Debt Dumpers - 2017

[DisneyMandC]

I am back from our whirlwind trip to NYC! We had a blast! And boy, do my feet hurt from walking! We checked off almost everything we wanted to do- The Met, Guggenheim, High Line, 9/11 Memorial (right next door to our hotel), Wall Street, Broadway Show, Times Square. It was a phenomenal and much needed vacation! Best of all, it came out very budget friendly for us overall. We'd gotten a good deal on the vacation to begin with, but DH's $500 Visa gift card from work helped a lot. We paid for almost everything with that. The only things we paid for out of pocket were one dinner, the occasional soda as we we were walking around, my book purchase at Strand Bookstore (all half priced and 49 cent books), and our subway cards (not allowed to use prepaid cards for those). Everything else went on the card and we still have a little bit left! I'm exhausted today, but feeling very recharged from the trip.

Now that I'm home I actually have to go to the grocery store for basically the first time this month. I kept putting off going since DH was out of town on a work trip the first part of last week, so I wasn't trying to buy a bunch of food and then him not be home to eat it and it all sit in the fridge and go bad while we were on vacation. At least the grocery bill should be low this month!

@Jen and Ashwin, hope you're feeling better soon. Sorry about your boss. I know that's a terrible feeling to have someone say something like that to you.

 

[Dentam]

I'm sorry to hear that you are feeling so sick, @Jen and Ashwin! I hope you start feeling better soon.

Car update: I changed my oil this weekend. Turns out there was nothing wrong with the drain plug! So, I don't know if they were trying to scam me or if they were just afraid they would damage it by getting it out - it was in there tight, but I was able to loosen it and get it off without damaging it or the oil pan. I cannot find the oil filter though, it's apparently in a screwy location where you have to take off one front wheel to get to it or something. Grr. Also, my service light is still on and after some more research online, I discovered it was likely a headlight or running light. Since I haven't driven the car at night since the service light came on, I didn't even think of this possibility and hadn't noticed a light being out. Tested all of the lights this weekend and sure enough, the front driver's side headlight is out. So... it's back to the auto parts store for me! At least now I have everything to do oil changes myself, and I will make sure the new vehicle I purchase next year has an oil filter that is easy to get to!

 

[Judique]

I'm sorry to hear that you are feeling so sick, @Jen and Ashwin! I hope you start feeling better soon.

Car update: I changed my oil this weekend. Turns out there was nothing wrong with the drain plug! So, I don't know if they were trying to scam me or if they were just afraid they would damage it by getting it out - it was in there tight, but I was able to loosen it and get it off without damaging it or the oil pan. I cannot find the oil filter though, it's apparently in a screwy location where you have to take off one front wheel to get to it or something. Grr. Also, my service light is still on and after some more research online, I discovered it was likely a headlight or running light. Since I haven't driven the car at night since the service light came on, I didn't even think of this possibility and hadn't noticed a light being out. Tested all of the lights this weekend and sure enough, the front driver's side headlight is out. So... it's back to the auto parts store for me! At least now I have everything to do oil changes myself, and I will make sure the new vehicle I purchase next year has an oil filter that is easy to get to!

When I was much younger I learned to change my own oil and filter to save cash because every little bit helped.

I am really curious what kind of car you have that has an oil filter in such an out of the way place?

I don't do my own anymore because it would require an ambulance to get me in an upright position after being under the car! Just kidding (sort of!)

 

[Eureka]

I am back from our whirlwind trip to NYC! We had a blast! And boy, do my feet hurt from walking! We checked off almost everything we wanted to do- The Met, Guggenheim, High Line, 9/11 Memorial (right next door to our hotel), Wall Street, Broadway Show, Times Square. It was a phenomenal and much needed vacation! Best of all, it came out very budget friendly for us overall. We'd gotten a good deal on the vacation to begin with, but DH's $500 Visa gift card from work helped a lot. We paid for almost everything with that. The only things we paid for out of pocket were one dinner, the occasional soda as we we were walking around, my book purchase at Strand Bookstore (all half priced and 49 cent books), and our subway cards (not allowed to use prepaid cards for those). Everything else went on the card and we still have a little bit left! I'm exhausted today, but feeling very recharged from the trip.

Now that I'm home I actually have to go to the grocery store for basically the first time this month. I kept putting off going since DH was out of town on a work trip the first part of last week, so I wasn't trying to buy a bunch of food and then him not be home to eat it and it all sit in the fridge and go bad while we were on vacation. At least the grocery bill should be low this month!

@Jen and Ashwin, hope you're feeling better soon. Sorry about your boss. I know that's a terrible feeling to have someone say something like that to you.

Awesome! Can't wait til we go in July. What show did you see?

 

[Dentam]

When I was much younger I learned to change my own oil and filter to save cash because every little bit helped.

I am really curious what kind of car you have that has an oil filter in such an out of the way place?

I don't do my own anymore because it would require an ambulance to get me in an upright position after being under the car! Just kidding (sort of!)

I have an old Pontiac Sunfire Coupe and the owner's manual doesn't say anything about where the oil filter is located and over an hour of online searching gave me no helpful results except multiple people saying it was a PITA to get to it.

