New!

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-02-2004
New!
5
Wed, 10-20-2004 - 11:23am
Hi Everyone! I've been lurking for the last week so I thought I should introduce myself. I've been dealing with credit card debt ever since I turned 18 and started signing up for all those magic cards. It's almost a decade later, and I've learned not to use my cards, but I'm still paying for all the mistakes I made in the past. I sat down and tallied everything up the other night. I don't have the grand total with me, but it's in the neighborhood of $10,700 (not counting our mortgage). It's all credit card debt. Luckily we have no car payments or student loans at this point. I have two balances at 0% right now. They should be paid off by June at the very latest. After that I'll have about $7000 (hopefully less) left that I should be able to get to 0%. We're expecting our first baby in January so I'm afraid we won't be able to be as aggressive with debt payment as I'd like to be, especially once daycare starts up. I've already started setting money aside for snowflaking so I'm looking forward to posting my first totals soon. I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone. This seems like a wonderful place for support and such a good way to keep on track.

Angie

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-19-2004
In reply to: angiesteg
Wed, 10-20-2004 - 1:19pm
Hi! You came to the right place! I was a lurker here for about a year and finally "showed myself!" Let me tell you, everyone here is the best- no one will judge you or make you feel bad.

That aside, you should be really proud of yourself for not having car payments. You are saving so much money right now- just imagine if you were paying on 1 or even 2 cars!! Student Loans are "good loans" but you don't have those either, so don't beat yourself up over $10K of cc. You said you're not using them and you have 0% rates- that's awesome!!! You are on the right track!! We have a great "snowflaking" section too!

DH and I had 10K in cc, plus an SUV loan, plus 2 student loans, 1 personal loan, and mortgage. In the last year- we've paid off the personal loan and $5k of the cc. I will have the rest of cc and my student loan paid off by Sept 2005. I do the 0% balance transfers like you and put any extra on debt (income tax, bonuses, etc...)When you have that 0% interest rate the balance drops very quikly! You can do it too! Just leave yourself enough for that sweet little baby coming!! Best of Luck and stay with us! Nicki

Avatar for cl_phocid
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
In reply to: angiesteg
Wed, 10-20-2004 - 1:24pm

Angie - welcome to the DSG!

All my best,
Danni

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2004
In reply to: angiesteg
Wed, 10-20-2004 - 2:05pm
I have an idea. Why not make a budget now as if you already had the baby. Take what it costs for daycare and diapers and baby clothes, and set that aside. Now take what you have left and figure out how to cover household bills, groceries, gas, etc. Since daycare and other expenses are going to be a hit to your budget, figure out to make your budget work now, but take that extra money and send it to the credit card with the highest interest. This will help pay off your debt faster and ensure you can afford those new and fast approaching expenses. If I calculated it right, you plan to pay $3,700 of credit card debt in the next 8 months (10,700 - 7,000), which comes to $462 per month (not counting interest). I don't know about daycare in your area, but for my baby it was $610/month and that was in 2000. She's in preschool now and I pay $945 during the school year, $600 in the summer for camp. So you at least need to find an extra couple hundred dollars in your budget to cover the daycare cost, so why not find it now?

Photobucket

Avatar for cl_beckymk
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
In reply to: angiesteg
Thu, 10-21-2004 - 11:45am

Welcome Angie.


Sounds like you have things started in a great direction.

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-06-2003
In reply to: angiesteg
Thu, 10-21-2004 - 7:15pm

Welcome to the board Angie!

Congratulations on being an expectant mum :)

It's good that you're aware of how much you owe and have a plan in place to deal with it. I believe another poster suggested the idea of figuring your expenses as if the baby was already born so it's not such a shock when it actually happens.
The money that you would allocate towards daycare and other baby related stuff could be sent as your snowflakes to your debt. Hopefully you'll have some emergency savings set aside so you don't have to charge your credit card.

Best wishes,
Kassandra

Kassandra

"It is said that life has its peaks and valleys.  The challenge is to accept them equally and experience them