3 reports + links to more- 8 days since May + conversations galore

[bumbershoot]

Hi!

I had a tiny Disney update today so figured I'd post.

It's a bit on the chilly side today, and we went grocery shopping. There was some charity guy outside with a boombox playing slightly cheesy instrumental music. As we walked into the store, E commented that it felt like (early morning in) Disneyland. Sniffle sniffle, it sure did!

So today E and I are all bummed that we're not there, though my rational mind says "yeah...it's not nice and chilly and overcast in Anaheim today, I'm sure of THAT!"


Along with the CC, we did get the zero balance for the ancient bill. Paid the two NDs and they've cashed the checks. About to pay off something else. That will leave some heavy work on the car loan...this month I did an electronic payment through our credit union, instead of letting Robert do it through the loan (Chase) site...R always forgets and then it takes 2 days (they don't ding you with a fee during that "grace" period, but you DO pay interest). This time I paid so it was there on the 30th, and it's AMAZING the difference in interest that was allocated in the payment. We have sick and wrong interest on that car loan, they've refused to refinance it, so to see how much more principal we paid just by getting it in 2 days before it was due, vs 2-as much as 8 days after the due date, was eye-opening.

Hmm, wonder what would happen, interest vs principal wise, if I paid it as soon as the bill is "live" on the site instead of waiting 3 weeks to the due date?

 

[Brady's Mom]

HUGE, HUGE,Huge difference when you pay it as soon as it is available. Any extra that you can pay on the principal is that much less in interest you have to pay. I hate car loans and won't have one if I can absolutely help it - which is why we drive older cars.

We do the same type of thing for our mortgage, we get paid bi-weekly and pay 1/2 the mortgage every two weeks and that makes an extra principal only payment every year. I am always very surprised to see how much that takes off of the principal every year. We have done that with car loans, too. Made a bi-weekly payment of just 1/2 of the payment and we have saved a ton of interest (if we absolutely have to have a car loan).

Good luck!

 

[bumbershoot]

Oh that is so good to know!

For some really stupid reason, I never realized that. I figured, before really looking at our car bill info, that it was set in stone each month, that they'd already figured out how much would go to interest/principal.

So this realization is actually quite new. You really wouldn't know that some people consider me to be not all that stupid, would you?

It's funny, I went from being a person very happy being in a lease (3 different cars over 12 years) for 10 years, to someone just waiting it out so we could put money into hubby's totally owned car. And right after we made the lump sum end-of-lease payment and were about to put money into the car...that car died and scared us. Instead of just fixing it and continuing on with our plans, not knowing that only 2+ months later Robert would move over to Amazon in downtown Seattle with a simple commute by bus/train (instead of working in Bellevue where they paid, but it took 2-3 bus transfers to get there!!!) and wouldn't be driving 100+ miles every day, we dumped it and got into this beast of a car that stinks of cigarette smoke even 2 years after we bought it. Horrible interest, horrible initial loan amount even, horrible horrible horrible. It runs well, though, and isn't "sensitive" like other cars are (seriously, I've had cars that would break down if you talked bad about them while in/near them! Volkswagens, you know, very delicate systems), so it's good in THAT way. We considered the Cash for Clunkers program so we could get into a little Kia (cheapie deapie, probably the same cost as what our USED loan still is right now after 2 years of paying), but it gets too good gas mileage! Never knew that 22-24 mpg was good....

Anyway, that program is likely already moot, and we're going to get this car paid off FAST now, so it's all just fine.


Thank you for verifying for me that it will make a big difference; this is going to make quite a difference in, well, the rest of my owing-money life.

 

[Brady's Mom]

I had to laugh at the not so smart comment, since every time you have answered questions on the DIS you are very knowledgeable and helpful. Also, comments from your previous life have also been smart - so I never even considered that you would/might consider yourself *un-smart* or whatever.

Financial/loan/interest is a totally different language - and can take some time to sort out. And I have discovered that most people don't know that interest and payments are fluid instead of fixed. It was a huge revelation to me when I discovered it and I love to share that news with someone else. Kind of like when you let someone know that their FP is still good, even though they have missed the window. I love the lightbulb!

I watch your posts with empathy, by the way. We have 4 boys, but they are spaced wide apart in age - not by choice, but by circumstances, so I feel for you in the infertility department. My hubby is also Asian (Chinese) and I totally understand the mother-in-law thing, too. It can be a tightrope for sure.

Good luck with paying off your car and having another little one - wide spaces between kids can be very good. It gives you a chance to really know your children as individual people.

 

[bumbershoot]

Disney related: I wanna go noooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwww!

