|
||||||
| Debt Anything to do with debt including debt reduction, debt concerns, debt consolidation and how to get out of debt |
 |
|
|
LinkBack | Thread Tools |
03-19-2010, 03:46 PM
|
|||
|
|||
I never thought of it the way you guys explain where you are saving money where you live. We'd prefer to stay in our home though even if it may take longer to pay everything off a home is a home to us and the apartment life was not for us. Thanks for the info
|
|
03-20-2010, 07:44 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
If you cancel the gym, going out and cigarettes, you are under $2000.00.
Are these real numbers or your "budget"? Ask you dad if you can pay him a little less each month and pay the difference on the Best Buy. Try raising the deductible on your car insurance. Are you locked in on the cell phone for a period of time? What about cable and internet? Can you cut back there. I am not jumping on the sell the house bandwagon because who knows if it would even sell? Have a garage sale and put everything towards the Best Buy, then snowball everything after that. $240.00 is not bad for groceries, but what are you feeding the dog? Is it a big dog or more than one? My daughter I think spends $50.00 on two large dogs. Costco has reasonably priced good food. If you hunker down, you can do this. DF hopefully is spending her off time doing everything she can to be frugal, like cooking! I want to commend you also for being here at such a young age. If you start out minding your money and spending you will be so far ahead of many your age. Working together with your fiance/wife you can do it. (My SIL and daughter are your age with a baby!).
|
|
03-21-2010, 12:42 PM
|
|||
|
|||
I agree ^ we are working on getting rid of all the non-necessities we currently have (gym, cellphones, internet, cable, going out, cigs) and plan on selling a lot of stuff we have aquired over the years in a garage sale or ebay/craigslist. There are a few things that we are stuck in a contract to for a while yet which I don't think we can get out've early(gym, cellphones)?
Thank you, we are both very happy that we are this far ahead in life to have our home, vehicles & dog living happy at our age. Like you said though we want to get our money straightened out before we are married in a few months so we can live a long happy life   .Thanks again everyone here for all the help & answers!
|
|
03-21-2010, 03:27 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Some of those contracts might be cancellable for a fee. And the fee might be less than the cost of the remaining months on the contract.
This may seem a weird thing to bring up, but regarding the hope to get cash gifts for your wedding--are you the only couple you know who are under-employed right now or are some of your friends & family having similar problems? (Would you necessarily even know if they were in the hole?) If they are, then the gifts you get may be more modest than what you have heard of others getting in the past. Even among those who are well-employed right now, there has been a movement to pay off debt and to increase savings. That, too, could influence the size gifts you get at your wedding. So while it would be nice if your wedding could help you get ahead on the debts, plan for it to make no difference.
__________________
"There is some ontological doubt as to whether it may even be possible in principle to nail down these things in the universe we're given to study." --text msg from my kid http://kiva.org/invitedby/margaret2299 My octogenarian mother invites you to join her in making international micro-loans to alleviate poverty. It's cool!
|
|
03-22-2010, 05:31 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
This is true. Don't count on big gifts. I give friends picture frames and family $25 tops. I see no need for extravagent gifts and I certainly don't expect them in return.
|
|
03-24-2010, 09:06 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Quote:
Quote:
Of course, it could be that your dog has an allergy that requires a special diet, but if not then I say ditch the fancy stuff and get something cheaper. You can always add some variety by giving the dog an occasional piece of fruit or something similar to keep the pooch happy. ~ Jenney
|
|
04-24-2010, 08:11 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
I agree that asking for cash or gift cards to places like target or walmart is the best way to go. If you receive gift cards from those places then you can shop for food and other needed items and eliminate those bills for possibly a couple months, leaving you to use the money to pay off your debt. Start with the best buy debt with is 0 interest for only 6 more months so you do not want to be hit with another big payment with a huge interest. After you have paid this off, get rid of the old navy since this is your next highest interest and also the smallest debt. If you continue to make the same payments it will probably take you 2 years to pay off this debt. After that get rid of your credit card debt and also stop charging so much unless you can pay off the balance each month. Then work on the second home loan, the car, until you have only the first home loan left. I would try and see about bringing in more income, such as another job, or garage sales, selling items you do not need anymore. If you stopped going out, stopped smoking, got rid of cable/internet, and got rid of anytime fitness, then you would have an extra $340 a month to pay down your debts. You could also try to get a cheaper cellular phone service if you can get out of the contract. If you did this and took the extra $340 and added it to your best buy payments you could easily pay it off. Then once that is paid off take the total payments and add it to the next debt payments and pay it off. If you keep doing this it will free up your money to be able to pay off all your debts faster then you can be debt free quicker.
I also added up your monthly expenses that you listed and it came to $2352 which means that you are $352 over budget each month, which even though your water is every three months that still means your over $278. You are spending way to much each month so you will need to cut out any extra things such as smoking, cable/internet because you cannot even afford them right now. So i think your goal would be to get another part time job or a weekend job, anything to get more income of at least $400 a month but preferrably more if possible so you can take that money and pay off your debt.
|
|
05-08-2010, 12:00 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Things have been going well since I last posted. Fiance has a new fulltime job 40 hours a week and we got rid of some expenses. Things are going slow but looking good
!
|
|
05-08-2010, 12:48 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Quote:
1) Income 2) Spending 3) Debt management Each of those has pros and cons, and sub categories... but here is what I see focusing on each 1) Income- 2k per month is this gross or net? what is your typical tax return? Being married should help increase normal tax returns 2) Spending Quote:
So issue 1 is budget does not balance- you need $300/mo just to break even Eliminate going out reduce car insurance and maybe you get to point where you only spend $2000/mo that will prevent hole from getting deeper. 3) Debt focus on these items Quote:
24.24% interest rate Best Buy Loan Balance - $1,345.20 22.99% Interest Old Navy Balance - $344.91 18.99% Interest Visa Credit Card Balance - $2,720.54 Credit Limit - $9,000 6.5% Interest Car Loan Balance - $3,977.10 Maturity date - 6/1/2013 8% Interest WHEDA Home Loan #2 Maturity Date - 10/1/2013 6.5% Interest WHEDA Home Loan Balance - $88,842.35 Maturity Date - 10/1/2038 0% interest Loan from Father Balance - $1,350 I put car ahead of house because house is appreciating asset, car is depreciating asset, so pay off depreciating assets first is generally good thinking. You listed some key information... and that is the visa has about $6000 of room on it. Here is what you do. Pay down old Navy- get rid of the debt- $344- as soon as possible. If you cannot pay it off, transfer the balance to the visa- it will save you the minimum payment on old navy each month. When the best buy financing kicks in, transfer that remaining debt to the visa card call the visa card now and try to get that rate reduced then when you transfer, call them again and try again very important to make on time payments to the visa, as you want that rate to stay low while you use that balance to consolidate the debt You cannot finance your way out of debt, but you can use available credit to consolidate payments. Better to make only 1 payment than to make 10, if all 10 are charging you high interest. I would use wedding money to pay down the debt- as debt can be a burden and stressor. You will learn a lot about spouse in first 5 years of marriage, so make sure spouse is on board with that, and learn together.
__________________
|
|
| Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests) | |
| Thread Tools | |
|
|
