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[Smugpugmug]

New topic.....I think a few of us here follow Molly on Mammoth Club. Did you see the new merch drop today??? So cute. I had to order the hoodie, t-shirt, and pink trucker's hat. So excited to wear on our next Disney trip!!

And to bring it into "budget" talk.....I was pleasantly surprised at the value. The hoodie was only $50 which sounds crazy pants but compared to the prices of Disney branded merch it's quite reasonable.

I saw but didn't buy anything. I'm very happy for Molly, Alan and Max. They seem to be doing great after leaving Allears.

 

[bluezy]

My DD24 took AP courses in HS and was lucky to have all but one transfer to college credits. It actually worked out well because it was cheaper to take in HS than in college. She was always a semester ahead in college due to her HS transferred credits which meant that she was able to take a lighter load of credits in her senior year of college even with added honors classes. That enabled her to concentrate more on her internship senior year since she wasn't so bogged down in classes and that internship turned into a full time job offer before graduation. Thank goodness because the offer came right before the big covid shut-down so unlike many of her friends, she was working full-time in her career through the whole mess and still works there today. She feels very blessed.

Our son had a similar situation with the internship/job offer/Covid situation. He wasn't required to do an internship for his program but DH strongly encouraged him to do one as it's a huge advantage to have that work experience when you go to apply for a job *and* internships/co-ops often turn into a job offer. (Side note: We found it very odd that the school didn't require an internship for a software engineering degree but our daughter was required to do one for a degree in Corporate Communications at the same school.). He did his internship during the summer of 2019. He had an offer for a full-time job before he left the internship. He accepted that position in Oct. 2019 to start in August 2020 (he had travel plans for the summer). Like your daughter, he was very thankful he had the job lined up before the pandemic hit because he had several friends whose outstanding job offers were rescinded as soon as the lock-down started. And others had just started their job search and were stopped dead in their tracks. He stayed with the company for 2 years but then wanted to move across the country to move in with his girlfriend of 4 years (she was still in school up until that point). He really loved his first job and wouldn't have left it if he didn't want to make the move. The great thing was that as soon as he put his resume out there, he had job offers galore and now works for another great company (for nearly double the pay) and loves this job as well.

New topic.....I think a few of us here follow Molly on Mammoth Club. Did you see the new merch drop today??? So cute. I had to order the hoodie, t-shirt, and pink trucker's hat. So excited to wear on our next Disney trip!!

And to bring it into "budget" talk.....I was pleasantly surprised at the value. The hoodie was only $50 which sounds crazy pants but compared to the prices of Disney branded merch it's quite reasonable.

I'll have to go watch that. I'm needing some new merch...because you can never have too much Disney related merch!

 

[princesscinderella]

AP classes definitely are a double edged sword as a lot of colleges don’t accept them but they want to see them on the kid’s transcripts for admission. My son is going to UF and they take any of the classes that they score 3 or above so he will be able to get credit for his efforts.

I don’t watch a lot of Disney YouTubers since I get all my info right here but occasionally my husband puts them on. We actually saw them recently at the Animal Kingdom Lodge and a few weeks later their videos there pop up on YouTube.

 

[barkley]

I am cancelling my subscription with Siruis XM, I have been paying the year in full for the last few years after negotiating the price. I had to say 6 times in the chat before they would cancel it. I'm going to just stream my spotify playlists in the car instead.

fastest way to cancel a subscription-say the subscriber died. found this out when mil passed and we had to cancel cell/cable/internet...just claim to be handling the estate (never asked for proof-just made to pay final bill if any). NOW-if it's something you need to 'stay alive' for like dumping direct-tv but retaining at&t cell phone coverage...........you gotta get a bit more creative. in my case when they launched into their spiel after i said i wanted to cancel i interrupted them and said 'nope, can't do it-moving off the grid. nothing but the cell for emergencies'. customer retention didn't have a scripted reply for that so it was a done deal.

 

[tvguy]

fastest way to cancel a subscription-say the subscriber died. found this out when mil passed and we had to cancel cell/cable/internet...just claim to be handling the estate (never asked for proof-just made to pay final bill if any). NOW-if it's something you need to 'stay alive' for like dumping direct-tv but retaining at&t cell phone coverage...........you gotta get a bit more creative. in my case when they launched into their spiel after i said i wanted to cancel i interrupted them and said 'nope, can't do it-moving off the grid. nothing but the cell for emergencies'. customer retention didn't have a scripted reply for that so it was a done deal.

