Debt Dumpers - 2017

I did a budget trip with my dad to WDW last week (Monday - Friday). We stayed at Pop (requested and got a newly renovated room) and did a different park each day (no park hopping), with MK for another half day on Friday. We also did the free DVC after hours event at the AK on Wed. night and it was awesome! It was five hours long with free food and ice cream and most rides other than FoP were walk ons. FoP was a 45 minute wait, which we were happy to do - such an incredible ride! Overall, it was the best WDW trip I've had - low crowds throughout the whole week at every park and we got out just before Irma hit. We were lucky that our original trip plans had us leaving Friday night! So glad that WDW fared well through the hurricane! We ate mostly quick service meals to save money, our only splurge was breakfast at Boma on our AK day, and that is the cheapest buffet since it doesn't have characters. Only bought one souvenir each - the Halloween bag for $5.99. We also got a $30 gift card for opting out of housekeeping at Pop, but they ended up coming each day to clean anyway, which was odd.

Also, in other news - I was just approved for two 0% interest cc's which I will transfer my remaining cc balances onto. Since I paid off the other balances with my loan, my credit score has gone way up into the excellent category. Very happy with my progress!

Wow, sounds like a great trip!! That is a great wait time on FoP! That gift card at Pop must be new. I was hoping they'd have it during our August trip, but they didn't.
 
Wow, sounds like a great trip!! That is a great wait time on FoP! That gift card at Pop must be new. I was hoping they'd have it during our August trip, but they didn't.

It really was a great trip! We went straight to FoP in the morning since we weren't able to get fp's for it - we waited 2 hours to ride it the first time but it really wasn't that bad since all of Pandora was new to us and there was so much to look at and details to take in! The 45 minute wait the second time was very nice though, and being at night rather than the day was a great experience too. The river ride was also really cool and it was a walk on during the DVC night.

Pop had been giving people $15/night prior to our trip so I was a bit disappointed with the $10/night (they don't include your first night in that since your room is already cleaned at that point) but it was better than nothing and like I mentioned they came and cleaned anyway. Probably a mixup somehow. We waited in a very long line at the check in desk and they seemed to be understaffed at that time so maybe it didn't actually get entered in the system for housekeeping to make note of somehow. Anyway, it paid for lunch one day, so that was nice!
 
Hey everyone,
Our homeowner's policy will renew on October 31 and it went up $275.00 due to our water damage claim this year. Our water heater burst in Feb so we had to file a claim to replace our flooring back then. Because we pay our insurance through escrow, our mortgage payment will likely go up.

On the flip side, since we have completed all of our travel for the year, I've managed to save money. We are now paying $500 a month on the remaining balance of the window loan. It will be paid off by December and was originally $7200 in July 2016. I picked up a $400 reward from PNC for opening up a checking account. This will go in our Christmas fund.

We just purchased solar panels for our home. Next year we are looking at a $6300 refund from the purchase and we are essentially replacing our $130 a month electric bill with payments on our panels.

We pushed our Disney cruise back to 2019 since the 2018 cruise was scheduled for September (hurricane season). We're doing mid august 2019 which should give us a cushion if we face travel delays. This also gives me more time to save up for it.

Hope everyone is doing well.
 


After months of them saying they probably won't have much saved up, we finally heard from DH's son and girlfriend that they have about $600 saved up for the trip. I told them if they can cover whichever park tickets they want, we will cover their food costs and rental car. I'm a lot more at ease now that I don't have to buy their tickets. We also changed our ideas around and now instead of Magic Kingdom and two days at Universal, we are doing Magic Kingdom and Sea World and then just going to play around the city (mini golf, bowling, shopping). With 2 under 2, we just didn't think Universal would be a good time for the girls, even if I was super excited for Harry Potter.

In really not fun news, when I lost my job in early 2016 after I had my first daughter and had severe PPD, I voluntarily gave my car back to the bank. They were going to resell it and that was the last I heard about that. I thought everything was great with it until the sheriffs came knocking to deliver my summons the other day. Apparently they sold it and I still owe $11k on it? It was only a $19k car to begin with and they sold it for $15k. I'm assuming they're trying to sue for the interest also, which I'm not paying the interest on something I haven't owned in over a year. I'm going to see if they'll settle on half ($5,500) and do it in payments over the next year. Fingers crossed on that one. Now I just need to figure out what I'm supposed to write as a reply to the summons.
 


