Debt Dumpers - 2017

[momtosam]

Snow day today in the northeast. I was hoping to work on some financials, but the kids derailed me from that. We already have off again tomorrow so hopefully I can work on updating the budget then.

 

[DnA2010]

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

I don't know if we will cruise Disney again to be honest it's just soooo much more, and we loved our cruise on Royal honestly just as much :banned: but every time I price Disney, factoring the exchange it's double and we would honestly rather have twice as many vacations...maybe it's because we did our Royal cruise first, and then when we went to do DCL our expectations were too high from here...there is someone on the cruise boards that loves MSC, and I love the look of NCL's getaway class and the new carnival ship reviews I've read are great too *sigh* Not sure when we will get to the Caribbean again with that dang Zika too. I think Orlando, Hawaii and possibly Alaska will be our next stops, also eastern Canada

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

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

MSC matches cruise loyalty status from other cruise lines, in case you have status on Disney or another line.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I don't know if we will cruise Disney again to be honest it's just soooo much more, and we loved our cruise on Royal honestly just as much :banned: but every time I price Disney, factoring the exchange it's double and we would honestly rather have twice as many vacations...maybe it's because we did our Royal cruise first, and then when we went to do DCL our expectations were too high from here...there is someone on the cruise boards that loves MSC, and I love the look of NCL's getaway class and the new carnival ship reviews I've read are great too *sigh* Not sure when we will get to the Caribbean again with that dang Zika too. I think Orlando, Hawaii and possibly Alaska will be our next stops, also eastern Canada

I have been on Royal Caribbean cruises to Alaska and Eastern Canada. They were both great trips! I took the Alaska cruise using rewards points right after taking my bar exam. It was the perfect end of law school treat. We probably won't be taking any Caribbean or Central/South American cruises anytime soon either. But I was thinking that Alaska might be a lot of fun, since DH has never been. He prefers hiking to laying on a beach any day. Zika is exactly why I chose Norway as our destination this year. I knew there was a chance I would be pregnant and I didn't want to have to worry while on vacation.

And I can understand your feelings about the cost of DCL v. others. I have looked at DCL and think it would be fun to go when our kids are a little older, but not too old. But the price is so much higher than Royal and others. I would find it hard to justify. My family took a Disney Cruise when I was 6 and I remember a lot of that trip. But after that, we went on Royal Caribbean cruises exclusively. My parents saw better value in it (we needed 3 staterooms) and the loyalty perks have proved very nice. Now that my parents travel without kids, they have been taking mostly Celebrity cruises. They got matching loyalty status on Celebrity since it is the same company as Royal Caribbean. They love it and though it costs a bit more than Royal, it is still less generally than DCL. Also, with just 4 ships, the DCL itineraries just seem a lot more limited to me compared to other cruise lines.

 

[momof2gr8kids]

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.

My kids are in their March Break and it's a budget buster here trying to keep them busy while we are at work each day!And yes..The treats... dh is the worst although lately I've been roped into the odd pizza or subs for kids due to the running around we are doing!

 

[Imagineer5]

FINALLY had my 2016 Fiscal Year review (which should have been done in October or November). I got the points/bonus I was hoping for. We chose to purchase a playset/swing set for our DD's (government bonuses are about 1K, nothing significant lol). With a 5 yo, 1 yo, and #3 coming in April we needed a safe playset so I am really happy with this decision. DH is going today to pick it up (from Costco, with a Costco-member coworker).

I am proud to say that we found a friend who is a member willing to take him to buy it, vs spending the extra $55 membership fee. Last time we had a Costco membership, we'd go and spend hundreds of dollars on stuff we DO NOT need! So I really didn't want to become a member just to buy one thing. I spent a lot of time researching playsets, and the one in store is $999 and looks fantastic, so I'm really excited.

We also were able to pay off the CC that had been racking up as we used it to put all our joint expenditures on. So that's a big relief!

Things are definitely moving in the right direction, and we're financially ready for #3's arrival and my drastic pay cut for the next few months. I am SO SO ready to be home, caring for my girls and not worrying about work for 13 weeks!!

DH also got a huge verbal approval from the head of his department, who apparently *thought* that when DH was moved up to Lead Mechanical Engineer, he received a bonus, but that isn't the case. Now that he knows, we're hoping he pushes one through! A bigger paycheck for him would mean an earlier payoff date (from December 2019) for us! <3 Plus he deserves recognition for the hard work he does!

