Debt Dumpers - 2018

[dina444444]

DD is going to be turning one in just a few short weeks, which means that we can graduate to milk instead of formula. I went through YNAB and added up our total cost for formula over the past year. Though my Costco stopped allowing me to apply rebate checks towards the Kirkland brand formula a few months ago, we still did pretty well. We will have spent just $530 on a year's supply of infant formula. And we have spent just $465 on a year's worth of diapers and baby wipes.

We are starting to think about our trip to WDW for DD's 2nd birthday. We would like to stay at Villas at Grand Floridian so that we can make sure we like the resort before we buy a contract there. I remember staying at GF when I was a kid and it was great, but we want to be sure. So originally we had planned to rent DVC points to make sure we got a reservation at the 11 month mark. But then I realized that we could borrow from our 2020 points and combined with our 2019 points, we would have enough for the trip with the purchase of just a few one time use points. That will save us money as well as making it so we won't have to rent out our 2020 points if I am pregnant that year. But we wouldn't be able to book until the 7 month mark. So the plan is to book at Poly at the 11 month mark and then to try and rebook at VGF at the 7 month mark. Even if we ended up with a split stay, I would be happy with that.

And I am trying to figure out what to do now that Disney is changing the ticket system. We have some no expiration date 5 day park hoppers that we were planning to use and then upgrade to a DVC annual pass. But now that the system is changing, I feel like we should hold onto all of our no expiration date tickets since they would still be valid for any day of the year. Very early March and mid-October probably aren't going to be considered peak times, so it wouldn't make much to use our no expiration date tickets. That way if we choose to go during a peak time in the years ahead, we would have 4x 7-day hoppers and 2x 5-day hoppers available for such trips.

So that means that we are going to buying 2 DVC annual passes out of pocket instead. I haven't had an annual pass before. Can I buy it now, before all the ticket changes and use it for the first time in March 2019 to then be valid for a year?

Yes. When you buy the AP it’s onlg a voucher until you actual go to the parks and activate it. So your expiration will be one year from activation. You will be able to book FP+ with just the voucher.

 

[imbatman]

Hoping on the budget busting. I've been so good all year that this is actually depressing me. That $627 really hit my budget in the gut. Yes, I wrote the check but I forgot to look into the next week. And now, pain.

The only upshot I have to report before sitting down with the numbers is that I have my AP now. I have to charge some large numbers on the new CC soon for expenses next year. I want to tear my hair out, but I have a haircut tomorrow that I somehow have to pay for...

*leaves to go cry in a corner*

 

[Tygerlilly]

Got a text a couple hours ago asking me to come in to work tonight in addition to my normal Friday, which means I'll get about 10ish hours of overtime this check.

After my payment last week, we are down to $700 on his truck. I'm going to attempt a double payment there and maybe get 2 new tires on the family SUV with my overtime. It should be *just* enough to make both happen. After that, we should be right at one last payment and DONE!

 

[MamaBelleRN]

I could totally jump on weight loss thing. My baby is 18 months old and I’m still hanging on to an extra 20. I keep saying I’m going to start hitting the gym, but then...

We got the first estimate for our possible kitchen reno. I’d say that option is all but dead in the water. It was WAY higher than thought. While the idea of new, shiny things is always enticing, the higher than we anticipated price tag remotivated us to do things the right way (including paying off the low interest rate student loans). Once we have all that paid off, we’ll reevaluate and decide between doing a renovation or moving. A longer time frame than I’d like, but overall it’s the better option.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I could totally jump on weight loss thing. My baby is 18 months old and I’m still hanging on to an extra 20. I keep saying I’m going to start hitting the gym, but then...

We got the first estimate for our possible kitchen reno. I’d say that option is all but dead in the water. It was WAY higher than thought. While the idea of new, shiny things is always enticing, the higher than we anticipated price tag remotivated us to do things the right way (including paying off the low interest rate student loans). Once we have all that paid off, we’ll reevaluate and decide between doing a renovation or moving. A longer time frame than I’d like, but overall it’s the better option.

