Debt Dumpers - 2019

Simple- tell him it's up to him then, as you aren't doing it anymore.
He does clean too (and does all the yard work). If I didn't do it, he would do what I usually do eventually. He just doesn't do it on my timetable and that's where sometimes we have conflict.
 
We had a bit of a spendy weekend. Spent $60 to make 3 dump runs for all the tree trimmings from our backyard. We removed 2 big, bushy, ugly, messy trees from our backyard and just had piles of trimmings that we needed to get rid of. This was still cheaper than going the professional route which based on quotes would have cost us a minimum of $500. :scared: I'll gladly spend $60 and 4-5 hours of my day doing it myself. I also just purchased a propane fire table from Home Depot's website since we've been wanting one for awhile and they have one this year that's $100. By far the cheapest one I've seen. They didn't have it in any stores near us, so I figure if we hate it when it gets delivered we'll just return it. Now I have grand visions of adding a gazebo to our backyard, but I'm not sure if that's something that will happen this year as the gazebo we've been looking at is $1500 and I don't know if we really want to spend that at the moment.
 
I swear, sometimes I can't believe my own luck. I got a free $50 rewards play to the Casino for it being my "anniversary" as a player card member. Stopped after work with $25 of my own and worked my $25 up to $200 playing quarters. I split that and decided to play the dollar machine with $100. And I hit $600! I kept my original $100 out and bounced around and had it up to another $400. I got the feeling like I *had* to play a $2 machine. I just couldn't shake it. So I took $200 and played...and won $1920!!! After taxes were taken out, combined with the other winnings, it was enough to cover our issue and I had a little extra left over to pay a couple bills early and get my daughters birthday presents early!
 


I hate telecom/internet companies and the games that they play. Our promotional rate with Comcast just expired and the rate jumped up by $25. I called in to play the game to get a new promotional rate and they said that they have a new "clear and simple" pricing plan, which basically means that they won't give promotions anymore. But it also meant that bundling internet with the basic TV that we never use doesn't result in a lower price, so it was cheapest to ditch the TV service and just get internet only. To keep us at the same internet speed, our bill has now increased by $12 per month. That is a 20% increase in our bill. I am not happy, but don't really have much choice. AT&T is the only other provider in our area and the internet service was terrible when I tried them before a few years ago. Ugh. So sick of all of my bills going up by huge amounts all the time.
 
My performance review is Thursday. I'm not sure if I'll get a raise (effective April 1) because I was promoted off-cycle in November. Fingers crossed that I do, but I don't want to get my hopes up.

I also have my 401k contribution set to increase April 1 from 7% to 8%. I already reached the company max match, so this would just be extra from me. TBD if I cancel or increase that depending on how my performance eval goes.
 
I hate telecom/internet companies and the games that they play. Our promotional rate with Comcast just expired and the rate jumped up by $25. I called in to play the game to get a new promotional rate and they said that they have a new "clear and simple" pricing plan, which basically means that they won't give promotions anymore. But it also meant that bundling internet with the basic TV that we never use doesn't result in a lower price, so it was cheapest to ditch the TV service and just get internet only. To keep us at the same internet speed, our bill has now increased by $12 per month. That is a 20% increase in our bill. I am not happy, but don't really have much choice. AT&T is the only other provider in our area and the internet service was terrible when I tried them before a few years ago. Ugh. So sick of all of my bills going up by huge amounts all the time.

Ugh. This is SO annoying. I feel like these companies just take advantage of customers because they can. Our provider, for years, hasn't played the game. They raise your price and if you don't like it, too bad. Our bill has gone up every 12-18 months since we moved here in 2015.

At this point, since I know we are cable TV obsessed (it's our vice), and I know we can't live without internet, we just pay what they charge and let it go. When it goes up every year, we just adjust our spreadsheet. The truth is, it's pennies a day, really, when you break it down and we have room in the budget for it. It's one of our few splurges and I honestly don't want to deal with numerous streaming services because, for one thing, our WiFi is spotty and unreliable, and I don't want to have to remember which shows I can watch on which services. I like turning on my TV and being able to record stuff on the DVR, and use On Demand, etc. I'm a TV spoiled brat, and I'm okay with that. LOL.