 

[DnA2010]

I have been on Royal Caribbean cruises to Alaska and Eastern Canada. They were both great trips! I took the Alaska cruise using rewards points right after taking my bar exam. It was the perfect end of law school treat. We probably won't be taking any Caribbean or Central/South American cruises anytime soon either. But I was thinking that Alaska might be a lot of fun, since DH has never been. He prefers hiking to laying on a beach any day. Zika is exactly why I chose Norway as our destination this year. I knew there was a chance I would be pregnant and I didn't want to have to worry while on vacation.

And I can understand your feelings about the cost of DCL v. others. I have looked at DCL and think it would be fun to go when our kids are a little older, but not too old. But the price is so much higher than Royal and others. I would find it hard to justify. My family took a Disney Cruise when I was 6 and I remember a lot of that trip. But after that, we went on Royal Caribbean cruises exclusively. My parents saw better value in it (we needed 3 staterooms) and the loyalty perks have proved very nice. Now that my parents travel without kids, they have been taking mostly Celebrity cruises. They got matching loyalty status on Celebrity since it is the same company as Royal Caribbean. They love it and though it costs a bit more than Royal, it is still less generally than DCL. Also, with just 4 ships, the DCL itineraries just seem a lot more limited to me compared to other cruise lines.

Bloody Zika right!
My stepdaughter was 9 on Oasis and 10 on the Fantasy and she loved both, as did we. We had equal service and meals but really missed all the pools that Oasis had (the pools on the Fantasy are totally lacking- the one was just filled with kids bobbing in life jackets staring at the big screen- umm no thanks! Even DD was like ahhh no I'm not getting in that kid soup. The aquaduct was awesome of course, but we loved all the fun stuff the big ship had! We never found it felt crowed either which was a fear we had. Agreed, DCL is more limiting on itineraries or if they have a special one it seems super pricey.
Perhaps if our Canadian dollar recovers a bit in the future once my baby is older we will do DCL again...with Alaska from my research I think we really want to go to Glacier bay, which DCL doesn't go into. My only wonder about Alaska is if it will be too much like what we are used to as far as landscape and wildlife

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Bloody Zika right!
My stepdaughter was 9 on Oasis and 10 on the Fantasy and she loved both, as did we. We had equal service and meals but really missed all the pools that Oasis had (the pools on the Fantasy are totally lacking- the one was just filled with kids bobbing in life jackets staring at the big screen- umm no thanks! Even DD was like ahhh no I'm not getting in that kid soup. The aquaduct was awesome of course, but we loved all the fun stuff the big ship had! We never found it felt crowed either which was a fear we had. Agreed, DCL is more limiting on itineraries or if they have a special one it seems super pricey.
Perhaps if our Canadian dollar recovers a bit in the future once my baby is older we will do DCL again...with Alaska from my research I think we really want to go to Glacier bay, which DCL doesn't go into. My only wonder about Alaska is if it will be too much like what we are used to as far as landscape and wildlife

When I did my Alaska cruise, I booked lots of active excursions like hiking in a rainforest, hiking to a glacier, etc. We also did whale watching, which was great fun. I can't speak to whether the landscape may be too similar for you, since I live in Michigan without mountains or an ocean to speak of anywhere close. But I thought Alaska had a lot of neat cultural things in each port. I also loved when we sailed right up to Hubbard Glacier. My sister and I went up on deck early and got pictures. Then we went down and had breakfast in the Diamond member area (a nice perk with free specialty lattes and fresh squeezed OJ). The area was completely empty because everyone was up on deck. They sat us right next to the window so we could see the glacier as we ate. It was a great and very memorable experience.

 

[AquaDame]

My only wonder about Alaska is if it will be too much like what we are used to as far as landscape and wildlife

We live in Portland Oregon and I do think it being similar took SOME of the wow factor away, but the sheer scale of it along with the glaciers, whales, salmon runs, and bears (which we don't see all that often though they are around) more than made up for it. I've gone twice and still want to go a third time to Glacier Bay eventually.

