klcglad's Personal Debt Cutters Thread

[klcglad]

Debt Cutters

How much debt do you need to reduce?

17474.04... not including student loans as I am still in school

How did you get in debt?

Trying to build my credit, got lots of credit cards & charged alot but always paid them off, until my parents both lost their jobs & I can only afford the minimum each month

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

My parents are both unemployed & I help them with their bills. Mine always come first, but I don't make nearly as much as they were making.

Have you created a budget?

Yes.

List your top 5 budget busters?

Unexpected expenses that arise. Cigarettes :/... My mom- she always spends money frivalously even though she is unemployed. It's probably where I learned it from.

What is your plan to get out of debt?

Pay down as much as possible! Use any money I receive from SCRS, MIRS, Surveys & Couponing towards the debt.

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

Car Loan 14025.57 16%APR, Chase 390 idkAPR, HHGregg(Ge Money) 1032.54 0%APR til 3/2012, Paypal Connect 250.62 idkAPR, Bank of America 968.44 idkAPR, Macy's 236.59 idkAPR, Walmart 570.28 idkAPR

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

I would love to get it down to 1500 or lower

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

I need more motivation to do surveys! I always have lots of offers in my email but when I get home from work feel so tired that I don't do them & by the time I get to them they're expired :/

[klcglad]

Oops! Forgot to add my monthly payments.
Car- 350.00
Chase- 15.00
HHGregg(GEM)- 39.00
Paypal Connect- 20.00
Bank of America- 25.00
Macy's- 25.00
Walmart- 25.00

I did send a payment to Macy's of 25.00 today, bringing that down to 211.59(before added interest for next month..).

I guess my first goal is to pay off Macy's. A big part of that balance is from Christmas this past year, We have alot of nieces & nephews and I also go black friday shopping every year. I do love the black friday shopping, but I'm wondering now if this year I should take a break from it. We probably won't really have the money for me to go anyways since in October we are going to try to buy 1/2 a cow to save money on beef :)

[klcglad]

& Of course these totals also don't include what I pay for car insurance, the cable/internet bill, the phone bill & my monthly arm&leg

[klcglad]

I just went through the bills for the rest of the month and just with the minimum payments on the credit cards, It leaves us about 170.00 for the month for gas in the car & food.... I really don't know how we're going to do this. I have never skipped any bills because I value my credit, but I'm stressing so bad right now. This is the worst month ever when it comes to money coming in & I just don't know what more I can do..

[Spanelli8706]

Don't stress too much... try to get creative! Get serious about doing surveys... post in this thread daily for your survey totals if you need to for motivation (I'll encourage you! ) Go through your closet... is there anything you can consign or sell? Not sure if you have kids, but if so...do the same for their outgrown clothes- consign or sell. Evaluate all of your bills. Can you change options to your cable bill by decreasing your package? Can you cut down on your cell phone plan? Go through your pantry/stockpile and make a menu for the month based on items you already have... try to limit what you will need to buy. Have you shopped around for car insurance lately? I try to do this every 2 yrs. Raise your deductibles for your car insurance to lower your payments.

I see that you mentioned your parents are both unemployed and you are footing their bills... you must have a heart of gold. lol. Are either of them currently looking for jobs? If not, have a heart to heart with your parents and let them know how much harder they are making things for you. Push them to look for work. While it is great you are willing to help and it probably gives you some piece of mind... you have to think about your personal goals and quality of life too. (I understand your situation as I have had a similar experience with my family... it is a tough situation- I am not trying to make light of it at all)

Can you do any odd jobs/ side work? Babysitting? Have any larger items you could sell via Craigslist or Ebay?

Would it be worth it to transfer any of your balances to a card with 0% APR on balance transfers?

You can do this. It takes time and a lot of dedication...but you can definitely do this!!

[klcglad]

Don't stress too much... try to get creative! Get serious about doing surveys... post in this thread daily for your survey totals if you need to for motivation (I'll encourage you! ) Go through your closet... is there anything you can consign or sell? Not sure if you have kids, but if so...do the same for their outgrown clothes- consign or sell. Evaluate all of your bills. Can you change options to your cable bill by decreasing your package? Can you cut down on your cell phone plan? Go through your pantry/stockpile and make a menu for the month based on items you already have... try to limit what you will need to buy. Have you shopped around for car insurance lately? I try to do this every 2 yrs. Raise your deductibles for your car insurance to lower your payments.

I see that you mentioned your parents are both unemployed and you are footing their bills... you must have a heart of gold. lol. Are either of them currently looking for jobs? If not, have a heart to heart with your parents and let them know how much harder they are making things for you. Push them to look for work. While it is great you are willing to help and it probably gives you some piece of mind... you have to think about your personal goals and quality of life too. (I understand your situation as I have had a similar experience with my family... it is a tough situation- I am not trying to make light of it at all)

Can you do any odd jobs/ side work? Babysitting? Have any larger items you could sell via Craigslist or Ebay?

Would it be worth it to transfer any of your balances to a card with 0% APR on balance transfers?

