Debt Dumpers - 2017

[Ngwira]

We did. She did especially. She kept telling me how happy she was to get to see things she never thought she'd be able to see.



Thanks. It was.

Dave

We did. She did especially. She kept telling me how happy she was to get to see things she never thought she'd be able to see.



Thanks. It was.

Dave, so good to see (read) you! We are headed out west next week. Your vacation sounds epic!

 

[EilonwyWanderer]

Bought a new car. Toilet base cracked. Sigh. We really need to redo our tiny bathroom anyway, but have such a hard time getting contractors to come in and when they do even though it's a small bathroom (think REALLY small) they tell me they have to charge me regular rates as if it were three times the size and then they never get back to me anyway. Uuuuuuuggggghhhhhhh. Summer months are our hardest to get through budget-wise too because I'm not bringing home money from my second job. Which is, of course, why everything seems to go wrong in the summer!

 

[dayvewc]

Dave

Dave, so good to see (read) you! We are headed out west next week. Your vacation sounds epic!

It was. 23 days, 11 states, 8 cities, and about 4000 miles with just me and mom in a 2010 Pontiac Vibe.

(I'm not sure if that's a better set up for a comedy, a Lifetime original movie, or a horror flick)

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

It was. 23 days, 11 states, 8 cities, and about 4000 miles with just me and mom in a 2010 Pontiac Vibe.

(I'm not sure if that's a better set up for a comedy, a Lifetime original movie, or a horror flick)

It sounds like my honeymoon. 21 days. 15 states. 13 national parks. 3 cities. And over 9000 miles with just me and DH in a rented Jeep Cherokee. It was epic.

 

[amalone1013]

It was. 23 days, 11 states, 8 cities, and about 4000 miles with just me and mom in a 2010 Pontiac Vibe.

(I'm not sure if that's a better set up for a comedy, a Lifetime original movie, or a horror flick)

Welcome back! What an awesome trip!

It sounds like my honeymoon. 21 days. 15 states. 13 national parks. 3 cities. And over 9000 miles with just me and DH in a rented Jeep Cherokee. It was epic.

That is awesome. This is why I'm about 90% sure when I retire that I want to get a little motorhome and travel the country for a year

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I have scheduled our new washer/dryer delivery and was planning to put the old pair up on craigslist/facebook and display them at our garage sale next month (if it hadn't sold by then). I was going to start the asking price at $600 for the pair, knowing that I would consider something as low as $400. They are still a nice front load set with lots of fancy features, but just wasn't in love with them. Well, my mom called last night. She and my dad were talking and decided that they want to buy the old set. They start the building on their retirement house in Texas later this summer. My mom plans to take her current LG set with her to the new house, but wants something to put in their current house for when they go to sell it. She said that my old set is perfect for that and she wouldn't be able to buy as nice of a set even close to $600 to replace the one she is taking with her. I told them they could just have it, but my mom and dad insist on paying us our initial asking price. So that takes a lot of the headache of selling the old set away. They will be coming next month for the garage sale and plan to take the set back with them then. That money will all go back into the baby fund, along with the rebates from the new set.

I leave for my last work trip this month on Sunday and was inputting some of my expenses into my expense report. I think that if I can be really frugal on this last trip, then I might end up with about $500 in per diem money left from my 3 trips this month. It can really add up when you are getting $69 per day, but only spending $10-20. Plus personal car milage reimbursement is very generous and one of the trips was in Michigan, so I drove. I plan to put all of this money into our DVC fund, which will bump it up pretty close to $3k! And I have been making great money from Swagbucks this month, having already redeemed for $100. Maybe I can get another $25-$50 still? All of that money each month is also going towards our DVC fund, plus some savings account interest and iBotta savings. We are aiming for $10k total saved for a new contract, so we are now getting close to the 1/3 mark in our savings! So exciting to see it grow over the past several months. Day dreaming of future Disney trips.

