Debt Dumpers - 2017

[Ngwira]

Signed up to do a DVC tour next month when we are at WDW. We're touring Saratoga Springs as we did the Poly 2 years ago. We get 3 fastpasses each and a $50.00 Disney Gift card for 60 minutes of our time.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Signed up to do a DVC tour next month when we are at WDW. We're touring Saratoga Springs as we did the Poly 2 years ago. We get 3 fastpasses each and a $50.00 Disney Gift card for 60 minutes of our time.

Wow, that's not bad at all for only an hour. I'm not willing to sacrifice even that much time on our three day trip, but I will definitely remember that for future longer trips!

 

[Ngwira]

Wow, that's not bad at all for only an hour. I'm not willing to sacrifice even that much time on our three day trip, but I will definitely remember that for future longer trips!

Yeah, we have nothing planned on Friday except for MNSSHP at 4:00pm so figured we could do it. They are picking us up at the Grand Floridian and dropping us off. I got inspiration from this post.
http://mommypoints.boardingarea.com...lub-tour-for-extra-fastpasses-and-gift-cards/

 

[DnA2010]

So exciting! Alaska cruises are great and there are plenty of things you could do with an 11 month old. I think whale watching is worth the expense of an excursion and you could easily take the 11 month old on such a trip. We also took a train trip into Yukon on my trip and the views were great. That would probably be easy with an infant as well.

I am so glad that your first week back to work went well! I am just starting to officially plan out my maternity leave now with the university, figuring out what paperwork I need, etc. I am now at 25 weeks and things are feeling like crunch time to get everything planned out before too long.

I've seen whales before so may pass on that but we are going to look into the train

Week 2 went well also I've just done 2 days (I work a 4 day week) as I banked vacation, so it's been a nice gradual intro. I think if I remember you are going back to work early also?

My first paycheck back is in- man that feels good!

 

[Disneytam]

Signed up to do a DVC tour next month when we are at WDW. We're touring Saratoga Springs as we did the Poly 2 years ago. We get 3 fastpasses each and a $50.00 Disney Gift card for 60 minutes of our time.

We did this last year. There was an invite on our bed in our room at the BWI so since we were at Disney for almost two weeks we did it. The only difference was it was for $100 GC, three FP each, a photo of us at Saratoga Springs and a free ice cream cone at SS. Took a little over an hour and they picked us up and brought us back to the hotel. The only thing I didn't like was the non stop pushy phone calls for weeks after we got home trying to push us into buying DVC when I had told him (Tony) straight out that it was just not our cup of tea! Be aware before you go.

 

[therapistalexandra]

I am so ready. I really want to clear all CC debt to focus on dreaded student loans and make a bigger push for saving money in general, but especially to get out of Illinois

 

[Aurora_Australis]

DH has his tax back, $1800 off the last cc. Had to keep some back for other expenses, three of us needed shoe repairs/new shoes that really couldn't wait. Felt good to pay such a big chunk off though!

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

The custom made sign that I ordered for the nursery just shipped! It is coming from Alberta, so might take up to 10 days to get here. They sent a picture of it and I am really, really excited for it to arrive. It is exactly what I was hoping. At 24" x 48", it will be a big focal piece for the nursery and perfectly fits into my modern Winnie the Pooh theme.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I'm sure your work will do something. Showers are supposed to be a surprise, so maybe one or more are in the works and you just don't know.

My thoughts exactly. Maybe it happens, but I don't know of anyone who didn't have a bridal or baby shower and bride or mom to be should not have to be involved in the planning.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

My thoughts exactly. Maybe it happens, but I don't know of anyone who didn't have a bridal or baby shower and bride or mom to be should not have to be involved in the planning.

I think weddings/bridal showers are different. Obviously my MOH hosted my bridal shower because that is traditionally how it works. My brother and sister-in-law didn't have a bridal party, so no one stood up to host any kind of shower for her. And when I got married, they didn't do anything at work for me. And when my co-worker got married earlier this year, same thing.

