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Hello BFC I'm Uncle Wemus and I'm bad with money and am in terrible debt. Heres how it breaks down: Car Loan: $9,044 remaining. I pay 300 a month with a 1.90% APR. Other Loan: $1,793.94 remaining. 135 a month at 7% APR Both of these are automatically taken out of my paycheck as the district i work for has a credit union they use to pay us. I make about $2,900 a month technically but this ends up to be about $1540 a month after everythings deducted automatically. HOWEVER I have other debts too. $360 a month student loan payment $5,374 that I transfered to a Discover card to get rid of fees. No APR until December of 2016 $4963.75 on my Capitalone Credit Card. %19.80 APR $425 a month rent (well mortgage technically but I have 2 roommates who pay me rent) $110-130 a month generally utilities. This is Gas, Electric, Internet w/o cable $100 a month for car insurance I got quicken a while ago and forgot about it when I got a new computer. So looking at my spending in the last 30 days it seems to break down like so: 390 - Groceries (includes restaurants and fast food. without them its 295) This is just for 1 person 174 - entertainment. Mostly video games. I work nights so I don't get to go out to do much 30 - gas Those are much higher than I thought they'd be, particularly groceries. Gas surprised me for how low it is. Guess I don't fill up that often. here are my last 4 minimum payments Discover -111 -113 -116 -118 capitalone -140 -120 -92 -64 So how did I get to this point? Well I ran up my capitalone card to its limit ( $6,000 ) a while ago and had to get the Discover card to transfer it to, then in the last 4 months I ran it up to nearly limit again. I did this by wreckless and careless spending. I need your help, BFC.  I need a plan and structure to get out of this because I can't figure it out on my own.
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Oct 8, 2015 07:42
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It's a tough start but I recommend tracking your expenses. From that we can help you construct a budget to check against and see if we can get you out of the debt hole.
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Oct 8, 2015 08:26
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Devian666 posted:It's a tough start but I recommend tracking your expenses. From that we can help you construct a budget to check against and see if we can get you out of the debt hole. Do you want a list of my recent spending or what do you mean?
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Oct 8, 2015 08:33
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Uncle Wemus posted:Do you want a list of my recent spending or what do you mean? If you have a whole month of expenses that's worth looking at. If you don't record them. Makes it easier to help with the budget and to see where your spending is really at.
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Oct 8, 2015 08:59
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heres one. Quicken and capitalone tracks the store location so i blacked those out
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Oct 8, 2015 09:20
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Can you give us an idea of what you're actually buying under the grocery purchases? Like what food you're getting. What are all the purchases at "holiday stnstore"?
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Oct 8, 2015 13:04
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There is a thread in goons with spoons about cooking/eating well on the cheap. Might be worth reading to help cut down on food spending. On phone so I can't link right now. e: here it is http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3442278&pagenumber=1&perpage=40
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Oct 8, 2015 13:28
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Definitely explore that GWS thread about cheap cooking, and learn to prepare more meals for yourself in general. You can buy a giant crockpot for dirt cheap at a thrift store and use that to make enough carnitas burritos to last for weeks for like $10. Rice dishes are incredibly cheap as well, and taste a lot better than fast food when done right. For one person, you could probably cut your food bill nearly in half.
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Oct 8, 2015 17:00
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Split out groceries so you have a better idea of what you're spending. Your single "Groceries" category looks like a couple of different categories in my budget - groceries, home goods, BOOZE, and restaurants. From your otherwise low cost of living, I'm betting most of what your are calling Groceries is fast food and eating out, and a good way to save money is to reduce that.
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Oct 8, 2015 17:17
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#1 - Toss/freeze/cut up the credit cards. You've got to only spend money that you actually have. By my rough math, you've got about $550 before making payments on your cards. Based upon the numbers you've give, you're overspending your income even last month. Selling your car would really help, getting some sort of a reduction on your student loan would help. What do you do for a job? Is there any potential for increasing your income? Would you have time to get a 2nd job? Delivering pizza? What about raising the rent on the roommates, I'm going to bet you undercharge for the rooms, even raising the rent $50/month could be a serious help for you paying down your debts.
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Oct 8, 2015 18:43
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It is hard to help much without more information. Can you provide a better, like, life overview of where you are at? How old are you? What is your level of education/degree? Are you currently in school or are you done? What is the information on your house? Mortgage amount, value, rental income, mortgage rate, PMI etc. You say you pay $300 to your car, but what is the actual minimum payment? What is your student loan information? Rates, amounts, minimum payments. What is your actual salary? Does the 2900->1540 include taxes and student loans too? What is your car worth and what make/model/year is it? Someone suggested you sell it but it's not clear you can survive without one so I'm not sure where that came from.
