Debt Dumpers - 2017

[Jen and Ashwin]

Had an ok and not so ok budget weekend. Ate lunch at home Saturday and then met my in-laws at our halfway mark (we're two hours apart) for dinner on Saturday night. We picked up the tab for both of them and my brother-in-law, which I am always happy to do given the number of times they've paid for us and because they do not have the money to eat out all the time now that FIL can't work. My MIL insisted that she leave the tip, so we allowed her to do that. It blew our eating out budget, but I did a big grocery shop on Friday evening so we should be good on groceries for the rest of the month and won't need to eat out.

Took my niece to see Beauty and the Beast yesterday. LOVED IT! What a great movie. I really can't say enough how much we both enjoyed it, I think I smiled through the whole thing and will have the soundtrack on repeat today at work. I had purchased the $10 for $20 Groupon deal for Regal cinemas recently and was planning to use that to cover our tickets. When I got up to the window, they told me I had a free ticket on my rewards account that I could use for an additional $1.50 upcharge since Beauty and the Beast is a new film. That reward combined with the fact that we saw a matinee meant we paid less for two tickets than we would have for one ticket if we had gone Friday night. I used the remaining balance of the gift card to purchase some popcorn for us after we (ahem) smuggled in some cokes in my purse. I spent $4 all in between the cost of the cokes and the .88 my gift card didn't cover for the popcorn.

I can't wait to see Beauty and the Beast. Wasn't feeling great this weekend, so we decided not to go but I am hoping to go next weekend maybe. My mom will be visiting and I am sure she would love to see it.

DH and I always go to the first showing on a Saturday or Sunday because it is just $5 a ticket, plus it is usually much less crowded as well. Then when the movie gets out, it is always the perfect time to get lunch. I enjoy that so much more than dinner and a movie on a Friday or Saturday night. And if I get lucky, I can find gift cards that save me another 20% off the movie tickets. And use a groupon for lunch at a nicer place, like the Japanese restaurant that I just bought a 1/2 off groupon towards.

We have also blown our dining out budget this month, but I still want to order pizza for dinner tonight (they have a special on Mondays). Most foods right now seem terribly unappetizing, but pizza sounds amazing. I will be putting everything left over from our budget at the end of the month into dining out to make up for it, so it isn't a huge deal.

 

[Imagineer5]

DD(5) and I went to see BatB this weekend, and the candy/popcorn/soda ($24) was filling enough to be our dinner haha. We LOVED it!! And bonus, we got in on that Atom ticket deal a couple months ago, and had two reserved seats for $6 total.

Aside from a larger-than-usual grocery spree yesterday and our washing machine fix (it's been broken for 2 weeks waiting on a repair guy to have time to come fix it), we're doing fine budget-wise lol.

The next couple weeks are going to be tough budget wise though - we have a TON of doctor's appointments all lined up. Not sure how our end-of-March got that way, but between my OB appts (which are free), both DD's have check ups tomorrow (5 years & 15 months), Thursday DD2 has an allergy apt with a scratch test ($40), next Tuesday DD1 & I have dentist appointments ($35 I think), next Thursday DD2 has a Peanut Challenge at allergist (another $40). I wanted it done before DD3 makes her debut in less than 4 weeks (!!) but still, a lot to pack in. We may move the peanut challenge, depending on how DD2's allergy appointment on Thursday goes, as we recently discovered almonds are the culprit of some eczema she was getting.

I did save some $$ this weekend though by going through my boxes of saved gifts & some toys I bought during my work trip to Seattle, and realized I had plenty to fill the girl's Easter baskets! DH bought candy (that added to our grocery bill mentioned above!) so we're all set for Easter (again, wanted to get that done before baby comes).

 

[Ngwira]

We saw Beauty and the Beast this weekend. Got in on the Atom ticket deal and paid $5.60 total for 4 tickets at our local theater. Spent $35.00 on dinner at Cracker Barrel on Friday night. Ate in on Saturday. Ate in on Sunday! Paid the balance of our flooring job. Our house looks great!!! Contractor charged $3,000 for the install and we paid $950.00 for the materials. Insurance gave us $6200.00 so we made out with about $2,200.00 from our claim.