 

[Ngwira]

We are back from Montreal. We were way under budget which is no easy feat for a family of 4. We were away for 4 nights, ate 3 meals out every day, rode the subway, visited tourist areas like basilica notre dame, the biodome and Montreal science center and spent a total of $900 for 4 people including round trip Amtrak fares from Philly to Montreal. We also ate out at some pretty pricey dinners eating surf and turf etc.
Admittedly, that number does not include the cost of our hotel because it was free thanks to Chase. And the Canadian exchange rate really helped so there was that.
Anyway, I am thrilled by that number and will take it. Traveling to international destinations so cheaply is giving me pause on how much we spend on our Disney vacations. It's insane how far your money stretches outside of Disney. Unfortunately, we will continue to go as we love Disney.

 

[amalone1013]

It's insane how far your money stretches outside of Disney. Unfortunately, we will continue to go as we love Disney.

We're in the same boat. DF's brother is getting married next April between San Diego and LA, and DF wants to go to Disneyland, Universal, AND Magic Mountain. I haven't even added up ticket prices yet and I'm cringing - they're killer! Definitely going to make sure we get them all before that yearly price increase. Hopefully it'll be a low-ish day for Universal, because we haven't ever done it without the express passes so I'm sure DF will think they're necessary (granted they were the last two times).

 

[amalone1013]

I'm going to have to break the trend of staying under budget on a trip... DF had to go to Vegas for work kind of last minute, so we made a weekend of it. I met him out there Friday around 1pm and we got back last night.
We ended up spending... around $1600

He'd been once before he was 21, and I've never been, so we did a lot of sightseeing. We got the Vegas Power Pass from Costco, which gets you into a lot of attractions. It was $120 for a 3 day pass, and we got $200 of value out of them in 2 days (Saturday plus half days Friday and Sunday) so I was happy. Even adjusting for the things we wouldn't have done, or wouldn't have done both because they're similar, those kinds of attractions, we still would have spent around $150 each. We splurged on a few things too, like deciding to rent a car and drive to Hoover Dam to be able to take the tour, and we saw a Cirque du Soleil show which was AMAZING. I thought I was prepared for food and the little convenience stores to be really expensive, but they were really dang expensive. And all of the resorts have a $35 a night fee, which annoys me... just build it into the room price, you make me pay it anyways... We could have saved around $450 if we had used credit card points, but I figured I'd rather use them to help on a longer vacation. We didn't really gamble because we were too busy going around just seeing all there is to see (we spent 45 minutes watching the fountains at the Bellagio).


We had fun, and we have savings to cover it. Going to try and hunker down on our dining out/entertainment budget so leftovers can go towards the trip. It was a completely unnecessary, unplanned trip, but I don't regret it!

 

[Ngwira]

We're in the same boat. DF's brother is getting married next April between San Diego and LA, and DF wants to go to Disneyland, Universal, AND Magic Mountain. I haven't even added up ticket prices yet and I'm cringing - they're killer! Definitely going to make sure we get them all before that yearly price increase. Hopefully it'll be a low-ish day for Universal, because we haven't ever done it without the express passes so I'm sure DF will think they're necessary (granted they were the last two times).

Good luck on getting a good deal on the tickets!

 

[Ngwira]

I'm going to have to break the trend of staying under budget on a trip... DF had to go to Vegas for work kind of last minute, so we made a weekend of it. I met him out there Friday around 1pm and we got back last night.
We ended up spending... around $1600

He'd been once before he was 21, and I've never been, so we did a lot of sightseeing. We got the Vegas Power Pass from Costco, which gets you into a lot of attractions. It was $120 for a 3 day pass, and we got $200 of value out of them in 2 days (Saturday plus half days Friday and Sunday) so I was happy. Even adjusting for the things we wouldn't have done, or wouldn't have done both because they're similar, those kinds of attractions, we still would have spent around $150 each. We splurged on a few things too, like deciding to rent a car and drive to Hoover Dam to be able to take the tour, and we saw a Cirque du Soleil show which was AMAZING. I thought I was prepared for food and the little convenience stores to be really expensive, but they were really dang expensive. And all of the resorts have a $35 a night fee, which annoys me... just build it into the room price, you make me pay it anyways... We could have saved around $450 if we had used credit card points, but I figured I'd rather use them to help on a longer vacation. We didn't really gamble because we were too busy going around just seeing all there is to see (we spent 45 minutes watching the fountains at the Bellagio).


We had fun, and we have savings to cover it. Going to try and hunker down on our dining out/entertainment budget so leftovers can go towards the trip. It was a completely unnecessary, unplanned trip, but I don't regret it!

Sounds like an amazing trip. We plan to do more domestic travel in 2019. Gotta find a way to travel hack it.. lol

 

[Dentam]

I forgot to mention that I also cut my own hair this weekend. I've been doing that for over a year now!

It will still be an expensive April though since I just filed my taxes this weekend and paid almost $300 between what I owed and the tax preparation fees. Next month I should be on track to spend less overall and throw more at my debt!

 

[Ngwira]

Awesome! Can't wait til we go in July. What show did you see?