It does make me angry though. This last autopay bill was $10 higher, so I guess we got our annual fee increase last month. I better watch $10 more worth of crappy reality shows.
 


At this point, since I know we are cable TV obsessed (it's our vice), and I know we can't live without internet, we just pay what they charge and let it go. When it goes up every year, we just adjust our spreadsheet. The truth is, it's pennies a day, really, when you break it down and we have room in the budget for it. It's one of our few splurges and I honestly don't want to deal with numerous streaming services because, for one thing, our WiFi is spotty and unreliable, and I don't want to have to remember which shows I can watch on which services. I like turning on my TV and being able to record stuff on the DVR, and use On Demand, etc. I'm a TV spoiled brat, and I'm okay with that. LOL.

We have the multiple streaming services. Right now we have Amazon Prime, Hulu, Netflix and CBS All Access. We generally get CBS for a few months in the spring, watch all the shows and then cancel until the next spring. I was able to snag a 3 month free trial, so it probably won't cost us anything this year. We also pause Hulu during the summer because there isn't much new that we care about during those months, so it saves us a bit there too. We keep Prime and Netflix all year round. I think it isn't that hard to remember which shows are on which service. Just like memorizing which shows are on which channel in a cable package. We really like a lot of the original content on Amazon Prime and Netflix.
 
We have the multiple streaming services. Right now we have Amazon Prime, Hulu, Netflix and CBS All Access. We generally get CBS for a few months in the spring, watch all the shows and then cancel until the next spring. I was able to snag a 3 month free trial, so it probably won't cost us anything this year. We also pause Hulu during the summer because there isn't much new that we care about during those months, so it saves us a bit there too. We keep Prime and Netflix all year round. I think it isn't that hard to remember which shows are on which service. Just like memorizing which shows are on which channel in a cable package. We really like a lot of the original content on Amazon Prime and Netflix.

We have Netflix already and "borrow" Prime unlimited from my sister, but I tried Hulu once and it spent so much time buffering that I had to drop it. It was awful. Unfortunately most of the stuff I watch is only available to stream on Hulu, so that's not gonna work. We watch NBC mainly, and I don't even know if they have a streaming option, but at this point I just want to simplify things. We occasionally have issues streaming Netflix and Prime as it is. At least when that happens, I have regular old cable to fall back on. Plus, my husband watches sports and that's a whole other issue.

We sort of joke that our cable/internet bill could go up to $500/month and we would keep paying it. Right now we pay just over $200 for everything but we also have 2 teens who stream constantly at the same time as us, so we are heavy internet users and our internet alone is about half the total bill. The cable portion is, I think, like $80.
 
We have Netflix already and "borrow" Prime unlimited from my sister, but I tried Hulu once and it spent so much time buffering that I had to drop it. It was awful. Unfortunately most of the stuff I watch is only available to stream on Hulu, so that's not gonna work. We watch NBC mainly, and I don't even know if they have a streaming option, but at this point I just want to simplify things. We occasionally have issues streaming Netflix and Prime as it is. At least when that happens, I have regular old cable to fall back on. Plus, my husband watches sports and that's a whole other issue.
Your streaming issues sound like you don’t have enough upload/download speed for the kind of streaming you do.

I have a bundled AT&T/DirecTV package and pay just over $100/month with a $25 cellphone plan credit and I get regional sports (FSW to watch the Angels) included in that. Internet is 75 mbps which is enough for multiple devices to stream at the same time. The breakout of the bill is $50 flat rate for the Internet as part of the bundle and thus far I’ve been able to renegotiate the DirecTV service to be around $50 after credits.
 
Your streaming issues sound like you don’t have enough upload/download speed for the kind of streaming you do.

I have a bundled AT&T/DirecTV package and pay just over $100/month with a $25 cellphone plan credit and I get regional sports (FSW to watch the Angels) included in that. Internet is 75 mbps which is enough for multiple devices to stream at the same time. The breakout of the bill is $50 flat rate for the Internet as part of the bundle and thus far I’ve been able to renegotiate the DirecTV service to be around $50 after credits.

