Cullen and Katie: Losing the house, no jobs for either spouse | Part #27

[Toodles123]

Title Credit : nutbagmagee

Sent from my LM-X210 using Tapatalk

[Boymomma123]

At first they seemed to share a ton about their "debt journey" and I thought they were being genuine. Now I had the impression they were holding information back but now I think they are just super clueless about what the hell they are doing!

They seem to have absolutely no plan and if they really were serious about moving to Florida they should have taken this time to really look for a rental. Not just drive around and look at million dollar homes.

Katie is addicted to spending and the instant gratification that comes with new purchases. She needs to truly come to terms with her own issues before they will ever be able to tackle their debt.

I understand kids grow out of clothes and need new but I have a super hard time believing that those kids with huge walk in closets packed with clothes need anything.

I try not to buy my kids new pajamas until I get rid of one because of a hole or they are way too small.

The goal of following Dave Ramsey's plan is to spend $0 money if at all possible! Not to justify $100 eating out once a week. I am sure Katie is spending more than she is admitting to.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[irishmiss]

Sorry my mistake I forgot about grad school. Just one thing struck me though in the draw my life video- Katie said they lived in the garage apartment while she was in grad school for 4 years. Isn't grad school more like 2 years? I think its the equivalent of a masters where i live and that is certainly not 4 years + a year internship like Katie did.

I still struggle to beleive it wasn't in the plans for Cullen to improve his career prospects and provide for his family so Katie could work less or stay home when they had young kids. I bet it was a condition of Katies parents supporting the marriage and paying for a wedding etc. If that's the case then I still think he has let the side down. Again none of this is to say Katies attitude these days is ok but I do want to understand how she became this way.

[Liz_444]

Sorry my mistake I forgot about grad school. Just one thing struck me though in the draw my life video- Katie said they lived in the garage apartment while she was in grad school for 4 years. Isn't grad school more like 2 years? I think its the equivalent of a masters where i live and that is certainly not 4 years + a year internship like Katie did.

I still struggle to beleive it wasn't in the plans for Cullen to improve his career prospects and provide for his family so Katie could work less or stay home when they had young kids. I bet it was a condition of Katies parents supporting the marriage and paying for a wedding etc. If that's the case then I still think he has let the side down. Again none of this is to say Katies attitude these days is ok but I do want to understand how she became this way.

PHD programs can be up to 6 years. When my DD was applying (she decided to take a high paying job instead) the programs she looked at were 6 years.

[HashtagBlessed]

Sorry my mistake I forgot about grad school. Just one thing struck me though in the draw my life video- Katie said they lived in the garage apartment while she was in grad school for 4 years. Isn't grad school more like 2 years? I think its the equivalent of a masters where i live and that is certainly not 4 years + a year internship like Katie did.

I still struggle to beleive it wasn't in the plans for Cullen to improve his career prospects and provide for his family so Katie could work less or stay home when they had young kids. I bet it was a condition of Katies parents supporting the marriage and paying for a wedding etc. If that's the case then I still think he has let the side down. Again none of this is to say Katies attitude these days is ok but I do want to understand how she became this way.

It sounds like her PhD program was 4 years of coursework, followed by a one-year internship. She got her PhD from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, did her internship in Tallahassee, for a total of 5 years. Depending on the program, a PhD can take about 5-7 years.

I don't know how it works in other families, but I'd be surprised if her parents were involved in the details of their family planning or how they planned to support said family. I don't get the impression that Katie needed her parents "permission" or that they had conditions attached to paying for a wedding, such as Cullen needed to make a certain amount of money. I would guess many parents assume that their adult children can make those decisions themselves. I don't get the impression her parents are overly involved. I think the Dave Ramsey book was probably the extent of their unsolicited advice. My parents will offer advice if asked, but they certainly didn't ask how much my husband would be making in the future or if we would be a one or two income family after kids.

"I am a firm believer that it IS possible to stay on track with quickly paying off debt while allowing yourself a few special extras every now that then."

Ummm okay so when are you sharing the amount of debt you'd paid off in June, July, and August?

They shared back in February that after selling a bunch of stuff there were able to put $13K towards getting current, and they had $900 more to go to be completely current. They were only making minimum payments while trying to get current. (I'm sure that number has creeped back up as more bills have come in and been ignored.) Their next update came June 1, when they said that they've paid off an additional $12,335, for a total of $25,335 paid since they started. But they also made a lot of excuses about how they didn't pay off as much because they wanted a bigger safety net and their income was getting cut due to Covid. The reason that $25K figure is not that impression to me is because they reached it largely by selling useless big ticket items they had lying around, likely put on credit cards. So while using the sale of those items to get current, the original purchase price is still sitting on their credit card, accumulating interest. It's another example of how they rob Peter to pay Paul and continue to screw themselves over. They need to dramatically increase their income and live on substantially less than they bring in.

