Debt Dumpers - 2018

[jackers]

May Update: Year to date progress towards 2018 goals:

Car Loan: $8,100 towards a $14,000 goal

Savings: $2,200 towards a $5,000 goal (major backtracking here – had to take money out of savings to cover some of our expenses for the month – but it will still be ok by the end of the year)

Mortgage Overpay: $2,000 towards a $7,000 goal (updated goal)

DS13 College Fund: $2,500 towards a $3,000 goal (updated goal)

Personal goal: 28 pounds lost. A big part of my May overspending was on clothes. I just couldn’t make a lot of the stuff in my closet work any longer.

DS13 hit his growth spurt this past year and I had to buy some new summer clothes for him as well (and shoes – he went up 2.5 sizes from his previous pair! Parenting fail!).


I’ve changed some of my goals around – upped what I want to overpay on the mortgage, and reduced college fund savings – which is ok. We have a very nice college fund already for DS13 and after some calculations I realized I could slow down my investments there and we will still have enough to cover his needs when the time comes.

I’ve been struggling a bit with the reduced income from my new job. We are still perfectly fine, but I had gotten into the habit of being able to buy the spontaneous, non-necessities pretty much whenever I wanted, and having to watch my spending in those areas has been difficult, but June shouldn’t be a bad month so I’m hoping to get things back on track. My birthday is coming up next week and I did splurge and scheduled a massage for myself, but pretty sure my husband will happily cover that as my gift.

 

[jen7233]

We are back from our cruise. It was great, well the ports of call were just fabulous this time around. I've been to them before but this time we just had a super time in each port. The cruise itself, well I've had better ones, partly the ship, partly the experience on board. I wish I had brought a book or downloaded movies on my iPad to read at night or while on a chair, I had zero time before the cruise to appropriately pack and prepare with work and school. There was so much under aged drinking on board, I saw a lot of it and that was sort of disappointing to me, and some of the topics I heard, boy I'm just getting old I suppose but I don't remember these topics....I'll just leave it at that and not say a word else. Not many younger kids on board, my kids didn't like the camp they had on board after trying it once, so they hung out with us the whole cruise and that was good family time anyway! I'm not planning to travel on Carnival anytime soon. I really want to do a bucket list Disney cruise one day!

 

[imbatman]

#1 - New CC debt $3472.98 -- (updated: zero!)
#2 - Main CC debt $18,509.99 -- (updated total: $14,812.17)

Went alllllll the way back to page 4 to give me a bit of a pick me up (thanks for the reminder, @jackers ). Paid off the airline tickets I bought last month for the Dec. trip last week. Still making the double payments to the Main CC debt now. Had to charge the work trip on it, so that is the increase, but it'll be paid back and applied to the debt.

Just did some fancy cash moving around today in order to pay for the dining plan in December so that we can make our dining reservations ASAP. Waiting on that confirmation and then I can breathe.

No sense in beating yourselves up over the past. It can't be changed but the future can be.
Make a vow to yourself that you will do better in the future. Even just a little bit of progress is still progress.

I do try to remind myself. Even my mom reminds me of how hard I am on myself. I felt so at ease this weekend with our spending, knowing I was tracking it.

May Update: Year to date progress towards 2018 goals:

Car Loan: $8,100 towards a $14,000 goal

Savings: $2,200 towards a $5,000 goal (major backtracking here – had to take money out of savings to cover some of our expenses for the month – but it will still be ok by the end of the year)

Mortgage Overpay: $2,000 towards a $7,000 goal (updated goal)

DS13 College Fund: $2,500 towards a $3,000 goal (updated goal)

Personal goal: 28 pounds lost. A big part of my May overspending was on clothes. I just couldn’t make a lot of the stuff in my closet work any longer.

DS13 hit his growth spurt this past year and I had to buy some new summer clothes for him as well (and shoes – he went up 2.5 sizes from his previous pair! Parenting fail!).


I’ve changed some of my goals around – upped what I want to overpay on the mortgage, and reduced college fund savings – which is ok. We have a very nice college fund already for DS13 and after some calculations I realized I could slow down my investments there and we will still have enough to cover his needs when the time comes.

