#how to pay off debt

[bitchesgetriches]

Hi Bitches! First, thank you for all of the help and advice you guys offer 💜 I had a question for you - I currently have some credit card debt, and I pay the minimum payments every month, but I’m trying to figure out a method to pay it down faster with my limited funds. Currently, I have 10% of my paychecks going into savings automatically. Do you think it’s wise to pause that for the moment and put that 10% towards credit card payments? This would mean about an extra $250-$300 towards a card per month, but my savings is just over $1k at the moment, so I’m hesitant. Anyway, just wanted to get your thoughts! Thank you again!!

Honey, we are THRILLED that you are thinking so logically about this. You're doing us proud and we know you're going to be fine.

So the first thing to decide is how big of an emergency fund you need to be safe. Here's our guide for that:

You Must Be This Big to Be an Emergency Fund 

Once your savings reaches your emergency fund goal number, then you should treat your debt like an emergency. That means putting what you WERE saving toward the debt instead. The ONLY way to successfully pay down debt without paying out the ass in interest is to pay more than the minimum. Here's more advice for how that works:

How To Pay off Credit Card Debt: From the Snowball to the Avalanche Method

Season 4, Episode 3: “My credit card debt is slowly crushing me. Is there any escape from this horrible cycle?” 

{ MASTERPOST } Everything You Need to Know about How to Pay off Debt

You got this, kiddo!

Did we just help you out? Join our Patreon!

[maal-wave]

How I Paid Off $50,000 in Debt in 2 Years

[clarabosswald]

to the 10 non-israeli hostages still in hamas captivity (listed from top left to bottom right):

bipin joshi, 23, nepal. an agronomy student, bipin arrived at israel to study citrus cultivation, only 3 weeks before 7/10. he was staying at kibbutz alumim when the attack started. at first, when the rockets started, bipin sheltered in a bunker with 16 other nepalese foreigners. thinking this was a "regular" attack, and will pass soon, they've even taken a group selfie, which one of them had uploaded to facebook with the caption "bunker time". bipin can be seen in this photo.

fear settled in when the sound of gunfire was getting closer. terrorists briefly entered the bunker at first, shooting at the men. two were instantly killed - one who was filming with his phone, and one who shouted "we're nepalese!" the terrorists have then started throwing grenades into the bunker. the men have crowded against the wall - except for bipin, who jumped at the grenades to throw them away. he was successful with the first grenade; but the second one exploded before he could get to it, and left several of the men injured and unconscious. the terrorists have moved on from the bunker, and later the men heard distant shouts of israeli officers, who arrived at the active scene of the attack, instructing them to come to a nearby kitchen for better shelter. while a few of the men immediately went there, bipin and a few of his friends tried to first aid those who were injured by the grenade. it was during this time that he quickly texted his cousin, in english: “If something happens to me you have to take care of my family. Be strong and always see the future.” it was then that two terrorists broke into the bunker. one, pointing a gun at the men left inside, instructed them to come outside with him. the other filmed them with his phone - with the footage being the last time bipin was seen. bipin's phone was later located in the gaza strip.

2. sudthisak rinthalak, 43, thailand. a farm worker, he was working the orchards of kibbutz be'eri on the morning of the attack. he was murdered on the spot, and his body kidnapped into the gaza strip. his death was confirmed to his family on may 16, 2024, following an investigation of the available evidence. may he rest in peace.

3. watchara sriaoun, 32, thailand. a farm worker, he was kidnapped from kibbutz nir oz, where he was working. watchara arrived in israel back in 2020 with his brother, in order to cover their family debt and pay their father's medical bills. apart from his mother and brother, waiting for him back home is also watchara's 9 year old daugher, irada, whose mother died in august 2024.

4. sathian suwannakham, 35, thailand. a farm worker from kibbutz nir oz, he arrived at israel in 2020. sathian was seriously injured during his kidnapping. his mother found out about it via a video on facebook; she, alongside sathian's father and sister, are still waiting in thailand for any word on him.

5. pongsak tanna, 36, thailand. a farm worker, he would often livestream while working, talking to his father wilas, or his 14 year old daughter. on the morning of 7/10, pongsak video called his father. during the 10 minute call, he described the chaos of rockets and gunfire, shouting at people around him to hide from the terrorists. eventually the signal was cut. pongsak was kidnapped into the gaza strip. during the weeks after 7/10, wilas spent days riding his bike around his home province, alongside the thailand-cambodia border, looking for anyone with a relative in israel who could help him search for pongsak. he had spent thousands of bahts (hundreds of dollars) repeatedly submitting legal documents to the government, in hope for any news on his son. “if my son is alive, whenever israel can get the hostages released, I want (him) to come home quickly to (his) hometown," silas said in an interview back in october 2024. “most importantly, i want my son to be ordained (as a buddhist monk) for his mom who died when he was away."

6. bannawat seathao, 27, thailand. a farm worker, he was shot in the leg before being kidnapped.

