Debt Dumpers - 2017

[Jen and Ashwin]

March update:
It's already been a whirlwind of a month and we are just 11 days in! Last Sunday (3/5) my nephew was born and had to be immediately life flighted from our hometown of South Bend, IN to Mott's Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor MI as he was experiencing severe persistent pulmonary hypertension in the newborn (PPHN). This was causing him to have extremely low oxygen saturation (as low as the 20s at one point) and his heart was not pumping efficiently. He needed to get on ECMO and they thought a heart transplant might be necessary as his left ventricle was not pumping efficiently. He had absolutely no indicators of any cardiac defects on ultrasound, so this came completely out of the blue. My sister could not be released from the hospital as she went in with pre-eclampsia and her BP was still quite high. She asked me to go up to Ann Arbor with my BIL for support. Also, I am a RN and used to work adult ICU, so it's helpful to have a medical person there during these intense times. When we got there, what they think happened is he simply did not flip from fetal circulation to out of utero circulation (occurs 1-2x in every 1-2k births). But, they could not figure out what was going on with the left ventricle (the main pumping chamber of the heart) as they could not identify any particular defect. They were able to get him sucessfully on ECMO, but it was very touch and go. Over this week, he has made a MIRACULOUS turn around They did a 24h EEG and they so no indicators of brain injury. He was taken off ECMO on Wednesday night and then off the vent on Friday. I had to come home Tuesday and my sister made it up there Wednesday. His heart is now pumping efficiently and they have no explanation why the left ventricle was not working or how it corrected itself. We are all just so grateful he is in excellent hands and doing so well

All this led to me starting my FMLA over a week sooner than planned. I have a scheduled c-section on March 16 and I had planned to work at least one day that week. To me, family always comes first so I am happy it worked out for me to be there.

Budget: Still not good We do spend less than we make, but I am really struggling to stay within our food and retail budgets. Retail includes all household products, clothing, etc. I should have earmarked money or increased our retail budget as we prepare for baby. Although this is number five, we had to start from scratch for her clothing (my youngest girl is six and my newborn girl clothes are no where to be found) and we needed to purchase a bed for our two year old. So, we already have exceeded our retail budget for the month We could still transfer about $600 to savings this week, but decided to just keep it in checking as I will only recieve one more check on 3/24 until I return to work in late May/early June. My goal for the rest of the month is to stay as close to budget as I can. Additionally, my DH may try to squeeze in a little overtime. Given the circumstances of the month, I am considering this month somewhat of a wash. There's always next month to work on meeting our budget goals!

I am glad to hear that your nephew seems to be doing better! I have to say that I am very proud Mott was able to take such good care of him. They really are a world class hospital. One of my best friend's son had a heart condition when he was born and Mott saved his life. He is the sweetest boy and now doing great at 7 years old. This is the hospital where I will be giving birth and so it makes me feel more at ease to know they provide such excellent care.

And given how hectic this month has been with your nephew and your own impending birth, I would just take a deep breath and resolve to just roll with it. As you said, there is always next month and budgets are meant to be flexible and allow you to meet your needs. Sometimes that means overspending in some categories or not meeting a full savings goal, but resolving to continue on the path.

 

[colormegreen]

Not much to report. I still haven't done my taxes yet, but have an appointment for the 27th of March! First time I have lagged in getting them done. I've input the numbers on turbo tax and it says I should be getting about 2500$ back. Macy's is being paid off and my savings is getting bigger with that money.

I was doing my numbers, and while I can probably pay off another card if I don't renew our annual passes to Disneyland, I've decided it's okay for me to have this "splurge." My sister constantly judges me for having them, but it is something I feel I need. When you have to deal with child abuse cases for your job you just need something that takes you away from that.

Our two biggest loans...my school loan and hubs personal loan will be done by July of 2019...maybe a few months earlier since I am sending way more than the minimum payments...the credit cards should be done by summer 2018...we will get there...I'm just content that we can still build up our savings while tackling debt.

 

[bcwife76]

Just checked our bank account and our tax refund has gone in - just one week after filing our taxes!!

