Debt Dumpers - 2016

[DisneyMandC]

Totally off topic but if you don't mind can you tell me what you think of the casper mattress?

We love it! Actually, I slept on a spring mattress again for the first time last night since we bought it in December; I feel like I woke up every 30 minutes. I think it's fantastic and extremely comfortable. It's soft, but still very supportive. DH's only complaint is that it gets hot and he gets sweaty at night sometimes, but he did the exact same thing on the traditional spring mattress we had, so I think it's just him being weird. I think it's a great deal too because you get to try it for 100 nights and return it for all of your money back if you're not happy.

Bonus: it's very cool to cut it open since it's vacuum packed in a box. There's a bunch of youtube videos of people opening it.

 

[ForeverAlice]

Thank you so much! I keep hearing about them from advertising online but have never come across someone who has one to get a honest opinion!! Appreciate it!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I never heard of it.
We're due for a new mattress but we keep saying we'll get one when we get a new bedroom set once we're out of debt. Of course that keeps getting pushed back....

 

[stayhomemom77]

The electronics in this house are under a curse!! Lol

First...DD (who has ADHD) has an inexpensive tablet with a keyboard to aid her in her schoolwork. She's dropped it several times (dang it!) and now it's busted. She's had it less than six months. We can't find the receipt to try and have them look at it. (Dang it!) DH finally opened it up to see if he could do anything to correct the problem. He can't...it's toast. (Dang it!)

Then, when coming home from my mom's late Easter Sunday, DD's ipod fell out of her overnight bag and sat out all night in the driveway in the rain. (Dang it!) When DH found it in the morning, he put it right in rice. But after a day or so, he charged it and tried turning it on...it's fried. (Dang it!)

Well, I have a tablet I never use. We dug it out of storage, charged it up, turned it on and...nothing. DH fussed with it and managed to get it to turn on but the screen is grey...and that's it! (Dang it!) It hasn't been used in about six months but was just sitting undamaged on a shelf. So mysterious.

Our printer ran out of ink. I waited two or three days and then went and bought a new cartridge. Though the printer went through the motions...the pages came out blank. (Dang it!) DH took it apart and said the ink was pooling in a certain area...he cleaned it out and reinserted the cartridge. It's still pooling and we don't know how to fix the problem. (Dang it!)

No worries...said I. We actually have an older printer that we never got rid of. DH cleaned it and we put a new cartridge in there. It goes through the motions but...you guessed it!...the pages come out blank. No ink pooling...we don't know what is wrong. (Dang it!)

And finally....my laptop is almost three years old. For reasons no one can understand...it's been overheating lately. The fan goes haywire and then it just shuts down. (Dang it!) If I leave it off for a while, I can use it again without it happening for some time...but one never knows when it will happen again. It's friggin' inconvenient and I cannot afford to replace it at this time. (Dang it!)

So...that's what's been happening at my house the last thirty(ish) days. I can swing a new printer this month if we can get through the next two weeks with no other surprises but everything else will have to wait.

I am not going to invoke the name of an unwanted gentleman who might be behind these difficulties...but I do invite him to move along now!!

 

[DisneyMandC]

I'm thinking about switching cell phone service. I'm paying an OBNOXIOUS amount for Verizon right now. I'm grandfathered in with unlimited data, and they're clearly trying to jack the price up enough to make people drop out of the plan. I'm thinking about switching to AT&T because they have an unlimited data plan if you also have Directv. Anyone here have AT&T? Happy with service/pricing? The price for that plan is 2/3 of what I'm paying Verizon.

Keeping unlimited data is important, btw, because we live out in the country where we can't have an unlimited data internet plan. Or cable, or Verizon Fios, or anything like that. Consequently, we have Directv, a Sprint hotspot for internet, and unlimited data on our phones. Yes, it's super irritating.