The total debt number they shared was $100,045. I'm not sure if that includes the car? I know it doesn't include the house.

Katie doesn't seem to understand that they owe more on their house than it's currently worth, and that's going to be super expensive to get out of. So no, you probably shouldn't be splurging on dinners out.

[Boymomma123]

I could be wrong but based on what they have shared I was under the assumption that 17k of the 25k paid off was the "get current" money. They changed it from 13k to 17k when they realized they were behind on the mortgage? So only $8000 went toward actual debt and like $4000 of that was from a savings account her parents had for them!

Most of the money they paid toward debt was from selling their stuff so no they definitely can't afford to be budgeting for unnecessary spending.

If I was in their position and had deferred the mortgage payment for the house I was already unable to afford I would be eating as cheaply as possible. Yet they still budget for copious amounts of alcohol. Forget $150 worth of carters pj's, my kids would be sleeping in old t shirts!

Even if they get an offer it will most likely be the same as the last offer. They will have to bring money to closing! They should be saving every last drop of money they have.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[HashtagBlessed]

I could be wrong but based on what they have shared I was under the assumption that 17k of the 25k paid off was the "get current" money. They changed it from 13k to 17k when they realized they were behind on the mortgage? So only $8000 went toward actual debt and like $4000 of that was from a savings account her parents had for them!

Most of the money they paid toward debt was from selling their stuff so no they definitely can't afford to be budgeting for unnecessary spending.

If I was in their position and had deferred the mortgage payment for the house I was already unable to afford I would be eating as cheaply as possible. Yet they still budget for copious amounts of alcohol. Forget $150 worth of carters pj's, my kids would be sleeping in old t shirts!

Even if they get an offer it will most likely be the same as the last offer. They will have to bring money to closing! They should be saving every last drop of money they have.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

Ah, I forgot about the $4,000 in the savings account her parents opened. It's laughable that she thinks they are paying off debt quickly. They exhausted the low hanging fruit and somehow paid off $25k of $100k. (I think it's a pretty big deal that this doesn't include the house. That's going to cost a pretty penny to get out of and they're definitely not considering that as they defer payments.) The remaining $75k, along with the balance on the mortgage, is huge! Plus it's accumulating interest at a high rate. She acts like they will continue to pay down $25k every four months, breeze right through closing, and be out of this in no time, so of course it's no big deal if she spends money on new clothes and eating out.

[lmmomSD]

I think maybe the reason people think Katie's parents were involved in the finances is because they were paying for grad school and allowing C&K to live rent free in one of the apartments. Didn't they also help with the down payment on the first house? It doesn't necessarily give them "rights", but most parents I know would want to know that there was a plan if they were shelling out that kind of dough. I don't think it had much to do with paying for the wedding. What Katie wanted, Katie got (still) and she wanted Cullen, and they had social obligations/expectations for the wedding.
My grade school best friend was a deb, and her first wedding had 400 guests. When she divorced and remarried, her second had maybe 20. She said "my first wedding was for my mom, and this one is for me".

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[Todays drama]

I think Katies parents felt bad for them and since they have no money for a "real" vacation, they let them stay in their Florida Beach home. If you listen to Katie and Cullen, you would think they were putting every spare penny towards their debt, but lets be real, she hasn't sacrificed much. Both Katie and Cullen should be out looking for jobs. I don't think it's totally up to Katie because she has a degree, Cullen also needs to step up to support his family. Working together, they could pay off their debt, rent a smaller home to get their credit back up, eventually buy a functual home if thats what they want. When I got married, we looked at huge homes, I was the reasonable one, told my husband that we need a functual home. In 20 years , our house was paid off, we have 2 vehicles that are paid off, kids college is paid, we can enjoy life, we only have the insurance, property taxes and monthly utilities to pay. This because we didn't live above our mesns and didn't need to keep up with the Jones that mostly sold because they couldn't keep up with the payments like K&C. I hope they learned their lesson, but highly doubt it.

