Tag Archives: credit card debt

Not Impressed With Our Debt – Update

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The last time I did an update on our debt was in my March 27th post. In that post I updated that I had gotten my medical bill paid in full and paid our Town/County taxes. The goal for April was to pay off the Bank of America credit card but I was a little leery because of the pandemic and whether I should just make minimum payments to keep a flow of cash if needed.

That was a short lived thought for me! I paid off the Bank of America card two weeks later which was about $1300. Not only did I pay off the BOA card but I was also able to pay the NYS and Federal taxes we owed from our 2019 tax return. Don’t worry I definitely stimulated the economy with our stimulus check but I also took it as an opportunity to pay off some debt!

Now the next goal will be to pay off Scott’s Honda which sits at about $1600. My goal is to get it done in July because we have five paychecks that month.

I have been working to pay down our debt for almost two years now. I am not completely happy with where we are after two years but I will talk about that in my July update. For now I plan on working hard and getting that car debt paid in July.

How are you doing on your debt? -MM

Hello Again!

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I have been absent for a long time and for that I apologize.

I am  fine and my family is well. I just haven’t felt like posting because frankly I felt that anything I had to say would be a bit frivolous considering the situation we are all in.

But after many weeks and months of not posting because of busyness and now this horrible virus shutting all of us in, I figured I better get my thoughts out somehow so I decided to get back at blogging and updating my website.

I feel a bit guilty because while many of my friends are having to shut their businesses’s doors or are losing their jobs my family is managing because we are all essential workers. It does make it scary for us though. Do we risk ourselves to work or risk not having a paycheck? I don’t really know what the answer is for that.

Meanwhile life is keeping on. Here is a small update:

Debt: before all of this happened I paid off the medical bills and our Town/County tax bill so yeehaw two less bills! Last update we were at $992 for the medical and I was able to pay it off a month early. The Town/County taxes were about $1200 and I paid them at the beginning of this month. So almost $2200 worth of debt gone. The next thing I am going to tackle is the Bank of America Credit Card which is $1300. But I do have some reservations about paying it off completely in one month. With the virus in full swing here in NYS do I just pay the minimum and save some money aside just in case or do I go for it? I am still thinking about that.

20 for 20 Update: I’ll do this in another post

Gardening/Food storage: We still have many items in our pantry from canning this last summer for which I am grateful for. I have planted radishes, lettuce and spring onions so far but the weather has not been very nice yet. Still too cold most days and very windy others. We will get there though.

There is so much I want to say but I think I will let certain things come out on here as time goes on. I have so many ideas, dreams, goals, sorrows, fears, thoughts and triumphant revelations but there is just too much to post about right now.

How are you all doing? I hope all are well. The world has a job to do and we will get it done. Until next time…

-MM

Not Impressed With Our Debt – Week 64 of 80 – Hospital Bill

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I finally had to call the grant department about my emergency room bill to find out the status of my application. Like I thought, we earn too much and we were rejected.

I spoke in depth with the woman and she suggested going on the payment plan. I told her what had happened the last time I went on a payment plan and even she agreed they were ridiculous. Her advice to me was to keep paying as much as I could monthly and if someone from the collection department called to ignore the call and block the number. I kind of chuckled at that. But honestly that’s what I have done before.

This week I will call and set up a payment plan for as low as I can get away with every month to satisfy the hospital goons. My plan is to pay as much as I can each week and hopefully in a few months that bill will be paid.

One good thing on the debt paying front is that I got $500 paid off on the Bank of America card this week and I had my husband add $20 more a week to his 401k because we got 2 more major bills paid off.

I am disappointed in not getting even a little help with the ER bill but now that I know I can concentrate on getting that bill paid off quickly.

We are back in the right direction of paying down our debt folks and it feels good! I’ll be back with an update on the 30th. -MM

 

Not Impressed with our Debt Week 62 of 80 – Monthly Update September 2019

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I was waiting until I heard about my hospital bill to update you on our debt, but so far I have heard nothing.

I took the advice of my friend Kathy and applied for a grant through the hospital.

I was reluctant to apply but in the end I got all of the paperwork together and filled out the application and handed it to my friend in the billing department and now I am waiting for them to review it.

August was a wash for us financially. What I paid off in debt we spent on our trip to Ireland for our daughter’s wedding. I am fine with that actually. I wash is good in my mind.

September was school taxes so $1500 went to that.

October is looking more promising. I have a plan to pay off our Bank of America credit card which has $2000 on it at the moment. At the end of this month I can let you in on how and if I get it all paid.

Here is how our debt is looking at this point:

Last update our total owed was $32,080.81.

Right now our total is $32,647.05.

That’s a little over $500 increase but like I said between Ireland (which was lovely!) and school taxes I am not surprised.

Back on track for October!