I totally understand your sticker shock with the renovation. I have been trying to keep our basement project price down, but I have spent the entire summer working on getting quotes from various contractors and have had so little luck. And it has been so stressful and such a huge time sink as well. I decided to bring in a general contractor to give me an estimate. He said that just by looking, he would estimate it at $80k. I told him that there was no way we could do that and we talked about how we could work to bring that down. It might mean scaling things back a little or getting to the point were electrical, plumbing and framing/drywall is complete, but we do all the finishing work ourselves. I told him our hard stop is $60k, but even that is much more than I had wanted to spend. He should be getting me a quote in the next week or so. I really want a playroom for DD, so we will just have to figure this all out as we go.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

My and DH's paychecks that include our raises have posted to our work dashboards, so I now know exactly what our income looks like going forward. I went over our budget and have decided on how to allocate the funds. We will be using much of the excess in Oct. and Nov. for DD's birthday and vacation expenses. Starting in December, I have increased several categories including fuel/parking, family fun money, DD college, auto maintenance and DH car. I have also created two new categories. One is for housekeeping which will cost $120 to have someone come once per month and clean the house. I have her set to do a deep cleaning on Oct. 2 and if she does a good job, I plan to have her continue. At this point, this really seems like a necessity to keeping my sanity and make sure we have lots of time on the weekends to spend with DD. And I made a fund for family pictures since we plan on this being an ongoing, yearly expense.

While I was looking at all of the expenses and allocating extra money towards DH's car, I noticed that we had enough money in our emergency fund to payoff DH's loan completely. The thought of having that paid off was so nice. And then we could just take that money that we were paying and put it towards replenishing the emergency fund. I talked it over with DH and we decided to wait until we file taxes. If we have a decent tax return, then we would be able pay off the loan without completely depleting the emergency fund.

My real dilemma is when we have baby #2. If the timeline holds, then this will take place sometime in 2020. We are talking about me getting a larger SUV that will better hold 2 carseats plus our bird when we travel to visit family. That would mean a new car payment in 2020. Plus, we would have the expense of a second kid in daycare too. It is still some time away, but looking at our budget right now, there doesn't seem to be enough for both of those expenses without significantly cutting back somewhere else. But maybe DH will get promoted by then? Or get a new job? I guess this is just all to far into the future to get too worked up yet.

 

[Aurora_Australis]

My real dilemma is when we have baby #2. If the timeline holds, then this will take place sometime in 2020. We are talking about me getting a larger SUV that will better hold 2 carseats plus our bird when we travel to visit family. That would mean a new car payment in 2020. Plus, we would have the expense of a second kid in daycare too. It is still some time away, but looking at our budget right now, there doesn't seem to be enough for both of those expenses without significantly cutting back somewhere else. But maybe DH will get promoted by then? Or get a new job? I guess this is just all to far into the future to get too worked up yet.

We actually found it was our travel that went down the most when we had #2. We travelled heaps with just the two of us and then when #1 came along. Nothing extravagant, long weekends interstate or car trips to visit family mostly. But by the time #2 had cleared the real little baby stage #1 had activities on, DH was working full time and me part time and just getting out the door to the shops with 2 of them was a hassle. So #1 went to all states of Australia bar one by the time she was 4, #2 was born then and then we basically didn't travel anywhere for 2.5 years. Have more than made up for that since though!

 

[Eureka]

We actually found it was our travel that went down the most when we had #2. We travelled heaps with just the two of us and then when #1 came along. Nothing extravagant, long weekends interstate or car trips to visit family mostly. But by the time #2 had cleared the real little baby stage #1 had activities on, DH was working full time and me part time and just getting out the door to the shops with 2 of them was a hassle. So #1 went to all states of Australia bar one by the time she was 4, #2 was born then and then we basically didn't travel anywhere for 2.5 years. Have more than made up for that since though!

Yup, babies are pretty portable until they are toddlers and then they are terrors, lol. We did not travel much other than to see family at holiday time and summer until the younger one was about five.