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Oct 8, 2015 19:08
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You pay $100 a month in interest on a $5,000 loan. This will double when discover free money time ends. Can you sell a car and pay one of these off? Why do you have two cars?
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Oct 8, 2015 19:29
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Is there really a second car? That would seem to be a rather obvious place to start... Is it just a quirk of how things are being listed in that software, or are you really going to the grocery store upwards of three times a day? You would probably do well to get your bank to set up a free savings account (or as low fee as you can get) and automatically shuttle some cash from your paycheque into that to start building an emergency fund. And those minimum payments, is that what you sent or were you going above? Minimum payments on those amounts are going to take you more than a decade to clear those cards.
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Oct 8, 2015 20:17
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Ok sorry I was unable to respond until now. Forums down and for some reason when it came back Awful App refused to load this thread and this thread alone. Now to answer questions Grocery purchases: believe it or not I generally don't get fast food and i don't drink or smoke. I'm very lame. However the holiday station stores is gas station food that i've been grabbing on the way to work. That will definitely be cut ASAP. Until last month though me and my girlfriend were going out to eat a lot and we both agreed to stop. Occationally groceries get expensive because I've been buying things that me and the other 2 roommates all use like toilet paper and other house supplies because those can be added on my taxes since I'm technically the landlord, I just live there too. I've been trying to eat more cost effectively but its easy to get bored eating the same thing. I'll give that GWS thread a try. Car: There is only 1 car. Its on a 6 year loan and its now over half paid off. I can't really sell it and do without it. Job: I work second shift so a second job is kind of hard. My job pays pretty good and will be a big raise next summer. I'm a custodian for a school district and go around to several schools. Other money: I've been donating plasma which i can do twice a week which gets around 70 bux a week. I'm also getting my house refinanced which should be a decent reduction in mortgage each month. I split the mortgage 3 ways evenly with my roommates. The student loan payment can't really go down  Droo's questions: Current age: 29 I have a BA in Anthropology (hence the custodial job) I finished college back in 2008 mortgage currently is 1266 a month. Should go down to around 1050 after refinancing. I currently get 850 total from roommates for rent. total mortgage amount left is $164,717.81 the car payment is 150 bux a check, im paid twice a month on the 15th and 30th. im at about 29,000 a year. the 1540 includes after taxes and such and also the 300 for car and 135 other loan. I did forget to mention that this also includes 100 a month taken out and put in a side savings account. Thats at about 1,000 right now and I really don't want to touch that. car is a 2012 honda civic. I really can't sell it. It does get pretty drat good mileage though. Antifreeze's question: Those are just the minimums. I have been going above that, specifically on the capitalone. Discover has been at or near minimums. the last 3 payments I made to capital one have been, in order of most recent to oldest, is 900, 200, and 800. Unrelated, but I want to mention that I'm really embarrassed by all this but I really do want to fix this. When I type it all out I really do look like a chump
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Oct 9, 2015 06:41
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Do you have any marketable skills? I mean you graduated college so right off the bat I feel like you're eligible for a lot of "degree required" positions that just put that as a first filter. I know you said that a big raise is coming, but if you have a chance keep trying to get your earnings up by looking for a new job. That would likely be the most impactful change that you could make. I know that "get a new job" is easier said than done, but there might be secondary revenue streams you haven't thought of: tutoring in subjects you did well in, etc.Uncle Wemus posted:Unrelated, but I want to mention that I'm really embarrassed by all this but I really do want to fix this. When I type it all out I really do look like a chump Star War Sex Parrot fucked around with this message at 07:04 on Oct 9, 2015 |
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Oct 9, 2015 06:58
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Teeter posted:Definitely explore that GWS thread about cheap cooking, and learn to prepare more meals for yourself in general. You can buy a giant crockpot for dirt cheap at a thrift store and use that to make enough carnitas burritos to last for weeks for like $10. Rice dishes are incredibly cheap as well, and taste a lot better than fast food when done right. Whats your recipe for this?