We took a huge leap back since I last posted... we had decided to stay home this Christmas for the first time in several years and save some vacation money. The death of our little kitty must have snapped something in my husbands brain though because he decided we needed to go somewhere rather than be home for Christmas without her the first year. He booked us on a Costco package to French Polynesia since we loved Rarotonga last year so much and spared no expense on the overwater bungalows. Maybe he is trying to cheer me up since I love tropical places? Well its not working in that regard but HE is very excited and happy so I am too even though it pushed us back another 3 months of debt to do it. I'll try even harder to not let either of us book another trip until we are free and clear!!

 

[amalone1013]

2017 starting balances:
Student Loans - $12560 + $2075+ $12685 = $27,320
Car Loans - $22034 + $18100 = $40,134

Balances as of 2/8/17:
Student Loans - $10280 + $1052+ $9875 = $21,207 - $6113 change
Car Loans - $21584 + $17389 = $38,973 - $1161 change

Balances as of 3/15/17:
Student Loans - $9036 + $0 + $7685 = $16,721 - $10,599 change from the beginning of the year
Car Loans - $20685 + $17061 = $37,746 - $2388 change from the beginning of the year

Student loans are dropping like flies! Mainly because I worked a ridiculous amount of OT up until last week's paycheck, and now DF is starting to get commission checks. I'm glad he's getting them; he was starting to worry he was no good at his job and never would (it's been about a year). Of course, they are nice for debt dumping too... He actually got a check yesterday for $1200 that he didn't know he was getting. We've each paid off a loan this month, and then we are going to focus on my next student loan. It should take a hard hit with that extra check. That would leave us with $200/month in student loan payments combined. Then we'll revisit if we switch to a car or not. Our original goal was to pay off two student loans each before our wedding, and we'll hit that 5 months early plus pay off an extra one of mine for sure. And hopefully I will get a teeny raise that will go into effect in April. Oh, we did buy some semi-expensive theatre tickets last night, but they were planned for, just a little early - we wanted to see the Frozen musical when it came to town, and I got an email yesterday that as a Disney Visa cardholder I could purchase them early. I did talk DF down from the top level seats; they would have been another $65 total, which isn't terrible but the seats we got are right next to those - 2 seats over probably won't ruin our view of the show

As for our well drama, apparently the well casing is cracked I'm a city kid, but my understanding of the biggest issue is that groundwater is getting let in unfiltered, causing our problems. So it looks like DF's parents are going to be investing in an expensive filter. They decided to drop off a water sample for testing before they do anything so they can get the right type (and because they live next to an active natural gas well). So maybe another week or so of bottled water is in our future. I think we may end up over on our dining out budget, but I'm going to do my best to at least minimize the damage for the rest of the month.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Well, after my kinda budget pity party yesterday I put my big girl undies on this morning and went to the library. I got several books on budgeting, savings and retirement, and credit repair. Once I'm back to work after maternity leave, I'm starting an aggressive plan to have our debt gone by next spring, bump up our 401ks and stock purchases, build a nice savings, and a second vehicle in cash by the end of 2018.

Provided we are able to kill the debt we currently have by spring, we will open up $800/month in our monthly budget. Our car will be paid off by next October if we keep making minimum payments. Hopefully, I can have that paid off by summer with the extra money we will have from no lease/loan payments. That will bring our total monthly budget savings to $1100+ a month.

Now that it's all written out, I'm so sad we let ourselves get so tight every month. I can't change the past, but I'm really excited for our future now. It'll be a tough year, but the reward is so worth it.

 

[AJollyHoliday]

I love reading about all the progress people are making in their debt reduction. Dh and I have good jobs but kept having issues so we doubled down this summer and made great strides and have a whole new outlook on life. We assessed what we value and where we want to put our money. I read blogs, "the recovering spender," and reflected on our life. We have a spreadsheet on a google drive that we keep track of our spending with each month and see where we need to be more responsible. We just got a new car because our other car was 12 years old and there was 0% financing. Our other car is 10 years old so we plan on replacing it next year and looking out for 0% or really low financing. We have a DVC loan we are paying off next month and are working on paying down another DVC loan. We have mortgage, but we refinanced in October and save $400 a month! It feels so good to see efforts that people are making, it inspires me.

We are at the point of trying to decide what to do next, buy more DVC points or do house stuff. Both have value to us and I think we can do both, we just have to plan.