[lmmomSD]

I remember a Washington Post article about the area my family is from in Northern Virginia (Loudoun County). It's beautiful and commuter close to DC. Anyway, it was talking about all these families upside-down on their mortgages for "6,000 SF starter homes". What the HELL does a family with 2 kids need with 6000SF? And as a "starter home"? We built what was basically my dream home in Washington state (sadly sold in the divorce) and it wasn't even 2300SF, but it was NICE.
I don't understand why people think they need so much space. I would rather have a yard than have a huge house built up to the edges of the lot!

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[Boymomma123]

I remember a Washington Post article about the area my family is from in Northern Virginia (Loudoun County). It's beautiful and commuter close to DC. Anyway, it was talking about all these families upside-down on their mortgages for "6,000 SF starter homes". What the HELL does a family with 2 kids need with 6000SF? And as a "starter home"? We built what was basically my dream home in Washington state (sadly sold in the divorce) and it wasn't even 2300SF, but it was NICE.
I don't understand why people think they need so much space. I would rather have a yard than have a huge house built up to the edges of the lot!

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

No one "needs" a house that big especially not people like C&K who can't or are not responsible enough to afford them.

I will take my 1700 sq ft 3 bedroom, in the words of Katie "cute little house" that we can actually afford over their dated mcmansion any day!

There are rooms in that home they never even go in so what is the point in having them?


Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[Ducklings4]

The rent they paid to her parents was put aside for their down payment. Yes, her parents have done a lot for her. What they did not do was raise her to be a productive member of society. Not sure where and when Katie went off the rails. Kelly is a stay at home mom, at one point she taught preschool. There is no way a preschool teacher’s salary would support she and Jay while he was in law school. Her parents must have done something similar with them. Jay’s family obviously is well to do as well. Kelly and Jay started dating in high school and continued long distance through college if I remember correctly. She went to a smaller college not Alabama like Katie. Katie met Cullen at a college party, they dated for a long time then broke up and later down the road they got back together. Now she claims she broke up because he was using drugs. If that is true why did she get back with him? Did she tell her parents why she originally broke up with him? Did he have to prove he was clean and sober? If he was clean and sober and I don’t believe he was when did he fall off the wagon? Was Katie not meeting anyone of Jay’s qualities (shallow, I know)? Was she entering the old maid portion of her southern life and had to settle for Cullen? I feel she holds herself above Cullen, but I also feel she has spent more frivolously and Cullen is an ostrich with his head in the sand. Neither one has ever matured and put their children first. If they did they certainly would go out and get other jobs and cut their spending down to bare minimum and not buy $10 a pound crab legs for dinner. Harris Teeter has crab legs on special today for $10 a pound.

[HashtagBlessed]

Katie claimed recently that her parents charged them a nominal rent for them to live in the garage apartment, and then gave them that money back when they purchased their first home. It was probably a small amount, but I'm sure that added up over 4 years. For example, say they were "charging" them $400 a month in rent. After four years, that's $19,200 towards a down payment. I think her parents were trying to teach her responsibility by charging a small amount of rent, and showing her the value of savings by demonstrating how that small monthly fee added up over four years. I don't think the lesson sunk it.

I have a different take on her parents. They were gifting their daughter the same things that wealthy and upper-middle class parents gift their adult children all the time. A nice wedding, an education, a down payment on a modest house. None of which was going to break the bank for them. Not exactly a reason to launch into a financial audit and ask for a plan. They probably assumed that their adult daughter and son-in-law could be reasonably expected to run their own lives. If Katie wanted to marry Cullen, her parents probably had little choice but to support it. If we're to believe Katie's narrative, they didn't get super irresponsible with money until a couple years ago when their YouTube earnings took a hit and they couldn't reel back the exorbitant lifestyle. If Katie's parents thought they were reasonably good with money, either because they were prior to 2016 or because her parents weren't privy to the details, I don't think they necessarily would ask a lot of questions about finances or family planning.

[Boymomma123]

I agree hashtag blessed, her parents were able to set them up for success and did so through good budgeting and financial planning themselves.

C&K are idiots and just squandered all they were handed in life. I do think her parents made her life a little too easy and they would have learned more from working hard for some of those things early on.

Honestly I think the majority of their money issues go back to Katie's self esteem problems. She constantly buys things to make it seem like they are well off. All of those super expensive monogrammed outfits for the kids they wore once were to show status. She still doesn't even take responsibility for the things she did to cause their debt. She literally blames her parents and sister for "making her feel like she has to live a certain way". When really she just can't afford that lifestyle so now she has to blame someone else.

