So, welcome to Stephsday! I know, I know, not super clever but let’s work with what we’ve got. My brain is not exactly functioning like it normally does. I don’t think I’ve ever had such conflicting emotions. On one hand, I’m soooo excited to share with this community and to get some feedback that I know will be helpful. On the other hand, there’s a voice in my head that wants to know, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? ARE YOU CRAZY!? YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO TALK ABOUT YOUR DEBT! NOW GET OUT THERE AND BUY SOMETHING FANCY SO EVERYONE WILL THINK YOU’RE DOING WELL!!!” Whew. Ok, well secret is out ya’ll. I’m a crazy nut with debt. Wanna talk numbers? Yeah, I was afraid of that. Let’s do this.
- Credit Card #1 $585.09
- Credit Card #2 $1,102.68
- Credit Card #3 $4,002.66
- Car Loan $15,810.20
- Furniture $2,523.39
- Store Credit Card $0 (this started at $635 but I paid it off a week ago, woohoo!)
This is basically the debt we have that does not include our mortgages. I’ll talk about the houses in a separate post that will go up this afternoon. Heaven knows they take up their own anxiety filled corner of my mind, might as well take up their own post as well. We also have a few thousand dollars in medical bills but I’m so confused about that right now. We have been getting bills that just aren’t making sense and some of them seem to be duplicate charges. As soon as I get a handle on that number I’ll let ya’ll know.
Well, that wasn’t too bad! I did not hyperventilate and I did not eat a box of Twinkies to get me through telling my dirty debt secrets. I call that success! I know this post isn’t super long, and honestly I don’t plan on any of them being that way because I myself have trouble finding time to read wordy posts. But, if ya’ll would rather more detailed posts please let me know. Also, I’ve been kicking some ideas around and one thing I think I’d like to do is to post videos periodically. I feel like it’s another good way for ya’ll to really get to know me. They wouldn’t be me just rambling but would have specific topics. Would that be something ya’ll would like or when you see a video would you tear your hair out and curse my name? Either way, lemme know!
P.S. I swear I didn’t hack the BAD site, you can read the post that helped me get the keys to the kingdom (along with three other awesome folks) here.
Welcome Stephanie! Can you update your (omygod) debt with interest rates and minimum payments.
Absolutely! It’ll be tonight but I’ll definitely get that info up.
Hey there Theresa, just wanted to let you know that I intended to have all the specifics up tonight but with seeing what time it currently is, it’s just not going to happen. I WILL have them up by tomorrow evening, though. I’m sorry I didn’t include them in the first post, that was kind of a bonehead thing to do.
Well… the one thing you *don’t* have is student loan debt. It would be interesting to see, between the bloggers, what the cost-benefit ratio of having student loan debt is. Good luck to you!
I think it will be interesting to see too! And thank you!
Before the numbers come out, I’ll congratulate you on paying off #6. Gotta start somewhere!
Thank you! I’m not gonna lie, it felt good to pay that final amount off and see a zero balance due!
Congrats on paying off that card!
I’m very intrigued with your story because it nearly mirrors my debt level. Our car loans are about the same and my student loan debt is about the same as your other debt totalled (and I just paid off a student loan last week!).
Can’t wait to hear more about your story.
P.S. I love your writing style!
Thank you, Kathryn! And congratulations on paying off that student loan! It makes the process so worth it when you see some progress.
Woo! Feels liberating to put it all out there! : ) Just wanted to say (given our recent medical debt, too), that we found that some hospitals will send 2 bills: one from the doctor and one from the hospital. This was SUPER confusing because the totals were identical (makes no sense still!) Not sure if your medical debt is the same way, but just wanted to throw it out that this could be what happened if you’re getting multiple bills that look like the same thing. Sneaky, sneaky, because you pay one (thinking you’ve paid off the debt), then find out you’ve got the same amount still due! Ugh!
I think you’re right. I’ve got a stack of bills that I’m trying to make heads or tails of and it looks like there’s a doctor fee, facility fee, person that looked at you in the hallway fee. It’s really frustrating! Also, my husbands illness is a mystery too. Odd, huh?
Most doctors in the ER are actually contractors or work for another company. Thus you get different bills :-\
Ugh, the different bills thing is just so confusing!
Welcome Stephannie! Big congrats on paying off #6!!! Those payoffs are such a rewarding feeling. I look forward to reading your post about the mortgages to get a clearer debt picture of your situation.
I am sorry to hear about the medical debt and all the confusion it brings! I would like to suggest that you could write small posts about that in the future – as a series of posts – because I think medical debt is common and scary and navigating that whole realm freaks me out!
Thanks for posting the numbers, and again welcome to the blog, can’t wait to hear more from you!
Seconded on talking about medical debt. Also, do not hesitate to reach out to the various medical providers financial offices to discuss the medical bills. After a scary ER visit in college, the hospital agreed to write off the balance of the bill that was not covered by my insurance company. It was such a huge blessing and I hope some day to be able to donate to a fund that will help someone else in this situation someday.
Also, request the detailed breakdown of the expenses if everything is just lumped together. I have almost always found errors on big bills like this. Right down to being charged for painkillers that I declined.
Thank you for the advice, I’ll definitely do that and let y’all know how it goes.
Thanks! I think that’s a great idea about a medical series. Amen on the freaking out part, medical bills are Greek to me and I work in the medical field! Not billing of course.
Welcome. I like that you had a mix of debt as well and look forward to hearing more. It’s great to have some variety.
As for medical debt, I’ve been managing that for 22 years (son is special needs) so once you write about those posts, I may be able to share some things to make that easier. Medical bills are definitely more complicated these days and if you have more than one insurance, the medical bills can set you over the edge, lol.
As for videos, I have no interest in videos. I am pressed for time and have no time or interest in clicking on a video of any kind (news, celebrities or otherwise); they are a massive time suck. I have very limited time and there’s nothing worse than going to a blog and then having to click and watch a video. I also don’t want to go to have to click again for a video and locate the text version. It’s just a pet peeve of mine today that every story or news item has to have a video or graph or something. Recently, I was trying to print off some Explanation of Benefits (EOB) for my son and I had to waste one whole sheet of paper and ink for each EOB because that had some awful graph to spell out that information. Sometimes, less is more.
God bless you for dealing with medical mess for so long! Thanks for the input on the video, duly noted!