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Oct 9, 2015 07:45
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Uncle Wemus posted:When I type it all out I really do look like a chump You actually come from a way better position than pretty much everyone else that has one of these threads, so at least comparatively you are doing well. Just to clarify about the mortgage, you are the only owner, right? Because... Star War Sex Parrot posted:Do you have any marketable skills? I mean you graduated college so right off the bat I feel like you're eligible for a lot of "degree required" positions that just put that as a first filter. I know you said that a big raise is coming, but if you have a chance keep trying to get your earnings up by looking for a new job. That would likely be the most impactful change that you could make. I know that "get a new job" is easier said than done, but there might be secondary revenue streams you haven't thought of: tutoring in subjects you did well in, etc. If you are the only owner of that house, are you declaring the rent money as income? That will be a possibly unpleasant tax bill otherwise should anyone come to notice. And although your availability makes some other kinds of work difficult (I'm guessing you're like 4 pm to midnight or so?) you can still freelance. Comedy option: by virtue of your job, a good way to make a bit of extra cash by scooping discarded high school essays, scanning/retyping and selling them to paper mills.
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Oct 9, 2015 14:23
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Have you gotten rid of your credit cards? I think you should look into get a HELOC loan to pay off your CC debt. This will only be a good strategy if you stop overspending every month. What are your thoughts on raising rent? I think the $1000 in savings is a decent idea, but you should consider taking that $100/month and putting it toward debt.
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Oct 9, 2015 19:22
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n8r posted:Have you gotten rid of your credit cards? This is a good one as it would mean you have a far lower interest rate to pay.
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Oct 9, 2015 19:41
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hitachi posted:Whats your recipe for this? It was taken from a goon, most likely in the GWS cheap cooking thread. I can't find the source anymore but I'll write up as many of the details as I have. Most of the work is done by the slow cooker so this produces a lot of food that you can keep handy in the freezer for like 30-60 minutes of actual effort. Pork butt is a cheap cut of meat, and you can get a lot of mileage out of a small block of cheese if you shred it yourself. A few more dollars and you've got yourself a complete meal. Burritos Blanco
Chop the onion, peel the garlic, and throw it all in the slow cooker. Cut the pork shoulder in to large (2-3 inch) chunks and toss those in to slow cooker as well. Pour the can of tomatoes over all that and give it a quick mix, then let it sit and cook on low for like 8 hours. After about 8 hours, the pork is super tender and there will be a lot more liquid in there so use tongs to grab the meat and put in to a large bowl. Grab some of the onion, garlic, and tomato as well. Use this step to remove any big chunks of fat, gristle, bone, etc that you don't want in the final product. When you've got your bowl ready, shred everything using two forks. Add some enchilada sauce and jalapenos, then stir it all up. Make an assembly line to build the burritos, giving each tortilla a scoop of meat, some beans, cheese, and top with cilantro. Make them as big or small as you want, but I usually end up with like 8-10 large burritos out of a 3+ lb cut of pork. Roll them up burrito style, then cover in plastic wrap. Use gallon sized freezer ziplocs to store a few plastic wrapped burritos each. They keep well in the freezer and can be reheated directly from there.
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Oct 9, 2015 19:43
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You make less than $30K and have $20K in debt not counting student loans. Your mortgage payment is over 50% of your gross (not net) income. The roommates help but once someone moves out or you have -any- other expenses you're screwed. BFC's usual "eat super cheap for the next three years to save an extra $100/mo" advice is not going to help in the long run. You need a much better job. $29K a year is not "paying well".
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Oct 9, 2015 19:57
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Yeah I agree, even if you stop overspending each month you'll continue to live an existence that will be very tight money wise, and include having two roommates in your house at all times to make ends meet. How much is this 'big raise' going to be? Even if this raise is 10k you'll continue to have very tight finances. Where do you stand on the mortgage from an equity perspective? The fact of the matter is that $30k/year cannot afford a ~170k loan. Do you have plans to marry/cohabitate/combine finances with your SO? If you were double income with your place, the numbers will look a lot better. It doesn't sound like she has much better spending habits. You have the mortgage, car, and school debt payment of a person who is making 60k/year with a 30k/year income. Do you really want to be a janitor the rest of your life? You can get a higher paying job that would require you to use your brain at least a bit even though you've got a rather useless degree.
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Oct 9, 2015 20:29
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Hell I didn't want to be a janitor when they hired me but they were the only people to even give me an interview. The "big raise" is going from 16.50 or so an hour to 20. Also to antifreeze: yes I count that as income on my taxes. I made sure to follow the rules.
