Debt Dumpers - 2017

[NinaBella]

Two wins! I paid off my Southwest card today. I am sending final payment to a NavyFed loan today, so that is my only product with them.

Next on my hit list is a Delta Amex card. I opened the card to save on a flight 3 years ago. Mistake. This one might take all of 2017 to pay off.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Just got our Federal tax return deposited into our account! That was super fast and glad to have it out of the way. It's nice to see the balance in our DVC fund climb upward.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Just got our Federal tax return deposited into our account! That was super fast and glad to have it out of the way. It's nice to see the balance in our DVC fund climb upward.

My best friend just got hers as well! I'm hoping ours shows up soon, but we can't e-file so we had to mail, and I'm sure that slows it down.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

My best friend just got hers as well! I'm hoping ours shows up soon, but we can't e-file so we had to mail, and I'm sure that slows it down.

We mailed our state return, since I didn't want to pay the $20 for TurboTax to e-file it for us. I am sure our state return will take much longer because of this. But I am hoping that since it is very early in tax season, that it will still get processed in a prompt manner. We will see.

 

[amalone1013]

Because of you guys, I just checked my refund status and it's due to be deposited tomorrow! I think two weeks was the fastest I've had before, so this sets a record at 8 days.

I should really just mail my state one, because I always get pulled to get a paper check mailed for fraud reasons even though I request direct deposit. It's not like efiling at night vs dropping it in the mail in the next few days would make much of a difference...

 

[AmyAnne]

I have taxes on the agenda for this weekend and since a lot of you seem quite knowledgeable about taxes I thought I'd see if anyone can help with a federal tax question. We live in a no-income-tax state (don't be too jealous, the state gets it back in property taxes) and my question is: is there a standard deduction for sales tax? I have read that instead of deducting state income taxes on our federal tax return, we could deduct sales taxes, but we have not made any major purchases like a car that would have one large sales tax amount to deduct. I have used TurboTax for the past 5 or 6 years and have never been offered the choice to deduct sales tax so I'm wondering if I'm missing something or if TurboTax is.

 

[dayvewc]

I have taxes on the agenda for this weekend and since a lot of you seem quite knowledgeable about taxes I thought I'd see if anyone can help with a federal tax question. We live in a no-income-tax state (don't be too jealous, the state gets it back in property taxes) and my question is: is there a standard deduction for sales tax? I have read that instead of deducting state income taxes on our federal tax return, we could deduct sales taxes, but we have not made any major purchases like a car that would have one large sales tax amount to deduct. I have used TurboTax for the past 5 or 6 years and have never been offered the choice to deduct sales tax so I'm wondering if I'm missing something or if TurboTax is.

I'm not sure if there is "just" a standard deduction for sales tax. I know when I have gone through the itemization process with turbotax, it has always come back and recommended using the standard sales tax deduction for itemization purposes. But I don't think there is a separate sales tax deduction.

 

[DisneyMandC]

I'm just always so anxious that I've somehow messed mine up! I'll feel better when I actually get my (very small) refund. Of course, I don't think I could have messed it up but so much considering basically the only thing I could deduct filing separate was mortgage interest.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I have taxes on the agenda for this weekend and since a lot of you seem quite knowledgeable about taxes I thought I'd see if anyone can help with a federal tax question. We live in a no-income-tax state (don't be too jealous, the state gets it back in property taxes) and my question is: is there a standard deduction for sales tax? I have read that instead of deducting state income taxes on our federal tax return, we could deduct sales taxes, but we have not made any major purchases like a car that would have one large sales tax amount to deduct. I have used TurboTax for the past 5 or 6 years and have never been offered the choice to deduct sales tax so I'm wondering if I'm missing something or if TurboTax is.

I am pretty sure there is a standard deduction for sales tax. There is a section under TurboTax for it, which I have utilitized in the past for years when we made big purchases. This year, it didn't make sense, but when I bought a car at a much lower income level, it was better to itemize my sales tax and deduct that way. I always have used TurboTax, so I know it is possible. Instead of using the auto-tour function, I go through each and every category on my own to make sure that I have completed everything.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Just checked my account on my student loan provider's website and saw that they put me into forbearance yesterday until the end of the month, which means they must be calculating my new payment! I actually don't like being in forbearance since it means I miss a month's worth of qualifying public service payments, but it is nice that right now I owe $0 this month. Worst case scenario, they may ask me to make some sort of forbearance payment. Ideally they would have my new bill calculated by then, but I'm assuming they're not considering that as a possibility since they marked me into forbearance for two days past my due date.

 

[Ngwira]

Snowed in here in south jersey so I filed our taxes. 30 minutes later got the acceptance email from turbo tax. I'll file our state tomorrow since I mistakenly locked myself out of our account and need to reset password. Customer service reps are not there since all state offices are closed.
State was free to file. Fed was $20 due to special at staples on turbotax.
Fed refund is $810. State is $599.