Had to pay our Alaskan cruise off this past Thursday since our CDN $ continues to tank so the refund will go to that and less money needs to come out of our vacation account to cover that remaining balance

 

[Dentam]

I paid off my smallest cc balance (about $800) last week. I also just reorganized my payment plan so I should pay off 3 more cc balances by the end of this year. The next one should be paid off in June!

 

[amalone1013]

I thought I’d have new numbers for the month, but not yet exactly… It seems like bad luck is happening all over this month. I’m just lucky that we’re not solely responsible.

The last days of February, DF and I sat down and allocated all of the extra money that came in during the month. We each were going to pay off one loan, which puts DF at two student loans, $110 monthly payment, and me at three loans, $140 monthly payment. We had about $1600 left after, and decided that we’d put everything into my next student loan, so we would each have two left, and then we would revisit if we wanted to switch to a car loan. This was after DF wanted to put $800 into our slush fund, which I didn’t see as completely necessary, but the guy must have foresight or something. Originally I was like, ok, I was visiting my grandpa for a few days at the beginning of this month, so that will cover what I spend – except I didn’t get to pay for anything (darn grandparents! ).

Instead, we’ve run into trouble with the well… Right at the beginning of the month, I noticed that the water was turning yellow, especially if I had some before bed and let it sit overnight. His parents tried a few things, but it hasn’t cleared up, so hopefully someone will be out to look at it today or tomorrow. We’ve been buying bottled water, and DF and his parents mainly ate out while I was gone. Technically, our dining out budget should be shot for the month, but instead I just threw it all under the slush fund (to help out, we covered all meals plus also covered some of the Lowe’s trips from trying to figure it out – which will still be less than the well guys).

DF paid off his loan over the weekend. I’ll pay mine off soon, but I figured out it’s the only loan I have that can be paid with a credit card, so we’ll probably use it for a credit card bonus spend, after we know how much the well guys cost. Then I’ll pay that, and then we’ll probably revisit the extra $1600 and see if we want to put a little of that back in slush.

On the bright side, my two weekends off this month were this last weekend and this coming weekend, and our two activity costs were already paid for – a concert this last weekend, and then we have tickets to see Beauty and the Beast this coming weekend. It’s the small things, right?

 

[amalone1013]

I'm sort of trying to do a snowball type method with our savings. We put a small amount in each savings account every month but pick one account to really throw every extra penny into (so right now that's our emergency fund, especially after the new tires), then a house down payment, then DVC. Once all of those have hit their savings target, I want to start saving for travel all the time, and just have a fund we can pull from whenever we see a great offer. Sigh... probably five years or more before I'll see anything like that but if we keep chugging along I know we'll get there!

I want this too, but we're also quite a few years away I think. But we'll all be so much better off for our debt dumping!

I paid off my smallest cc balance (about $800) last week. I also just reorganized my payment plan so I should pay off 3 more cc balances by the end of this year. The next one should be paid off in June!

Congrats!

 

[stratus]

I have a pronged approach. I keep us cash poor on payday and it seems to discourage spending which is good. While I handle the finances my wife does the spending and she has been good at working with the money I set aside.

We have this kind of divide monthly:

$100 - Investments
$100 - kids education plan
$100 - Employee stock options
$400 - regular savings (split between vacation, insurance savings that we pay once a year and regular savings)
$1000 - student loan
$400 - other loans

We've got ~$6600 to go on my student loan which started at $57,000 just over 4 years ago. I am so excited to get rid of the student loan payment that of course... I am taking a big trip to disney in November... nothing says clearing debt like spending lots of money!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Feeling a little cranky/discouraged on the budget front this morning. Nothing major, just spent some (planned) money this weekend and hate seeing the numbers in YNAB lol. The delivery fee refund should be hitting my credit card soon for our oven. Not liking how much eating out has been done already this month, but it is hard to eat dinner at home when you have no oven or stove.