 

[Eureka]

Another pay period without using the credit card, so that's good. Found out we should be getting $15 back from the home equity loan at some point. Still not sure how that happened when they called and got the exact payoff amount while I was there and I paid it approximately 30 seconds later, but whatever. Paid another $100 on the driver's ed balance (had put down $50 to hold a spot for the July class and figured might as well try to pay some of it off before the first class). Sold a few things DS14 outgrew on Ebay. Not much but it's something anyway. DS16 is going on his week-long trip in a few days. Got cash out for him and a visa gift card in case he needs it, so he should be all set. I hope he has a blast! DH's birthday was a few days ago so his gifts are done and paid for. He didn't want Father's Day gifts, but we might go out for a meal. Not sure yet. That's all from here. Hope everyone is doing well. Been a long week here.

 

[Eureka]

@Jen and Ashwin you get a per diem in advance, no matter what your expenses are? That's a sweet deal! We have to submit an expense report. Our per diem for food is $69 also, but if I spend $30, I will only get reimbursed the $30. When I was in Chicago for work in April, there was one day where I just couldn't deal anymore and got room service for dinner. $53!! Luckily I had eaten a granola bar for breakfast and had lunch in my organization's office (which doesn't count toward my per diem) so it worked out fine.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

@Jen and Ashwin you get a per diem in advance, no matter what your expenses are? That's a sweet deal! We have to submit an expense report. Our per diem for food is $69 also, but if I spend $30, I will only get reimbursed the $30. When I was in Chicago for work in April, there was one day where I just couldn't deal anymore and got room service for dinner. $53!! Luckily I had eaten a granola bar for breakfast and had lunch in my organization's office (which doesn't count toward my per diem) so it worked out fine.

We get the government rate per diem each day based on location. I will be in Baltimore for 3 days starting Sunday, which is $69 per day. The rate gets adjusted if meals are provided at meetings/conferences and travel days only count at 75%. But I get the full amount, no matter how much I actually spend. We don't have to itemize food expenses. So much less of a headache. And it is a nice incentive to eat cheaply when I am traveling for work. So I go to places like Chipotle and Panera, spend just $10 per meal and pack breakfast items to eat in my room. I can often save around $40-$50 per day this way.

Before DH moved in, I used the per diem extra to help pay for a bird sitter while I was traveling. Now DH takes care of our parrot, so the extra money is like a bonus!

ETA: For my recent Michigan trip, I only had to drive 1.5 hours away and I stayed at a hotel that had a microwave and mini-fridge. DH made me two meals that I packed with me and ate for dinner. The hotel had free breakfast and the lunch was included at the meeting. So I was able to pocket all of the per diem for that trip! That was probably $150 towards the $500. The round trip mileage reimbursement was probably another $90.

 

[DnA2010]

We get the government rate per diem each day based on location. I will be in Baltimore for 3 days starting Sunday, which is $69 per day. The rate gets adjusted if meals are provided at meetings/conferences and travel days only count at 75%. But I get the full amount, no matter how much I actually spend. We don't have to itemize food expenses. So much less of a headache. And it is a nice incentive to eat cheaply when I am traveling for work. So I go to places like Chipotle and Panera, spend just $10 per meal and pack breakfast items to eat in my room. I can often save around $40-$50 per day this way.

Before DH moved in, I used the per diem extra to help pay for a bird sitter while I was traveling. Now DH takes care of our parrot, so the extra money is like a bonus!

ETA: For my recent Michigan trip, I only had to drive 1.5 hours away and I stayed at a hotel that had a microwave and mini-fridge. DH made me two meals that I packed with me and ate for dinner. The hotel had free breakfast and the lunch was included at the meeting. So I was able to pocket all of the per diem for that trip! That was probably $150 towards the $500. The round trip mileage reimbursement was probably another $90.

That's awesome! My expenses are just whatever I spend (within reason of course) but we do get $.60/km (or something like that) so I drive where I can (they do prefer us to fly) as gas mileage can def add up!

Exciting about the DVC contract savings- we'd love to get DVC but we just live so far away

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

That's awesome! My expenses are just whatever I spend (within reason of course) but we do get $.60/km (or something like that) so I drive where I can (they do prefer us to fly) as gas mileage can def add up!