I’ve been struggling a bit with the reduced income from my new job. We are still perfectly fine, but I had gotten into the habit of being able to buy the spontaneous, non-necessities pretty much whenever I wanted, and having to watch my spending in those areas has been difficult, but June shouldn’t be a bad month so I’m hoping to get things back on track. My birthday is coming up next week and I did splurge and scheduled a massage for myself, but pretty sure my husband will happily cover that as my gift.

You're doing great on your goals!!!

 

[DnA2010]

We are back from our cruise. It was great, well the ports of call were just fabulous this time around. I've been to them before but this time we just had a super time in each port. The cruise itself, well I've had better ones, partly the ship, partly the experience on board. I wish I had brought a book or downloaded movies on my iPad to read at night or while on a chair, I had zero time before the cruise to appropriately pack and prepare with work and school. There was so much under aged drinking on board, I saw a lot of it and that was sort of disappointing to me, and some of the topics I heard, boy I'm just getting old I suppose but I don't remember these topics....I'll just leave it at that and not say a word else. Not many younger kids on board, my kids didn't like the camp they had on board after trying it once, so they hung out with us the whole cruise and that was good family time anyway! I'm not planning to travel on Carnival anytime soon. I really want to do a bucket list Disney cruise one day!

Which cruise was this that you did?

 

[imbatman]

A bit of a non-budget whine: MDE has been down all morning. This is the morning I could get our ADR's. I know it'll be back up eventually, but

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

MDE has been down all morning.

Ugh I know! We're going to be staying in a villa in Orlando first week of December and I've been trying to get a few ADRs here and there for that week even though we aren't doing the parks this year. I had trouble with Firefox but I had luck with Google Chrome! Hope you got in eventually, I kept getting the "Someone Ate the Page!" Message but did finally get an Olivia's ADR for dec 2.

 

[jen7233]

Which cruise was this that you did?

We did a Carnival Vista cruise. It was just crazier I think with summer really first getting underway, so it was a little wilder probably than maybe a later summer sailing can be. I have liked Carnival in the past, but then we've also sailed Royal Caribbean and I preferred RC now when I compare. My DH likes Carnival better, I did but now I am more for RC. I would love to try a Disney land/cruise combo vacation and see how Disney cruises are!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

We did a Carnival Vista cruise. It was just crazier I think with summer really first getting underway, so it was a little wilder probably than maybe a later summer sailing can be. I have liked Carnival in the past, but then we've also sailed Royal Caribbean and I preferred RC now when I compare. My DH likes Carnival better, I did but now I am more for RC. I would love to try a Disney land/cruise combo vacation and see how Disney cruises are!

We are back from our cruise. It was great, well the ports of call were just fabulous this time around. I've been to them before but this time we just had a super time in each port. The cruise itself, well I've had better ones, partly the ship, partly the experience on board. I wish I had brought a book or downloaded movies on my iPad to read at night or while on a chair, I had zero time before the cruise to appropriately pack and prepare with work and school. There was so much under aged drinking on board, I saw a lot of it and that was sort of disappointing to me, and some of the topics I heard, boy I'm just getting old I suppose but I don't remember these topics....I'll just leave it at that and not say a word else. Not many younger kids on board, my kids didn't like the camp they had on board after trying it once, so they hung out with us the whole cruise and that was good family time anyway! I'm not planning to travel on Carnival anytime soon. I really want to do a bucket list Disney cruise one day!

Absolutely try DCL! It is well worth the extra money, not for the character experience so much but mostly the higher level of service.
Carnival knows their market and caters to a different clientele than DCL. On DCL you find multi-generations of families just enjoying each other’s company in fun ways. I find it’s similar to visiting WDW vs a Six Flags park. It’s a much different experience leaves you wishing you chose Disney instead.
Remember, other cruise lines began as a cruise line, then added entertainment. Disney began as an entertainment company, then offered cruises.
On a Disney ships they don’t offer stupid things in the kids clubs such as a “Coke-tail” party to 9 yr olds like they did on our Carnival cruise. How pathetic. That’s when I knew I needed to just pony up the extra $ and switch to DCL. We haven’t looked back 20 Disney cruises later.