 

[MamaBelleRN]

I totally understand your sticker shock with the renovation. I have been trying to keep our basement project price down, but I have spent the entire summer working on getting quotes from various contractors and have had so little luck. And it has been so stressful and such a huge time sink as well. I decided to bring in a general contractor to give me an estimate. He said that just by looking, he would estimate it at $80k. I told him that there was no way we could do that and we talked about how we could work to bring that down. It might mean scaling things back a little or getting to the point were electrical, plumbing and framing/drywall is complete, but we do all the finishing work ourselves. I told him our hard stop is $60k, but even that is much more than I had wanted to spend. He should be getting me a quote in the next week or so. I really want a playroom for DD, so we will just have to figure this all out as we go.

Yes! The sticker shock is like We also have to spend some more time deciding if we want this to be our forever house. Our area appreciates rather slowly, so it wouldn’t be wise to invest in a major renovation unless we plan to stay for a good long while. We’re really torn. It’s a very affordable four bedroom house with a large backyard in a nice neighborhood, but we struggle with deciding if more space is worth a larger mortgage payment. To keep to a 50/30/20 type of budget, I would have to work more if we want bump up to a larger place. I decide something different every single day! I think I drive my DH a little batty with my budget and long-term planning talks

My and DH's paychecks that include our raises have posted to our work dashboards, so I now know exactly what our income looks like going forward. I went over our budget and have decided on how to allocate the funds. We will be using much of the excess in Oct. and Nov. for DD's birthday and vacation expenses. Starting in December, I have increased several categories including fuel/parking, family fun money, DD college, auto maintenance and DH car. I have also created two new categories. One is for housekeeping which will cost $120 to have someone come once per month and clean the house. I have her set to do a deep cleaning on Oct. 2 and if she does a good job, I plan to have her continue. At this point, this really seems like a necessity to keeping my sanity and make sure we have lots of time on the weekends to spend with DD. And I made a fund for family pictures since we plan on this being an ongoing, yearly expense.

While I was looking at all of the expenses and allocating extra money towards DH's car, I noticed that we had enough money in our emergency fund to payoff DH's loan completely. The thought of having that paid off was so nice. And then we could just take that money that we were paying and put it towards replenishing the emergency fund. I talked it over with DH and we decided to wait until we file taxes. If we have a decent tax return, then we would be able pay off the loan without completely depleting the emergency fund.

My real dilemma is when we have baby #2. If the timeline holds, then this will take place sometime in 2020. We are talking about me getting a larger SUV that will better hold 2 carseats plus our bird when we travel to visit family. That would mean a new car payment in 2020. Plus, we would have the expense of a second kid in daycare too. It is still some time away, but looking at our budget right now, there doesn't seem to be enough for both of those expenses without significantly cutting back somewhere else. But maybe DH will get promoted by then? Or get a new job? I guess this is just all to far into the future to get too worked up yet.

I love budgeting each new paycheck into YNAB. It’s like a little budget high! Two things I would love to work into our budget would be someone to help with deep cleaning and yard care. I say that’s money VERY well spent. We’re not quite ready to make those a regular part of the budget, but I plan to have them there eventually!

After five kids, I have come to the conclusion the budget all works out. We opted for a big family, so I may not always have the newest clothes and we can’t make a trip to WDW every year at this point , but we constantly reevaluate and adjust. When the timing is right for your family, the budget will work out too!

We actually found it was our travel that went down the most when we had #2. We travelled heaps with just the two of us and then when #1 came along. Nothing extravagant, long weekends interstate or car trips to visit family mostly. But by the time #2 had cleared the real little baby stage #1 had activities on, DH was working full time and me part time and just getting out the door to the shops with 2 of them was a hassle. So #1 went to all states of Australia bar one by the time she was 4, #2 was born then and then we basically didn't travel anywhere for 2.5 years. Have more than made up for that since though!

Yup, babies are pretty portable until they are toddlers and then they are terrors, lol. We did not travel much other than to see family at holiday time and summer until the younger one was about five.

YES! So hard to travel with toddlers. We have been in baby mode for a LONG time. I love this stage of sweet cuddles, but knowing our youngest is our last opens a new world for travel. We go to Maine every year and weekend trips here and there, but other than our trip to WDW three years ago, not much else. Another motivator to get our debt PAID so we can bump up our travel budget substantially.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Found out this morning we are getting a whopping $800 back from our escrow account! I had suspected we would get some back, but thought it would be more in the $200-$300 range. I honestly don't know what I want to do with this money yet. I could put it towards my student loan and that would get us under the $3000 mark, which would be nice. I don't really just want to put it towards vacation or anything like that. I'm thinking maybe I'll deposit the check into our Ally account when we get it so it can collect a little interest while I think on it.