I had one company the refused to talk to me for 6 months when my MIL died. Would not close the account and cost us a lot of money. Finally got our attorney to write a demand letter and then all of a sudden they closed the account.

 

[princesscinderella]

I had one company the refused to talk to me for 6 months when my MIL died. Would not close the account and cost us a lot of money. Finally got our attorney to write a demand letter and then all of a sudden they closed the account.

That sounds like Dish Network, my parents had a similar problem when my grandma died.

 

[tvguy]

That sounds like Dish Network, my parents had a similar problem when my grandma died.

No. I had no issues with Dish Network.

 

[Jimmy Mouse]

Thinking of getting rid of DirecTV but fear losing the live shows we like. Those like 911, 911 lone star, AGT etc. etc. any good options that won't break the bank?

 

[princesscinderella]

Thinking of getting rid of DirecTV but fear losing the live shows we like. Those like 911, 911 lone star, AGT etc. etc. any good options that won't break the bank?

Last one I called comcast to get rid of our cable and just get internet from them the cost of the internet by itself plus all the other streaming that would also give access to live programming was the same price

 

[Jimmy Mouse]

Last one I called comcast to get rid of our cable and just get internet from them the cost of the internet by itself plus all the other streaming that would also give access to live programming was the same price

We already have Xfinity Gig speed because my kids have to have fast streaming lol.

 

[barkley]

I had one company the refused to talk to me for 6 months when my MIL died. Would not close the account and cost us a lot of money. Finally got our attorney to write a demand letter and then all of a sudden they closed the account.

i called everyone and just said 'what does she owe? oh really? well you have a choice-we can either reach a settlement agreement right now and i will pay you OR i can put you on the list of creditors to be dealt with as we formally settle mil's estate. not a single one failed to make an immediate settlement offer-none at more than 50% of the total balance due (some as much as a 75% discount).

Thinking of getting rid of DirecTV but fear losing the live shows we like. Those like 911, 911 lone star, AGT etc. etc. any good options that won't break the bank?

just heard that amazon is expanding like crazy-including local tv stations through their fire sticks. i don't know anything about it but you might want to check it out.

 

[tvguy]

i called everyone and just said 'what does she owe? oh really? well you have a choice-we can either reach a settlement agreement right now and i will pay you OR i can put you on the list of creditors to be dealt with as we formally settle mil's estate. not a single one failed to make an immediate settlement offer-none at more than 50% of the total balance due (some as much as a 75% discount).

This was the brokerage that was managing her IRA. And it was September 1999 and they had her in some very risky investments which tanked in the 6 months it took to get them to cash out the IRA. Lost 20% of the value.
She had special ordered several thousand dollars of furniture and the furniture store had no issue canceling the order and refunding the purchase price. I think every else was services at the house, and don't recall canceling any because she had died, we canceled them all because we sold the house.

 

[rlk]

Hi All,
I will try catching up in a few days when I’m home from my trip to Ireland. Just wanted to post that we spent a night in a small town very close to Skellig Michael, where a few Star Wars scenes were filmed. There happened to be a Star Wars convention the weekend we stayed.

 

[princesscinderella]

Hi All,
I will try catching up in a few days when I’m home from my trip to Ireland. Just wanted to post that we spent a night in a small town very close to Skellig Michael, where a few Star Wars scenes were filmed. There happened to be a Star Wars convention the weekend we stayed.

How cool to see tusken raiders out and about . Thanks for sharing enjoy the rest of your trip. We went to Ireland a few years ago and I loved the Giants Causeway it was so beautiful.

 

[sk!mom]

Happy anniversary! 20 is a big deal!
Super curious- what "big" trip just costs $2500 for a family? Plane tickets anywhere alone are about that or more for a family these days.

“Big” is relative to each poster’s lifestyle and stage.

Probably not as many as you think, though, unless it is a cheaper vacation or vacation every few years. I doubt many that make $100k or less could pay cash for something like a Disney vacation every year.