 

[DnA2010]

We did a Carnival Vista cruise. It was just crazier I think with summer really first getting underway, so it was a little wilder probably than maybe a later summer sailing can be. I have liked Carnival in the past, but then we've also sailed Royal Caribbean and I preferred RC now when I compare. My DH likes Carnival better, I did but now I am more for RC. I would love to try a Disney land/cruise combo vacation and see how Disney cruises are!

This is interesting! I've read such glowing reviews on this ship in the cruise forum...def one we were considering in the future. While we loved DCL it's probably a one and done for us...honestly the service etc we didn't find that much different than RCL and DD liked the clubs equally. I'd rather do twice as many vacations rather than pay twice the cost for the cruise. For us, the value wasn't there, but everyone is different. We've cruised on Royal and HAL, DCL.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

This is interesting! I've read such glowing reviews on this ship in the cruise forum...def one we were considering in the future. While we loved DCL it's probably a one and done for us...honestly the service etc we didn't find that much different than RCL and DD liked the clubs equally. I'd rather do twice as many vacations rather than pay twice the cost for the cruise. For us, the value wasn't there, but everyone is different. We've cruised on Royal and HAL, DCL.

It’s all good. Different strokes for different folks.
We’ve tried 2 on RC and it was ok but left me missing DCL. We surely didnt save $ though.
Our 5-nt RC cruise to Bermuda in a tiny inside cabin was $1000 more than our 7-nt oceanview cabin on the Magic over Thanksgiving just 6 months prior.
I was only willing to do it because the RC cruise sailed from Bayonne, NJ and we didnt need to pay for flights.

 

[DnA2010]

It’s all good. Different strokes for different folks.
We’ve tried 2 on RC and it was ok but left me missing DCL. We surely didnt save $ though.
Our 5-nt RC cruise to Bermuda in a tiny inside cabin was $1000 more than our 7-nt oceanview cabin on the Magic over Thanksgiving just 6 months prior.
I was only willing to do it because the RC cruise sailed from Bayonne, NJ and we didnt need to pay for flights.

I just don't see how that's possible, in fact is blowing my mind! Our 7 day on Oasis at a peak time was half the cost of our VGT on Fantasy at off time in May!

The most expensive Bermuda 5 day on Anthem for end of May 2019 (approx 6 months after thanksgiving) and its $2651 for 3 guests (I just picked 2 adults, 1 child) and Oceanview on the Magic for Thanksgiving for 6 nights is $5125 for the same party?

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I promise I’m not lying. Granted, this was TG 2008 and June 2009. The TG cruise on the Magic was booked super early, as soon as dates were released and we had the onboard booking discount. This was before they imposed blackout dates for holidays.
This was long before the mega ships of RC were built. We sailed on Explorer of the Seas. It was our close friend’s 50th bday cruise and they came to dh’s 50th, also on RC.
That was cheap, a 4nt from Ft Lauderdale in early March, but full of drunks/spring breakers. I could write a book about that trip! Some drunk vomited in the pool on a beautiful sea day so it had to be emptied, cleaned and refilled. Another drunk guy was literally falling down and was carried back to his room by his friends.
Then a brawl broke out in a bar with guys fighting over a girl. They were sent to the brig. Who knew they actually have a brig?
I understand not all of RC’s cruises are like that and why we were willing to try them again.

 

[DnA2010]

That sounds like a crazy experience for sure. I haven't encountered much drinking on my cruises, but I'd be curious about say NCL where you can often get the drink package "free", if that would change things.
Prices are very different 10 years later though, and pretty much every time I compare DCL to any similar cruise on most of the other main lines, the price for DCL is sadly generally at least double

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

It’s all good. Different strokes for different folks.
We’ve tried 2 on RC and it was ok but left me missing DCL. We surely didnt save $ though.
Our 5-nt RC cruise to Bermuda in a tiny inside cabin was $1000 more than our 7-nt oceanview cabin on the Magic over Thanksgiving just 6 months prior.
I was only willing to do it because the RC cruise sailed from Bayonne, NJ and we didnt need to pay for flights.

Sorry, I am wrong. I save all emails in a folder from each trip we take. Reading through them brought it all back. It would have been much more if we didn't opt for an inside cabin. Also I do recall it being not much savings for child prices vs. adult prices so it was something like $100-200 more to get 2 connecting cabins instead of all 4 of us in one. With their cabins being so small and no split bath, it was worth it.