If she was married to someone life her dad making 6 figures she would have no problem filling the kids closets with all that monogrammed nonsense and paying for expensive day care so she could shop all day. If you took tomorrow for them she would stay in that house and go right back to spending. She wants her sisters life for sure.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[Creative74]

Title Credit : nutbagmagee

Sent from my LM-X210 using Tapatalk

LOVE the name of the new thread! I'm cracking up. Also Toodles123- LOVE your profile pic. So perfect.

[rosie_dalia]

Does anyone know how long they can defer their mortgage payment? I thought it ends August 31, but I'm not sure of the rules. They might be in for a rude awakening when they have to pay their mortgage again after MONTHS of spending that money on whatever they wanted. They definitely weren't saving that money and they weren't making payments. How stupid.

I really don't think their house will sell until at least next spring/summer...and at a huge loss.

[just_me]

But they also made a lot of excuses about how they didn't pay off as much because they wanted a bigger safety net and their income was getting cut due to Covid.

How is their income getting cut due to Covid? If they are still doing Youtube and not working out of the house, their income should be fairly the same, wouldn't it? It's not like they are actors or tv hosts or whatever and it completely changed their job.

(I haven't watched any of Cullen & Katie's videos in over a year and I don't even follow them on social media (just Grandberry, Grandolly & Grandoc) so sorry if this has been brought up in a recent video or post of theirs.)

I remember a Washington Post article about the area my family is from in Northern Virginia (Loudoun County). It's beautiful and commuter close to DC. Anyway, it was talking about all these families upside-down on their mortgages for "6,000 SF starter homes". What the HELL does a family with 2 kids need with 6000SF? And as a "starter home"? We built what was basically my dream home in Washington state (sadly sold in the divorce) and it wasn't even 2300SF, but it was NICE.
I don't understand why people think they need so much space. I would rather have a yard than have a huge house built up to the edges of the lot!

I was thinking something similar this past week. I love watching house hunting shows on HGTV and I noticed how people used to buy a starter home, just big enough for the husband and wife and maybe a small kid and then move onto bigger and better houses as their bank accounts and families grew and now newlyweds want a 3100 square foot house with multiple bonus rooms and a backyard the size of Texas.

[Toodles123]

Title Credit : nutbagmagee

Sent from my LM-X210 using Tapatalk

LOVE the name of the new thread! I'm cracking up. Also Toodles123- LOVE your profile pic. So perfect.

Thanks soo much Happy reading / gossiping.

Sent from my LM-X210 using Tapatalk

[rosie_dalia]

But they also made a lot of excuses about how they didn't pay off as much because they wanted a bigger safety net and their income was getting cut due to Covid.

How is their income getting cut due to Covid? If they are still doing Youtube and not working out of the house, their income should be fairly the same, wouldn't it? It's not like they are actors or tv hosts or whatever and it completely changed their job.

(I haven't watched any of Cullen & Katie's videos in over a year and I don't even follow them on social media (just Grandberry, Grandolly & Grandoc) so sorry if this has been brought up in a recent video or post of theirs.)

There are fewer brand deal/ad opportunities now. Cullen and Katie would typically get the most money all year for back-to-school ads/product placement and holiday shopping ads (like all the other family vloggers), but that's just not happening this year for obvious reasons. I'm sure their income is down a lot! Plus, they aren't posting much on YT at all (to hide this month-long vacation of spending. LOL.)

[YTIG60]

They need to dramatically increase their income and live on substantially less than they bring in.

The total debt number they shared was $100,045. I'm not sure if that includes the car? I know it doesn't include the house.

Katie doesn't seem to understand that they owe more on their house than it's currently worth, and that's going to be super expensive to get out of. So no, you probably shouldn't be splurging on dinners out.

There biggest problem is the house that may sell less than the debt or mortgage they owe.
They talked in detail about what is included in the 100K ALL DEBT Individually Listed + Our GAME PLAN - Our Debt Disaster

I believe they are saying the100K debt includes credit card, business debt (39K) and 30K for the car. They were going to make payments on tax debt that Dave Ramsey didn't recommend. They pay 929.00 a month for the car.
During this vlog Katie said her parents were not involved with their finances, but friends (who?) and family offered to help...they didn't accept it.

Katie: I'm never gonna buy clothes which actually we have a ton of hand-me-downs for my sister's kids and ever since I realized what a problem I have with buying stuff I have stopped buying clothes for my kids unless they obviously like need them I'm not gonna like let them not wear clothes but we had a hand-me-down...