DVC related: do you think there's any availability using Points in mid-October? If I'm not having a party (and I'm not), I wanna go to Anaheim for my 40th!!!!!!!!! The question is, could Robert take the time off, and can we fit it into our still-being-created budget, or into our new(ly realized) "any money that goes away from the car means we're paying x% interest on it" mindset. Dangit, that brought me back to reality, LOL.


Non-Disney-related....

Aw, you're makin' me cry!

The older E gets (and every day he gets older), the more thankful (so every day I'm more thankful) I become that I didn't get my wish ("irish twins" with another really soon after the second). I had this "get it done" feeling, thinking I could do anything for a few years (baby toddler craziness) and keeping the goal, 3 grown kids, in mind. But wow, especially with E being who he is...I'm glad he's been an only so far. Well, maybe it would have been OK in the last year, to not be an only, but he's a challenging kidlet, and when I think about how different he might be if he had a sib already...well, it makes me feel more OK about all that's gone on in between.

That said, I can't wait for hubby's next lab results, to see what his body has done with the cabergoline. The drug works with dopamine, which then lets the body decrease the prolactin, and since the high prolactin has decreased other important hormones, that should allow his body to start making those again...even though it's not even been 2 full months, we have high hopes over the next tests!

I swear, I'm going to become a lay endocrinologist b/c it's so interesting...in my endo class in chiro school, the teacher was a genius, and one of the things he said was that we're "awash in hormones"...they are all over our bodies, they control everything. That's interesting enough, but when you get into the chicken/egg thing, of what happened first with Robert, especially when you think about how it was supposed diabetes that got us to this guy, but the blood sugar stuff is so irrelevant now that even the endo doesn't seem to care (he does, he knows how much better he feels now with his blood sugar in the 80s)...it's really interesting to me.

I wish blood tests didn't require a doctor. I wish we could just go in and ask labs to do tests, then get the results with GOOD explanations of the results. I hate the gatekeeper thing. If we could do that, we would have found this long ago, b/c hubby felt he was to "blame" long ago, but hit roadblocks every time he asked a doc about it. They all wanted to point fingers at me, or have me get worked up first...so silly, since it's so EASY with guys.


Anyway!

As I was thinking about your post, I realized that it was the leases themselves that messed me up! See, with leases, there's a set amount you agree to pay. Whether there's interest or not, it doesn't matter, b/c you're paying that amount. Pay it tomorrow, use the whole 4 years, who cares? It's the whole amount. So I guess I figured that it was that way with car loans too, as this was the first car loan I've been involved with. Silly silly me!

 

[kaoden39]

Ooh a birthday and 40 at that. It is an important birthday. You need to enjoy yourself and go to Disneyland. Heck, I'll even enjoy the planning. I'm here. I am so excited for both that Robert is feeling better. When Loren was E's age I wanted another baby. I hope you get what you want.

 

[Brady's Mom]

Oh, Disney on your 40th is just magical! I went with DH (no kids) 2 years ago when I turned 40 and we spent a long weekend together. It was FAB! We liked it so much that we just did it again this last July (3 ish weeks ago) for DH's 50th! Again, just the 2 of us.

Now, silly us, we were really hoping to put the icing on the cake with maybe tickets to see Wicked - but sadly, it was playing in San Francisco, not LA and although he chose Anaheim over SF, he was still a little sad not to see Wicked. But, he has been to SF twice in the last 6 weeks, once for a funeral of a dear friend and once for a party for a performing group (38th anniversary) he used to belong to and I think he is a little traveled out. LOL

I am going to be the Disney enabler and say GO to DLR for your 40th birthday, you would have sooooo much fun. It might be worth a little bit of extra interest on your car. Or, you may feel like you have gotten ahead so much with extra payments that you can justify a quick trip.

One other thing to consider is having your hubby talk to his benefits people at work and have them see if he has paid enough into his fed. tax base. We don't have any fed. tax withheld from DH's check since we have enough deductions and can end up with a large refund and I am fundamentally against anyone but me being in charge of our money. So, we use that money for our Disney ongoing fund and it works great for us. His benefits people should be able to help him, if not you could check last years taxes (and refund if you got one) against this years withholdings and see if they are even close. If they are, he changes his withholdings to something like 20 and you start getting the rest of YOUR money without having the government hold onto it - interest free - for you. Just my 2 cents, but it works for us. KWIM?

And, no, in case you are wondering, I am NOT an accountant. I just have an inherently strong desire to be in charge of my own money and therefore my own destiny and have learned a ton of stuff about it.

 

[bumbershoot]

Hubby's going on his first (short) business trip! The trips are the whole point of his job, it's absolutely what he signed up for...but now that it's happening, I'm really sad! You know how sometimes wives treat their husbands like they don't know anything, they do everything for them, etc etc etc....well we weren't really like that, but the biggest thing I'm worried about is him getting lost! Or getting a speeding ticket b/c where he's going is KMs not miles. Which is stupid, he was working (and driving) in Singapore (note: he is not going to Singapore, it's just...that's a REALLY "foreign" foreign country to illustrate the point) as a teenager...he has lived all over, I didn't meet him until he was 28, he knows his way around the universe...but still I want to buy a plane ticket and be his navigator! (of course, last minute to where he's going is over 1K round trip, LOL...not really in the budget!)