 

[rideswithchrist]

It is so hard to dump debt a bit at a time...I can't wait to be able to put an extra $100 towards our debt...I added $20 more to our CC payment so far. 80 more to go

 

[dayvewc]

Ok, I'm normally not necessarily a perfectionist, but I just got my scores on the first 2 assignments in my grad class, and I have perfect scores so far. yay?

My concern is that there are 600+ people in the class, and I didn't actually get any feedback on the assignments, so I am kind of thinking that the person grading is just marking off that it was done and not actually evaluating the work. I'm pretty sure that at least one of the 5 essay questions was not worth full credit. :-/

The electronics in this house are under a curse!! Lol

First...DD (who has ADHD) has an inexpensive tablet with a keyboard to aid her in her schoolwork. She's dropped it several times (dang it!) and now it's busted. She's had it less than six months. We can't find the receipt to try and have them look at it. (Dang it!) DH finally opened it up to see if he could do anything to correct the problem. He can't...it's toast. (Dang it!)

Then, when coming home from my mom's late Easter Sunday, DD's ipod fell out of her overnight bag and sat out all night in the driveway in the rain. (Dang it!) When DH found it in the morning, he put it right in rice. But after a day or so, he charged it and tried turning it on...it's fried. (Dang it!)

Well, I have a tablet I never use. We dug it out of storage, charged it up, turned it on and...nothing. DH fussed with it and managed to get it to turn on but the screen is grey...and that's it! (Dang it!) It hasn't been used in about six months but was just sitting undamaged on a shelf. So mysterious.

Our printer ran out of ink. I waited two or three days and then went and bought a new cartridge. Though the printer went through the motions...the pages came out blank. (Dang it!) DH took it apart and said the ink was pooling in a certain area...he cleaned it out and reinserted the cartridge. It's still pooling and we don't know how to fix the problem. (Dang it!)

No worries...said I. We actually have an older printer that we never got rid of. DH cleaned it and we put a new cartridge in there. It goes through the motions but...you guessed it!...the pages come out blank. No ink pooling...we don't know what is wrong. (Dang it!)

And finally....my laptop is almost three years old. For reasons no one can understand...it's been overheating lately. The fan goes haywire and then it just shuts down. (Dang it!) If I leave it off for a while, I can use it again without it happening for some time...but one never knows when it will happen again. It's friggin' inconvenient and I cannot afford to replace it at this time. (Dang it!)

So...that's what's been happening at my house the last thirty(ish) days. I can swing a new printer this month if we can get through the next two weeks with no other surprises but everything else will have to wait.

I am not going to invoke the name of an unwanted gentleman who might be behind these difficulties...but I do invite him to move along now!!

Hugs!! I'm sorry you are having technical issues, but can I admit that the way you wrote this was pretty funny. I wound up laughing at your bad luck. (Dang it!)

I'm thinking about switching cell phone service. I'm paying an OBNOXIOUS amount for Verizon right now. I'm grandfathered in with unlimited data, and they're clearly trying to jack the price up enough to make people drop out of the plan. I'm thinking about switching to AT&T because they have an unlimited data plan if you also have Directv. Anyone here have AT&T? Happy with service/pricing? The price for that plan is 2/3 of what I'm paying Verizon.

Keeping unlimited data is important, btw, because we live out in the country where we can't have an unlimited data internet plan. Or cable, or Verizon Fios, or anything like that. Consequently, we have Directv, a Sprint hotspot for internet, and unlimited data on our phones. Yes, it's super irritating.

I am on AT&T. I used to have the unlimited plan, but had to drop it a couple of years ago to enroll in their Next plan. This was during the time when they didn't have an unlimited plan at all. Overall, I have been really pleased with AT&T, there are a few times when I get frustrated with them, but overall I have been really happy with them. In fact, last fall they sent me a "personal cell tower" that normally runs $200 for free because I was having connectivity issues in my house. (It connects through my internet to allow me to make/receive calls).

