Debt Dumpers 2020

[dayvewc]

Congrats @dayvewc!! So excited for you that the VA finally approved some of your paperwork!!

Yeah, I was really happy that they came through with part of it, and then only deferred the other instead of denied it. Really loving my service officer, she is awesome plus some. If I can just get them to rate me on the other injuries. Even on the low end, it would almost let me be completely debt free in one lump sum. Fingers crossed. As it is, I now have breathing room that I haven't had in years.

Thanks all for your support! Very meaningful.

Stimulus talk: I logged into our bank account this morning and even though a weekend, our stimulus is in there. Our bank usually doesn't post anything on a weekend and typically if it was something that went in or out on a Saturday or Sunday, I'd see it on Monday, so anyway stimulus is there, that was interesting to see. We filed taxes late too, well late compared to probably most on here? Our last name is in the latter half of the alphabet, so I don't think they did stimulus alphabetically? I wonder if they do it by region? We are on the east coast mid-atlantic region.

I was told that they are doing the payments based on income, starting with lower income and going up. I do not know what the cutoff points were, other than the cutoff point for not qualifying. I think and this could be completely wrong, that everyone that the IRS has their direct deposit information for already is supposed to have their checks by next Friday. The article that I read yesterday said that the IRS sent notifications to the banks on Friday that the deposits would start on Saturday. My understanding was that then it was more or less then at the discretion of the banks rules on how long they held funds before crediting them.

School talk: Is anyone feeling a little crazy? I have to log in again today to the school parent account, and get a handle on the kids' school for the week. The kids get mailed a packet, and then parents get emails on all the updates, plus Facebook posts, and then the district and school websites have info, I feel I'm in info overload and need to sort. A whole lot of info to dig through. I went through one of their school mailed packets on Friday with them, and just on the subject of math, I was like-nope I can't do this. Every question's math answer was "answers may vary". I looked at my kid and actually said - "In my day, math questions just had an answer, there was no "answers may vary! It was do page 95 questions 1-30! And everything just had a straight answer!" Yep, I just dated myself as if they already didn't think I was, now I'm doing those "in my day" quotes, oh boy.....But, it did become a good laugh as we worked through and then were laughing as we checked answers saying "answers may vary!" So, on a positive note of trying to not be overwhelmed in grasping the new switch in the school year, we got a good laugh anyway.

I teach math, and a lot of the "answers may vary" questions are because the question is either looking at possible examples OR the teacher is more interested in seeing the process and is less interested in the final answer. Regardless, if you run across something that is confusing, shoot me a DM and I'll see if I can help. That's what we're here for, to support each other. And that is something I can do.

 

[bababear_50]

Happy Easter everyone
All the paper school packets everyone is mentioning has me wondering about something. I am in the education system here in Ontario Canada,,we are not allowed to do any kind of paper transfers due to the Covid 19 virus. I am surprised that your schools are. Everything we do must be online.
We are issuing Chromebooks and internet access keys to families that don't have access at home though. Most of us have set up Google classrooms.
All our kids that have special needs are receiving their specialized equipment either by parent pick up on a table just outside the school door or if need be by school courier.
We are doing microsoft team classes and home phone weekly check ins for our vulnerable kids.
Just thought maybe if you have to accept those packets of paper that maybe you let them sit for a day or two before touching. Maybe I'm being over cautious but hey better to be safe than sorry.

Now onto my weekly budget which I am blowing.....it has been 3 weeks since I have been able to get certain things and today I blew the budget buying extras just because I am worried they won't be available in the coming months,,,bleach and bleach cleaners,,and T.P.,,I also can't seem to make a mask (yes I was the kid who broke the Singer sewing machines every home economics class) or have it stay on my head properly so I've decided on a Yoga dust mask (bought via Amazon). It's kind of like a neck warmer that can be pulled up over the mouth and nose,,best I can do. I don't go out other than shopping for food but it will be nice to have something when I do.
I bought a couple of new lawn chairs and a few garden lights and some citronella,,hate those mosquitoes that are coming soon.
Now I really need to pull back and get on course with spend less.

Hugs
Mel

 

[Scoobie]

Happy Easter to everyone!! Hope everyone is safe and happy today, blessed to have so many online caring friends.

 

[jen7233]

I teach math, and a lot of the "answers may vary" questions are because the question is either looking at possible examples OR the teacher is more interested in seeing the process and is less interested in the final answer. Regardless, if you run across something that is confusing, shoot me a DM and I'll see if I can help. That's what we're here for, to support each other. And that is something I can do.

Great! Thanks, good to know.

Happy Easter everyone
All the paper school packets everyone is mentioning has me wondering about something. I am in the education system here in Ontario Canada,,we are not allowed to do any kind of paper transfers due to the Covid 19 virus. I am surprised that your schools are. Everything we do must be online.
We are issuing Chromebooks and internet access keys to families that don't have access at home though. Most of us have set up Google classrooms.
All our kids that have special needs are receiving their specialized equipment either by parent pick up on a table just outside the school door or if need be by school courier.
We are doing microsoft team classes and home phone weekly check ins for our vulnerable kids.
Just thought maybe if you have to accept those packets of paper that maybe you let them sit for a day or two before touching. Maybe I'm being over cautious but hey better to be safe than sorry.