Exciting about the DVC contract savings- we'd love to get DVC but we just live so far away

Very rarely do I get to drive anywhere. The furthest was to Indianapolis and that was because the flights were outrageous, otherwise I would have flown. We get $0.54/mile right now. It used to be higher, but then gas prices came down. But it is always way more than what you would actually spend on gas. For example, it probably cost me $15 in gas for that recent Michigan trip, but I got $90 in mileage reimbursement. So that extra $75 goes into my pocket. It really pays to have a fuel efficient car for these things.

And every time I fly, I get to count the mileage that it takes me to get to the airport and they make me (seriously!) calculate it from my university office, not from my house. I live 17 miles from the airport and my university office is 29 miles from the airport, so I get an extra 24 miles round trip reimbursed each time I fly. The round trip reimbursement is $31 each time I fly, but it probably costs me just about $3 in gas to travel the 34 miles (even less if DH drives me in his car), so I am pocketing $28 each time.

As for the DVC, for you I think what would make sense is to buy at The Grand Californian if you were really interested. And I think there are rumors they are going to add another DVC at Disneyland, but not sure. I don't really keep up with DL rumors much, but I thought I remembered some buzz around that.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Well, not sure if this is a good June yet or a bad one.

Good news, we're caught up on all our bills that we got behind on while I was on maternity leave. Paying rent twice this month really sucked, but I promised my landlord I'd get it all caught up this month. All other bills are officially caught up.

Bad news, I went over grocery budget by $60. That doesn't sound like a lot, but when we were already going to be tight for money, that didn't really help much. At least we will have a home and food in our bellies.

And the icing on the cake, hubby came in this morning and said he screwed up. He set his phone on the top of the car to take his sweat shirts off (we work at the same place in a cold grocery warehouse) and got distracted talking to a friend and forgot it was up there and drove home. I got there two hours later and looked around the parking lot and didn't see it. I'm going to check the side road and highway next to work to see if I see it on lunch. I'm not so worried about the phone, I can replace that, but more the memory card with all the pictures from when Hailey was born in April that we hadn't backed up yet. Fingers crossed I see it and can salvage the card.

 

[Alexle2007]

[QUOTE="Tygerlilly, post: 57754700, member: 243746
And the icing on the cake, hubby came in this morning and said he screwed up. He set his phone on the top of the car to take his sweat shirts off (we work at the same place in a cold grocery warehouse) and got distracted talking to a friend and forgot it was up there and drove home. I got there two hours later and looked around the parking lot and didn't see it. I'm going to check the side road and highway next to work to see if I see it on lunch. I'm not so worried about the phone, I can replace that, but more the memory card with all the pictures from when Hailey was born in April that we hadn't backed up yet. Fingers crossed I see it and can salvage the card.[/QUOTE]
Do you have find phone app? It has saved the day for us when my son misplaces his iPhone. Or try calling the number and see if someone answers.

 

[Eureka]

Very rarely do I get to drive anywhere. The furthest was to Indianapolis and that was because the flights were outrageous, otherwise I would have flown. We get $0.54/mile right now. It used to be higher, but then gas prices came down. But it is always way more than what you would actually spend on gas. For example, it probably cost me $15 in gas for that recent Michigan trip, but I got $90 in mileage reimbursement. So that extra $75 goes into my pocket. It really pays to have a fuel efficient car for these things.

And every time I fly, I get to count the mileage that it takes me to get to the airport and they make me (seriously!) calculate it from my university office, not from my house. I live 17 miles from the airport and my university office is 29 miles from the airport, so I get an extra 24 miles round trip reimbursed each time I fly. The round trip reimbursement is $31 each time I fly, but it probably costs me just about $3 in gas to travel the 34 miles (even less if DH drives me in his car), so I am pocketing $28 each time.

As for the DVC, for you I think what would make sense is to buy at The Grand Californian if you were really interested. And I think there are rumors they are going to add another DVC at Disneyland, but not sure. I don't really keep up with DL rumors much, but I thought I remembered some buzz around that.

