Debt Dumpers 2020

[imbatman]

for those that get it-there's been so much fraud and stolen identities here that there'a a stop on all benefits being paid out for the time being. may be offset by those that still haven't gotten their stimulus if THAT arrives.

Story time: DH was laid off at the beginning of March. Then his bosses brought him back full time. The crazy part? EDD still has not stopped paying on his claim though he's reported his hours. He and I have tried to contact them on the phone (literally HOURS on hold) and he's sent them an email. We've been putting it into savings and not looking at it, certain that the state will ask for it back. But what if they don't? Such rampant fraud is going on but some of us are trying to do the right thing. My fear is that they will flag him for a fraudulent claim and it'll affect any future claims.

DH had bought Star Wars celebration tickets for this year as a bucket list item. They haven't made a determination if it'll be held. It makes me sad for everyone who was/is going because we were wrapping a Disneyland visit into it. And now? Why would we waste the money to go to a convention where we maybe can't even visit the panels we want to see? I'm hoping they do the right thing and cancel altogether. Or allow the first however many they can hold people who purchased tickets to go.

In better news, my county is nearly 100% open! Except for churches and hairdressers...which is nuts. Even the nail salons moved their chairs outside! I love ingenuity!

 

[barkley]

In better news, my county is nearly 100% open! Except for churches and hairdressers...which is nuts. Even the nail salons moved their chairs outside! I love ingenuity!

our county just got approved for phase 2 which to my mind is a mistake. we just made the criteria by the skin of our teeth b/c of a slight uptick in cases, the thing is-the adjacent state and a couple of businesses near us that were exempt from the closure rules just reopened in the last 12-15 days so that means the handful of new cases could be an indicator of a larger surge of cases in coming days. i think it would have been better to wait one more week to see if those prior re openings have (and i suspect) generated a greater number of cases, or at the very least-have waited until next tuesday vs. the day before a three day/traditionally 'lets all get together and party' holiday weekend.

 

[jen7233]

our county just got approved for phase 2 which to my mind is a mistake. we just made the criteria by the skin of our teeth b/c of a slight uptick in cases, the thing is-the adjacent state and a couple of businesses near us that were exempt from the closure rules just reopened in the last 12-15 days so that means the handful of new cases could be an indicator of a larger surge of cases in coming days. i think it would have been better to wait one more week to see if those prior re openings have (and i suspect) generated a greater number of cases, or at the very least-have waited until next tuesday vs. the day before a three day/traditionally 'lets all get together and party' holiday weekend.

Our area is still in Phase Zero. No large gathering places open for the Memorial Day weekend, of course. So, no pools, etc. However, bike paths open here, I don't know if all are but one I know of is, also lots of places offering curbside pickup.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

In better news, my county is nearly 100% open! Except for churches and hairdressers...which is nuts. Even the nail salons moved their chairs outside! I love ingenuity!

A lot of things don't make sense but all we can do is control the things we have control over. If a nail salon can operate, why not a barber shop? I bought a Conair hair trimmer from Target. It should arrive before Thursday. That will be good for dh and our boys. I'm not that much in need of a haircut. As long as I trim my bangs once in a while, the rest can grow out for a while.

Our screening center has been open for weeks even though the rest of the city is not. Makes no sense but whatever. It was not considered essential before. There is no way to social distance while doing a mammogram. The good part is that patients have to wear a mask too. That's a plus for the millions of times people look you right in the face and cough.

I would definitely hold onto that excess unemployment compensation. I saw on PA's website a link about overpayments and I thought, "Duh, if they make people report their wages every week or biweekly, why would they ever be overpaid?" I guess the system isn't that smart.
This last time I filed (once every 2 weeks) I got the state and federal payments one day apart then another state payment the next week. Maybe that makes up for the last time I reported that I worked 1 day, got 2 days vac time, and all they sent was like $300 for 2 weeks! Yikes.
So far, there's no rhyme or reason. I'm sure they'll tell me if I'm overpaid. I only hope they don't wait 2 years to mention it.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Anyone who likes Asics sneakers, they are having a great sale plus 20% off with Memorial Day coupon, free shipping and free return shipping. I'm due for new sneaks and I couldn't decide between 2 colors so I bought both. Still came to less than $64.
Also, they earn Chase bonus points or Southwest points if you shop via either of their shopping malls.

Not that I'm encouraging needless shopping but if you're in need, why pay more?