Now onto my weekly budget which I am blowing.....it has been 3 weeks since I have been able to get certain things and today I blew the budget buying extras just because I am worried they won't be available in the coming months,,,bleach and bleach cleaners,,and T.P.,,I also can't seem to make a mask (yes I was the kid who broke the Singer sewing machines every home economics class) or have it stay on my head properly so I've decided on a Yoga dust mask (bought via Amazon). It's kind of like a neck warmer that can be pulled up over the mouth and nose,,best I can do. I don't go out other than shopping for food but it will be nice to have something when I do.
I bought a couple of new lawn chairs and a few garden lights and some citronella,,hate those mosquitoes that are coming soon.
Now I really need to pull back and get on course with spend less.

Hugs
Mel

Hi Mel, our school district is doing paper packets, or you can also download the packet weekly yourself via the parent or student login, in fact we can actually opt out without repercussion, as they are not graded. I'm trying to be fair about the effort made on the packet material itself, in my opinion would rather it stick to academic subjects, we have pages of what I'd call fluff things (such as "decorate your house" or "look out the window, what do you see?") But anyway, other things we are doing include online meetings twice a week with teachers. Not sure how the Canadian school system works, but our system here can vary greatly in how things are carried out from district to district, and state to state. For example, I see people I know on Facebook in another state where there kids are doing Zoom meetings with teachers and they were doing this literally right when their school shut down. We aren't allowed to use Zoom. Also others say their kids are online with teachers every day from say x hour to x hour, 5 days a week. Ours are just twice a week, and my elementary-aged kid will be on quite less than my middle schooler. I can see there may be that concern for mailings. I've had that topic in the house, on how is best to handle mail in general.

 

[dayvewc]

@bababear_50 our school collects the paper work, and then lets it sit for a day before distributing it back to the teachers. So, if a student returns a packet on a Monday, I won't get it until Wednesday.

 

[StacyStrong]

Theoretically I should be saving money because I’m not going out at all. Buuuuut I keep spring cleaning and buying things in bulk that I probably don’t NEED to.

Example - I cleared out my spice cabinet to see what I was low on and what was close to expiration. I desperately needed some of my staples because I was very low. I decided to order from a local small spice shop and ended up spending $111 lol. I figured if I’m placing an order I might as well get EVERYTHING I use and just completely replenish instead of ordering on a one off basis. Whoops?

I mean, I am saving more than I was, but not near as much as I could be.

 

[jackers]

Re: school... we are very fortunate that our local school system provides laptops (middle/high school) and iPads (intermediate/primary) to every student and have been for years so they have worked out all the kinks over the years and have a solid online system they use. I think they provided hotspots for rural families, if they needed it.

My son is a freshman and the high school seems to have it together, although it is all downsized a bit. We get 20 "free" days due to Covid-19 that they don't have to make up and they are making use of all of those. The kids started back up last week after an extended Spring Break and will only do eLearning for 3 days a week (T, W, Th) for the rest of the year. Tuesdays they do Google Hangout as a group for 30 minutes for each class (15 minute break between each plus a 1 hour lunch break), with the teacher explaining the plan for that week and it gives the kids a chance to ask questions or just interact with each other. My son, who is an introvert and could generally care less about school, actually seemed to enjoy all of that.

Wednesdays and Thursdays they get online assignments for each class, and are expected to have them completed and submitted by the end of the following week. They will do this through May 21, which is the last day of school (moved up a week from the original planned last day). The teachers are also available on Wed and Thurs for several hours in the morning and afternoon for the kids to reach out to them if they have questions about the assignments. It took my son 5 hours the first day and 4 hours the second day to complete all of the assignments. It's only been a week, but seems like a workable, reasonable plan for students, teachers, and parents.

I was mostly concerned about Algebra, as math has never been a strong subject for my son, but the teacher made a close up video of herself walking through the new material, writing down the equations, just like she would on the whiteboard in class. I think it will actually work even better for DS - I witnessed him pausing it, and then rewatching it while he was going through the assignment to make sure he was getting it right. When he finished, he took pictures of his work and then submitted that online.

The principal has been doing multiple video updates over the past few weeks and he said it is their intent that every one be prepared and ready for the next year come this fall.

 

[imbatman]

I was mostly concerned about Algebra, as math has never been a strong subject for my son

Have you looked into Mathway? I subscribe to it for my oldest, who struggles with math. Even in college, she still uses it. More so now, since she can't visit a tutor.