I live 50ish miles from BWI, where there were more flights out to Chicago than Reagan which is closer to me (yet still 20+miles away) so i got mileage for that too. I'm going to a conference in VA in a couple weeks and it's probably closer to my house than my office is but I will get mileage and parking. I'll definitely make out on that. I forget our mileage rate but they use the federal rate. Much more than the half a tank of gas it will take me over the two days.

 

[Dentam]

Not much to report so far this month - although my FICO score has gone up by 15 points so far this year, so that's progress!

 

[Aurora_Australis]

One whole month since we had to put anything on credit. We need to spend $$$ on some things (tyres, dog's vax) but holding out til after EOFY and I can put our tax in. Should be enough to do both of those and pay at least another $1k off the card. Plus end of this month we get our rental income and I should be able to do the final payment on the card linked to our main bank. Will keep it as a zero balance as it has a much better rate than the one I still need to pay. We have an emergency fund built up now so that should cover anything unexpected but I still like the peace of mind an emergency card offers.

DH is away for work tonight and has already put a whole bunch of stuff he can't claim onto the card. Uber from fancy burger joint to hotel and he got a burger and beers but we can't claim if the alcohol is in the same transaction. I hope his car allowance covers it or I'll be cranky!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Leaking downstairs toilet... yaaaaay home ownership! It actually originally started as the seal around the bottom of the toilet leaking so I knew that the whole toilet would need to be removed and that be redone. Then on Saturday the tank started leaking as well. So we turned the water off and put a towel behind it. I'm pretty sure just the rubber gasket surrounding the bolts in the tank are leaking and need to be replaced, but not 100%. We had 10% off at Lowe's on Saturday so we decided to ride up there and buy another toilet just in case we ended up needing to replace the whole thing. Someone is coming this week to look at it, so hoping they can just redo the sale and replace the rubber and then we can return the toilet.

Hope everyone had a nice Father's Day. Fairly low key at our house, just a cook out with our dads with some hamburgers and hot dogs. Lots of thankfulness that DH's father is still here as we approach the one year anniversary of his heart attack this coming Sunday.

 

[Tygerlilly]

[QUOTE="Tygerlilly, post: 57754700, member: 243746
And the icing on the cake, hubby came in this morning and said he screwed up. He set his phone on the top of the car to take his sweat shirts off (we work at the same place in a cold grocery warehouse) and got distracted talking to a friend and forgot it was up there and drove home. I got there two hours later and looked around the parking lot and didn't see it. I'm going to check the side road and highway next to work to see if I see it on lunch. I'm not so worried about the phone, I can replace that, but more the memory card with all the pictures from when Hailey was born in April that we hadn't backed up yet. Fingers crossed I see it and can salvage the card.

Do you have find phone app? It has saved the day for us when my son misplaces his iPhone. Or try calling the number and see if someone answers.[/QUOTE]

He said He hadn't turned it on yet to text me he way headed home (I make him text me because it's usually 3am on Friday night/Saturday morning when he's heading home and I'm up ready to head in to work).

I spent my break searching the parking lot and lunch I drove the long driveway, side road and up the on ramp to the highway to get home. Would you believe I found it right where the on ramp merges to the oncoming highway traffic?! I can't believe it! The screen is shattered but I was able to save the memory card. He's using one of our old phones for now until right before vacation. I'll buy him a new one then.

 

[amalone1013]

Would you believe I found it right where the on ramp merges to the oncoming highway traffic?! I can't believe it! The screen is shattered but I was able to save the memory card. He's using one of our old phones for now until right before vacation. I'll buy him a new one then.

I'm so glad you found it and could save the card!!!

 

[bcwife76]

Ugh....original quote was incorrect for fixing our a/c unit. It's going to be about $4k and it's going to take 3-4 weeks for the parts to come in. Meanwhile we are entering a heat wave here. Lovely. For our upcoming cruise I cancelled the Tracy Arm excursion for dh and I and the couples massage. With the current rate of exchange those would cost us nearly $1K Canadian so it was a bit indulgent anyway. Yes I'm bummed about giving those up - adulting sucks sometimes