Had a nice weekend- took my mom to see the Broadway version of Cinderella since it's currently touring in our city, so that was a lot of fun. My best friend and I went to a book fair that has a lot of best sellers, YA, and classics for deeply discounted prices, but they're all new. I purchased 15 new books for $69 yesterday and bought my friend's coffee at Starbucks in exchange for gas money. She drives a prius, so even with the 5 hour round trip, she still came out ahead on gas money with me buying her the coffee hahaha.

Waiting to see what the new balance on our personal loan is once DH's tax refund goes through for it. I think it should be around $3300 now. I sent an extra $50 payment to it this month in addition to our $150 payment. Looking at the undebt it calculator, assuming we do $200/mo versus $150/mo, we'll have it paid off 7 months faster. That's without factoring in any additional money we might put to it from DH's bonus or raise.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Our trash can and recycle bins blew away last Wednesday and were never recovered. The wind was insane. I had been meaning to rent a large toter bin for our recyclables from Waste Management for a while, so this was good incentive to actually go ahead and do it. It costs $24 per year and the lady said if the bin is damaged, stolen or lost, they will replace it at no extra cost. We always have way more recyclables than trash, so I think this will make it a lot easier on me and DH. The bin holds a lot more than our two small bins and it has wheels. If we like the recycle bin, then we may just go ahead and rent a trash bin of the same size too.

I had my first OB appointment today. DH took off work to take me. I have been feeling pretty sick lately, plus it had started snowing. By the time the appointment was over, the snow was really heavy, so I am glad DH was there to drive. I had another ultrasound and the doctor said everything looks good. We could see the baby really well now, including the baby waving it's little hands around. DH said it looked like the baby was giving a fist bump. He said he wants to take an ultrasound picture to put up in his cubical at work. I told him I would scan the one he likes and reprint it without all of my personal information on it.

Since I haven't been feeling well, we have ended up eating out a bit more than usual because I don't feel like cooking. I mostly eat toast or bagels and boiled eggs because it doesn't make me nauseous. When getting food out, it has mostly been take out from the grocery, but a few meals were at fast casual restaurants. We will probably have an extra $50 at the end of the month and I think that I will put it into our dining out fund, otherwise, we might go over. Hopefully the morning sickness (more like all day sickness) will pass sooner rather than later and this won't be an issue next month too.

 

[Ngwira]

Our install started today. They are done installing the tile in our laundry room and half bath. They'll be back on Thursday to caulk and start the laminate install.

Insurance company issued another check for over $1,000 to replace our towels and area rug. I thought that was pretty generous given I get towels at kohls and Ross. I think we will use this windfall to pay extra on the windows.

 

[Eureka]

Our trash can and recycle bins blew away last Wednesday and were never recovered. The wind was insane. I had been meaning to rent a large toter bin for our recyclables from Waste Management for a while, so this was good incentive to actually go ahead and do it. It costs $24 per year and the lady said if the bin is damaged, stolen or lost, they will replace it at no extra cost. We always have way more recyclables than trash, so I think this will make it a lot easier on me and DH. The bin holds a lot more than our two small bins and it has wheels. If we like the recycle bin, then we may just go ahead and rent a trash bin of the same size too.

I had my first OB appointment today. DH took off work to take me. I have been feeling pretty sick lately, plus it had started snowing. By the time the appointment was over, the snow was really heavy, so I am glad DH was there to drive. I had another ultrasound and the doctor said everything looks good. We could see the baby really well now, including the baby waving it's little hands around. DH said it looked like the baby was giving a fist bump. He said he wants to take an ultrasound picture to put up in his cubical at work. I told him I would scan the one he likes and reprint it without all of my personal information on it.

Since I haven't been feeling well, we have ended up eating out a bit more than usual because I don't feel like cooking. I mostly eat toast or bagels and boiled eggs because it doesn't make me nauseous. When getting food out, it has mostly been take out from the grocery, but a few meals were at fast casual restaurants. We will probably have an extra $50 at the end of the month and I think that I will put it into our dining out fund, otherwise, we might go over. Hopefully the morning sickness (more like all day sickness) will pass sooner rather than later and this won't be an issue next month too.