 

[3threebabies]

Our district has done well—at least for HS. This was the 1st year all HS students were issued chromebooks. Most teachers were already using google, moodle, etc., and district has been transitioning all classes to google since fall 2019. However, ds has mono, so we are personally a little behind. Today is technically a holiday, but it is the first day he had the energy and concentration to start completing assignments.

 

[barkley]

Example - I cleared out my spice cabinet to see what I was low on and what was close to expiration. I desperately needed some of my staples because I was very low. I decided to order from a local small spice shop and ended up spending $111 lol. I figured if I’m placing an order I might as well get EVERYTHING I use and just completely replenish instead of ordering on a one off basis. Whoops?

for future reference-if it's basic spices there's a cheap hack on getting them. instead of buying them the traditional way, look at places like bed, bath and beyond where they sell entire spice racks that come filled with spices. you can get 20 jars of common spices in tightly sealed jars (so it extends the use by date tremendously) for around $45 ($35 if you've got a 20% off coupon). in the past i've found them for as low $19.99 on the clearance shelves when the physical rack (which i toss out anyway) has a ding on it.

 

[StacyStrong]

for future reference-if it's basic spices there's a cheap hack on getting them. instead of buying them the traditional way, look at places like bed, bath and beyond where they sell entire spice racks that come filled with spices. you can get 20 jars of common spices in tightly sealed jars (so it extends the use by date tremendously) for around $45 ($35 if you've got a 20% off coupon). in the past i've found them for as low $19.99 on the clearance shelves when the physical rack (which i toss out anyway) has a ding on it.

I do appreciate the advice. I’m usually all about saving a buck.

I’m super weird/picky about certain things though. Food, bedding, tech, specifically. I know that about myself. I’m sure the quality of those are fine, but I can’t handle not knowing. It’s why I chose a small local spice shop. To be fair $30 of the purchase was a fancy vanilla paste lol.

I even order my tea loose leaf from a small local place.I’m just unreasonably picky about very certain things!

 

[pblack]

I like the fact that you're supporting local @StacyStrong especially during these times.

 

[Deffenm]

Well I am finding out I am spending more money during this crisis then I normally would! I am trying to limit grocery shopping so instead of going to multiple stores to get best deal I am just going to one to get what we needed. I also decided might as well spruce up the outside of our house since I look at it alot this days. Decided to power wash our house first. I tried to do it myself and I am short and we don't have the right ladders so I hired a local guy (trying to support local businesses) and he did a great job! Then we needed mulch but decided to just have it delivered vs going to store which cost me almost $100 in delivery fee but saved me multiple trips as we need over 4 cubic yards of mulch. Then our doggie decided to get sick so we had an emergency vet bill. Luckily she is doing better but gave us a scare. I am extremely thankful that both DH and I still have jobs and we have an emergency fund saved up (which we didn't touch) and could cash flow all of these things but it's money I did not budget for. We also have been eating out locally once a week when normally we don't eat out at all. Overall my gas budget is lower, I don't have to pay for parking right now, insurance company gave us $50 credit on our next bill and work is giving us money for phone and internet while working from home. It will eventually even out in the end I think. I am trying to keep up with my normal routine as if I was going to work including running early in the morning. I think that is helping me with my mental state. My list of places I want to visit keeps getting longer since I am virtually visiting a lot of places these days. LOL

 

[pblack]

I find I'm also doing a lot of small house projects @Deffenm. I power washed our back patio last week. I tried to power wash our front patio today but for whatever reason it kept stalling out on me so my DH is gonna look at it when he gets home.

I'm also currently debating painting the door in our kitchen that leads to the garage with a chalkboard paint. I just got done re-organzing the garage because it was looking pretty bad. I can only clean the inside of my house so many times before I have to find something else to tackle lol.

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

I Have a question about the stimulus plan - the part about 10,000 student loan forgiveness.

Does anyone understand how that would work?

Would 10,000 of the balance just disappear? Written off? And if you owed less than 10,000, you’d be done? If you owed, for instance, 20,000, they’d take off 10,000 and it would show you still owe 10,000 and you’d continue your payments on what you still owed?

We were talking about it today and I really don’t understand how that would work.

 

[barkley]

I Have a question about the stimulus plan - the part about 10,000 student loan forgiveness.

Does anyone understand how that would work?

Would 10,000 of the balance just disappear? Written off? And if you owed less than 10,000, you’d be done? If you owed, for instance, 20,000, they’d take off 10,000 and it would show you still owe 10,000 and you’d continue your payments on what you still owed?

We were talking about it today and I really don’t understand how that would work.

no one knows because it wasn't part of the stimulus package that got passed. the only thing w/student loans right now is that the ones through the feds have been put on zero interest w/no payments due until october at the earliest.

 

[pblack]

We got our stimulus check today!

 

[StacyStrong]

We got our stimulus check today!

I keep trying to check for mine but my banks website is down. It’s my payday too! Get your act together, bank.

 

[imbatman]

We got our stimulus check today!

Same! Had two friends receive their's on Saturday.

 

[jackers]

Ditto here!