Our mortgage payment will also drop $40 a month, but as soon as I get the official notice for that (not just the online form I just looked up), I'm going to go ahead and just "up" my payment by $40 so that $40 will go to principal.

We had some big bills this month related to my horse, but we're still looking okay budget-wise. Waiting for the last couple bills and charges over the next couple days before I reconcile everything in YNAB and see what we're left with from paychecks coming tomorrow. I'll have a couple more horse bills next month so I'll probably budget any extra money towards that. After that, my horse bills should be pretty low through the winter since we don't have anymore shows on the horizon.

 

[DnA2010]

My and DH's paychecks that include our raises have posted to our work dashboards, so I now know exactly what our income looks like going forward. I went over our budget and have decided on how to allocate the funds. We will be using much of the excess in Oct. and Nov. for DD's birthday and vacation expenses. Starting in December, I have increased several categories including fuel/parking, family fun money, DD college, auto maintenance and DH car. I have also created two new categories. One is for housekeeping which will cost $120 to have someone come once per month and clean the house. I have her set to do a deep cleaning on Oct. 2 and if she does a good job, I plan to have her continue. At this point, this really seems like a necessity to keeping my sanity and make sure we have lots of time on the weekends to spend with DD. And I made a fund for family pictures since we plan on this being an ongoing, yearly expense.

While I was looking at all of the expenses and allocating extra money towards DH's car, I noticed that we had enough money in our emergency fund to payoff DH's loan completely. The thought of having that paid off was so nice. And then we could just take that money that we were paying and put it towards replenishing the emergency fund. I talked it over with DH and we decided to wait until we file taxes. If we have a decent tax return, then we would be able pay off the loan without completely depleting the emergency fund.

My real dilemma is when we have baby #2. If the timeline holds, then this will take place sometime in 2020. We are talking about me getting a larger SUV that will better hold 2 carseats plus our bird when we travel to visit family. That would mean a new car payment in 2020. Plus, we would have the expense of a second kid in daycare too. It is still some time away, but looking at our budget right now, there doesn't seem to be enough for both of those expenses without significantly cutting back somewhere else. But maybe DH will get promoted by then? Or get a new job? I guess this is just all to far into the future to get too worked up yet.

we are looking to finish our basement too, but it is partially finished too...your 60-80K is a bit scary though, it is a lot more than I was thinking...we would be taking the existing space and making a bathroom, two bedrooms, and storage room and then the rest just a big play room/family tv room...

Cleaning has been a big sanity saver for me..I have my cleaner come every 3 weeks or so (ie when I go whoa things are looking dirty) when you work full time, the last thing you are going to want to be doing on your weekends with DD is clean! You already have to keep up with laundry, shopping, cooking etc right.

 

[DLgal]

My real dilemma is when we have baby #2. If the timeline holds, then this will take place sometime in 2020. We are talking about me getting a larger SUV that will better hold 2 carseats plus our bird when we travel to visit family. That would mean a new car payment in 2020. Plus, we would have the expense of a second kid in daycare too. It is still some time away, but looking at our budget right now, there doesn't seem to be enough for both of those expenses without significantly cutting back somewhere else. But maybe DH will get promoted by then? Or get a new job? I guess this is just all to far into the future to get too worked up yet.

Just to comment on this, I don't know what SUV you have now, but I made it through 2 kids and various car seats with the same 2007 Honda CRV that I still drive today. We upgraded to a new CRV from a 2000 model year when my second was one year old because of the safety features, mainly. Our old CRV didn't have side curtain airbags (just steering wheel and dash ones) and was the "high rollover risk" model. It was a lateral move for safety reasons, but I never needed anything bigger, even when we also had an 80lb Labrador who fit fine in half the back along with other cargo when necessary.

Don't assume you need a bigger car. Often, you just need smaller car seats. We had Diono Radians and still were able to seat a small adult in the center seat. The carseat years are limited and boosters are quite small nowadays. My kids are now 12 and 14 and the CRV is still more than large enough, and not having car payments for the last 8 years has been amazing. I plan to pass that car along to my oldest in 2 years when he gets his license. At that point, I'll get a new car.