Feeling sick is actually good in this stage of the game bc you know everything is on track. But I hope it doesn't get too bad. I couldn't cook meat at all when pregnant so DH had to. And I love fish and seafood and couldn't eat that either. Frozen waffles were my friend. Try to make sure your stomach is never completely empty. Even a couple crackers can help.

 

[DnA2010]

Just checked our bank account and our tax refund has gone in - just one week after filing our taxes!!

Had to pay our Alaskan cruise off this past Thursday since our CDN $ continues to tank so the refund will go to that and less money needs to come out of our vacation account to cover that remaining balance

Yay! I am so close to getting ours filed! Not sure if we will get a refund though due to my maternity EI...will see

The dollar *sigh* I wish I had the cash when things were at par to stock up our US account...it's totally drained now. I do think we are going to buy some WDW tickets with the Canadian special rate, even though we have no trips planned- even if the dollar recovers a bit im sure it will still be a decent savings

 

[seb65]

I read the thread a lot, but don't post as often as I should. I am excited to say today I paid off one of 2 credit cards. I am on track for paying the last off this month and am debating taking money out of savings just to be rid of my student loan finally (I will still have a nice cushion in savings if I do so). With the extra money from putting on credit cards, I plan to put that into retirement savings. I have a pension, but since it is a set amount, I want to have money for cost of living increases as I age (I hope to live a long life ).

 

[hmack]

It's only mid-March and I feel like I'm starting to lose some of my beginning the year "get-up-and-go" when it comes to budget crushing. I need to get back some discipline.

I'm not doing anything totally overboard. But instead of putting extra $ into savings, I'm using it for treats. While a treat every now and then can be a good thing, not every day can be a treat day because then it becomes less a treat and more a habit.

sigh.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Our Norwegian Fjords cruise is now less than 2 months away! I have been working on final arrangements for the trip and think I am finally done now. I have tried to keep our out of pocket costs as low as possible. We get into Copenhagen on a Friday around 2pm and must board the cruise by 3pm on Saturday. This gives us some decent time to explore the city, but none of the tours really seem to work around our disjointed schedule. I have decided to download an audio tour that we can take at our own pace. Some on Friday and, if we haven't completed it, we could do do more on Saturday before boarding the ship. I can probably find a decent tour for $10-$20 and I will set aside some money from our budget next month in case we want to pay for admission to any of the locations on our tour.

I originally had us booked at a hotel near the airport because it was cheaper, but decided to transfer some SPG points to Marriott and booked at a hotel in the city center. This will allow us to maximize our time. It is one of the best rated hotels in the city too, so it should be a nice start to our trip. As a Marriott Gold Elite member, I think that we may get free breakfast with our stay too, which would be great. We can grab lunch once we get on the boat on Saturday, meaning that we will only have to worry about dinner the night before.

Cruise, tips and excursions are completely booked and paid. They recently added a cupcake decorating class during the at sea day, so I booked that too. DH loves baking and was really excited when I mentioned it.

Our cruise returns on the next Saturday and I booked us on a castles tour that will take us outside of Copenhagen to see North Zealand and Kronborg Castle (home of the fictional Hamlet). I contacted the tour company and made sure that we could bring our luggage on the tour bus with us. We will be disembarking and carrying our luggage off the ship in order to make our tour time at 10:30 am. We will have to take a taxi from the port to the city square, but I think this should work out well and hopefully won't be too pricey. I used UR points to book the castles tour, so nothing out of pocket except tips. Our hotel for the evening is the one near the airport and was booked using SPG points transferred to Marriott. The city center hotel isn't available to book at all, cash or points, but I keep checking back hoping that availability will open up before our trip.

Our flight on Sunday doesn't leave until 3:40pm, so we cnan do something that morning. I am going to leave this time unplanned so that we can decide if there was anywhere in that we didn't get to see, but still want to do.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Well, the tax refund plan didn't quite go as planned. We had to fix a few things on our vehicle, but the rest of the things for baby before she gets here (I'm a few short weeks!), needed a new lawnmower and some other household things.