Why would you doubt that? This also is so dependent on so many factors.

We have always paid cash for vacations as we believe it is a luxury and would only vacation as our available cash would allow.

Our smallest budget years were when we had young children and therefore childcare expenses and a mortgage. In the intervening years, childcare went away, and then when the youngest was in middle school the mortgage went away. Without a mortgage (or any other debt), we are free to vacation as we choose.

We have never done Disney every year as it’s a big wide world. About every 3 years was often enough. Once the kids were grown, I’ve been once. We currently have no desire to go. We do have a grandson now though so who knows, maybe in a few years Disney will rise to the top again.

 

[sk!mom]

Hi All,
I will try catching up in a few days when I’m home from my trip to Ireland. Just wanted to post that we spent a night in a small town very close to Skellig Michael, where a few Star Wars scenes were filmed. There happened to be a Star Wars convention the weekend we stayed.

We visited Ireland last summer. Isn’t it one of the most beautiful places on earth? Thanks for sharing your pics and great reminder!

 

[Smugpugmug]

Speaking of Mammoth Club and Allears earlier on this thread....I decided to check up on Allears to see what they're up to. Minus Quincy and Breedlove I don't recognize any of the people they have on now. I watched their Perfect day Volcano Bay video as I'm finally heading there this weekend and was curious if they had any tips. TBH I didn't really learn anything. It mostly consisted of them enjoying sugary cocktails and talking as if it was a vlog and not an informative guide. Nothing wrong with vlogs but I do like the tips and tricks Molly added to the table as well. I wish Mammoth Club made a video of that park but I digress lol

 

[sk!mom]

Well, as I have learned, on this forum, "middle class" is defined differently here. A household with two incomes of $150,000 a year EACH is middle class for some here.
Other thing I have learned here during the 20+ years I have been on the cruise line forum is that many people will max out every credit card they have to take a vacation.
For us, we are retired and living entirely off savings until we reach full social security retirement age (within the next 12 months) so we knew when we laid out this retirement plan more than a decade ago, d that big trips weren't going to happen. The pandemic just made it easier not to travel. So we are doing a road trip by car to the Grand Canyon, Sedona, Roswell New Mexico and into Texas with a budget of about $3,000 for everything. Having a hybrid that can get up to 56 mpg, (more likely we'll average 50mpg) and getting out of California into states with much more reasonable gasoline prices will help. The cheapest gas station here right now are $4.15 a gallon. Gas buddy shows gas at $3.59 a gallon in Sedona and $2.95 a gallon in Big Spring Texas. I'll save $12 on a tank of gas in Texas!

Texan here, highly recommend giving Big Spring a pass.

 

[dreamer17555]

I remember the AP stress with my son. And the disappointment when he found that while his University considered students who took AP classes to be ahead of the game, they did not accept those credits. As they put it, "we expect our students to take our versions of those classes"

My daughter got very lucky because she went to a residential arts high school that actually only had academics four days a week. Academic classes were only 90 minutes long. They could not assign a ton of extra homework (obviously she had homework, but not 3+ hours per AP subject like some get) because the kids had a ridiculous amount of rehearsals in the evenings. However, they did have an opportunity on Wednesdays in between their arts classes to come in for office hours. They also were not given any summer work prior to the course starting as many of them were traveling and doing summer intensives for their art.

My daughter was able to have some amazing AP teachers some of them were actually college professors. The classes encouraged a lot of discussion points, group work, and yes, a ton of reading. However, she scored fives on every single one of her AP exams which means there is absolutely a way for these kids to do well without it being three hours of homework at night.

I think how brutal some schools make these courses is ridiculously unfair. They pretty much need to take them to be competitive for scholarships and even entrance into some schools but then some colleges don’t even accept them for credit. It’s a really unfair system.

My daughter really lucked out that her arts high school was amazing, her college accepted the AP credits, and it helped her get a full ride but her case is definitely an outlier.

 

[tvguy]

Texan here, highly recommend giving Big Spring a pass.

LOL. Going to Big Spring was a major point of the trip. My wife is a Texan. Lived in Big Spring for 6 years (1961-1967) growing up, both on base at Webb and off base when her dad was stationed there. Found her old school, her old house on what used to be the base and her off base house.