Murphy... uggggh.

DH was mowing the lawn tonight when the lawnmower just straight up died. Dead. Not sure why. Battery is new and it has gas, but it doesn't even make a noise when I turn the key. So I guess I'll have to call someone about fixing that. My mom has a friend that fixes that kind of thing, so hopefully it won't be too expensive.

The dog also ate the paper off a stick of butter this morning. Not the butter itself, just the paper :crazy2: He's acting fine and I guess I shouldn't be worried considering he's a hard-headed retriever who has eaten a foil tube with no consequences before.
 
We are finally getting the first level of our house repainted after the water leak in February. We're paying about $1100 and it's worth every penny. I want it done before Thanksgiving since we are hosting. I got multiple quotes and the contractor we picked was the most reasonable.

We plan to pay off DH's small student loan soon. It's about $3,000 or so. I'm also planning a quick trip to Las Vegas next year. probably in February. We shall see.
 
We are finally getting the first level of our house repainted after the water leak in February. We're paying about $1100 and it's worth every penny. I want it done before Thanksgiving since we are hosting. I got multiple quotes and the contractor we picked was the most reasonable.

We plan to pay off DH's small student loan soon. It's about $3,000 or so. I'm also planning a quick trip to Las Vegas next year. probably in February. We shall see.

DH and I have painted one room together and let me tell you... NEVER AGAIN!! When we renovated the upstairs of our house before moving in, my brother was helping us with contractors and asked if we wanted to paint it ourselves to save some money. I told him no way, I will always pay for painting from here on out! Best money we spent!

In good news, the lawnmower turned out to be a fuse issue, so an easy and thankfully cheap fix. Also, the dog had no issues with his, ahem, "morning rituals" this morning, so I guess everything is moving through him fine :rotfl2:
 
DH and I have painted one room together and let me tell you... NEVER AGAIN!! When we renovated the upstairs of our house before moving in, my brother was helping us with contractors and asked if we wanted to paint it ourselves to save some money. I told him no way, I will always pay for painting from here on out! Best money we spent!

In good news, the lawnmower turned out to be a fuse issue, so an easy and thankfully cheap fix. Also, the dog had no issues with his, ahem, "morning rituals" this morning, so I guess everything is moving through him fine :rotfl2:
Yes!! I agree on the painting thing. It's better to have a professional do it. Spend the money to get the quality look that you want. I attempted to paint myself and the area looks a MESS! Good news re: the dog and lawnmower.
 
Haven't really given an update in a while. We had the shower at DH's office and got lots of really great stuff. And yesterday, my co-workers threw me a little surprise shower during our staff meeting that included food and gifts. It was lovely and so thoughtful. I was really surprised by this, since they all came to the shower at our house and gave gifts in September. My co-workers are traveling a lot over the next three weeks, so yesterday may be the last time I see them before baby arrives! But that means that I get to work from home from now until my due date, which will be so much more comfortable for me.

We got tons of gift cards and I used them to purchase mostly everything remaining off of our Babies R Us registry. I also ordered some needed items that weren't available on Babies R Us from Target and Amazon using mostly gift cards. We still have about $60 in Babies R Us gift cards, plus we should get another $150 from the Registry Endless Rewards about 12 weeks after the due date. We plan to use that money to purchase the baby gates we will need for the top and bottom of the stairs. And we have $40 left in Target gift cards too.

Another thing that we didn't end up buying was a stroller. DH decided that he wants to have a jogging stroller to use in the spring. We went to a Mom-2-Mom sale last Friday to see what was available, but there wasn't anything that we felt comfortable buying (though we did buy a baby hiking carrier). Most of the jogging strollers seemed to be pretty beat up or rusted even. So that got me rethinking our stroller strategy. We looked at some of the brand new, lower priced jogging strollers, but we had some reservations because they lacked some features we would really want (like suspension and a high quality 5 point safety harness). We have decided that instead of buying the regular full size stroller we had planned to buy ($250), we would get the car seat caddy ($80). We can use that for the first 6 months or so and save it for baby #2 down the line. And we will buy a jogging stroller that can do double duty for everyday, instead of buying two separate strollers for two different functions. The jogging stroller that we are looking at is the Bob Revolution Flex. The MSRP is $449, but I am going to keep my eye out for a sale and am aiming to grab one for closer to $300. Overall, the Bob stroller + caddy should come close to the same cost as buying the full size stroller plus a cheaper jogging stroller.