Paid off our Disney trip with the extra paycheck I got on the 17th. Now, we are paid in full. Also paid off the balance of summer camp. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, we are done with large amounts of money going out for the rest of the year and will just be paying regular bills. I plan to put $1,000.00 into our savings account on Wednesday.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Thought I was going to come on here with bad news this morning, but it fortunately worked out. I drove to NC last night and back for horseback riding (show season is starting so it's go-time). As soon as I pulled into my driveway, my check engine light came on. My car wasn't making any noises or idling loud or anything. I checked my gas cap and it was on tight. I woke up this morning and left early to take my car to my mechanic fearing a huge bill. Fortunately, he said it was just reading that my gas cap was loose, even though he checked it too and said it was on tight. So sounds like the sensor must be bad on that or it's gotten a little loose or something. He cleared my check engine light for me, but at least if it comes on again with no other symptoms, I know what's going on. So relieved! I wasn't ready for a huge bill with only 80k miles on my car!

 

[MrsTurnerLovesDisney]

So we had a bit of spendy weekend what else is new but eating out way too much and had to make a run for household items that was $110 like seriously pullups are crazy expensive.

Most of the food I was able to cover by using this month's Disney fund. If/when we get our tax returns back I'll just replenish my Disney fund it's only about $100 total but still I'm bummed that we did that. We've all been so sick with sinus infections, viral crud stuff. Sunday I could barely move and Monday went to the Dr for some shots which helped.

I've missed a lot of work lately though about 6 days in the past 2 months which I hate to miss work and I have paid time off but still.

However we cleaned out our camper on Saturday, washed it and listed it for sale. Once it sales we will use that money to pay off DH truck. Then once the truck is paid off sell/trade it for a truck that doesn't burn so much gas. Looking forward to one less auto note and lower insurance by not having a camper and a paid in full truck.

 

[MamaBelleRN]

Hi all! Not a financial check in, but our best gift of 2017

Well, that didn't work! How do you add photos? I copied the link from Instagram, but it did not show up. Does it have to be from a different photosharing site?

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Ok guys. I might have done something a little crazy.

Royal Caribbean recently released their 2018-2019 European cruise itineraries. And there is a cruise that leaves out of Venice and stops in Dubrovnik (Croatia), Kotor (Montenegro), Santorini (Greece), and Katakolon (Greece). The junior suite for two is just $2000 after the current 30% discount plus my Crown and Anchor Diamond member suite discount. The deposit is $500, but I don't really have that set aside at the moment in cash due to recently paying off our cruise to Norway.

So I called Chase and talked to them about using UR points to book a cruise. You can book a cruise with points, but you can only apply points during booking and not at any later time. She said that if we decide to cancel, all of the rewards points go back to my account. So then I got excited and I called my mom to see if she would be willing to babysit her grandbaby, who will have just turned 1, while we are on a cruise. She said of course! I tried to message DH, but he must be in meetings because he didn't respond. But I decided to just go ahead and book it with my UR points. The worst thing that could happen is that DH doesn't agree to the trip, I cancel and get my UR points back. Also, since I can only apply UR points once, I went ahead and put all $800 worth that I had left in my account towards the deposit. That will just leave $1200 for the cruise fare, gratuities and shore excursions left for us to cover. I have a lot of flyer miles, so I am hoping I can get us round trip flights to Venice and not incur that expense.

After realizing that a trip to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore might be $2-3k, I started toying with other vacation ideas for us in 2018. And realizing that a trip without the baby might be much needed. I had looked into London or Paris, but this cruise seems like the perfect low hassle, all inclusive kind of trip that we will probably need around baby's 1 year mark.

 

[Ngwira]

Ok guys. I might have done something a little crazy.

Royal Caribbean recently released their 2018-2019 European cruise itineraries. And there is a cruise that leaves out of Venice and stops in Dubrovnik (Croatia), Kotor (Montenegro), Santorini (Greece), and Katakolon (Greece). The junior suite for two is just $2000 after the current 30% discount plus my Crown and Anchor Diamond member suite discount. The deposit is $500, but I don't really have that set aside at the moment in cash due to recently paying off our cruise to Norway.