Ever since I found out about it (today) I've been in the worst mood ever. And it's getting worse.

This isn't good.

Can I go to DLR now?



re: taxes...every year we try to whittle down more and more the refund we get. We're getting closer to zero.



OK I gotta get up off my bottom (feel like I've been here all day, even though we got out for a nice walk earlier, and I didn't get get online until after noon) and clean up a bit, perhaps that will make me feel better.

 

[kaoden39]

Molly

I understand completely. I am like that with Scotty.

 

[bumbershoot]

Just when I think I'm over Johnny Depp, Kaoden shows up with that avatar....yummylicious.

 

[kaoden39]

Just when I think I'm over Johnny Depp, Kaoden shows up with that avatar....yummylicious.

I do that on purpose. I thought I was over him and my 16 year old daughter sent me this picture for my avatar.

 

[bumbershoot]

Ah, 16 year olds....isn't that around the same age I was when he was on 21 Jump Street?



Robert's getting ready for his trip. He hasn't traveled solo in awhile (though just now I remember that he did in '07, hmm), and hasn't traveled internationally in a gazillion years, and thankfully he's not getting annoyed with me that I'm spoon-feeding him info. He actually thanked me for a couple things I've let him know, and he's asking me to look stuff up for him.

We spent some of the day at the company picnic...get this...we invited his mom. Thought that would be sweet of us, but of course she would say no....ha ha ha ha, she said yes! Went with us. Ate like a horse! It's really cute now, b/c she got a company t-shirt, and I can just imagine her wearing it while working out, talking up her favorite-for-now son and DIL and grandson. Cute shirt, too, has a Kindle on it. OK, a drawing of a Kindle, not an actual Kindle (omg can you imagine?).

But b/c I was busy enjoying myself (except for food, I didn't get enough of it b/c I was fetching for others, and each time I came back to eat, someone had eaten most of my food!!!) NOT getting heatstroke, and got to see E ride a pony etc, I didn't make it over to the FREE beergarden. Drat!


I was going to write more and mix it into Disney...but I'm being asked to play UNO. Oh wow, it's late!!! What the heck is E doing up?????

 

[bumbershoot]

Why does Robert have such trouble with flight attendants? He is on a business trip; missed his second flight b/c the first was delayed so much, and he called to tell me he was at the "middle" airport and about the troubles with the FA.

I've seen FAs be rude, just out of the blue, towards him, and it is rotten. I am considered by some to be rude, overly opinionated, and I have this stupid wrinkle that makes me look angry all the time...I expect people to react to how they think I'm acting, but Robert's benign and kind. But one FA slammed his seatback up, brushing aside his hand as he went to do it, just for one example.

Today the FA seemed to dislike him from the moment she looked at him. I actually bet I know why; he says that she looked him up and down, after he asked if he could be moved to the emergency exit, and then told him no (no one was sitting there). It was probably b/c she felt that he was out of shape and not able to help others (so...there would be NO ONE to help others???). And it's just not true; he's ridiculously strong... He could be of great help to others in an emergency landing.

From then on, she was snippy the whole time. She announced that they would be delayed (uh duh, since they left almost 2 hours late) and that if people had problems with their connections to talk to her...so he went to talk to her, and she was sarcastic, and acted like she had NO idea why he was telling her about his next flight.

She came by to collect trash, and as he was reaching for the cup to put it in the bag, she reached for it, and the combined effort caused it to fall, and she said "that's why we don't put cups in the pocket" (seat back pocket)...call me crazy, but I've never heard of this rule...and most FAs I've interacted with would have cracked a funny joke, picked it up, and gone on with their day.

He had his MP3 player on and had fallen asleep. She came by, tapped him, and pointed at the "wall" of the plane. He figured she wanted him to sit up, not to lean on the wall of the plane, so he sat up. He started to hear the pilot talking, and was turning off his player. Right then she then came by again, and took the earbud headphone out of his ear. EWWWWWW! Who does that???? Finally she used words, and he found out that her pointing at the wall was the way she was communicating (ha) that he needed to open his windowshade and turn off his electronics. Um, ohhhhkayyyyy. Did she miss a day in FA school or something?

And as they were leaving the plane, she was saying goodbye to everyone...as he got up to her, she turned her back on him. Not to talk to anyone...she was the only FA onboard.

 

[QueenDoOver]

Oh Ugh! Terrible FA. So wrong!