Since so much of our registry was gifted to us, we will probably have $1500 left over in the baby fund by the end of the year. I looked into when we need to do the next steps for DH's immigration and it turns out that we can file for removal of his conditional permanent resident status starting the end of November. That costs $680 and we haven't set any money aside for it yet, so I think that might be a good use of about 1/2 the left over money. And then in February 2019, DH can file for citizenship, which costs another $725. So maybe we should just set aside all $1500 for immigration costs and not have to worry about it. I will see what DH thinks.
 
Haven't really given an update in a while. We had the shower at DH's office and got lots of really great stuff. And yesterday, my co-workers threw me a little surprise shower during our staff meeting that included food and gifts. It was lovely and so thoughtful. I was really surprised by this, since they all came to the shower at our house and gave gifts in September. My co-workers are traveling a lot over the next three weeks, so yesterday may be the last time I see them before baby arrives! But that means that I get to work from home from now until my due date, which will be so much more comfortable for me.

We got tons of gift cards and I used them to purchase mostly everything remaining off of our Babies R Us registry. I also ordered some needed items that weren't available on Babies R Us from Target and Amazon using mostly gift cards. We still have about $60 in Babies R Us gift cards, plus we should get another $150 from the Registry Endless Rewards about 12 weeks after the due date. We plan to use that money to purchase the baby gates we will need for the top and bottom of the stairs. And we have $40 left in Target gift cards too.

Another thing that we didn't end up buying was a stroller. DH decided that he wants to have a jogging stroller to use in the spring. We went to a Mom-2-Mom sale last Friday to see what was available, but there wasn't anything that we felt comfortable buying (though we did buy a baby hiking carrier). Most of the jogging strollers seemed to be pretty beat up or rusted even. So that got me rethinking our stroller strategy. We looked at some of the brand new, lower priced jogging strollers, but we had some reservations because they lacked some features we would really want (like suspension and a high quality 5 point safety harness). We have decided that instead of buying the regular full size stroller we had planned to buy ($250), we would get the car seat caddy ($80). We can use that for the first 6 months or so and save it for baby #2 down the line. And we will buy a jogging stroller that can do double duty for everyday, instead of buying two separate strollers for two different functions. The jogging stroller that we are looking at is the Bob Revolution Flex. The MSRP is $449, but I am going to keep my eye out for a sale and am aiming to grab one for closer to $300. Overall, the Bob stroller + caddy should come close to the same cost as buying the full size stroller plus a cheaper jogging stroller.

Since so much of our registry was gifted to us, we will probably have $1500 left over in the baby fund by the end of the year. I looked into when we need to do the next steps for DH's immigration and it turns out that we can file for removal of his conditional permanent resident status starting the end of November. That costs $680 and we haven't set any money aside for it yet, so I think that might be a good use of about 1/2 the left over money. And then in February 2019, DH can file for citizenship, which costs another $725. So maybe we should just set aside all $1500 for immigration costs and not have to worry about it. I will see what DH thinks.


You are getting so close :) your offices sound very generous! that's great! baby showers aren't as big here, my coworkers did give me a gift, but I think they just put a few bucks in each sort of thing- very nice thing for them to do no matter what, but working with almost all men, I was surprised to receive what I did.
We have a Bob Revolution and have been very happy- I bought it second hand, but it was like new, and included the car seat adapter which I very much recommend. I have done lots of jogging with it and been very happy and it's our only stroller- using the bucket seat adapter at first, and now we are using it just with her in it.

So exciting!
 
You are getting so close :) your offices sound very generous! that's great! baby showers aren't as big here, my coworkers did give me a gift, but I think they just put a few bucks in each sort of thing- very nice thing for them to do no matter what, but working with almost all men, I was surprised to receive what I did.
We have a Bob Revolution and have been very happy- I bought it second hand, but it was like new, and included the car seat adapter which I very much recommend. I have done lots of jogging with it and been very happy and it's our only stroller- using the bucket seat adapter at first, and now we are using it just with her in it.