So I called Chase and talked to them about using UR points to book a cruise. You can book a cruise with points, but you can only apply points during booking and not at any later time. She said that if we decide to cancel, all of the rewards points go back to my account. So then I got excited and I called my mom to see if she would be willing to babysit her grandbaby, who will have just turned 1, while we are on a cruise. She said of course! I tried to message DH, but he must be in meetings because he didn't respond. But I decided to just go ahead and book it with my UR points. The worst thing that could happen is that DH doesn't agree to the trip, I cancel and get my UR points back. Also, since I can only apply UR points once, I went ahead and put all $800 worth that I had left in my account towards the deposit. That will just leave $1200 for the cruise fare, gratuities and shore excursions left for us to cover. I have a lot of flyer miles, so I am hoping I can get us round trip flights to Venice and not incur that expense.

After realizing that a trip to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore might be $2-3k, I started toying with other vacation ideas for us in 2018. And realizing that a trip without the baby might be much needed. I had looked into London or Paris, but this cruise seems like the perfect low hassle, all inclusive kind of trip that we will probably need around baby's 1 year mark.

Not crazy at all. Especially since you used points to cover a huge chunk of the cruise. Cruise sounds amazing.

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Ok guys. I might have done something a little crazy.

Royal Caribbean recently released their 2018-2019 European cruise itineraries. And there is a cruise that leaves out of Venice and stops in Dubrovnik (Croatia), Kotor (Montenegro), Santorini (Greece), and Katakolon (Greece). The junior suite for two is just $2000 after the current 30% discount plus my Crown and Anchor Diamond member suite discount. The deposit is $500, but I don't really have that set aside at the moment in cash due to recently paying off our cruise to Norway.

So I called Chase and talked to them about using UR points to book a cruise. You can book a cruise with points, but you can only apply points during booking and not at any later time. She said that if we decide to cancel, all of the rewards points go back to my account. So then I got excited and I called my mom to see if she would be willing to babysit her grandbaby, who will have just turned 1, while we are on a cruise. She said of course! I tried to message DH, but he must be in meetings because he didn't respond. But I decided to just go ahead and book it with my UR points. The worst thing that could happen is that DH doesn't agree to the trip, I cancel and get my UR points back. Also, since I can only apply UR points once, I went ahead and put all $800 worth that I had left in my account towards the deposit. That will just leave $1200 for the cruise fare, gratuities and shore excursions left for us to cover. I have a lot of flyer miles, so I am hoping I can get us round trip flights to Venice and not incur that expense.

After realizing that a trip to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore might be $2-3k, I started toying with other vacation ideas for us in 2018. And realizing that a trip without the baby might be much needed. I had looked into London or Paris, but this cruise seems like the perfect low hassle, all inclusive kind of trip that we will probably need around baby's 1 year mark.

Sounds like you got an amazing deal on an amazing trip!

 

[Dentam]

Hi all! Not a financial check in, but our best gift of 2017

Well, that didn't work! How do you add photos? I copied the link from Instagram, but it did not show up. Does it have to be from a different photosharing site?

I save my pics to my desktop and then upload them from there but I think others use photo sharing sites also.

 

[bcwife76]

Ok guys. I might have done something a little crazy.

Royal Caribbean recently released their 2018-2019 European cruise itineraries. And there is a cruise that leaves out of Venice and stops in Dubrovnik (Croatia), Kotor (Montenegro), Santorini (Greece), and Katakolon (Greece). The junior suite for two is just $2000 after the current 30% discount plus my Crown and Anchor Diamond member suite discount. The deposit is $500, but I don't really have that set aside at the moment in cash due to recently paying off our cruise to Norway.

So I called Chase and talked to them about using UR points to book a cruise. You can book a cruise with points, but you can only apply points during booking and not at any later time. She said that if we decide to cancel, all of the rewards points go back to my account. So then I got excited and I called my mom to see if she would be willing to babysit her grandbaby, who will have just turned 1, while we are on a cruise. She said of course! I tried to message DH, but he must be in meetings because he didn't respond. But I decided to just go ahead and book it with my UR points. The worst thing that could happen is that DH doesn't agree to the trip, I cancel and get my UR points back. Also, since I can only apply UR points once, I went ahead and put all $800 worth that I had left in my account towards the deposit. That will just leave $1200 for the cruise fare, gratuities and shore excursions left for us to cover. I have a lot of flyer miles, so I am hoping I can get us round trip flights to Venice and not incur that expense.