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Oct 9, 2015 23:08
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Teeter posted:It was taken from a goon, most likely in the GWS cheap cooking thread. I can't find the source anymore but I'll write up as many of the details as I have. Gonna try this, thanks.
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Oct 10, 2015 02:07
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Just a bunch of random thoughts:Uncle Wemus posted:Job: I work second shift so a second job is kind of hard. I would say this is just the opposite. It's not as flexible as, say, an overnight job, in that most places will want someone who can stay later than 3pm, but there are plenty of places that might hire you to open and work until noon. These will mostly be retail jobs, but I'm sure there are custodial positions as well. The holiday retail season is coming up. It will suck to wake up to work, have lunch, then back to work, then go to bed to repeat it all over again, but it should result in less to worry about. I recently came across this site: http://www.budgetbytes.com/ Looks like the usual "good food on a budget" website, but some of those recipes look great. And I second the "buy a crockpot" suggestion. Where is your house and do your roommates (tenants, actually) help pay utilities? If you live in a desirable location and can get more, it isn't really the wrong thing to do to charge market rent. Even if you're only doing it to improve your situation. Maybe raise it up and then take some percentage off just to keep the rooms occupied. Is that $174 in the last 30 days for entertainment typical, or capturing a large infrequent purchase? That's over $2,000 a year. I could entertain myself with flash games and YouPorn if I had to to save that much. This part may be bad advice, so feel free to call me out, other BFC posters, but looking at your monthly cash flow, is there anything you could put on the Discover card*** to take advantage of the zero APR until 14 months from now, like your utilities or pay six months/a year of your car insurance? An extra $100 or $200 a month towards your 19% APR Capital One Card should save some interest. ***Unless, of course, new purchases after your balance transfer lose their grace period for interest. I also noticed you don't have an emergency fund. Although, at this point, how could you? But think about what would happen if you lost your job or got injured? All those minimum payments.  This is going to suck, but then again I have a friend who is a single mom of three children, lives at home, and has 70,000 worth of student loan debt, from University of Phoenix no less. I can't imagine what it's going to be like for her.
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Oct 10, 2015 15:37
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Moneyball posted:Just a bunch of random thoughts: -Roomates do help with utilities. Like with the rent its split evenly into thirds. -the $174 isn't supposed to be typical. I admit it might look like that given the debt. -I think I remember something on the card where if i bought something it wouldn't pay off PURCHASES before transfers so I'd be getting interest on those until i paid off the rest of the card. -The $1000 thing is more or less my emergency fund.
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Oct 10, 2015 18:58
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Is 1/3 of the mortgage market rate? That's the sort of sweetheart deal you usually only get with a SO, because even though the landlord is building equity, they're also the one on the hook for all the upkeep.
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Oct 12, 2015 03:32
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Also, you are splitting the mortgage 3 ways for rent, but then declaring the rent on your income and so would have to pay taxes on that, so you are netting less than 1/3 of the rent after taxes too.
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Oct 12, 2015 11:46
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Do you have proper leases for everyone too? The conversation that needs to happen soon is, "Guys I'm drowning financially and can't afford to keep cutting you the same deal. I'm going to start charging market rate rent."
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Oct 12, 2015 13:25
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Robo Boogie Bot posted:Do you have proper leases for everyone too? The conversation that needs to happen soon is, "Guys I'm drowning financially and can't afford to keep cutting you the same deal. I'm going to start charging market rate rent." A little aside on this, depending on how well you think they'll take the news you might want to put emphasis on the cuts you're making to your discretionary spending. The message will be a lot more convincing if you've turned to an aescetic than if you're partying hard every night.
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Oct 29, 2015 03:34
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Moneyball posted:This part may be bad advice, so feel free to call me out, other BFC posters, but looking at your monthly cash flow, is there anything you could put on the Discover card*** to take advantage of the zero APR until 14 months from now, like your utilities or pay six months/a year of your car insurance? An extra $100 or $200 a month towards your 19% APR Capital One Card should save some interest. ***Unless, of course, new purchases after your balance transfer lose their grace period for interest. I think he'd need to check the terms of the balance transfer/0% APR time period. Sometimes if the full balance isn't paid off by the end of the 0% period, the FULL interest for the TOTAL balance transfer/charges is retroactively applied (regardless of the amount already paid back). If this is the case, nothing more should be put on the Discover card, and it should be a priority to pay it off by 12/2016.