Me too. When are you going? Maybe we can have a disboard meet up?

 

[bcwife76]

I'm going to have to break the trend of staying under budget on a trip... DF had to go to Vegas for work kind of last minute, so we made a weekend of it. I met him out there Friday around 1pm and we got back last night.
We ended up spending... around $1600

He'd been once before he was 21, and I've never been, so we did a lot of sightseeing. We got the Vegas Power Pass from Costco, which gets you into a lot of attractions. It was $120 for a 3 day pass, and we got $200 of value out of them in 2 days (Saturday plus half days Friday and Sunday) so I was happy. Even adjusting for the things we wouldn't have done, or wouldn't have done both because they're similar, those kinds of attractions, we still would have spent around $150 each. We splurged on a few things too, like deciding to rent a car and drive to Hoover Dam to be able to take the tour, and we saw a Cirque du Soleil show which was AMAZING. I thought I was prepared for food and the little convenience stores to be really expensive, but they were really dang expensive. And all of the resorts have a $35 a night fee, which annoys me... just build it into the room price, you make me pay it anyways... We could have saved around $450 if we had used credit card points, but I figured I'd rather use them to help on a longer vacation. We didn't really gamble because we were too busy going around just seeing all there is to see (we spent 45 minutes watching the fountains at the Bellagio).


We had fun, and we have savings to cover it. Going to try and hunker down on our dining out/entertainment budget so leftovers can go towards the trip. It was a completely unnecessary, unplanned trip, but I don't regret it!

My dh and I are going to Vegas for 3 nights the first week of May; I'm budgeting $1500 (because I'm planning to hit the Premium Outlets just off the strip as well lol) but hoping to come in under that. We aren't planning on seeing any Cirque shows (seen a couple there already) and are not renting a car (choosing Uber or Lyft instead). But have other things planned of course. What is this Vegas Power Pass you mentioned? Off to google it

Edit to add: I found this on Costco Canada's website, is this similar to the pass you got? https://www.costco.ca/Las-Vegas-Explorer-E-Pass---Choose-4-Attractions.product.100216403.html

 

[MEM]

We are back from Montreal. We were way under budget which is no easy feat for a family of 4. We were away for 4 nights, ate 3 meals out every day, rode the subway, visited tourist areas like basilica notre dame, the biodome and Montreal science center and spent a total of $900 for 4 people including round trip Amtrak fares from Philly to Montreal. We also ate out at some pretty pricey dinners eating surf and turf etc.
Admittedly, that number does not include the cost of our hotel because it was free thanks to Chase. And the Canadian exchange rate really helped so there was that.
Anyway, I am thrilled by that number and will take it. Traveling to international destinations so cheaply is giving me pause on how much we spend on our Disney vacations. It's insane how far your money stretches outside of Disney. Unfortunately, we will continue to go as we love Disney.

Can you tell me what hotel you stayed at? We live in Boston and its about a five hour drive from here. I would really like to do a four day weekend.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Awesome! Can't wait til we go in July. What show did you see?

Aladdin! PHENOMENAL! We were so impressed. Don't want to give anything away, but we were open-mouth stunned by some of the effects. There was some serious Disney magic happening! I highly recommend it to anyone.

If you haven't seen The Lion King, I also recommend that. We saw it while it was touring about a year ago and it was fantastic. I'd always heard how great the costumes were but they really blew me away.

 

[Eureka]

Aladdin! PHENOMENAL! We were so impressed. Don't want to give anything away, but we were open-mouth stunned by some of the effects. There was some serious Disney magic happening! I highly recommend it to anyone.

If you haven't seen The Lion King, I also recommend that. We saw it while it was touring about a year ago and it was fantastic. I'd always heard how great the costumes were but they really blew me away.

We bought Lion King tickets last month! Aladdin was our second choice. I would love to see if we could get same day tickets to a second show if we have time. Dh tends to over schedule us as it is, lol.

 

[Eureka]

Me too. When are you going? Maybe we can have a disboard meet up?

We're going Fourth of July week.

 

[Eureka]

Can you tell me what hotel you stayed at? We live in Boston and its about a five hour drive from here. I would really like to do a four day weekend.

I'm not Ngwira but we went in August and stayed at the SpringHill Suites in the old city. Very convenient to everything. Wasn't cheap though, was about $300/night CDN when we were there.

 

[DisneyMandC]

We bought Lion King tickets last month! Aladdin was our second choice. I would love to see if we could get same day tickets to a second show if we have time. Dh tends to over schedule us as it is, lol.

Either way, you'll have a blast. DH and I have also both really enjoyed the additional songs they include on Broadway. Aladdin was very much in the vein of the new Beauty and the Beast movie, if you've read anything on that. In short, Alan Menken got to include a bunch of music he had originally written for the earlier movies.

 

[EilonwyWanderer]

Arrrrghhhhhhh I feel like this always happens. We're trying to cut back on spending, first hot day happens, get in the car to go food shopping and...the fans in the car sound really weird. Like they're struggling. Sure enough about ten minutes into the trip? They die completely. We roll the windows down and keep trying...they're completely dead. So it looks like we have some car repair costs to factor into next month's budget