No, we have plenty of speed. Our issue is our wifi router/modem. We need a new one but I am being stubborn about replacing it because it will be expensive. The one we are using is woefully outdated. The type we need runs between $200-300. Just being cheap. We deal with the wifi dropout issues and reboot the router several times a week and that fixes it temporarily. Our internet is plenty fast and we made sure we got set up with an internet package that would be able to handle heavy use.

The cable company wants us to upgrade their newest modem/router that costs $20/month to "rent" with no purchase option. No thanks. We own ours currently and will use it until it literally dies.
 
No, we have plenty of speed. Our issue is our wifi router/modem. We need a new one but I am being stubborn about replacing it because it will be expensive. The one we are using is woefully outdated. The type we need runs between $200-300. Just being cheap. We deal with the wifi dropout issues and reboot the router several times a week and that fixes it temporarily. Our internet is plenty fast and we made sure we got set up with an internet package that would be able to handle heavy use.

The cable company wants us to upgrade their newest modem/router that costs $20/month to "rent" with no purchase option. No thanks. We own ours currently and will use it until it literally dies.
Ah. I got lucky when I signed up for my service the router and DirecTV boxes were included at no cost.
 
No, we have plenty of speed. Our issue is our wifi router/modem. We need a new one but I am being stubborn about replacing it because it will be expensive. The one we are using is woefully outdated. The type we need runs between $200-300. Just being cheap. We deal with the wifi dropout issues and reboot the router several times a week and that fixes it temporarily. Our internet is plenty fast and we made sure we got set up with an internet package that would be able to handle heavy use.

The cable company wants us to upgrade their newest modem/router that costs $20/month to "rent" with no purchase option. No thanks. We own ours currently and will use it until it literally dies.

It does sound like you need new equipment. We never have problems streaming anything. We own our own modem and router as well so we don't have to "rent" it. A good modem doesn't have to cost $200-300. For example, the Asus AC1750 WiFi Router is just $47 on Amazon right now. You can get a good modem for around that price as well.
 
It does sound like you need new equipment. We never have problems streaming anything. We own our own modem and router as well so we don't have to "rent" it. A good modem doesn't have to cost $200-300. For example, the Asus AC1750 WiFi Router is just $47 on Amazon right now. You can get a good modem for around that price as well.

We have to use one that is on an approved "list" or else Cox won't provide technical support. The cheap ones aren't on the list, for the most part. I need a combo modem/router. Those are more expensive. The ones recommended are the Arris Surfboard or the Motorola. They need to be DOCSIS 3.1 or higher...the cheapest of those is almost $200.
 
To play the devil's advocate on price increases... A lot of service-based organizations have a lot of costs wrapped up in human labor. I would much rather they give those people annual raises every year and pass those costs to me in a minimal way, vs them announcing layoffs to manage costs.
 
To play the devil's advocate on price increases... A lot of service-based organizations have a lot of costs wrapped up in human labor. I would much rather they give those people annual raises every year and pass those costs to me in a minimal way, vs them announcing layoffs to manage costs.
I'd rather Randall Stephenson take a pay cut, personally.
 
Got a 50 cent raise yesterday. Lol. Watch out now.

And in more exciting debt dumping news, the laywers got my money orders today and have sent orders to cease garnishment to our employer and a letter of satisfaction to the court. We're officially done with the car mess!!! :banana::banana::banana:


It's a beautiful 70° here, so the windows have been open all day and I've been able to clean the carpet in the master bedroom, finally. Turns out our oldest kitty who passed last weekend had been peeing all over the carpet.
Now that the car fiasco is dealt with, I'm thinking of taking that $700 we would have normally lost from our checks and we're going to replace the carpet with wood flooring. It will take roughly that much to do the living room, hallway, and both bedrooms that are "attached" to each other. Bonus, free dump days are two weekends in April! So we won't have to pay to dump the old carpet!
 
If you have decent internet, Playstation View is great. We have the most expensive plan because I HAVE to have HBO. It's $80 a month and between that and antennas for local, I can watch just about anything.
 
To play the devil's advocate on price increases... A lot of service-based organizations have a lot of costs wrapped up in human labor. I would much rather they give those people annual raises every year and pass those costs to me in a minimal way, vs them announcing layoffs to manage costs.

I don't think a 20% increase is passing costs to me in a minimal way.
 

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