After realizing that a trip to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore might be $2-3k, I started toying with other vacation ideas for us in 2018. And realizing that a trip without the baby might be much needed. I had looked into London or Paris, but this cruise seems like the perfect low hassle, all inclusive kind of trip that we will probably need around baby's 1 year mark.

That sounds like a great deal you've done! And yes, trust me, if you can get away just the two of you it is always much needed!

DH and I just booked a 3 night trip to Vegas for the first week of May. Since our kids were born (2008 & 2010) we have only been away once without them (for 2 nights) because we don't have much family to look after our kids (my mom is older and not in great health, my in laws are beyond useless). One of my best friends is going to be looking after our kids (she has 3 kids of her own!) so we can get a MUCH needed trip for 2 away.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Not crazy at all. Especially since you used points to cover a huge chunk of the cruise. Cruise sounds amazing.

Sounds like you got an amazing deal on an amazing trip!

That sounds like a great deal you've done! And yes, trust me, if you can get away just the two of you it is always much needed!

DH and I just booked a 3 night trip to Vegas for the first week of May. Since our kids were born (2008 & 2010) we have only been away once without them (for 2 nights) because we don't have much family to look after our kids (my mom is older and not in great health, my in laws are beyond useless). One of my best friends is going to be looking after our kids (she has 3 kids of her own!) so we can get a MUCH needed trip for 2 away.

Thanks guys for the reassurances. Once DH got home, I made the big sell. I walked him through the itinerary and showed him pictures of all of the places on the cruise. He said it looked epic. I also told him that a cruise should be pretty relaxing, which will probably be better at this stage than visiting a single city like London or Paris. We won't have to worry about as many logistics and food is all inclusive, which should make this much more leisurely. I told him that this will probably cost less than Sleeping Bear Dunes in the summer. And finally, I told him that of all of the places on the itinerary, I have only been to Venice before. He generally likes us to travel places that are new to us both and I don't fully understand why, but I knew that would be a selling point. Well, DH said sure and so we will keep the reservation. Final payment is due in July 2018, so we have plenty of time to cancel if necessary.

I am very lucky that I can have my mom watch the baby. I pretty much knew that she would say yes, even though we had never discussed this before. When my siblings and I were little, my maternal grandmother would come once a year or so to watch us when my parents traveled, usually aboard. My mom doesn't work, so this allows more flexibility in her schedule than my mother-in-law. And this will be my mom's first grandchild, so I know she will love to spend time with the baby. Also, when I told my mom about the cruise, she was very impressed with the great deal that I found and encouraged me to book it. She understands my love of travel.

 

[mrsabbott]

It has been awhile since I posted and just spent some time catching up! To those of you who paid off debt.. AWESOME! Y'all are an inspiration!
For those if you who hit some roadblocks.. ((HUG)) Hang in there!
I am enjoying the cruise talk... I have been dreaming of going on a cruise one day! Can't wait to hear more! They do seem like they can potentially be a "budget" vacation option in terms of getting more bang for your buck!

I have been busy! Our lead teacher had her baby and our sub (who is great) hasn't taught in 15 years and lots has changed. She had a lot to learn and I had to step up and help her in addition to doing my own work. The kids were, of course, testing boundaries big time! Throw in laryngitis (the sub) and a very nasty bout with the flu (me) and I have been EXHAUSTED!!!

Things have normalized and we are getting into the swing of things! I survived my youngest DD's birthday sleepover last night (household of giggling girls, anyone?) and think I may be getting my energy back! Finally! That flu was no joke!

We have one large debt that we are paying over $500 a month towards that will be paid off in approximately 7-8 months! I will breathe easier when that debt is gone! I have already started paying towards April's monthly bills. I am about a week ahead of schedule. It would be nice to get to the point where one week' paycheck could go towards a smaller credit card so that I could get another one paid down. That is what I am hoping to do.

We still have about $800 in savings which I am trying hard to ignore. I have not purchased anything too frivolous.. well, I did buy a $9 shirt to wear to the St Patrick's day race that I did.. I probably could have done without it, but I splurged. I will wear it again next year.

But I have not given in and bought any other clothes and I have taken a break from getting my nails done until I can get my AMEX card paid off! That is my motivation!! Well.. I also gave up my nails to help pay towards my new phone, but our phone bill didn't increase all that much! Yay!!

