ruadisneyfan2
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 20, 2006
So here is our latest scoop.
Dh and I decided to do a quickie 3-nt cruise over Labor Day weekend. I need more Castaway Cay in my life.
I finished saving up for our big fall trip out West, paid for the cruise and just started working on a Christmas fund.
Murphy paid us a visit and our garage door died. Dh tried to revive it with new wheels and hardware but it still sounded horrible and I don't really trust it ever since around 8 years ago when one side fell out of the tracks and nearly hit my car while I was closing it. (electric opener). Luckily I saw it right away and hit the button before it went any further. It has progressively gotten worse ever since. Finally the door wouldn't close and hardware keeps breaking right off the door. Personally I think the track was bent when it fell but I'm no expert. It's not worth someone being seriously crushed if that falls again. We use it as a front door so it gets used A LOT.
When the garage door repairman was here back in Feb to replace a broken torsion spring, I asked him if it seemed abnormally loud, like a lot of clackity-clacking. He said that's just how double wide doors are. (I don't remember that when it was new.) Needless to say, we found another garage door company and he is much more knowledgeable and professional and we feel more confident in this guy.
So a new double wide insulated door is around $2100 installed but one good part is that it's a capital improvement so there's no sales tax. Yay! The door opener is only 2 years old so we're keeping that.
Sadly, I cancelled our cruise to Norway next summer. I had a great deal with the onboard booking discount and I'm sure it would be lovely but it's very expensive for a family of 4 and our kids are too big to squeeze all 4 of us in one cabin any more. I'd feel bad to tell our kids they can't come, I'd worry about them or the house the whole time we're gone if we went without them, and hopefully they'll be back in school by then.
I've been reading some financial blogs lately, mostly Mr. Money Mustache, and of course it's making me feel like I should be more thrifty and prudent with how I choose to spend money which is the main reason I cancelled the cruise.
I still plan to save up $12k toward a new car but I think I'll just hold it in Ally or Vanguard and hang onto my car for as long as I can. It's 12 yrs old but only has 56,000 miles on it. It rarely needs more than brakes, tires, oil changes and wiper blades. This is just typical maintenance that any car would need. It has a LOT of life left in it! Sure a new car is exciting at first but then it will just sit at the train station parking lot all day, getting its doors dinged and in no time I'll be wondering why I gave up on my old car so easily. I love having NO car payment!!! If it ever gets to the point where I really need a new car, I'll be ready with a down payment.
I was debating with myself which is a better choice with our snowball after we're done saving the car money. At first I thought paying down the mortgage would be so awesome. We have 10 years left and if I send my future snowball there it would be gone in approx 4 yrs. (Let's face it, more like 5 when I factor in for vacations.)
But then I think dh only has about 8-10 years of work left so we should probably hit our retirement accounts harder. That reduces our tax burden plus our retirement accounts are doing well now with high returns and our mortgage is only 3%. My Vanguard is out-performing that by a long shot.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Dh and I decided to do a quickie 3-nt cruise over Labor Day weekend. I need more Castaway Cay in my life.
I finished saving up for our big fall trip out West, paid for the cruise and just started working on a Christmas fund.
Murphy paid us a visit and our garage door died. Dh tried to revive it with new wheels and hardware but it still sounded horrible and I don't really trust it ever since around 8 years ago when one side fell out of the tracks and nearly hit my car while I was closing it. (electric opener). Luckily I saw it right away and hit the button before it went any further. It has progressively gotten worse ever since. Finally the door wouldn't close and hardware keeps breaking right off the door. Personally I think the track was bent when it fell but I'm no expert. It's not worth someone being seriously crushed if that falls again. We use it as a front door so it gets used A LOT.
When the garage door repairman was here back in Feb to replace a broken torsion spring, I asked him if it seemed abnormally loud, like a lot of clackity-clacking. He said that's just how double wide doors are. (I don't remember that when it was new.) Needless to say, we found another garage door company and he is much more knowledgeable and professional and we feel more confident in this guy.
So a new double wide insulated door is around $2100 installed but one good part is that it's a capital improvement so there's no sales tax. Yay! The door opener is only 2 years old so we're keeping that.
Sadly, I cancelled our cruise to Norway next summer. I had a great deal with the onboard booking discount and I'm sure it would be lovely but it's very expensive for a family of 4 and our kids are too big to squeeze all 4 of us in one cabin any more. I'd feel bad to tell our kids they can't come, I'd worry about them or the house the whole time we're gone if we went without them, and hopefully they'll be back in school by then.
I've been reading some financial blogs lately, mostly Mr. Money Mustache, and of course it's making me feel like I should be more thrifty and prudent with how I choose to spend money which is the main reason I cancelled the cruise.
I still plan to save up $12k toward a new car but I think I'll just hold it in Ally or Vanguard and hang onto my car for as long as I can. It's 12 yrs old but only has 56,000 miles on it. It rarely needs more than brakes, tires, oil changes and wiper blades. This is just typical maintenance that any car would need. It has a LOT of life left in it! Sure a new car is exciting at first but then it will just sit at the train station parking lot all day, getting its doors dinged and in no time I'll be wondering why I gave up on my old car so easily. I love having NO car payment!!! If it ever gets to the point where I really need a new car, I'll be ready with a down payment.
I was debating with myself which is a better choice with our snowball after we're done saving the car money. At first I thought paying down the mortgage would be so awesome. We have 10 years left and if I send my future snowball there it would be gone in approx 4 yrs. (Let's face it, more like 5 when I factor in for vacations.)
But then I think dh only has about 8-10 years of work left so we should probably hit our retirement accounts harder. That reduces our tax burden plus our retirement accounts are doing well now with high returns and our mortgage is only 3%. My Vanguard is out-performing that by a long shot.
Have a great weekend everyone!