 

[Shmily1]

I'm thinking about switching cell phone service. I'm paying an OBNOXIOUS amount for Verizon right now. I'm grandfathered in with unlimited data, and they're clearly trying to jack the price up enough to make people drop out of the plan. I'm thinking about switching to AT&T because they have an unlimited data plan if you also have Directv. Anyone here have AT&T? Happy with service/pricing? The price for that plan is 2/3 of what I'm paying Verizon.

Keeping unlimited data is important, btw, because we live out in the country where we can't have an unlimited data internet plan. Or cable, or Verizon Fios, or anything like that. Consequently, we have Directv, a Sprint hotspot for internet, and unlimited data on our phones. Yes, it's super irritating.

We have AT&T also. We had it when it was Cingular back in the day. We kept DS on it since they had amazing service for AT&T where he was in college but DH, DD, and I all switched to Alltel due to better reception. AT&T bought out our area of Alltel so now we are all back with AT&T. We were grandfathered in at the old Unlimited plan but since DD has DirectTV, we now have the new "unlimited" plan. It's not really unlimited at all but it is a little cheaper than it was. Overall, the service is ok though for the most part.

 

[DisneyMandC]

We have AT&T also. We had it when it was Cingular back in the day. We kept DS on it since they had amazing service for AT&T where he was in college but DH, DD, and I all switched to Alltel due to better reception. AT&T bought out our area of Alltel so now we are all back with AT&T. We were grandfathered in at the old Unlimited plan but since DD has DirectTV, we now have the new "unlimited" plan. It's not really unlimited at all but it is a little cheaper than it was. Overall, the service is ok though for the most part.

Can you elaborate about what about it is not completely "unlimited"? I think what you have may be different than the Directv one, which is fine. Just want to make sure I won't be hit with extra charges!

 

[Shmily1]

Can you elaborate about what about it is not completely "unlimited"? I think what you have may be different than the Directv one, which is fine. Just want to make sure I won't be hit with extra charges!

We do actually have the one with Direct Tv but it is only up to 22 gb per phone then it is throttled.

 

[DisneyMandC]

We do actually have the one with Direct Tv but it is only up to 22 gb per phone then it is throttled.

When it's throttled it's just slowed down right? I think I usually hit about 18 each month, so that should be ok.

 

[Shmily1]

When it's throttled it's just slowed down right? I think I usually hit about 18 each month, so that should be ok.

Correct. You should be good then.

 

[DnA2010]

So looks like DH's car is going to die soon- can't really blame it as it's 19 years old and has 620,000km (385k miles) on it, so looks like we will need to dip into the maternity leave savings to replace. Right now we are leaning on finding a good used one to just buy as opposed to getting into a car loan. We both don't want to pick up any debt, going into my maternity leave in the fall. Big mortgage is enough. According to my calculations, we should be able to replace 10K in savings in the next 6 months, if we really buckle down. We are going to discuss how much we want to spend, and if we want to pay cash out of savings or say get a LOC or small loan for part. Decisions decisions....

 

[OhMari]

The electronics in this house are under a curse!! Lol

First...DD (who has ADHD) has an inexpensive tablet with a keyboard to aid her in her schoolwork. She's dropped it several times (dang it!) and now it's busted. She's had it less than six months. We can't find the receipt to try and have them look at it. (Dang it!) DH finally opened it up to see if he could do anything to correct the problem. He can't...it's toast. (Dang it!)

Then, when coming home from my mom's late Easter Sunday, DD's ipod fell out of her overnight bag and sat out all night in the driveway in the rain. (Dang it!) When DH found it in the morning, he put it right in rice. But after a day or so, he charged it and tried turning it on...it's fried. (Dang it!)

Well, I have a tablet I never use. We dug it out of storage, charged it up, turned it on and...nothing. DH fussed with it and managed to get it to turn on but the screen is grey...and that's it! (Dang it!) It hasn't been used in about six months but was just sitting undamaged on a shelf. So mysterious.