I am planning some free and inexpensive activities for the kids and I over spring break. Hopefully the warmer temps will stick around! I am ready for warmer weather!

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

My mom was here over the weekend and it was such a nice visit. My parents are going on a 3 week cruise to Asia and the Middle East with my grandparents. My mom brought her parrot to my house for bird sitting while they are gone and then my parents will be watching our parrot when we go on our cruise in May. It is nice to be able to rely on each other for this, since for long trips the parrots get much more attention than if a pet sitter came in just 2-3 times a day.

Since my sickness has now migrated to the evening, we had big lunches each day and just a light snack for dinner. Saturday we tried a newer Italian restaurant and it was super delicious. I got lobster ravioli and it was so nice after eating mostly toast and boiled eggs for weeks. DH and I will definitely go back there every now and then. It wasn't a total budget buster, since my mom covered this meal. And yesterday, we went to my favorite local deli. DH went crazy, getting a $18 sandwich, coleslaw and a fancy drink. I felt bad that his meal was so expensive, so when my mom offered to pay, I declined and we covered the cost instead. And then DH wanted ice cream afterwards and I caved, so that was another $10. We are definitely way over our dining budget for the month, but whatever the shortfall is, I plan to take it from our family fun money fund.

Last night, my mom and I looked at the Royal Caribbean cruise itineraries for Europe in 2018. She thought the deal that I got was so good that she wanted to look at something for her and my dad for next year too while the sale was still active. We found an awesome itinerary that leaves out of Rome and goes to Monte Carlo (France), Ajaccio (Corsica), Barcelona (Spain), Palma de Mallorca (Spain) and Sardinia (Italy). The cruise is actually the week of their 38th wedding anniversary, which I think sounds super fun and romantic. And they got this deal for just $2200. I called my dad and he seemed really excited and loved the more off the beaten path ports. I know they will have an amazing time.

 

[Imagineer5]

I am so happy with this "splurge" (and even moreso that it was 100% covered by my small bonus!). This weekend we got to spend the rainy 40-degree weather building the swingset.

We need to buy playground mulch, but it's still early in the season here and not many places have opened up yet for mulch delivery!

I'm 35w4d pregnant and have less than 3 weeks left of work (14 days actually!) so excited! (Unless she's even earlier than I'm anticipating).

Finances are on track still, nothing really to report there (thankfully!). We're now focusing on our biggest, highest interest debt which doesn't have a short-term payoff due to its amount. But as long as we stay on track and don't encounter anything too big finance-wise we are still set for that 12/19 payoff date (for everything).

My 60-day fastpass window for our June trip opens Saturday, and 180-day ADR window for October opens next week - so still some super stuff to look forward to. We still have ZERO trip plans for 2018 and it's getting me very antsy! I'm on the fence about renewing AP's and doing Disney a few times again, or doing some other inexpensive trips instead. Once we have AP's, I find Disney trips are really reasonable (2-3K for a week, and I love to eat while at WDW).

 

[LinderInWonderland]

Whew! I am late to the 2017 party - so much going on with everyone!

2017 didn't start out so hot for us. My mother-in-law passed away at the beginning of February after being in the hospital for a month. She was able to move to hospice (which I was so grateful for - she hated being in the hospital) and we were able to be with her when she passed.

She left us with a lot of memories and an unexpected inheritance. Thanks to her, we now have an emergency fund and zero credit card debt. We'd been making good progress on our debt payoff/increasing savings, but it would have been one to two more years before all the credit card debt was gone. I know that she would be delighted to have given us this security.

We also needed a new car. Ours was 14 years old and on its last legs. Ok - it didn't HAVE to be brand new - but because we'd been living on 55% of our net income (40% going to aggressive debt repayment, 5% to savings), even having a car payment leaves us a hefty amount leftover to create a vacation fund and add more to retirement savings. We'll easily keep this car for 10 years or more - and will probably only buy one more car after this in our lifetime.

I am excited for what the future will bring!

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Whew! I am late to the 2017 party - so much going on with everyone!

2017 didn't start out so hot for us. My mother-in-law passed away at the beginning of February after being in the hospital for a month. She was able to move to hospice (which I was so grateful for - she hated being in the hospital) and we were able to be with her when she passed.

