Debt Dumpers - 2017

[piccolopat]

I agree 100%.
If I could stop taking vacations I'd be out of debt faster too but that is a weakness of mine. I've been at baby step 2 for longer than I should be.

I understand why you still want to vacation. How about taking half of what you usually spend on vacation and pay down some more debt? Then find lower cost places to vacation that perhaps you wouldn't normally consider. Many years ago when DH & I bought our first car we had no money left. That year we spent a 3 day weekend driving the new car in NH. We had a great time and it was a very low cost vacation.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I understand why you still want to vacation. How about taking half of what you usually spend on vacation and pay down some more debt? Then find lower cost places to vacation that perhaps you wouldn't normally consider. Many years ago when DH & I bought our first car we had no money left. That year we spent a 3 day weekend driving the new car in NH. We had a great time and it was a very low cost vacation.

Do you have teenagers?

 

[dclpluto]

I went in the basement this morning to check on our home heating oil supply and found that the tank was on "E". Darn.

I ended up leaving a blank check with my dad, who lives right down the street, and asked him to find someone who could deliver oil today. (can I just say here how much I love my dad?) I called him during the day and he said that he was unable to find anyone who could deliver without charging a $75 fee for one reason or another.

Dad found oil somewhere and poured some into our tank manually. (yep, the man's awesome) $50 worth to get us through the weekend and a dealer in town agreed to deliver 100 gallons on Monday for $209.90. That's money I wasn't planning on spending, especially the $50.00 as i normally buy 100 gallons at a time.

It's been years since I've been caught with a tank that low, but I definitely learned my lesson on checking more often.

But through it all, I am glad I checked this morning. It's forecasted to be in the single digits tomorrow and today I'm envying all of you who live in a warmer climate and have turned off your heat for the winter.

I'm also thankful that we built up our savings a bit so we have the $259.90 on hand. There was a time, not too long ago, that buying oil meant going without something else or putting off paying a different bill.

I love being on the budget plan.

You don't have to worry about running out of oil. They come automatic. Plus no big payment

 

[mrsabbott]

We paid our state taxes, so that is done. I am loving the zero balances on the cards we paid off, but then I find myself tempted to spend.. I had to stop by Target last night to get my husband some socks (That man gets more holes in his socks than the rest of our family combined) and came very close to buying a new laptop!!!

We have an old one that could be repaired for less than a new one would cost, but I was so tempted.. That voice in my mind kept trying to rationalize it.

Next month we are eligible to upgrade our phones. I have a used iphone 5 that I have had for two years. It works, but I need more memory. I have a lot of pictures and apps that I like to use but can't because it is always full! Nothing like taking pictures of your child's last ball game and running out of memory right as he makes a basket!!

We have always gotten whatever free or cheap iPhone they offer with a new contract but I guess they are no longer doing that now? You are only eligible to make payments on a newer phone but still pay full price? Is this the way all phone carriers are doing it now? I don't want the latest.. I was just thinking of an iPhone 6 or 6s with more memory. I was looking at prices and it seems so expensive!

I still have about a month before we upgrade, but I can't decide if it will be worth it. If my current phone had more memory, I would just keep using it. If I did upgrade, I would be willing to pay a little more to get more memory and would likely use it until it died completely.

What are your thoughts? Worth the investment or just suck it up and wait?

 

[piccolopat]

Do you have teenagers?

I did but she's an adult now. Why do you ask? I hope you are not implying that teenagers can't go on lower cost vacations. Growing up when we were lucky enough to go on vacation it was usually someplace in driving distance. The first time we went to Disney I was going into my senior year of high school and we drove the two days from NY and stayed at a Days Inn. By that time all four of us were teenagers. It can be done.

 

[Eureka]

All I seem to be doing lately is spending. We ordered in Chinese the other night and DH and I are going to dinner with friends tonight. I bought tickets for all four of us to a local theater for next weekend, but I am kind of counting that as our family birthday celebration for me (my birthday was a couple days ago and midweek is hard to celebrate, thus the Chinese food). We starting buying tickets for summer vacation. I made a Lands End order but that was a great deal with a whopping $50 off $100 "birthday code" they sent me plus I got credit for Ebates and used a GC for part of it. Some of it was for me and I didn't need it but some of it was for the kids and they did need clothes. Yes, I know I'm justifying, sigh. DS#2 is turning 14 in a couple weeks and has outgrown his bike so we said next weekend we'll go bike shopping with him. I did pay $600 on a CC yesterday though and two of our three iPhones are officially paid for now, so that's progress. Luckily March is an extra paycheck month for DH.