How are you doing with your debt? -MM

 

 

Not Impressed With our Debt Week 52 of 80

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It has been a couple of months since I have checked in and for that I apologize. One very good thing happened in my time away from you and that very good thing would be I got our Home Equity loan paid off!! Yes! The last $300 of that balance and filing fees was paid in June and I am just waiting for my recorded discharge.

Even though our debt balance went up because of the medical bills and tractor, that home equity being paid in full is quite an amazing feeling. Having a debt of $17,000 get paid in full is a big accomplishment. We can handle these smaller debts much easier.

With $328 a month freed up from the Home Equity payment we can put it into the medical bill debt. When I started the medical bill debt was $3461.27. So far this month I have gotten $518.78 paid on that debt and it is now down to $2942.49. Not bad!

One more debt we have added to which I am fessing up to right now is we are going to Ireland this summer for our daughter’s wedding. Yes Ireland! Normally we wouldn’t take such an extravagant trip but this is a special circumstance. With this trip we have learned a lot about traveling internationally so far and with that came the cost of three passports, hotels, car rentals, airfare, insurance, and spending money. We paid the passports in cash because we could not charge them but the rest, you guessed it, had to go on the credit card. Hey, it’s a rare change of a lifetime and what’s an extra $3000?

So after medical bills, new tractor, and a trip to Ireland our debt is back up to $32,080.81.

Not great huh? After we get back from Ireland our school taxes are due and we need our boiler looked at before snow flies so I will probably not have much of a chance to get any extra debt paid off until October. Major bummer. However, in October there are five paychecks for each of us so my goal is to get $1000 extra paid off in the month of October.

Thanks for the support on all of this my friends. We know you are rooting for us. I’ll check back in, in a couple of weeks! -MM

I would love to hear about your debt repayment goals and what has worked for you. Message me at marymargaretripley@yahoo.com with your debt stories!

Not Impressed with our Debt – Week 39 of 80 – April 2019 Results

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April was catch up month for us so as expected the results are not spectacular.

We started off the month with $25,421 and as of today we are at $24,750. That’s down $671 which is the lowest I think I have had so far. But hey, it’s still forward progress right?!

I was only able to make a regular payment to the home equity this month so that debt went from $900 to $578. In the month of May baring anything unforeseen we should be doing our happy dance for paying it off! Fingers and toes crossed.

Even though April was less that productive in my mind I did realize something very exciting which will keep us motivated and moving forward in getting our debt gone for good.

I really started all of this paying off debt stuff in August of 2014. Our starting point was a whopping $143,775.35. Totally embarrassing right? Keep in mind that part of all of that is our mortgage but only about $50,000. That means over $90,000 was pure car, credit card, and home equity loans. Yikes right?

But here’s the cool thing, in less than 5 years, we have paid off an astonishing $71,300! Our total debt right now including house, car, credit cards, and loans is down to $72,475.

I couldn’t believe it when I tallied it. I have kept a white board since 2014, diligently marking down our progress every week and month for each debt when have. Cars have come and gone and credit cards have been paid off one by one.

My husband and I are pretty proud of what we have accomplished. It makes it worth the hard work we put into it. Hopefully some day we can pay for a vacation by swiping our debit card and not our credit card right?

We will see what May brings! See you next update. -MM

Not Impressed With Our Debt – Weeks 22 -23 -Rearranging

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It’s been an interesting two weeks. I didn’t think I would get much extra debt paid off this month because I have Town/County taxes to pay, our planes tickets for our trip to Ireland to save for and now these medical bills which just got bigger today.

But get this… we had an unexpected surge of cash this week which lent me to paying our taxes in full (Thank you to Him!), that’s one off the list. We have saved about $500 for plane tickets so far and from the advice of our pastor I am going to apply for a grant through the hospital to help pay for the medical bills from that emergency room visit. We will see what happens.

Remember when I posted about reading all the mail you get? A few weeks ago I got another set of checks from our credit card company where I could use the checks to pay off anything I wanted and the interest rate would be just 2.99% for a full year.

I thought a lot about those checks and I even called the credit card company which was through our credit union and asked about the details. They were in fact valid checks and I could use them for anything.

So after really thinking about it, I decided to sit down with my favorite Credit Union rep yesterday and I asked her what she thought about paying off our Home Equity Line of Credit with one of the checks.

She said “well it would certainly save you a lot of money in interest.” The interest rate on the loan was 15% and the amount I owed was still the exact same amount ($5000) since I took it out 8 years ago. I took the line of credit out in 2010 to pay for the equipment to start my bakery and I still owed the same amount because I kept drawing from it.

Without even thinking about it anymore I told her to do it. I wrote the check and she gave me my receipt and I paid it off. In my mind it’s one more thing that’s done. Yes, it’s on a “credit card” but if you use them correctly they can actually set you free of debt. I have one year to pay it off before the interest rate goes up and believe me I intend to do just that.

Every day I work on our debt. Every day. You have to stay on top of things my friends. Keep working and using your magic to get out of debt. There will never be a dull moment!

See you next week! -MM