She left us with a lot of memories and an unexpected inheritance. Thanks to her, we now have an emergency fund and zero credit card debt. We'd been making good progress on our debt payoff/increasing savings, but it would have been one to two more years before all the credit card debt was gone. I know that she would be delighted to have given us this security.

We also needed a new car. Ours was 14 years old and on its last legs. Ok - it didn't HAVE to be brand new - but because we'd been living on 55% of our net income (40% going to aggressive debt repayment, 5% to savings), even having a car payment leaves us a hefty amount leftover to create a vacation fund and add more to retirement savings. We'll easily keep this car for 10 years or more - and will probably only buy one more car after this in our lifetime.

I am excited for what the future will bring!

Sorry for your loss. It seems so bitter sweet, but I am glad that this has put you into a better financial position.

 

[s3058]

Sorry to hear about you MIL LinderInWonderland, its great that you looking forward

March update:
October trip is fully paid off! Much earlier then expected. Although if Disney release a free dining 2018 offer next month I'm going to book that, just with a deposit and then paying the remainder closer. Free dining works for us financially from what I'm calculating since were all adults and see eating as part of our trip.

Also added all my change up since January and had 110, so thats going to be added to savings this week. Birthday season is fast approaching in my house (6 in the space of 9 weeks!) so thats going to drain a lot of this next few weeks pay and my sister has a big birthday so thats going to cost even more. But that's planned for so it shouldn't be that bad, and one of them is mine so I'll be getting presents not receiving them (I'm not so secretly hoping for money for my birthday and christmas so that I can do a disney cruise to castaway cay next October )

April goal is primarily to stay out of debt, so I'll be eating out much less (which works for me because I'm trying to slim down for October). The weather has been beyond beautiful the last few days so I've been doing much more outside which is free so hopefully it stays that way! Also my dog is officially not nesting anymore so we just have to keep an eye out for signs that she might have dipped again.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Well, at 37+1 I ended up starting maternity leave a week earlier than I was shooting for. It'll have us a little tight this next check, but I think I'll also save a bit not using all the gas to get to and from work.

We have only eaten out twice the last month, both planned. Everything else has been eaten out of our massive grocery shopping trip from February. I've only had to buy a few things here or there for the last month. It's been so nice to have everything right there and not go to the store every day.

We are on track to have one of our leases paid off by June. I can't wait to get this one gone. It'll save us about $150 a month (which I'll shuffle over to our vacation fund for our October trip).

Feeling a little stressed with financials for the next month, but I know we will be okay. Just ready to have this baby and get back to work after.

 

[DisneyMandC]

My grocery AND eating out budget is busted for the month. Ugh. I don't know what the deal is after we did so well last month. I'm really going to push DH for very little eating out next month. We have our four day trip to NYC over Easter weekend and obviously will be eating out a lot then, but I categorize that as part of our vacation fund instead. Food is an important part of our vacations no matter where we go and I'm willing to spend more on food and less on souvenirs.

We did find out DH's promotion should be effective the second week of April. Still not sure on the dollar amount, but at least we know it's coming. I'm waiting to see how much of a raise we'll get before I up my retirement contributions. DH reminded me too that we'll have more income coming in over the next couple of months with our horse show series starting back up. DH and I run a local horse show series in our area. While there are a lot of upfront costs for us, we've always made our money back and then some. Hopefully we will have good weather so that we'll have a nice turnout for the series.

I'm planning on taking this week's third paychecks and applying them towards our horse show fund since it sounds like I'll definitely be showing my new horse soon and gearing up for our big horse show in October. It is a very expensive show and is out-of-state. We will be there for a week. It looks like we will have enough points to cover our hotel for the entire stay, and maybe enough for rental car too (we will fly up there as our trainer hauls the horse for us). I have to put a deposit down with my trainer for the show in August. I really want to pad the horse show fund every month between now and then so that way I don't have any last minute stress over it.

I've been trying to lose a little bit of weight as well. I love to eat, so I won't lie and tell y'all I'm cutting out chocolate or something crazy like that, but I am trying to be more active. Our driveway is about a quarter-mile long so I walked that several times this weekend and did a big clean on the house this weekend, so I stayed off the couch a lot.