 

[dclpluto]

Snowed in here in south jersey so I filed our taxes. 30 minutes later got the acceptance email from turbo tax. I'll file our state tomorrow since I mistakenly locked myself out of our account and need to reset password. Customer service reps are not there since all state offices are closed.
State was free to file. Fed was $20 due to special at staples on turbotax.
Fed refund is $810. State is $599.

Where you from? I'm from Cumberland county they were calling for 6 inches we might of got a half inch

 

[hmack]

weekly-ish check in.

So, I finally did what I said I was going to do a few weeks ago and went through all of the medical bills. They added up to a little over $700 and I still have two bills to come in (oldest dd's emergency room visit and youngest dd's physical therapy). I made a spreadsheet to track all of the bills and I made solid payments. The not great news is that yesterday I received an unexpected bill from my eye doctor for services from the beginning of December. The very good news is that one bill that I've been paying $100 a month on for a little over two years totaling $2,500, is finally paid off!!!

In other news, I put $50 in savings and paid a little extra on credit cards this week. I'm really hoping to see a decline in cc debt two whole months in a row!

Now, I feel like I should shovel some of the snow that's getting dumped on us, but I really don't want to.

(totally off topic: my work has started a 'Spring Into Shape' initiative and I'm on a team of 3 fellow Disney fans and we decided to name our team: Team Carousel of Progress)

 

[mrsabbott]

GWL gives 20% military discounts on rooms.

Also they have random 25% off flash sales they run for 24-hours throughout the year so subscribe to thier emails.

I do get their emails and we used the military discount last year! That's what I was going to do this year but the prices went up a whole lot! Groupon was the best deal this time around.
I spend forever comparing different deals and dates! Lol!! I do that with any trip we take!

 

[Ngwira]

Ha ha.. just went outside and we got about 2.. Camden county near cherry hill..

Where you from? I'm from Cumberland county they were calling for 6 inches we might of got a half inch

 

[Ngwira]

The bounce back deal is by far the best deal imho. Cheaper than Groupon and their flash sales. I paid $129.00 (for the Poconos location) which is always one of the most expensive locations along with the new California location and Niagara Falls, Canada. I booked back in June 2016 for a December stay which got bumped to this March.

GWL gives 20% military discounts on rooms.

Also they have random 25% off flash sales they run for 24-hours throughout the year so subscribe to thier emails.

he

 

[Ngwira]

Just checked my account on my student loan provider's website and saw that they put me into forbearance yesterday until the end of the month, which means they must be calculating my new payment! I actually don't like being in forbearance since it means I miss a month's worth of qualifying public service payments, but it is nice that right now I owe $0 this month. Worst case scenario, they may ask me to make some sort of forbearance payment. Ideally they would have my new bill calculated by then, but I'm assuming they're not considering that as a possibility since they marked me into forbearance for two days past my due date.

How exciting to see that your payment is being recalculated and will drop significantly.

 

[NinaBella]

The bounce back deal is by far the best deal imho. Cheaper than Groupon and their flash sales. I paid $129.00 (for the Poconos location) which is always one of the most expensive locations along with the new California location and Niagara Falls, Canada. I booked back in June 2016 for a December stay which got bumped to this March.

he

We stayed at GWL Niagara last June. When I booked our great nieces (age 4 and 8) were joining us but because of a relatives terminal illness they didn't come. My DD was the youngest in our group at 13. I wouldn't stay again as it is not a place for teens. My DD hair didn't even get wet going down the water slide. Instead I would have booked a falls view room and they would have enjoyed a normal pool with less people. My 13 and 15 year old don't care for over crowded and loud pools.

 

[Ngwira]

Just got our Federal tax return deposited into our account! That was super fast and glad to have it out of the way. It's nice to see the balance in our DVC fund climb upward.

How are you feeling? Hope you're still feeling great!

 

[Ngwira]

We stayed at GWL Niagara last June. When I booked our great nieces (age 4 and 8) were joining us but because of a relatives terminal illness they didn't come. My DD was the youngest in our group at 13. I wouldn't stay again as it is not a place for teens. My DD hair didn't even get wet going down the water slide. Instead I would have booked a falls view room and they would have enjoyed a normal pool with less people. My 13 and 15 year old don't care for over crowded and loud pools.

I remember you saying that you didn't care for it. My girls are 10 and 7 so GWL is right up their alley. They love it. Fun for hubby and I too since we love the wave pool.

I looked into the NF location last summer when we went to Canada. Ended up at the 4 points at Sheraton booked on cash plus points and we upgraded to a Falls view room. We enjoyed it very much and would go back to that hotel in a heartbeat.