I fully support you going on your birthday!

 

[kaoden39]

Wow sounds like somebody needs a lesson in how they treat the customer. Was a rude and nasty person she was. Hopefully he has better luck with the rest of his flights.

 

[toocherie]

Omigosh! Poor Robert! What airline was he on (so I can avoid them)?

I can just say--from personal experience--that there are people out there who take an instant dislike to someone because they are overweight--they automatically think "fat and lazy"--the other night I was watching Bill Maher and was really peeved because one of the panel members was Ashton Kutcher (just who decided he should give opinions on national politics anyway?) who was talking about the health care reform and said that he didn't want to pay for the health care for all the people who lived unhealthy lifestyles and had to have a triple bypass because they were eating fast food all the time, etc. I got the impression that he thought anyone who was fat didn't deserve healthcare.

 

[kaoden39]

Omigosh! Poor Robert! What airline was he on (so I can avoid them)?

I can just say--from personal experience--that there are people out there who take an instant dislike to someone because they are overweight--they automatically think "fat and lazy"--the other night I was watching Bill Maher and was really peeved because one of the panel members was Ashton Kutcher (just who decided he should give opinions on national politics anyway?) who was talking about the health care reform and said that he didn't want to pay for the health care for all the people who lived unhealthy lifestyles and had to have a triple bypass because they were eating fast food all the time, etc. I got the impression that he thought anyone who was fat didn't deserve healthcare.

Ironic, I was left with the same opinion. And frankly Bill Maher often has people on there who I wonder why they are on there.

 

[bumbershoot]

Thanks.

It was Jazz, which is a regional part of Air Canada. I was really shocked! But he hasn't mentioned anything about his second flight, so I assume the FA wasn't bad on that one. And it too was Jazz.

This whole pituitary thing has really been amazing. He went for decades thinking that every bit of weight that he felt was extra was his fault. And sure, there were some occasions where he went crazy with eating. But the last few years? He's been doing Weight Watchers better than many people, he walks to the lightrail to get to work, we've been active, etc. He's been careful. But there was heavy blame, because he had that background.

When we found out that it was the prolactinoma, he/we realized...it really IS a hormone problem, or a "gland" problem as I've heard people mention it. I mean, I knew from my short amount of time on Ortho TriCyclen (11 years ago, I believe) and the MASSIVE weight gain with NO extra eating that I experienced (and I've never truly lost that weight), that hormones can wreak havoc, but that was created hormones, not body-hormones. So it was really eye opening. He and I have been so judgmental about *ourselves* that sometimes it's a slippery slope.

But now when we see a man with "soft" features (as his were getting) and "moobs", etc, we want to toss him in an MRI machine to find out what's up with his pituitary. We've gone a *bit* overboard...OK, if we actually did throw people in MRI machines that would be overboard...as it is, perhaps we're just overthinking.


We're IM'ing, and he said that the second flight was much nicer, no problems. Yay.

**********

I talked with my aunt out near Daytona today, and I'm so jealous; her daugher+family are at WDW now. Well, I guess they were coming home tonoight, but they'd been there as one last trip on their seasonal passes since thurs...bad timing, with Free Dining and all, and it being summer, but I assume they had fun! They've been there enough, they know how to have a good time when it's busy.



*********
I also looked at flights ON my b'day, and they are reasonable. If it's only one person. And while I am a fan and supporter of solo trips, I don't really want that right now. Decisions decisions...


**********
I just really caught what Ashton said...you know...my FIL was slim and trim. And was a serious *carnivore*. I mean, other than potatoes, I'm not sure he ate a vegetable in his life, except for at the wedding and that was only b/c we had a vegetarian reception (not painful! delicious! seriously! we didn't torture people with tofu). Steak steak and more steak in his lifetime, slim and trim, and died after a series of events that culminated in a quadruple bypass while healing from other things etc etc.

And my MIL...she was mildly overweight while in her 40s, very typical, but she too is slim and trim and so so active! She works out every day. But...blood sugar in the mid 100s despite taking metformin, she's had 2 heart attacks, cholestrol drugs...and she too eats really fatty meats etc.

So if someone just were to LOOK at them, they wouldn't have that prejudice, but you look at hubby and you might...when hubby eats a much healthier diet and had done so for quite a long time. Now for me...I'm trying to keep myself from making nachos b/c I missed dinner...at nearly 11pm.

 

[bumbershoot]

I just got an email from Disney about having a magical stay for my b'day. Starting at ONLY $275 per night, plus tax! Oh yeah, THAT price sure is magical!!!!

 

[Hawleys]

I always enjoy reading about your trips with your son. Never a dull moment.
I had some questions about the DVC villas at the Grand Californian. I'm thinking about trying to rent points. Totally OT for this thread. Would it be ok to PM you?