If you are only planning on 2 kids total, try and make do with the car you have. You'll probably realize it's just fine.

 

[Eureka]

Just to comment on this, I don't know what SUV you have now, but I made it through 2 kids and various car seats with the same 2007 Honda CRV that I still drive today. We upgraded to a new CRV from a 2000 model year when my second was one year old because of the safety features, mainly. Our old CRV didn't have side curtain airbags (just steering wheel and dash ones) and was the "high rollover risk" model. It was a lateral move for safety reasons, but I never needed anything bigger, even when we also had an 80lb Labrador who fit fine in half the back along with other cargo when necessary.

Don't assume you need a bigger car. Often, you just need smaller car seats. We had Diono Radians and still were able to seat a small adult in the center seat. The carseat years are limited and boosters are quite small nowadays. My kids are now 12 and 14 and the CRV is still more than large enough, and not having car payments for the last 8 years has been amazing. I plan to pass that car along to my oldest in 2 years when he gets his license. At that point, I'll get a new car.

If you are only planning on 2 kids total, try and make do with the car you have. You'll probably realize it's just fine.

Yeah, we did fine with two kids in a Camry but it was a little cramped at times. We got the mini van mostly because when we travel, we go 500+ miles at holiday time and when the kids were little, that meant bringing LOTS of stuff. Especially if Chanuka and Christmas coincided. Now we have Camrys and a Rav and the kids say that feels too small some days - but they are both taller than me and have crazy long legs!

 

[jackers]

In regards to basements, we finished ours last year. About 1600 sq ft and we put in a bedroom, office, bathroom, storage room, and the rest one large space. No bar or anything fancy. Our total was around $32K, to give some perspective. We saved a little because my dad had been a well respected contractor prior to retirement and still gets discounts from local places, and he also acted as our general contractor and scheduled and organized everything so I’m sure we saved there too, but $80K just sounds ridiculous compared to what we spent.

 

[jen7233]

I was shopping on Southwest for their new released schedule. In particular, spring break/Easter. I feel like they price gauge, or store cookies or something, as the prices increase when you go back in to the website later on. Well, it did for me anyway. I used up our Southwest points and got airfare for the four of us points only and paid early bird, which was $80 for four of us each way, so a total of $204.80 with that plus fees, to Orlando and return. I know some don't like to spend on early bird, but we'll do it until they are in high school because they like to sit with dad, and I like to sit on the aisle across. Will need to get park tickets in Jan/Feb so have time to save.Anyone else heading to Disney over spring break? Ours happens to be Easter week.

 

[imbatman]

I was shopping on Southwest for their new released schedule. In particular, spring break/Easter. I feel like they price gauge, or store cookies or something, as the prices increase when you go back in to the website later on. Well, it did for me anyway. I used up our Southwest points and got airfare for the four of us points only and paid early bird, which was $80 for four of us each way, so a total of $204.80 with that plus fees, to Orlando and return. I know some don't like to spend on early bird, but we'll do it until they are in high school because they like to sit with dad, and I like to sit on the aisle across. Will need to get park tickets in Jan/Feb so have time to save.Anyone else heading to Disney over spring break? Ours happens to be Easter week.

The SW prices are nearly the same for United for my flights for next May. And I'd rather pay $12 more to not be in the cattle call, "excuse me, can I sit there?" line. Even Delta beats SW right now.

 

[Dentam]

I prefer SW over all of the other airlines. No charge to change flights if needed is the biggest perk to me and came in handy this month for my trip to WDW. I ended up with a credit that I can apply toward a future flight with them rather than having to pay the $150, $200, or whatever the change fee is with other airlines.

 

[disney-inspired]

I was shopping on Southwest for their new released schedule. In particular, spring break/Easter. I feel like they price gauge, or store cookies or something, as the prices increase when you go back in to the website later on. Well, it did for me anyway. I used up our Southwest points and got airfare for the four of us points only and paid early bird, which was $80 for four of us each way, so a total of $204.80 with that plus fees, to Orlando and return. I know some don't like to spend on early bird, but we'll do it until they are in high school because they like to sit with dad, and I like to sit on the aisle across. Will need to get park tickets in Jan/Feb so have time to save.Anyone else heading to Disney over spring break? Ours happens to be Easter week.