One thing we did a few years ago when we joined DVC was find a way to make the rest of our trip inexpensive. So we use our SW CC to get airline miles (we don't carry credit card debt) and then I use a bunch of apps to get GC for Disney (there are boards on that here). It is all helpful in making our vacations less expensive.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Woo hoo! Another one bites the dust!
By 10 pm tonight, dh's Disney visa will be showing a $0 balance!!
This was not really Disney visa spending but actually half of the Parent Plus loan that we transferred to Disney visa for their 0% promo. Compared to the almost 7% from the federal govt, the BT cut out LOTS of interest.
Now working on my half of the PPL on my DV which should be gone by the end of the school year.

Dh had OT last weekend and I'll have 12 hrs OT this weekend which I haven't been offered in years.
This weekend will suck but I'll get over it and will be happy I signed up for it when payday comes.

Have a good weekend & just keep swimming!!

 

[hmack]

I'm feeling fortunate, because this is an extra pay period month, to have a bit left over this week. But before I decide where it will be deployed, we have a plumber coming today to do some work. I know what his estimate is ($300.00) but I think I'll wait and see what the actual bill is so there are no surprises.

Happy St. Patrick's Day. May you find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and use it to pay off all of your debt and maybe have enough left over for the Disney vacation of your dreams!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I could really use a pot of gold.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I could really use a pot of gold.

Can't we all?

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Target is having a sale starting today- $20 gift card with $75 diaper purchase. I was able to add 8 cloth diapers to my growing collection, buying all of the more gender neutral color sets they had. I spent $160, but will be getting $40 in gift cards back, which amounts to a 25% discount. And last month, I found someone selling 4 brand new cloth diapers of the same brand for just $40 (50% discount) on Craigslist. So I now have 12 cloth diapers, though I will continue building my collection over the next few months, aiming for probably 36 total. If I can get a similar or better discount later, then I could buy all of the diapers for about $500. I have been buying some all-in-ones and some insert diapers for flexibility and options. I also plan to get a few of the Flip diaper covers to have to use with disposable inserts for when we travel away from home, but unfortunately, Target didn't have any of those available to buy during this promotion.

Cloth diapers are expensive on the front end, but I am hoping it will really decrease overall costs once baby arrives. I plan to use reusable cloth wipes at home as well, though the day care will need disposable. I plan to sew them myself. Making a bunch of serged squares is an easy task and will save lots of money because I can get the cloth relatively cheap. This should also help to keep costs down a bit in the long run.

And earlier this week I found a very highly rated high chair that normally sells for $190, on sale for just $95 (including tax and shipping). I am slowly but surely buying items we will need when I see a good deal. I hope not to spend too much on things, but also keeping my eye on quality and longevity, since I am hoping most items will get me through 2 kids rather than just one.

 

[CoP Luv]

Target is having a sale starting today- $20 gift card with $75 diaper purchase. I was able to add 8 cloth diapers to my growing collection, buying all of the more gender neutral color sets they had. I spent $160, but will be getting $40 in gift cards back, which amounts to a 25% discount. And last month, I found someone selling 4 brand new cloth diapers of the same brand for just $40 (50% discount) on Craigslist. So I now have 12 cloth diapers, though I will continue building my collection over the next few months, aiming for probably 36 total. If I can get a similar or better discount later, then I could buy all of the diapers for about $500. I have been buying some all-in-ones and some insert diapers for flexibility and options. I also plan to get a few of the Flip diaper covers to have to use with disposable inserts for when we travel away from home, but unfortunately, Target didn't have any of those available to buy during this promotion.

Cloth diapers are expensive on the front end, but I am hoping it will really decrease overall costs once baby arrives. I plan to use reusable cloth wipes at home as well, though the day care will need disposable. I plan to sew them myself. Making a bunch of serged squares is an easy task and will save lots of money because I can get the cloth relatively cheap. This should also help to keep costs down a bit in the long run.

And earlier this week I found a very highly rated high chair that normally sells for $190, on sale for just $95 (including tax and shipping). I am slowly but surely buying items we will need when I see a good deal. I hope not to spend too much on things, but also keeping my eye on quality and longevity, since I am hoping most items will get me through 2 kids rather than just one.

I never post on this thread but lurk a lot, but had to comment on your CD post.