 

[Eureka]

@mrsabbott I don't know what carrier you have but we have AT&T and last fall when we upgraded DS#2 to an iPhone, we had to pay for the whole phone at once or in installments with a two-year contract (which is what we're doing). Once one of our lines was up for upgrade beforehand though, our bill dropped by $25 until we signed a new contract, and I was told we could never sign a new one if we didn't want to. I'll be curious to see if that happens again bc I just paid off two of our other I phones which means the contracts are up and our phones are eligible for upgrade, although we don't feel we need one bc our phones are fine (we all have iphone6 with the exception of DH who has a 5 through work). Our bill is already going to go down by $62 bc the installments are done but I wouldn't mind it it drops another $25 per line too!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Well looks like that stove purchase is happening sooner than I thought... my in-laws are on their way here and DH was cooking lunch when sparks begin flying out of one of the knobs to one of the broken burners!!! It flipped the breaker to the stove. We turned it back on after a few and it seemed fine, but then it did it again after a couple minutes. So now it's totally off and I guess we're going out to lunch and going to look at stoves... I can't imagine HH Gregg has anything on sale already but I know they are running an appliance sale right now anyways. May check our local scratch and dent and Lowes too, since we do have a 5% off credit card with them. Was hoping we could really get a good deal towards the end of the month, but kind of hard to save money by cooking at home when you don't have a stove!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I did but she's an adult now. Why do you ask? I hope you are not implying that teenagers can't go on lower cost vacations. Growing up when we were lucky enough to go on vacation it was usually someplace in driving distance. The first time we went to Disney I was going into my senior year of high school and we drove the two days from NY and stayed at a Days Inn. By that time all four of us were teenagers. It can be done.

It's not that teenagers wont enjoy a less expensive vacation within driving distance, it's that they're more vocal whether or not they're having fun. We have traveled a lot over the years to a variety of places.
It's actually hard to find a place that everyone will like.
Dh doesn't like big cities or beaches. He prefers national parks but then the kids complain that driving around sightseeing gets boring, mostly out west where so many things are hours apart.
I guess we're all a bit spoiled.

 

[piccolopat]

It's not that teenagers wont enjoy a less expensive vacation within driving distance, it's that they're more vocal whether or not they're having fun. We have traveled a lot over the years to a variety of places. It's actually hard to find a place that everyone will like. Dh doesn't like big cities or beaches. He prefers national parks but then the kids complain that driving around sightseeing gets boring, mostly out west where so many things are hours apart. I guess we're all a bit spoiled.

Here's an idea. Give your kids a budget and have them plan a vacation. Let them know the budget has to include gas, lodging, food, activities, etc. You might be surprised with what they come up with. I don't know where you live but Virginia has a lot for everyone if that's close enough. You have the Shenandoah Valley and civil war sites, Virginia Beach, Williamsburg, Busch Gardens & Kings Dominion all within reasonable driving distance of each other.

 

[DLgal]

It's not that teenagers wont enjoy a less expensive vacation within driving distance, it's that they're more vocal whether or not they're having fun. We have traveled a lot over the years to a variety of places.
It's actually hard to find a place that everyone will like.
Dh doesn't like big cities or beaches. He prefers national parks but then the kids complain that driving around sightseeing gets boring, mostly out west where so many things are hours apart.
I guess we're all a bit spoiled.

Here's another idea. Stop taking vacations until you can all agree on a place to go. Set a goal and save for it, and pay down your debt in the meantime. I can't imagine spending money on vacations that not everyone is enjoying when you are trying to dig out of debt.

 

[mrsabbott]

Well looks like that stove purchase is happening sooner than I thought... my in-laws are on their way here and DH was cooking lunch when sparks begin flying out of one of the knobs to one of the broken burners!!! It flipped the breaker to the stove. We turned it back on after a few and it seemed fine, but then it did it again after a couple minutes. So now it's totally off and I guess we're going out to lunch and going to look at stoves... I can't imagine HH Gregg has anything on sale already but I know they are running an appliance sale right now anyways. May check our local scratch and dent and Lowes too, since we do have a 5% off credit card with them. Was hoping we could really get a good deal towards the end of the month, but kind of hard to save money by cooking at home when you don't have a stove!

That stinks!! I hate those unexpected expenses that pop up! Lowe's had some decent sales when we were there last week looking as dishwashers. They had better prices than HH Gregg, I thought. Hope you find a good deal. We are going to need to replace our stove before long. One of the burners is acting crazy on it. We just avoid using it. Hoping ours will last another year.

 

[mrsabbott]

Hubs said I should go ahead and upgrade. I got an early upgrade offer. I had to make a down payment on the phone BUT starting next month my "contract" is up and my service charge for the smartphone will go down $20 a month which is most of the monthly cell phone payment. I opted to get the iPhone 7 plus with more gigs.. my goal is to not upgrade for many, many years. This will replace my iPad which I gave to my mom (she is home bound and in a wheelchair right now and likes to watch Netflix and browse the Internet in bed at night) and my iPod which is about 8 or 9 years old and won't hold a charge. I also take lots of pictures and the camera is supposed to be out of this world!

This is my treat to myself and I am giving up getting my nails done once a month so we will stay on budget! This is also my anniversary and birthday gift for this year!

Our bill will only increase $20 a month and part of that is because I am getting the insurance in case it breaks or something. I don't think I would have done it had I not found out about the reduction in the cost of our plan.

The thing is, my husband's contract is up the same as mine but I don't know if he will upgrade. He doesn't use his phone as much as I do. But, I think his service charge will decrease also!