We booked our 'to' flight from LAX to MCO for an amazing deal of $100.

The SW prices are nearly the same for United for my flights for next May. And I'd rather pay $12 more to not be in the cattle call, "excuse me, can I sit there?" line. Even Delta beats SW right now.

We always make it work. They usually allow family boarding with small children after Group A so usually it's one parent and the older child who will go and save seats for the rest of our group.

I prefer SW over all of the other airlines. No charge to change flights if needed is the biggest perk to me and came in handy this month for my trip to WDW. I ended up with a credit that I can apply toward a future flight with them rather than having to pay the $150, $200, or whatever the change fee is with other airlines.

This is a major factor for us too. The free luggage helps a lot too!

 

[jen7233]

The SW prices are nearly the same for United for my flights for next May. And I'd rather pay $12 more to not be in the cattle call, "excuse me, can I sit there?" line. Even Delta beats SW right now.

Yes, it's nice to have assigned seats. That's the only thing about SW I'm not the biggest fan of, although once I'm seated I don't have any problems. It's just that initial "where to sit" part. We are trying to use up points from the SW cards, and the UR points. I am just bad at booking with points I think, I am just not seeing the great deals. BUT, I think it's because we are so locked in to our dates, and our time frames, it just puts self-imposed limits. I just really don't feel like waking at 330 am with kids to get ready and catch a 6 am flight when I know there will be early mornings for Disney just to save on points. Now, if it were just me and DH, I'd most definitely do it, I don't care what time I personally fly. I have to figure out who the other partners are for Chase UR. That'll be I guess a trip later on!

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Just to comment on this, I don't know what SUV you have now, but I made it through 2 kids and various car seats with the same 2007 Honda CRV that I still drive today. We upgraded to a new CRV from a 2000 model year when my second was one year old because of the safety features, mainly. Our old CRV didn't have side curtain airbags (just steering wheel and dash ones) and was the "high rollover risk" model. It was a lateral move for safety reasons, but I never needed anything bigger, even when we also had an 80lb Labrador who fit fine in half the back along with other cargo when necessary.

Don't assume you need a bigger car. Often, you just need smaller car seats. We had Diono Radians and still were able to seat a small adult in the center seat. The carseat years are limited and boosters are quite small nowadays. My kids are now 12 and 14 and the CRV is still more than large enough, and not having car payments for the last 8 years has been amazing. I plan to pass that car along to my oldest in 2 years when he gets his license. At that point, I'll get a new car.

If you are only planning on 2 kids total, try and make do with the car you have. You'll probably realize it's just fine.

I have a Volkswagen Tiguan. So for us it isn't so much about fitting 2 car seats, but being able to fit 2 cars seats plus our bird in his carrier. When we go to my parent's house, we always bring our bird with us because they have an extra bird cage for him and it saves us money on bird sitting costs. There is no way that his carrier will fit between two carseats in the middle seat of the back row.

We also have been taking weekend trips where we are taking the bike trailer for DD so that we can go biking. To get everything to fit into DH's wagon, we need to have one of the seats lowered so we can store more items. My SUV probably wouldn't even fit everything in if we tried. And neither car would fit everything if there were 2 car seats.

We are looking at the VW Atlas with the captain's chairs in the middle row. When we dropped DH's car off for service a few months ago, we took a look at it and both really liked it. I sat in the third row and it was very comfortable, even for an adult. We are leaning towards the captain's chairs because I remember my brother and I hitting each other in the backseat of my mom's car when we were kids. That stopped when she got a van with captinan's chairs and it was harder to reach. We like that it takes regular gas too, as my current car takes premium. And the Atlas gets about the same mileage as the Tigaun, so fuel costs would likely be much less.

My current car is a 2013 and it's current appraisal is around $10k-$14k, so we would hopefully be able to get a decent return on it when we are ready to upgrade. My goal is to save up some money over the next 2 years for a down payment and to keep the monthly payments close to what we pay for DH's car right now.