 

[npatellye]

Not really debt dumping (may even be taking on debt)but we noticed that our solar panels weren’t meeting our needs. The panels were installed when our kids were 4 and 2 and before our pool was fully up and running; kids are now 7 and almost 5 and the pool pump runs at least 12 hours a day from early May to late September/early October. So we had been paying, on average, $68/month for electricity on top of what we were generating. We had the solar guy come back last Friday and do a new design for a second system. He came back yesterday and we are going to add on another 7 panels that should generate 105% of what we need. We are just waiting for a final cost to see if it’s worth buying the panels outright instead of financing them (he had set us up as financing them and it still saved us $30/month even with the monthly payment). Since it’s only 7 panels, we can swing it by the time they do the installation (I fully expect that to happen in the fall). But it’ll be nice to not pay Eversource.

 

[dayvewc]

I have news. Some good, some not as good.

The VA has decided on my claims, and granted my knee, but denied my shoulder. I'm still waiting on the final rating decision, but that is still a plus. And the end of a 17 year ordeal. Now, I just have to decide if I want to appeal the shoulder or not. I'll have some discussions with my VSO before I decide. The important claim was my knee, so I'm pretty happy.

 

[WeatherLights]

I would not be going in your laundry room either. Ewww, the slithering...

Oh and speaking of hiding gross things from family members, ds20 recently confessed that all the times he said he never wanted to return to the Polynesian again was because he found a bug in his bed during our 2011 stay. He was 11 at the time. His was in the convertible sofa bed. He said he never mentioned it because he knew it would 'ruin' the trip for me.
Thanks Lovey, yes it would have!

We've been to WDW many times and that was the only room bug incident I've known of and I know Disney is good at keeping rooms clean. Sometimes things just happen and a bug gets in. I'm not bashing Disney for it and certainly I'll return again some day. Some day.

That is a weirdly heartwarming story! Your son had some mature insight for an 11 year old.

Story time: DH was laid off at the beginning of March. Then his bosses brought him back full time. The crazy part? EDD still has not stopped paying on his claim though he's reported his hours. He and I have tried to contact them on the phone (literally HOURS on hold) and he's sent them an email. We've been putting it into savings and not looking at it, certain that the state will ask for it back. But what if they don't? Such rampant fraud is going on but some of us are trying to do the right thing. My fear is that they will flag him for a fraudulent claim and it'll affect any future claims.

Ugh. I hate that sort of thing--doing everything right but the fear of being nonetheless accused of malfeasance for something totally outside your control. Good job on making efforts and the email was smart so at least your notification about the error is documented.

I have news. Some good, some not as good.

The VA has decided on my claims, and granted my knee, but denied my shoulder. I'm still waiting on the final rating decision, but that is still a plus. And the end of a 17 year ordeal. Now, I just have to decide if I want to appeal the shoulder or not. I'll have some discussions with my VSO before I decide. The important claim was my knee, so I'm pretty happy.

Congrats on this! Such a loooong time coming but at least that part is resolved.

And congratulation to everyone who paid off debts recently! My spouse and I are still holding back on overpaying our mortgage for the time being. We had been paying something like 4x the required payment amount each month for the past few years and were on track to pay it off in just two more years (would have been about 18 years early!) but if he or I or the both of us become unemployed that extra cash on hand will probably be worth a few more years of mortgage interest. That said, my "every day" spending keeps going up! I went a bit overboard on take out food this month

 

[Tygerlilly]

Now that we're debt free, we've started looking at bigger purchases for the future. As our family moves into a new stage of life (the girls are getting older and moving into less bulky car seats, less of their stuff to lug around, not really needing big double strollers), we're debating on our next vehicle. DH's has been paid off for quite some time and now that mine is, we're looking to upgrade to a full size truck. I've been pricing some out the last two nights to get an idea of how much I'm looking at because I want to have *at least* 1/3 of it saved before we even start to look for real. Most I've seen are in the $30,000 range.
The reason we are looking for a truck, is because we have talked about buying a camper for 6 years now. I feel more at ease with taking the girls camping now, so we're looking for a smaller bumper pull. I want to pay for that in all cash.

So, onto the saving...

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

@Jen and Ashwin how are things going for you at home? We haven't heard from you in a while.

Hey guys! I have been so insanely busy between work and taking care of DD. I just haven't had time to keep up here. We are all doing well. Pregnancy seems to be going well. I have my next in-person appointment on Tuesday, so I can come back and give an update then.

On the financial front, we have been doing alright. Still both working full time with no loss of income. Our university did announce that we won't be receiving merit raises at all this year, which sucks, but we will survive.

About a week ago, our oven died so we had to replace it. Costco came on Friday and installed a new GE Profile range that was a big upgrade from what we previously had and we are liking it so far. It didn't really set us back anything because we got reimbursed for our flights to Spain from the insurance on our Chase Sapphire Reserve card. We just used that money to cover the oven cost.