Our printer ran out of ink. I waited two or three days and then went and bought a new cartridge. Though the printer went through the motions...the pages came out blank. (Dang it!) DH took it apart and said the ink was pooling in a certain area...he cleaned it out and reinserted the cartridge. It's still pooling and we don't know how to fix the problem. (Dang it!)

No worries...said I. We actually have an older printer that we never got rid of. DH cleaned it and we put a new cartridge in there. It goes through the motions but...you guessed it!...the pages come out blank. No ink pooling...we don't know what is wrong. (Dang it!)

And finally....my laptop is almost three years old. For reasons no one can understand...it's been overheating lately. The fan goes haywire and then it just shuts down. (Dang it!) If I leave it off for a while, I can use it again without it happening for some time...but one never knows when it will happen again. It's friggin' inconvenient and I cannot afford to replace it at this time. (Dang it!)

So...that's what's been happening at my house the last thirty(ish) days. I can swing a new printer this month if we can get through the next two weeks with no other surprises but everything else will have to wait.

I am not going to invoke the name of an unwanted gentleman who might be behind these difficulties...but I do invite him to move along now!!

Wow, you truly did get hit. Lap tops tend to do this. Your fan is not working to keep it from cooling down. Do you have it on a lap top cooler pad? My dd went to a college that had a lap top program, and they received a new lap top every 2 years. Heck, sometimes the lap top only lasted 6 months and she had to turn them in. Other people I know have lap tops for years on end. But if yours is over heating, it is going to die soon. Start doing back ups.

 

[stayhomemom77]

Hugs!! I'm sorry you are having technical issues, but can I admit that the way you wrote this was pretty funny. I wound up laughing at your bad luck. (Dang it!)

Good! That was the point. Let's face it...these are inconveniences...it's not like a tree fell on our house or anything. After the third or fourth incident, DH and I started joking about "the curse." I have some back up money in the account and if we don't need it this month, we'll use it to buy the printer and we can get along without the rest for a time.

So looks like DH's car is going to die soon- can't really blame it as it's 19 years old and has 620,000km (385k miles) on it, so looks like we will need to dip into the maternity leave savings to replace. Right now we are leaning on finding a good used one to just buy as opposed to getting into a car loan. We both don't want to pick up any debt, going into my maternity leave in the fall. Big mortgage is enough. According to my calculations, we should be able to replace 10K in savings in the next 6 months, if we really buckle down. We are going to discuss how much we want to spend, and if we want to pay cash out of savings or say get a LOC or small loan for part. Decisions decisions....

Sounds like you have a good handle on things so far. Sorry to hear you have to spend money you weren't expecting to though.

Wow, you truly did get hit. Lap tops tend to do this. Your fan is not working to keep it from cooling down. Do you have it on a lap top cooler pad? My dd went to a college that had a lap top program, and they received a new lap top every 2 years. Heck, sometimes the lap top only lasted 6 months and she had to turn them in. Other people I know have lap tops for years on end. But if yours is over heating, it is going to die soon. Start doing back ups.

Yeah, I usually get a new one every two years but I was trying to stretch this one a little longer (it'll be three years in August since I bought it) because of our Paris trip this summer and then our hoped for Disney trip at the end of the year. Thankfully all my essential stuff is in the cloud, so I won't really lose anything if it suddenly dies. DH teaches computer science at the university level and will get a new laptop in the fall. He told me last week I could have his Macbook when he replaces it with the new one. So this baby just needs to hang in there until September or so.

 

[dayvewc]

Wow, you truly did get hit. Lap tops tend to do this. Your fan is not working to keep it from cooling down. Do you have it on a lap top cooler pad? My dd went to a college that had a lap top program, and they received a new lap top every 2 years. Heck, sometimes the lap top only lasted 6 months and she had to turn them in. Other people I know have lap tops for years on end. But if yours is over heating, it is going to die soon. Start doing back ups.