We are CDing our second and it saves so much money!! We bought 24 prefolds and 6 covers for the newborn stage but if I had to do it all over again, I would have but BG newborns. They are probably as much money as using disposables for the first 8 weeks for 1 kid, but if you can use them again, thats where the money savings comes in. We have 30 BG 4.0 and have found that to be plenty with doing wash every 3 days. Any longer, and things aren't going get as clean. We bought the Grovia wipes and love love love them.

Depending on what brand you are using, you can add them to some of your baby registries which I thought was really helpful. We only spent about $200 OOP after the gifts and I calculated we spend about $5/month to wash and that's probably even too much. We probably saved about 10k diapers in landfills (so far and we probably have 1.5 to 2 years left) and a whole lot of money doing it this way!

Best of luck!!

 

[DnA2010]

Target is having a sale starting today- $20 gift card with $75 diaper purchase. I was able to add 8 cloth diapers to my growing collection, buying all of the more gender neutral color sets they had. I spent $160, but will be getting $40 in gift cards back, which amounts to a 25% discount. And last month, I found someone selling 4 brand new cloth diapers of the same brand for just $40 (50% discount) on Craigslist. So I now have 12 cloth diapers, though I will continue building my collection over the next few months, aiming for probably 36 total. If I can get a similar or better discount later, then I could buy all of the diapers for about $500. I have been buying some all-in-ones and some insert diapers for flexibility and options. I also plan to get a few of the Flip diaper covers to have to use with disposable inserts for when we travel away from home, but unfortunately, Target didn't have any of those available to buy during this promotion.

Cloth diapers are expensive on the front end, but I am hoping it will really decrease overall costs once baby arrives. I plan to use reusable cloth wipes at home as well, though the day care will need disposable. I plan to sew them myself. Making a bunch of serged squares is an easy task and will save lots of money because I can get the cloth relatively cheap. This should also help to keep costs down a bit in the long run.

And earlier this week I found a very highly rated high chair that normally sells for $190, on sale for just $95 (including tax and shipping). I am slowly but surely buying items we will need when I see a good deal. I hope not to spend too much on things, but also keeping my eye on quality and longevity, since I am hoping most items will get me through 2 kids rather than just one.

W cloth diaper using a service- we don't do it for cost savings (as there isn't any) but rather keeping all those 100s of diapers out of the land fill- our plan was to cloth diaper all along as we were given a big bag of cloth diapers from a cousin, but our washer and dryer aren't great so we haven't attempted yet. Good for you though- it's rewarding and our baby hasn't had one diaper rash yet.

Not sure if you have a local facebook mom swap/buy and sell page but I've got so many things off there for a fraction of the cost- things like swing (soooo thankful I bought used as my baby hated it) bouncy chair, jolly jumper, bunbo type chair, I actually got my stroller second hand too- it was barely used (like twice- still had the nobs on the tires) Bob Revolution- I would never have put out the big bucks for a good stroller, but this was way less than half price and came with the bar that attaches the infant bucket seat which costs like $80-100
Also garage sale season is coming- people pretty much give stuff away- I went to the most affluent neighbourhood

 

[DisneyMandC]

Had an ok and not so ok budget weekend. Ate lunch at home Saturday and then met my in-laws at our halfway mark (we're two hours apart) for dinner on Saturday night. We picked up the tab for both of them and my brother-in-law, which I am always happy to do given the number of times they've paid for us and because they do not have the money to eat out all the time now that FIL can't work. My MIL insisted that she leave the tip, so we allowed her to do that. It blew our eating out budget, but I did a big grocery shop on Friday evening so we should be good on groceries for the rest of the month and won't need to eat out.

Took my niece to see Beauty and the Beast yesterday. LOVED IT! What a great movie. I really can't say enough how much we both enjoyed it, I think I smiled through the whole thing and will have the soundtrack on repeat today at work. I had purchased the $10 for $20 Groupon deal for Regal cinemas recently and was planning to use that to cover our tickets. When I got up to the window, they told me I had a free ticket on my rewards account that I could use for an additional $1.50 upcharge since Beauty and the Beast is a new film. That reward combined with the fact that we saw a matinee meant we paid less for two tickets than we would have for one ticket if we had gone Friday night. I used the remaining balance of the gift card to purchase some popcorn for us after we (ahem) smuggled in some cokes in my purse. I spent $4 all in between the cost of the cokes and the .88 my gift card didn't cover for the popcorn.