As for baby showers, as I said before, almost every single friend of mine had their mother host their shower, so it seems that is not unusual or unacceptable at all. And the two times that I have helped host a shower, it was because the woman's mother wasn't able to do it (illness or not in the country). And it seems in my case that the lack of norms around the issue meant that though my friend wanted to host a shower for me, she assumed my mother was already taking that on. And she didn't realize it until I mentioned something. I don't think it was wrong for me to disclose my disappointment to my friend and I have no regrets about that.

With my input, they have decided to host a couples shower since I would like DH to be involved too. My friend and mom picked out a date, asked me for a potential guest list and ordered invitations that will arrive midweek and be sent off by the end of this week. To keep costs low, I offered my house to host the shower since my friend's house isn't as big for a party and renting a venue would be pricey. My friend and my mom decided on a BBQ theme and are arranging all food, decor and activities. I have had no input beyond requesting it be a couples shower, giving them a couple possible dates and adding a few names to the guest list.

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

As for baby showers, as I said before, almost every single friend of mine had their mother host their shower, so it seems that is not unusual or unacceptable at all.

This is how it is where I live too. I think everyone including my mother and I assumed she would host the shower- she played a big part in my bridal shower too. I've never seen a shower as a surprise except possibly workplace showers. I've given several requests for my shower like theming and helped my mom pick out decorations. I dunno, that's how I've always seen it done too!

 

[DLgal]

Ugh...why is it that every time I resolve to not spend too much money, unexpected expenses come up?

After spending more than we planned last month overall, I was hell bent on making this billing cycle a low overall spend.

I took my 13 year old out for a bike ride yesterday on one of the trails nearby and 2 miles in, I blew a tire. Ugh! Had to jog 2 more miles to the bike shop where my husband met me with his bike so I could swap out and finish the ride with my son.

Since we were at the bike shop, I had them look over the whole bike since I've kinda neglected tuning it up the past few years. (It's a pretty expensive road bike). It needs new brakes, a new chain, gear adjustments, crank adjustments, and a new innertube, obviously. Total cost is $225. Sigh. It needs to be done though and it is certainly better than spending $1000 on a new bike. It is 7 years old and I haven't really spent much on maintenance over the years, and it needs it since I ride a lot. But WHY NOW???? LOL. It's a curse, I swear.

I mean, we have the money, but I wanted to try and expedite paying off the credit card debt by throwing extra towards it. So much for that.

On a positive note, DH got moved to another unit where he is doing a job that will require a lot of travel over the next year. This is good because he gets per diem and can bank some money by spending frugally on meals while he is traveling, plus he will earn lots of frequent flyer miles (he's traveling cross country, and to Hawaii as well). Plus with him gone, I can keep expenses down.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Super annoyed with my auto insurance company right now. We had our renewal in June and the rate had gone down because DH has now had a US license for over a year. I did the pay in full, since it saves almost $200 over 6 months. Well, I just got an email saying that I owe another $159, so I messaged them to let them know there was an error because I had paid in full. They said that they were adding a new surcharge to our policy because they aren't able to obtain DH's Michigan driving record. So now to avoid the surcharge, DH has to go to the SOS office this week and pay to get his driving record so that we can send it in to the insurance company. They claim to have mailed me a letter about this 2 months ago, though I know that I never received anything about it. Just more things to worry about.

And then we also had another charge show up from the IVF treatment way back in November. I had thought that everything had been processed through insurance and we were done paying all of the bills back in February/March, so I am annoyed that this one lagged so far behind. There is money in the baby fund to cover the cost, but I hope this isn't a sign that other charges might start popping up and eating into our baby fund savings.