So exciting!

I have been watching locally for a second hand Bob stroller, but they just remodeled them in 2016 and none of the second hand models are that new. Plus, people are all asking $250+ and they look pretty abused on top of it. If I can snag a new one for close to $300, I feel like it is worth it to just pay the $50 more and know that everything is in good order. We got the car sear caddy so we won't need the car seat adapter for the Bob stroller. The adapter alone is $60, so for just $20 more we decided to buy the Chicco Caddy and wait for a better deal on the stroller.
 
I have been watching locally for a second hand Bob stroller, but they just remodeled them in 2016 and none of the second hand models are that new. Plus, people are all asking $250+ and they look pretty abused on top of it. If I can snag a new one for close to $300, I feel like it is worth it to just pay the $50 more and know that everything is in good order. We got the car sear caddy so we won't need the car seat adapter for the Bob stroller. The adapter alone is $60, so for just $20 more we decided to buy the Chicco Caddy and wait for a better deal on the stroller.

I had to look up what you were referring to but I think I figured out- seems to be a frame you put the car seat on? neat idea!
Yes, I was happy to find the one I did- given you mention they were re-modeled, I think I prob have the older one, but it's a great stroller, you will be super happy. Yes the adapter here is $99 I think, so glad that the stroller I found had it- the stroller here is $630 plus tax, so I was so happy when I found mine in like new conditions for $300 including the adapter
 
I've been a little bit of a spendypants this month. Some were expected expenses that we knew would happen. However, I did just have a major "treat yo self" moment. I have been looking for a very particular outfit for horse showing for a long time now, and what I was looking for very rarely comes up for sale and isn't normally made anymore, so I would have to buy used. I knew that when I did see it, I would have to be prepared to pull the trigger pretty quickly. It just so happens everything I needed came up for sale this week, so I just spent $340 to purchase that. I'm always a little nervous about dropping that kind of money on something for myself, but this has been on my wish list for well over a year now and I still really want it, so at least I have the comfort of knowing it's something I will cherish!
 
After 17 years of marriage and on my 4oth Birthday I walked away with nothing (money that is),,, but I have been fortunate enough to rebuild.
I've read so much about retirement and finances now and I am still learning something new everyday.
Hugs Mel


Here is a good site for canadian seniors looking for rates.
https://www.ratehub.ca/savings-accounts/accounts/senior

So proud for you! For me it was 11.5 years and I was still in my 30's. Took a long time and hard work but I am also back on the right track. I went back to school to try to earn more money but I used my student loan money to buy a townhouse for cash 2 years ago, so no mortgage. Now just need to keep paying off debt!
 
Decisions Decisions decisions,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
I have gotten an update on medical............I must say my mom and dad had bad genes.
Both knees and in all three sections show arthritis.We discussed treatments and a 10 lb weight loss by Christmas for this.
Popliteal cyst rupture --sac remains-current size 3 cm--have to watch for cyst refilling.
Lower Disc grabbing sciatic nerve and peroneal nerve, both docs say no surgery right now ,hopefully time will heal. I am currently working 1/2 days and will be assessed again after Christmas.
I am trying out Yoga-(Chair Yoga).My goal here is to keep myself as physically/mentally well as I can ,,so as to enjoy life and also continue to work 1/2 days for the next 3 years.

I have decided to declare myself 1/2 time from fulltime
next Spring for the 2018/ 2019 school year.
I have a ton of questions for my association/Union before I do this.
I am mostly concerned about medical/dental coverage as I know that even 1/2 time employees can have it but it can be quite expensive,,currently I do not pay for it.

If anyone with back/Knee/leg issues have any physical activities that help them would you please share?
Is there any questions that come to your mind that I should be asking before giving up
my fulltime job and going to 1/2 time.?

Thanks for listening
Hugs Mel
 
small victories need celebration: all of my bills are paid a month ahead before i leave for disney on monday so i dont have to worry about coming home to bills.

Having that done must be like having the weight of the world lifted off your shoulders!
What a great way to start your Holiday!
Congratulations to you!
Hugs Mel
 

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