We could have put the rest to debt, but decided to spend the few hundred we had left over on ourselves. Since we're about to have 2 under 2, going out won't be as easy so we went out and had fun at the local casino for a night. It's something we did pre-kids and haven't done in almost 2 years, so I'm at peace with the decision to have one last "night out" before we buckle back down.

After materity leave it's buckle down time to pay for our October Disney trip. Most is already saved, just working on spending and good money now.

 

[Ngwira]

Our Norwegian Fjords cruise is now less than 2 months away! I have been working on final arrangements for the trip and think I am finally done now. I have tried to keep our out of pocket costs as low as possible. We get into Copenhagen on a Friday around 2pm and must board the cruise by 3pm on Saturday. This gives us some decent time to explore the city, but none of the tours really seem to work around our disjointed schedule. I have decided to download an audio tour that we can take at our own pace. Some on Friday and, if we haven't completed it, we could do do more on Saturday before boarding the ship. I can probably find a decent tour for $10-$20 and I will set aside some money from our budget next month in case we want to pay for admission to any of the locations on our tour.

I originally had us booked at a hotel near the airport because it was cheaper, but decided to transfer some SPG points to Marriott and booked at a hotel in the city center. This will allow us to maximize our time. It is one of the best rated hotels in the city too, so it should be a nice start to our trip. As a Marriott Gold Elite member, I think that we may get free breakfast with our stay too, which would be great. We can grab lunch once we get on the boat on Saturday, meaning that we will only have to worry about dinner the night before.

Cruise, tips and excursions are completely booked and paid. They recently added a cupcake decorating class during the at sea day, so I booked that too. DH loves baking and was really excited when I mentioned it.

Our cruise returns on the next Saturday and I booked us on a castles tour that will take us outside of Copenhagen to see North Zealand and Kronborg Castle (home of the fictional Hamlet). I contacted the tour company and made sure that we could bring our luggage on the tour bus with us. We will be disembarking and carrying our luggage off the ship in order to make our tour time at 10:30 am. We will have to take a taxi from the port to the city square, but I think this should work out well and hopefully won't be too pricey. I used UR points to book the castles tour, so nothing out of pocket except tips. Our hotel for the evening is the one near the airport and was booked using SPG points transferred to Marriott. The city center hotel isn't available to book at all, cash or points, but I keep checking back hoping that availability will open up before our trip.

Our flight on Sunday doesn't leave until 3:40pm, so we cnan do something that morning. I am going to leave this time unplanned so that we can decide if there was anywhere in that we didn't get to see, but still want to do.

Sounds great. Please post some pictures when you get back. Which cruise line did you book?

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Sounds great. Please post some pictures when you get back. Which cruise line did you book?

Will definitely post some pictures. We booked on Royal Caribbean. We are diamond members (DH got my status when we got married!), so it is hard to look at other cruise lines given all of the perks that I get with them.

 

[bcwife76]

Yay! I am so close to getting ours filed! Not sure if we will get a refund though due to my maternity EI...will see

The dollar *sigh* I wish I had the cash when things were at par to stock up our US account...it's totally drained now. I do think we are going to buy some WDW tickets with the Canadian special rate, even though we have no trips planned- even if the dollar recovers a bit im sure it will still be a decent savings

Dh and I wish we had done more travelling in the US while our dollar was good instead of going to Mexico all the time lol

Now that we've discovered we all love cruising.....and on Disney.....oops. Although I received a catalogue in the mail from MSC cruises yesterday and eventhough it's still in US $'s it's still less expensive and they sure do have some purdy ships

 

[Ngwira]

Will definitely post some pictures. We booked on Royal Caribbean. We are diamond members (DH got my status when we got married!), so it is hard to look at other cruise lines given all of the perks that I get with them.

Wow, diamond..,nice. I just found out we are silver on Disney cruise line and I'm ecstatic..lol. Definitely not as many perks as you'll be getting on RC.