I am going to have to disagree with this as a blanket statement. Yes, if the laptop is overheating it is headed to that great fluffy cloud in the sky, but mine started doing that 7 years ago and I worked with it up until a month ago when I finally replaced it to take this grad class. Granted, I had it on a cooler stand, and usually had a fan pointed toward it to help, but it limped along for years and years after if first started overheating.

Point being, if you are aware of what is happening I wholeheartedly endorse backing up on a regular basis, but also if you work with the restriction of knowing that the cooling fan isn't keeping up with the laptop you can work around it by "cooling" it on your own.

 

[OhMari]

I am going to have to disagree with this as a blanket statement. Yes, if the laptop is overheating it is headed to that great fluffy cloud in the sky, but mine started doing that 7 years ago and I worked with it up until a month ago when I finally replaced it to take this grad class. Granted, I had it on a cooler stand, and usually had a fan pointed toward it to help, but it limped along for years and years after if first started overheating.

Point being, if you are aware of what is happening I wholeheartedly endorse backing up on a regular basis, but also if you work with the restriction of knowing that the cooling fan isn't keeping up with the laptop you can work around it by "cooling" it on your own.

True, I agree. In our family, we learned the hard way, and burnt up at least 2 mother boards.

 

[myhoney]

It's been a while since I checked in, but here's the low down: We wanted to pay down our CC (~$9k) and save for a WDW vacation (~$6k). In Feb., my FIL was sick, and MIL could no longer watch my littlest 2 while I worked part time. So we put the kids in daycare for the first time in 10 years! A huge expense that we handled only by giving up my 401(k) contributions. I was saving 20%, but we figured for 1 year, I could give it up completely to cover the costs, because by then they will be in pre-K & Kindergarten and our private school has a "Send 3, get 1 Free" policy. I knew having 4 kids would come in handy somehow!

Unfortunately, even with giving up the 401(k) it means that when I am working and the kids are at daycare, I am just making enough to pay the daycare bill. So, I have to pick up at least an extra 12 hours in "off-time" when DH can watch the kids, so I can work to actually get our usual income for our family. My sleep habits are way shot. Luckily my bosses are so good about letting me work as much as I want when I want, as long as it's not over 40 hours. They aren't happy to see me going in some days at 4am or other days working til midnight, but I do think they are enjoying the extra productivity!

At this point, we have paid down the credit card to just under $6k. (and, the previous balance had crept up to almost $10k, so we are down roughly $4000 since 1/1/16). And, while we went back and forth about the expensive vacation, we decided to go for it! We are surprising the kids with a trip in early Dec, and have paid $2100 toward it. I have a fairly realistic plan in place to have the trip paid off by September 1st. My CC goal is to have it down to $3k by the end of the year. It's at 0% interest until June 2017, so instead of paying it all off and then saving for the trip, we decided to go to Disney and pay it off after! My other goal is to restart my 401(k) contributions in September. We will see if I can swing it all...

 

[Dentam]

A good laptop should definitely last for more than 2 years. I've found that Macs are longer lived - so the investment up front has ended up being well worth it for me. My older one is over 6 years old and I finally replaced it at the end of last year (but still have it on hand) since it was full of over 20k photos, presentations, etc and had really slowed down as a result. Also, the mouse pad stopped working last year as well as the cd player. I've never had an issue with it or my new macbook air overheating, but my first laptop was an HP and only lasted about 2 years before it did that and bit the dust.

 

[DnA2010]

A good laptop should definitely last for more than 2 years. I've found that Macs are longer lived - so the investment up front has ended up being well worth it for me. My older one is over 6 years old and I finally replaced it at the end of last year (but still have it on hand) since it was full of over 20k photos, presentations, etc and had really slowed down as a result. Also, the mouse pad stopped working last year as well as the cd player. I've never had an issue with it or my new macbook air overheating, but my first laptop was an HP and only lasted about 2 years before it did that and bit the dust.

Yup, i think we are going on 8-9 years with our Mac and it was re-furbed when we got it!