And in good news, I had another OB appointment today. Doctor said everything is looking good and my gestational diabetes test came back normal. Feeling relieved and happy. Also, DH and I went to Babies R Us this weekend to add some more items to our registry. I had added a lot of things online, but there were some items I just wasn't sure about. I convinced him to walk around the entire store with me so that we could talk about what items I had added and what we might be missing. And then on the way out from the store, we noticed that they were offering a baby CPR/home safety course next week. DH had just mentioned earlier that day that we should take a class to get certified. Well, we signed up for the last two spots. We also have our birth class and newborn care classes lined up for August. It is all getting closer and closer!

 

[DnA2010]

Super annoyed with my auto insurance company right now. We had our renewal in June and the rate had gone down because DH has now had a US license for over a year. I did the pay in full, since it saves almost $200 over 6 months. Well, I just got an email saying that I owe another $159, so I messaged them to let them know there was an error because I had paid in full. They said that they were adding a new surcharge to our policy because they aren't able to obtain DH's Michigan driving record. So now to avoid the surcharge, DH has to go to the SOS office this week and pay to get his driving record so that we can send it in to the insurance company. They claim to have mailed me a letter about this 2 months ago, though I know that I never received anything about it. Just more things to worry about.

And then we also had another charge show up from the IVF treatment way back in November. I had thought that everything had been processed through insurance and we were done paying all of the bills back in February/March, so I am annoyed that this one lagged so far behind. There is money in the baby fund to cover the cost, but I hope this isn't a sign that other charges might start popping up and eating into our baby fund savings.

And in good news, I had another OB appointment today. Doctor said everything is looking good and my gestational diabetes test came back normal. Feeling relieved and happy. Also, DH and I went to Babies R Us this weekend to add some more items to our registry. I had added a lot of things online, but there were some items I just wasn't sure about. I convinced him to walk around the entire store with me so that we could talk about what items I had added and what we might be missing. And then on the way out from the store, we noticed that they were offering a baby CPR/home safety course next week. DH had just mentioned earlier that day that we should take a class to get certified. Well, we signed up for the last two spots. We also have our birth class and newborn care classes lined up for August. It is all getting closer and closer!

Newborn care class-I wish I'd seen one of those! I seriously had no clue!

 

[therapistalexandra]

Ugh...why is it that every time I resolve to not spend too much money, unexpected expenses come up?

After spending more than we planned last month overall, I was hell bent on making this billing cycle a low overall spend.

I took my 13 year old out for a bike ride yesterday on one of the trails nearby and 2 miles in, I blew a tire. Ugh! Had to jog 2 more miles to the bike shop where my husband met me with his bike so I could swap out and finish the ride with my son.

Since we were at the bike shop, I had them look over the whole bike since I've kinda neglected tuning it up the past few years. (It's a pretty expensive road bike). It needs new brakes, a new chain, gear adjustments, crank adjustments, and a new innertube, obviously. Total cost is $225. Sigh. It needs to be done though and it is certainly better than spending $1000 on a new bike. It is 7 years old and I haven't really spent much on maintenance over the years, and it needs it since I ride a lot. But WHY NOW???? LOL. It's a curse, I swear.

I mean, we have the money, but I wanted to try and expedite paying off the credit card debt by throwing extra towards it. So much for that.

On a positive note, DH got moved to another unit where he is doing a job that will require a lot of travel over the next year. This is good because he gets per diem and can bank some money by spending frugally on meals while he is traveling, plus he will earn lots of frequent flyer miles (he's traveling cross country, and to Hawaii as well). Plus with him gone, I can keep expenses down.

Right?! RIGHT?!?! Hubby and I have recently sat down to go over budgeting and get finances in order. Have been doing amazing for a few weeks as far as unnecessary spending, and last night a girl who was busy texting rear ended us at a stop light. On top of that, my car also needs rear wheel bearings (although I am still praying that it is breaks and not bearings)......always when you're trying to do good, amirite?!?!?