You can do this. It takes time and a lot of dedication...but you can definitely do this!!

Thank you so much for your input, it really made me feel better! My dad is actively looking for work, my mom not so much. She did get unemployment but she's still depressed about all of this, she mostly watches tv all day. I honestly don't know that a heart to heart with her will help things much right now, I really think it might make her mad/hurt her feelings... there's so many different emotions that come from someone getting laid off. & as far as the options on the phone/cable bill, I've got them all the way down to the bare minimum. Mine & hubby's cell phone bill only has a monthly allowance of 700 familyshare minutes and it's the lowest package that verizon offers (we started out with unlimited and downgraded all the way down to there lol). & raising the deductibles on the car insurance kinda scares me :O since it's already at 500.00, just incase anything happens because we definitely don't have the kinda money laying around anymore.

Some good news might have come thought, I'm hoping anyways. Hubby's Brother in Law's place of work is hiring and that is some pretty good money there (His Bro in law makes enough that allows his wife to be a SAHM with their 2 girls), he sent the application yesterday, so hopefully we will hear something soon.

& I am currently an assistant manager at a company that has about 65 locations, and is a "family business" turned corporation, they've been in business for 100years+ & they promote heavily within the company. There is a store that is one of their smaller ones, but would be a good starter store & I "bid" on it yesterday...(Pretty much told them I was interested in becoming the store manager)...I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but it would double my salary.

I do already sell things on ebay, I have so many old clothes that I found in my closet that I don't wear anymore (tons & tons of clothes- so many with tags on them still! I had no idea I had that many lol), but paying the listing fees is what gets me, so I only list a few things at a time.

Sorry that I wrote a book, but thank you so much for the support & yes! surveys! I am going to do some more tonight!

[klcglad]

I have been doing a lot more surveys the past couple of days than I have been! It's not an enormous amount of credits earned, but I feel like I'm making progress with making myself do them.

I sent a payment to paypal connect of 20.00 today.

I sold something on ebay and made about 4.00 LOL ... listed some more things, hopefully people buy them!

Am still stressing a little bit, especially about the friday of 7/22, if I pay ALL of my bills it leaves us about 12.00 until the next friday...this is assuming DH doesn't get any more work for the rest of the month, I really hope he does but I can't count on him getting anything... My only backup plan for that week if he doesn't get any work is to not pay the cable/internet bill in its entirety(sp?) since they don't report to the credit bureaus.

My paycheck next friday should be awesome though since I will be getting at least 9 hours of overtime (& my company NEVER allows overtime, but my manager needed to take a week off), although that is what's allowing us to be able to make our car payment this month so we won't have much left over after that's all said and done!

I really wish that I would hear something from corporate about when my interview might be about that store manager position...

[Spanelli8706]

Sounds like there's at least potential for improvements with your jobs/income. I really hope either both of these options or at least one of them works out for you and your DH!!

We have the same amount of minutes on our cell phones plans..lol. But we never even use all of the 700, so the downgrade was great for us. We do not have fancy phones either...no internet, etc. The only extra we have is unlimited texting because that is how we communicate during the day or with DHs dad when he is out of the country. We raised our car ins dedcutibles from $500 to $1000 last yr. But we didn't do this until we put our $1000 ER fund in the bank. Maybe you could make that a goal. Have you shopped around for the best rate lately?

I personally stay away from Ebay unless I have a really big item (like a guitar or amplifier). Their fees turn me off. As far as selling clothes, I was thinking more like Plato's Closet or a local consignment store. No fees, if you're lucky and instant cash.

Good job on the surveys!! I go through those periods where I don't open a survey for weeks...and always regret it when I want some extra cash. lol.

Good luck with your parents. My dad lost his job (due to his dumb choices) 2 yrs ago. As much as I hate to see them struggle, he isn't the type of person that I could just say "hey, get off your butt and go look for work"...no matter how polite I tried to be about it. So I totally understand where you're coming from. Help out where you can but don't make yourself miserable in the process. It took me a while to find a balance with my parents. Again...good luck!

Keep us posted! Sending happy thoughts your way about the jobs!

[klcglad]

Thank you so much! It helps a lot just to know that I'm not "alone" with all of this. I talk to hubby about it, but I'm the one that always pays all of the bills. When he gets paid he gives me his paycheck (well its direct deposited) and I pay the bills and tell him what's left lol. He doesn't even know the login to our online banking because he just lets me do it... when we set up our account they even asked him if he wanted his own login and he said no that I would just do it lol. So as much as he's there to listen to me talk about it, he doesn't physically see the numbers. So thank you for being here for me! :)

[klcglad]

Am planning on sending a payment to HHGregg of $46 this coming week sometime & that will bring that under the 1000.00 mark! Yey :)

I did put 4.91 on my walmart card today because I just couldn't pass up the Old Spice deal (Also got free Oral B toothbrushes, and 0.97 pads) & I wanted to get some before my walmart was all out!

I do all my bills online and I want to figure out all of my cards APRs soon... hopefully they're in my online accounts for these cards?