DCL wasn't all that popular back then. There was only 2 ships and they kept saying some day they would build more. Once the Dream was built, they advertised heavily on ABC and now it seems like it's more of a household name.

 

[Tygerlilly]

I think we are going to have to cut satellite for a while. At $120/month, it's just eating away at what little money we have every month.

So, for anyone who has made the cut, what streaming devices do you have? We have hotspots on our phones with (truly) unlimited data at 4g speeds, so I'm hoping that works to stream what we want. I'm hoping for something that offers food network, travel channel, discovery, Disney channel and a lot of sports. Does this exist? I really don't want to have to cancel, but it's looking like it's going to cost too much to keep.

 

[jen7233]

I find it’s similar to visiting WDW vs a Six Flags park.

Lol, my kids hate Six Flags! They are the only kids I know like this, they are strange I know, lol. They had Six Flags free tickets from their school they earned for two years in a row last year and again this year, and they did not want to go either year. I'd give them away but it has their names on it and a statement about proof so, I'll just take the honest way and not give them out.

 

[jen7233]

I think we are going to have to cut satellite for a while. At $120/month, it's just eating away at what little money we have every month.

I'll be interested in hearing anyone who has. We haven't, DH won't commit to it.....but to be fair we live in the sticks internet-wise and get lousy reception and would get zero channels without satellite, so we have it for sanity. We just can't stream here. Our internet is terrible and we tried to stream ROKU before as a test and it was horrible.

When we move soon, we are looking into getting DirectTV now, supposedly it's streaming.

 

[milwaukeemommy]

I think we are going to have to cut satellite for a while. At $120/month, it's just eating away at what little money we have every month.

So, for anyone who has made the cut, what streaming devices do you have? We have hotspots on our phones with (truly) unlimited data at 4g speeds, so I'm hoping that works to stream what we want. I'm hoping for something that offers food network, travel channel, discovery, Disney channel and a lot of sports. Does this exist? I really don't want to have to cancel, but it's looking like it's going to cost too much to keep.

Well, to be fair ...we haven't cut cable, but we do have the Amazon Fire Stick & love it. You can watch anything on it!!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Sorry these are so huge. I don't know how to shrink them.


This was a reply email from my TA. RC never sent me an email but I could view my res online. It was a 5-nt sailing June 20-25.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I think we are going to have to cut satellite for a while. At $120/month, it's just eating away at what little money we have every month.

So, for anyone who has made the cut, what streaming devices do you have? We have hotspots on our phones with (truly) unlimited data at 4g speeds, so I'm hoping that works to stream what we want. I'm hoping for something that offers food network, travel channel, discovery, Disney channel and a lot of sports. Does this exist? I really don't want to have to cancel, but it's looking like it's going to cost too much to keep.

I can't help you but do you get any broadcast channels? We were considering getting rid of Verizon Fios for TV and landline. Dh bought a roof antenna at BJ's which are no longer the huge metal tree looking things we had as kids. (Well, I had as a kid! lol) It looked like approx 2 dinner plates that were attached. He installed it on the roof and ran the cable from it through our attic and plugged it into our kitchen and LR TVs and let them search for channels. We were amazed how many channels we could get. We are approx 10 miles outside of Philadelphia so reception was good and most local stations broadcast in Hi Def (ABC, NBC, CBS) so we could watch our local news in hi def with no box at all.
Our standard Fios box in our kitchen actually degrades the image back to standard def but gives us more channels to choose from. We barely use it and when we do, it's local channels.
For some reason our LR TV did not find the same channels or as many as our kitchen TV did. Still it was beautiful HI Def with no box.
There are some channels that dh likes (don't wanna get political here) but he can't part with them or the multi-room DVR.
Also he has a hi def box in the LR but chooses the standard def version for any channel he watches. So channel 6 is regular but 506 is same channel in hi def; he watches 6. Such a waste.
My next plan is to move the std def kitchen box into the LR and return the hi def box to Verizon that is costing us something like $13/mo +tax. Ds21 gave up his box a year ago and doesn't miss it. Ds18 still watches some and Netflix streams a lot.

I'd dump it all and just get their internet but there'd be too many unhappy people here. I would highly recommend doing a search of the budget board for this topic. I have seen it discussed many times. Sorry I'm not much help.