7. nattapong pinta, 35, thailand. nicknamed "nick", nattapong, a farm worker, came to work in israel a year and a half before 7/10, leaving his wife and young son, in order to pay off a debt and help his wife fulfill her dream of opening a coffee shop. he worked the avocado groves in nir oz. during the occasional rocket attacks, nick would call his older sister, reassuring her. "i’m just saving up a little more money, then i’ll be coming back.” on the morning of 7/10, nick called him wife, narissara. there was shooting, he said, and he was running away. that was the last she heard from him. "i felt like my heart was being squeezed when i learned that he hadn't been freed yet," narissara said. "i will definitely go to the airport [when he returns]. nothing will stop me."

8. suntaya akrasi, 20, thailand. a farm worker, suntaya was murdered on 7/10 while working near kibbutz be'eri, then his body was kidnapped into the gaza strip. his death was confirmed on may 16th, 2024. may he rest in peace.

9. joshua loitu mollel, 21, tanzania. an agronomy student, he arrived at israel 3 weeks before 7/10, planning to stay for 11 months. both joshua and his roomate, clemence felix mtenga (22), a fellow student from tanzania, were murdered in nir oz. at first, the pair had managed to text a fellow tanzanian intern in the kibbutz, ezekiel kitiku, telling him that they were running for shelter. but after a few hours, the texts have stopped. joshua's violent kidnapping was filmed and posted online, showing the terrorists stabbing and shooting him several times. joshua's body was kidnapped into the strip; clemence's body was identified a month later. joshua's death was confirmed in december 2023. joshua was the oldest of 5 children, and his stay in israel was his first time traveling outside of tanzania. joshua's father told of joshua's younger siblings that they "ask me every morning and night: ‘Dad, we want to talk to our brother.'" may joshua and clemence rest in peace.

10. surasak lamnau, 30, thailand. a farm worker at first, surasak's mother, kanmee, had no idea what happened to her son. in the chaos following the events of 7/10, his colleagues in israel told her that they did not see him. but after she posted about him online, she was told that he was one of 5 people - an israeli employer and his 4 thai employees - who were kidnapped. his fate is currently unknown.

none of these 10 hostages are expected to be released during the first phase of the ceasefire deal between israel and hamas.

of the 82 foreign nationals who were killed during the 7/10 events, 46 were thai, 10 were nepalese (all agronomy students who were murdered in kibbutz alumim), 5 chinese (3 were murdered in sderot); 4 were from the philippines (3 were working as nurses in the gaza envelope, one was killed in the nova festival massacre); two nurses from sri lanka (both murdered in kibbutz be'eri); two were from tanzania; 2 were from the uk; 2 were from the usa; and the others were from germany, moldova, canada, cambodia, eritrea, india, mexico, ukraine, and geogria. 32 foreign nationals were kidnapped. most of them thai. 647 foreign nationals were injured.

[charlotte-family-apologist]

Wait wouldn’t the Taira be indentured servants to the yakuza

I imagine they get paid (though probably not a lot (or maybe it depends on the job?)) so it’s not 100% the definition of it but still

[1smolbean]

the whole “a submarine that costs 250k per ticket and is made up of cobbled-together parts that you can only open from the outside because it is secured by 17 deadbolts went missing while carrying several very rich people to tour the wreckage of the titanic, a ship that over 1500 (mostly working class) people died on, a ship whose wreckage should not become a tourist attraction because people fucking died there” situation that’s going on right now is just. so much in a way that i can’t really describe

[alongtidesoflight]

i swear my stepdad is so illogical AND stubborn it hurts

[iampikachuhearmeroar]

hell. hell. hell.

[a-queer-seminarian]

kinda fascinating to be in a situation where I've had to call / online chat with insurance representatives during the whole UH CEO fallout. I have BCBS and maaaybe they're always this helpful but idk, they just seem so responsive and taking extra steps to help me out and it turns out the issue I'm having isn't even on their side, it's the dentist's! also their online chat is a real person??? I don't have to work around the AI before it finally transfers me??? Incredible

anyway turning this post into a psa to 1) ALWAYS check that your medical bills match what your insurance's Explanation of Benefits (EOB) reads (you do this by checking what amount your insurance says "patient owes" in the EOB and if your bill doesn't match that, your provider is overcharging you) and 2) DO NOT Get Your Dental Care At Great Expressions Holy Shit I'm Pissed

My wife and I went to the dentist in fall 2022 for the first time since the pandemic started, and the bills we both received were so high i've never gone again since then, because i don't wanna spend 500 bucks on a basic cleaning + X-rays. But my wife has continued to go twice a year cuz her teeth suck so the frequent check-up matters more for her.

And lordy, we've been naive lol. We've heard dental is expensive so we've just been resigned to the high costs; we also both have terrible executive functioning around all things financial and are woefully under-educated about how bills and insurance work — but the latest bill we got was just too damn much and I finally mustered up the spoons to figure shit out.

Aaaand it turns out that, while the dentist charged nearly one thousand dollars for her three fillings, the EOB shows we only owe $128. Buck. Wild.