 

[EilonwyWanderer]

While I enjoyed the birthing class I took, keep in mind that very often things do not go according to plan. I felt like the people who taught ours were so reassuring that everything would go according to your birth plan and standard birthing steps (here are the steps of labor, water breaks at the end--well my water broke and I never had a pain!) that it actually made it more traumatic for us when things did not go as expected and I ended up with an emergency c-section. So good to have a plan, good to have knowledge, but just be aware that your doctors know what they're doing and don't freak out if that plan doesn't get used!

We have a chunk of money incoming that I'm debating what to do with it. I can either use it to:

1. Pay down the car loan so that we could probably entirely pay it off by next June and get $400/month back.
2. Pay OFF the second mortgage so that we'd get $200/month back.
3. Pay down the credit card.

I think #1 is the best use of it because the car payment is $400/month and around next October my student loans will come due (though they will probably be deferred again for a bit I don't want to count on that!) and that's going to be at LEAST $600/month, possibly more, so I'd like to get rid of our highest monthly payment to offset that. #2 would be nice, but that's a really low interest rate and while getting $200/month back that we could apply to another payment would be a good thing, if we were ever crunched for money that would be the easiest payment to make. #3 is SUPER TEMPTING because we have the credit card run up WAY too much, but my fear is we put a huge chunk down on it, pay it down...then run it back up again. I feel like whenever we make a major dent in the credit card, something happens and we need to put another couple thousand on there again and before you know it the monthly payment is ridiculous.

But I talk myself out of this plan every other hour! I think paying down the car is the smartest thing. Money from my second job through December (hopefully I get as much as I think I will) can go towards paying down the credit card so that we have enough space on there for emergencies, then from Jan-June my second job should pay off the car loan completely. After that, I'm thinking the second job money goes towards paying down/off the second mortgage, then when that's gone, all the "extra" money we're saving on having those loans gone AND the money from the second job goes towards my student loans.

This all sounds so good on paper but it never ever works out as well in real life, unfortunately!

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

While I enjoyed the birthing class I took, keep in mind that very often things do not go according to plan. I felt like the people who taught ours were so reassuring that everything would go according to your birth plan and standard birthing steps (here are the steps of labor, water breaks at the end--well my water broke and I never had a pain!) that it actually made it more traumatic for us when things did not go as expected and I ended up with an emergency c-section. So good to have a plan, good to have knowledge, but just be aware that your doctors know what they're doing and don't freak out if that plan doesn't get used!

We have a chunk of money incoming that I'm debating what to do with it. I can either use it to:

1. Pay down the car loan so that we could probably entirely pay it off by next June and get $400/month back.
2. Pay OFF the second mortgage so that we'd get $200/month back.
3. Pay down the credit card.

I think #1 is the best use of it because the car payment is $400/month and around next October my student loans will come due (though they will probably be deferred again for a bit I don't want to count on that!) and that's going to be at LEAST $600/month, possibly more, so I'd like to get rid of our highest monthly payment to offset that. #2 would be nice, but that's a really low interest rate and while getting $200/month back that we could apply to another payment would be a good thing, if we were ever crunched for money that would be the easiest payment to make. #3 is SUPER TEMPTING because we have the credit card run up WAY too much, but my fear is we put a huge chunk down on it, pay it down...then run it back up again. I feel like whenever we make a major dent in the credit card, something happens and we need to put another couple thousand on there again and before you know it the monthly payment is ridiculous.

But I talk myself out of this plan every other hour! I think paying down the car is the smartest thing. Money from my second job through December (hopefully I get as much as I think I will) can go towards paying down the credit card so that we have enough space on there for emergencies, then from Jan-June my second job should pay off the car loan completely. After that, I'm thinking the second job money goes towards paying down/off the second mortgage, then when that's gone, all the "extra" money we're saving on having those loans gone AND the money from the second job goes towards my student loans.

This all sounds so good on paper but it never ever works out as well in real life, unfortunately!

