now.

Thanks for all the kind words. It's been a loooong year.

[Spanelli8706]

Update:

I cashed 2 of the 4 inheritance checks. Our debt (minus the house) is now paid off...again. ! :)

I am going to cash the other 2 checks at the end of the week and it will fund our ER fund 3 months worth. We are going to try to fully fund our ER fund to at least 6mos during 2012.

We re-evaluated all of our bills again. I was able to trim close to $500 off of our monthly expenses. I still have never set a FIRM budget. I know what things run us every month & it is consistant... but I don't pull out a certain amount for gas, groceries, etc. I might try that after New Years as well. Our health insurance just went up $72/month! Ugh. I have been shopping around for the past 3 weeks... but I can't find anything similar for much cheaper. So, I guess we're stuck & we will have to make that adjustment in February.

I kicked my Christmas budget's butt this year. We had 17 kids to buy for. I spent around $20oop for $497.26 worth of goodies. Each kid got a pretty nice gift thanks to coupons, clearance, store promotions. I am ready to start shopping for the next yr and see if I can do it again. My goal is less than $50!

So, our new focus is to save as much as we can during the next year, at least 6 mos ER fund if not more. And to continue working with the broker to find a clinic. We can't list our house for sale until DH has a secured new job... we live next door to his current employer. Lol. But we may take on some house projects to freshen the place up for when we do attempt to sell.

Hope you all had a happy holday season!

[My3sons]

Congrats on paying off your debt and thank goodness for Grandpa's gifts!
You have really impressed me with your Christmas budget. Every year we say we are not going to buy for everyone and we end up doing the opposite. We really need to stop buying for the adults or bargain shop like you do!
Good luck finding a clinic and for the EF savings goal!

[Spanelli8706]

We are slowly adding to our Savings. Dec, Jan & Feb are all really slow months for DH. He was switched to a commission pay back in October and so far has taken about a 30% paycut. I am hoping Tax season will result in things picking up for him... when people actually have some extra money to spend on their pets again.

We pruned the yard this weekend, before the flowers start blooming. I need to find a good deal on mulch, but it was nice to see some improvements without having to spend money!

Savings is at $12,000. I am hoping to add another $8,000 to that by the end of the year. And we are looking at paying cash for our vacation this year again, so I will set aside a little extra for that as well.

[Kim1013]

Great job Elizabeth!!! Sounds like you guys are in good shape. Congrats on having a nice emergency fund!