So I've gone through every charge we've gotten over the years and they are all hundreds of dollars higher than the EOB. Great Expressions has been taking advantage of our ignorance and naivety to rob us for two fricking years.

If I understand what one insurance rep told me, since Great Expressions has a contract with BCBS they're supposed to charge us an in-network rate, which is far cheaper than out-of-network rates. Basically they send their proposed bill to our insurance, who send back a fraction of the money proposed as decided in the contract between them; insurance also tells the dentist the cost the dentist can then charge us.

But Great Expressions is pocketing the insurance money and then charging us the remainder of their original proposed cost instead of the contracted rate. So they're clearly aware that we are in-network, but still charging us like we're out-of-network. WTF

Anyway thank you BCBS reps who helped me figure all this out, incredible to actually have some non-AI customer service in this age lol. And everyone else please wish me luck as I make a chart of each dental bill we've gotten since 2022 versus what the EOB states — and then take it to the dental clinic in person because they are Not Helpful over the phone lemme tell you

The plan is to try to talk it out with them myself, and if I can't get them to listen to me I'm going to call an BCBS insurance rep while in the clinic with them so they can talk it over lmao. And if that doesn't get me the past years' charges back...idk if i can consult a lawyer or whatever but I'm gonna get this damn money back.

also we're going to get a new damn dentist. obviously

[vani-ash]

I'm just trying to make a timeline of Paradise Of Thorns for myself feel free to correct me if it sounds wrong. (Spoilers for the movie)

According to google it takes approximately 3-5 months to grow durian to ripe from when they first bloom, So the movie takes place roughly over 5 months if we go for the longest time.

Thongkam is a monk for about a month (again i just googled how long temple duties take and it said a month).

At the start when asked how long until the durians are ready to sell Thongkam says 4 months, so its been 1 month by himself before they move in.

And then I think when he gets back from being a monk, that's probably close to 4 months being done (he goes to do it 4 months in? based off 1 month by himself, 3 hospital visits )

Mae Saengs hospital visits are once a month, we only see 2, once at the start, and once when Thongkam buys her the wheelchair, but there is a third we don't see where Thongkam goes to sell the produce and tells them they have to take a taxi.

I think Jingna shows up around halfway through the second month.

The time between Sek and Thongkam finding their first durian bloom, getting married, Sek dying, and Seks funeral is unclear to me. I did think they got married, paid off the debt and Sek dying happened in a day but i think it'd make more sense to be like a week. (I thought a day cause Sek asks to marry and its like sunrise, then it cuts to them going to pay the debt, which i assume was already mostly paid off if they could do it this quickly, so like i assume Thongkam insisted on paying it that day instead of whenever he was scheduled to pay it, Sek leaves to do things, then comes back that night. But after trying to time line it i think a week or two sounds more realistic?)

So sometime within the first month all that happens, and then I've just been using the hospital visits to try and count how long each section takes.

-1 month alone/with sek -3 months with Mae Saeng, Mo and Jingna -1 month away at temple -1 month with Jingna (the durians arent fully done when he gets back so I'm adding 1 more month even though thats over 5)

I think Mo's wedding, and the rest of the ending all takes place on the same day/night. Also Sek / Thongkam been together 5+ years

Mo / Sek been together 20 years (?)

(Mo wanted to leave to work in bangkok 10 years ago but Sek convinced her to stay, so Thongkam/ Sek could be together more than 5 years as thats only how long hes been paying the debt?)

[mikeluciraphgabe]

Trying to find scholarships for college is like walking into a brick wall repeatedly like the outcome will be different

[bitchesgetriches]

Debt consolidation.

Hey bitches, I have heard of debt consolidation and I don't know if it's beneficial or a scam. But I have over 20k in credit card debt and I just got a few K in medical debt and I'm kinda freaking out. My interest on my credit cards is just making it harder to pay off.

Any advice would be awesome.

Hi sweet pea! We wrote this specifically about consolidating student loan debt, but the advice is the same for credit cards:

When (And How) To Try Refinancing or Consolidating Student Loans 

It is NOT a scam, so long as you work with a reputable financial institution. Also, keep in mind you might have other options for that medical debt, which we write about here:

How to Pay Hospital Bills When You’re Flat Broke 

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[witchzvamp]

i am crying after finishing the first ep jesus this series gonna be a hit for real

[pumpumdemsugah]

2 more payments until I don't have credit card debt 🤼🏾‍♀️🥳

God bless 19 months long zero interest balance transfer credit card for making this possible. My interest payments have been holding me back for years. If I knew about this, I could have cleared this 5 years ago

[tenwhiteandalusians]

and then no one said anything about the fact that if i watched ONE MORE episode tenax pulls a "i'm not angry i'm just disappointed i'm hurt" about scorpus signing with the white faction.

[cultivating-wildflowers]

.

[golden-lovers]

MIYAWAKI SAKURA VS MATSUI JURINA - August 29th, 2017