I would pay down the car loan because it will give you the most back into your pocket each month and make the student loans easier down the line. We are doing something really similar. We are paying down my auto loan by the end of the year so that we have enough money freed up to comfortably cover daycare expenses starting in January. To get it paid off by the end of the year, I am still short about $600. I am hoping that next month our garage sale is really successful and brings in enough money to cover the $600 for the car, plus more money to help replenish our auto maintenance fund that got depleted in March from the pothole incident.

And yes, this all looks so good on paper. But who knows what might unexpectedly pop up that needs our attention and money.

 

[DisneyMandC]

While I enjoyed the birthing class I took, keep in mind that very often things do not go according to plan. I felt like the people who taught ours were so reassuring that everything would go according to your birth plan and standard birthing steps (here are the steps of labor, water breaks at the end--well my water broke and I never had a pain!) that it actually made it more traumatic for us when things did not go as expected and I ended up with an emergency c-section. So good to have a plan, good to have knowledge, but just be aware that your doctors know what they're doing and don't freak out if that plan doesn't get used!

We have a chunk of money incoming that I'm debating what to do with it. I can either use it to:

1. Pay down the car loan so that we could probably entirely pay it off by next June and get $400/month back.
2. Pay OFF the second mortgage so that we'd get $200/month back.
3. Pay down the credit card.

I think #1 is the best use of it because the car payment is $400/month and around next October my student loans will come due (though they will probably be deferred again for a bit I don't want to count on that!) and that's going to be at LEAST $600/month, possibly more, so I'd like to get rid of our highest monthly payment to offset that. #2 would be nice, but that's a really low interest rate and while getting $200/month back that we could apply to another payment would be a good thing, if we were ever crunched for money that would be the easiest payment to make. #3 is SUPER TEMPTING because we have the credit card run up WAY too much, but my fear is we put a huge chunk down on it, pay it down...then run it back up again. I feel like whenever we make a major dent in the credit card, something happens and we need to put another couple thousand on there again and before you know it the monthly payment is ridiculous.

But I talk myself out of this plan every other hour! I think paying down the car is the smartest thing. Money from my second job through December (hopefully I get as much as I think I will) can go towards paying down the credit card so that we have enough space on there for emergencies, then from Jan-June my second job should pay off the car loan completely. After that, I'm thinking the second job money goes towards paying down/off the second mortgage, then when that's gone, all the "extra" money we're saving on having those loans gone AND the money from the second job goes towards my student loans.

This all sounds so good on paper but it never ever works out as well in real life, unfortunately!

I agree to pay off the car loan. This is what my husband and I did last year, even though it was our lowest interest rate at 1.9%. Our payment was $577 a month and we were more interested in having that money freed up every month rather than saving on interest. It made a big difference in our budget (and sanity) when I had that extra $500 back each month this year.

 

[Alexle2007]

While I enjoyed the birthing class I took, keep in mind that very often things do not go according to plan. I felt like the people who taught ours were so reassuring that everything would go according to your birth plan and standard birthing steps (here are the steps of labor, water breaks at the end--well my water broke and I never had a pain!) that it actually made it more traumatic for us when things did not go as expected and I ended up with an emergency c-section. So good to have a plan, good to have knowledge, but just be aware that your doctors know what they're doing and don't freak out if that plan doesn't get used!

I missed the birthing class since it was the same day as my surprise baby shower but did take the hospital tour so I kind of had an idea of what to expect. So when I arrived at 6:00 am and was sent directly to a delivery room and had my son 8 minutes later, it was quite different than what the hospital laid out. I had been on the fence about an epidural but clearly that was a non-issue.

 

[DnA2010]

I missed the birthing class since it was the same day as my surprise baby shower but did take the hospital tour so I kind of had an idea of what to expect. So when I arrived at 6:00 am and was sent directly to a delivery room and had my son 8 minutes later, it was quite different than what the hospital laid out. I had been on the fence about an epidural but clearly that was a non-issue.

Lucky you! I am sooo glad our classes went over pretty much anything and everything that could happen, all the different drugs that can be used and the C-section process....we really needed all that info!