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Nov 15, 2015 05:03
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RogueLemming posted:I think he'd need to check the terms of the balance transfer/0% APR time period. Sometimes if the full balance isn't paid off by the end of the 0% period, the FULL interest for the TOTAL balance transfer/charges is retroactively applied (regardless of the amount already paid back). If this is the case, nothing more should be put on the Discover card, and it should be a priority to pay it off by 12/2016. Discover IT card intro APRs are never retroactive, assuming it's an IT card. I about had an of poo poo moment and when I called support it really was like the TV commercials. Discover support owns.
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Nov 15, 2015 17:18
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I think it would be really beneficial if you told this thread the following on all your debts: Make a spreadsheet(google docs, excel, whatever) with a column for Debtor name(make one up if you don't want to say who it exactly is, but tell us roughly what it is) Debt amount APR%(current APR, but note if this is an introductory APR, like on your 0% card) Minimum payment amount This would help us determine where and how you can make your payments to fastest pay down your debt and make your life better Also, please stop eating at gas stations. Look into meal planning for yourself, so you know what you are eating at least 3 days out. That way you can pre-buy the groceries you need to make them. Does your GF live with you? Does she pay rent? Also, what is your "reckless spending"? Where did you spend 6k over a few months? Can you break it down by category? lord1234 fucked around with this message at 23:40 on Nov 15, 2015 |
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Nov 15, 2015 21:39
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Hey its been a bit and I've made some changes. -I've stopped eating gas station food and restaurants in general really. I make food in bulk that lasts for about a week and a half or more, typically stir-fry -We refinanced my house after finishing improving it thus lowering the monthly mortgage from 1266 to 1097. Roommates pay 400 each for rent so I have some relief there. -Have managed to successfully stop nearly all unessential spending and I've been tracking when I do to try and go longer lengths of time without spending poorly. and to answer lrod1234's questions -gf does not live with me -the reckless spending was partially restaurants and stuff for fixing up my bathroom for the refinancing also here is a google doc you asked for. I think I did this the way you wanted? https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cw5-SuDbTbsePS0_9AVXJBcrXFNfncoBLnUZrD0YVP4/edit?usp=sharing
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Nov 16, 2015 23:41
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It's like you're listening to advice and making changes. I'm not used to that in threads like this.
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Nov 17, 2015 03:06
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With the changes you have made you should now have some unallocated money each month. Given that the Capitol One card is likely to be costing you $95+ a month in interest at the current balance that is the logical place to put that money. That card needs more than minimum payments.
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Nov 17, 2015 04:15
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What should I do about the Discover one? Thats a transfer but 6000 bux is a lot to pay off. Should I just go full force on the Capitol One card?
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Nov 17, 2015 04:31
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Uncle Wemus posted:Hey its been a bit and I've made some changes. Awesome spreadsheet, can you clarify, are those the payments you have been making? Or the minimum payments allowed by your credit card companies? Or are those the same thing? Also why are your student loans not listed here? I'd be sending as much money a month at that Capital one card a month. If you have a few hundred left over every month, send it to the capital one card. Especially now that you just lowered your mortgage by 169$ a month, you should at least be sending an extra $169 at that debt every month. I hope you send more. How much did the refi cost you? How did you pay for it?
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Nov 17, 2015 05:07
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How would you feel about picking up a part time job during the holidays? You could easily find some place that needs morning and weekend help and pull 25 or 30 hours a week. Yeah it'll be temporary crappy retail work, but you could make an extra 1000 bucks over the next 7 weeks or so. When I was younger I worked at Wal-Mart as an overnight stocker during the holidays and was pulling down an extra 850 every 2 weeks. That was for 40/hr a week though and 2 40/hr a week jobs really sucks.
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Nov 17, 2015 05:12
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lord1234 posted:Awesome spreadsheet, can you clarify, are those the payments you have been making? Or the minimum payments allowed by your credit card companies? Or are those the same thing? Also why are your student loans not listed here? Those are the minimums. I've tried to pay more where I could. I didn't list the student loan because I figured it wasn't important as it won't be paid off for a long time. Fortunately my Ma helped with the refi so I didn't have to worry about that, just the materials and such for the materials. skipdogg posted:How would you feel about picking up a part time job during the holidays? You could easily find some place that needs morning and weekend help and pull 25 or 30 hours a week. Yeah it'll be temporary crappy retail work, but you could make an extra 1000 bucks over the next 7 weeks or so. I'll have to look around a bit since I have a stupid schedule for work (3:30pm to midnight)
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Nov 17, 2015 05:25
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