As I said before, we have mostly put a hold on extra debt payments in lieu of increasing our emergency fund instead. We also put our entire stimulus check into the emergency fund. It is now looking much healthier than previously. Once things feel a bit calmer, we will start on extra debt payments again. Just not sure when that might be for us.

I hope everyone is doing well and I am hoping to get some time this weekend to catch up on all of the posts that I have missed, so if I make comments on some older stuff, apologies!

 

[Nettlelondon]

Oven troubles here too. Ours has started becoming unreliable temperature wise. The upside of this is that I am not baking as many lockdown cakes as I might have done - I get annoyed when I end up with wasted ingredients - but the downside is that I have no idea how long something is going to take to cook. As soon as shops reopen I will be off to have a look at new cookers.

It has to fit in an odd size gap so I have limited options but I still want to see the choices. And at the moment suppliers are only doing drop off deliveries, no installations. I am not planning to mess with a gas connection.

I did find the invoice for the old cooker the other day, it is 22 years old so I think it has paid for itself along the way. Good job DH is working so hard.

 

[barkley]

Now, I just have to decide if I want to appeal the shoulder or not. I'll have some discussions with my VSO before I decide.

definitely talk with someone who knows the rules. i'm not familiar with military disability but i know that when my dh's social security disability finally got approved and i spoke with the attorney that handled it about appealing what i felt (still feel) was an error in the beginning date of eligibility he cautioned against it b/c it could bring the entire approval of benefits into question and we could have risked having to go back to square one on establishing his disability.

we're looking to upgrade to a full size truck.

while you're researching you might want to check with your insurance company to find out the difference in rates on the different models you are considering. when we shopped for our last car i checked with ours to see if we would qualify for any discounts with any specific features and on the flip side-if any specific features would run rates up.

 

[jen7233]

Hey guys! I have been so insanely busy between work and taking care of DD. I just haven't had time to keep up here. We are all doing well. Pregnancy seems to be going well. I have my next in-person appointment on Tuesday, so I can come back and give an update then.

On the financial front, we have been doing alright. Still both working full time with no loss of income. Our university did announce that we won't be receiving merit raises at all this year, which sucks, but we will survive.

About a week ago, our oven died so we had to replace it. Costco came on Friday and installed a new GE Profile range that was a big upgrade from what we previously had and we are liking it so far. It didn't really set us back anything because we got reimbursed for our flights to Spain from the insurance on our Chase Sapphire Reserve card. We just used that money to cover the oven cost.

As I said before, we have mostly put a hold on extra debt payments in lieu of increasing our emergency fund instead. We also put our entire stimulus check into the emergency fund. It is now looking much healthier than previously. Once things feel a bit calmer, we will start on extra debt payments again. Just not sure when that might be for us.

I hope everyone is doing well and I am hoping to get some time this weekend to catch up on all of the posts that I have missed, so if I make comments on some older stuff, apologies!

Good to hear things are going along well!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Hey guys! I have been so insanely busy between work and taking care of DD. I just haven't had time to keep up here. We are all doing well. Pregnancy seems to be going well. I have my next in-person appointment on Tuesday, so I can come back and give an update then.

On the financial front, we have been doing alright. Still both working full time with no loss of income. Our university did announce that we won't be receiving merit raises at all this year, which sucks, but we will survive.

About a week ago, our oven died so we had to replace it. Costco came on Friday and installed a new GE Profile range that was a big upgrade from what we previously had and we are liking it so far. It didn't really set us back anything because we got reimbursed for our flights to Spain from the insurance on our Chase Sapphire Reserve card. We just used that money to cover the oven cost.

As I said before, we have mostly put a hold on extra debt payments in lieu of increasing our emergency fund instead. We also put our entire stimulus check into the emergency fund. It is now looking much healthier than previously. Once things feel a bit calmer, we will start on extra debt payments again. Just not sure when that might be for us.

I hope everyone is doing well and I am hoping to get some time this weekend to catch up on all of the posts that I have missed, so if I make comments on some older stuff, apologies!

I feel the same way on debt payments. I have more than enough money sitting there to pay DH's student loan off, but I'm too worried about what might happen to pull the trigger. Once we get through the second wave, I probably will then. Of course, Virginia's cases are still insanely high right now, so who knows when that will be for us.

 

[imbatman]

In better news, my county is nearly 100% open! Except for churches and hairdressers...which is nuts. Even the nail salons moved their chairs outside! I love ingenuity!