 

[Ngwira]

We bought our flooring. We upgraded the laundry room, bathroom and utility closet to ceramic tile. It previously had laminate. We also bought 500 square feet of pergo laminate. Bill came to just shy of $1,000 after 10 percent discount plus DH applied for a lowes card and we got an extra 10 percent off.

Our contractor is charging us $3,000 for the install. I just received a check from the insurance company today for $5,000. Looks like we will actually have $1,000 left over.

 

[Ngwira]

All I seem to be doing lately is spending. We ordered in Chinese the other night and DH and I are going to dinner with friends tonight. I bought tickets for all four of us to a local theater for next weekend, but I am kind of counting that as our family birthday celebration for me (my birthday was a couple days ago and midweek is hard to celebrate, thus the Chinese food). We starting buying tickets for summer vacation. I made a Lands End order but that was a great deal with a whopping $50 off $100 "birthday code" they sent me plus I got credit for Ebates and used a GC for part of it. Some of it was for me and I didn't need it but some of it was for the kids and they did need clothes. Yes, I know I'm justifying, sigh. DS#2 is turning 14 in a couple weeks and has outgrown his bike so we said next weekend we'll go bike shopping with him. I did pay $600 on a CC yesterday though and two of our three iPhones are officially paid for now, so that's progress. Luckily March is an extra paycheck month for DH.

Happy birthday.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Here's an idea. Give your kids a budget and have them plan a vacation. Let them know the budget has to include gas, lodging, food, activities, etc. You might be surprised with what they come up with. I don't know where you live but Virginia has a lot for everyone if that's close enough. You have the Shenandoah Valley and civil war sites, Virginia Beach, Williamsburg, Busch Gardens & Kings Dominion all within reasonable driving distance of each other.

We've done those a few times and also further than Shenandoah, to Massanutten resort and stopping by Luray Caverns on the way.
We also dislike driving and spending that much time in the car so around 6 hours away is our max for driving.

Here's another idea. Stop taking vacations until you can all agree on a place to go. Set a goal and save for it, and pay down your debt in the meantime. I can't imagine spending money on vacations that not everyone is enjoying when you are trying to dig out of debt.

I wish I could but my job is physically & emotionally draining. I need an escape sometimes. Seriously, I've left dh & ds20 home many times simply because they're not into it and/or they don't feel like they need a vacation. None of them are as stressed out as I am.

Overall, I have made a huge amount of progress for paying down debt over the last 3 years despite taking some trips. I paid off a ridiculous amount of credit cards and the one I still use gets paid in full every month now.
I'm about halfway through a Parent Plus loan which will be done by summer and then all we'll have left is a home equity loan from a small addition we put on our house. (4 people in a very small house was tight so this was a much cheaper option than selling and upsizing.)

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

We bought our flooring. We upgraded the laundry room, bathroom and utility closet to ceramic tile. It previously had laminate. We also bought 500 square feet of pergo laminate. Bill came to just shy of $1,000 after 10 percent discount plus DH applied for a lowes card and we got an extra 10 percent off.

Our contractor is charging us $3,000 for the install. I just received a check from the insurance company today for $5,000. Looks like we will actually have $1,000 left over.

That's awesome!!

 

[Eureka]

Happy birthday.

Thanks! The celebration continues today...my friend is taking me to brunch.

 

[Eureka]

We bought our flooring. We upgraded the laundry room, bathroom and utility closet to ceramic tile. It previously had laminate. We also bought 500 square feet of pergo laminate. Bill came to just shy of $1,000 after 10 percent discount plus DH applied for a lowes card and we got an extra 10 percent off.

Our contractor is charging us $3,000 for the install. I just received a check from the insurance company today for $5,000. Looks like we will actually have $1,000 left over.

Nice!

 

[Eureka]

Hubs said I should go ahead and upgrade. I got an early upgrade offer. I had to make a down payment on the phone BUT starting next month my "contract" is up and my service charge for the smartphone will go down $20 a month which is most of the monthly cell phone payment. I opted to get the iPhone 7 plus with more gigs.. my goal is to not upgrade for many, many years. This will replace my iPad which I gave to my mom (she is home bound and in a wheelchair right now and likes to watch Netflix and browse the Internet in bed at night) and my iPod which is about 8 or 9 years old and won't hold a charge. I also take lots of pictures and the camera is supposed to be out of this world!

This is my treat to myself and I am giving up getting my nails done once a month so we will stay on budget! This is also my anniversary and birthday gift for this year!

Our bill will only increase $20 a month and part of that is because I am getting the insurance in case it breaks or something. I don't think I would have done it had I not found out about the reduction in the cost of our plan.

The thing is, my husband's contract is up the same as mine but I don't know if he will upgrade. He doesn't use his phone as much as I do. But, I think his service charge will decrease also!

It's crazy how the pricing works. When we upgraded DS to the iPhone in the fall like I told you about, our bill went up by $25 even though the installment payment was more, so basically it went back to where it was before the contract expired. Not sure how it all worked but it did. And after our experience when my older DS's phone got stolen, I will always urge people to get the phone insurance. That just reminded me that ours is going up by $1 per phone in April. There is still a deductible but it's much lower than buying a new phone.