I should've put in the disclaimer that our infection rate is less than one percent and our death toll is one. Grateful to be a country gal.

Financial report: the money set aside for the flooring will now go toward paying for truck repairs as it made an ugly thumping noise. DH is upset. He really wanted the flooring. Oh...and the flooring quote came in about $2k MORE than what we'd priced out. So there's that. Still paying down the CC's and paying off the one I use daily every other week.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Had a car issue yesterday that I was afraid could be very bad for our budget, but thankfully was not. While working yesterday (DoorDash driver) I was at a stop light when my car suddenly shuddered hard then died. Each time I attempted to restart it would die within 3 seconds of turning over. I was on a very busy street, and despite my emergency flashers being on, several people almost hit the back of me by not paying attention. Thankfully my DH was only a few minutes away, and with the help of another kind motorist who jumped out to assist, we pushed my car into the parking lot of the gas station right next to where it died. My father grew up working on cars at my grandfather's auto body shop (that my Dad still owns, though he doesn't work there) and so he knows a good deal about vehicles and honestly does most of the maintenance work on our cars. Since he was only 20 minutes away he came to look at it once he got off work last night. He couldn't find anything obviously wrong and was a little stumped. We tried seeing if it had an engine code but it did not, so no answers there. Honestly at that point I was thinking it was the engine and we may have to replace the car as it is a 2011 and wouldn't be worth replacing the engine in it at this point.

We got it towed to the local dealership but it was after hours so I had to leave the key and a note explaining what happened and asking for them to check to find out what was wrong. They called me around 10:30am today and I was expecting them to just ask me for more information. Instead they told me that they found the problem, which was that a wire to the fuel system (they told me which but I don't remember it) was chewed through, possibly from a rat (!!!) and that it caused the fuel pump to not be able to sense pressure so the engine properly start. She also informed me that it was already fixed, and that they could also fix the 2 recalls on my vehicle. One I knew about and had asked on the note for them to fix and another that just came out so I didn't even know about it yet. The total for the diagnostics and replacing the wire only came to $310, which I was so happy about as I can make that work fine in our budget. They called at 3:04pm to let me know that all repairs and recalls were completed and I went right over to get it. So while I will have to take that cost out of some money we were planning on paying debt with, it will at least not give us new debt and I don't have to replace my car yet!


Congrats to everyone who has recently become debt-free!

 

[imbatman]

Had a car issue yesterday

Me too! But mine cost $1630! That means the flooring is off for now.

Which brings me to my good news! My 401(k) check came and I'm depositing it today. That means that I should have one of the CC's paid off next week! And that is certainly better than flooring. And also less on my mind as I head into the "Big Scary" of my life. I go to Stanford a week from today. I have local surgery scheduled in July unless Stanford pulls a trump card. So having less debt over my head is a HUGE relief.

 

[npatellye]

We just noticed on Sunday that our front door is seeing a bit of wood rot on the trim between the door and the sidelights. On Sunday, my husband was weed whacking around the patio edges and he must have hit a rock at just the right angle because it flew up and shattered the outer pain of our non-sliding section of the sliding doors. So we had a door person come out yesterday. The prices were exorbitant but they do provide a lifetime warranty on everything, even the glass and hardware. So there goes $11k I had set aside to save for the sunroom addition and wraparound front porch. But at least we will have nice French doors in the back and a new front door and sidelights that have no rotting trim.

 

[afan]

For those that use ally for savings and use the buckets. Does the interest split itself into the buckets when it pays based off how much each bucket made?

I'm trying to figure out what savings acct to do and could move some of my other savings over as well for the higher rate. I'd need the buckets for that to work though. Otherwise I'll just open one for the car and keep what I've got. My credit union pays good interest on the first 500 in the primary savings and very little on my 2nd savings. So it would make sense to move all but 500 from my emergency savings and most of my 2nd acct which is vacay/fun so they male more. I know I could track one acct on a spreadsheet but I don't want to do that, track enough that way already

 

[dina444444]

For those that use ally for savings and use the buckets. Does the interest split itself into the buckets when it pays based off how much each bucket made?

I'm trying to figure out what savings acct to do and could move some of my other savings over as well for the higher rate. I'd need the buckets for that to work though. Otherwise I'll just open one for the car and keep what I've got. My credit union pays good interest on the first 500 in the primary savings and very little on my 2nd savings. So it would make sense to move all but 500 from my emergency savings and most of my 2nd acct which is vacay/fun so they male more. I know I could track one acct on a spreadsheet but I don't want to do that, track enough that way already

The interest will only pay to one "bucket", you have to select which bucket you want it to go into. You access this under the settings button within the buckets area.