Debt Dumpers - 2019

[Dentam]

At the emergency vet with my dog until midnight last night. Looks like she will need TPLO surgery on her back leg. I am very glad I have pet insurance, which will cover 90% of the cost over my 1k deductible, including any physical therapy or acupuncture she might need after the surgery. Already almost at that amount after the emergency vet and the appt with the specialist this afternoon. I will have to cancel my upcoming trip home for the 4th to stay here with her. She isn't very mobile .

 

[barkley]

On subscriptions topic:
We cancelled Sirius radio for DH before the 1 July auto renewal, he confirmed he's good to use his phone apps and plug that in for music in the car. He's had it for several years, which I had been giving as part of Father's Day gifts. Wonder how he'll get used to no Sirius. I have it right now, but also considering if I will renew it or not when it comes around in January.

if you decide to continue yours or reactivate your dh's-haggle them down on the price. i've been doing 6 month subscriptions for the past few years and the most recent 6 month rate (including taxes and fees) for sirius select i've gotten was right at about $42.00. i threaten to cancel a couple of weeks before the renewal date (and i never pay w/credit card-they can charge me the few dollars to paper bill so i can send a check and they CAN'T auto renew). it's a stupid dance with them of me saying 'no, it costs too much-just cancel it' and them saying 'well, lets see what more we can do' until we get back down to the same promo price i've been paying for the last few years.

 

[FQLover]

@Dentam So sorry for your doggie and for you having to miss your trip to see family. What a good fur-mom you are!

 

[Eureka]

DS18 is away for his Quiz Bowl competition and I noticed his car's AC is cool but not cold so decided to deal with it when he's gone. Took it in before work today and just heard back from the guy. It needs freon, a new air cabin filter, something else that has to do with the AC, a coolant flush and fuel injection to the tune of $900. I probably shouldn't be surprised because we haven't needed to do much to it lately. But ugh.

 

[jen7233]

At the emergency vet with my dog until midnight last night. Looks like she will need TPLO surgery on her back leg. I am very glad I have pet insurance, which will cover 90% of the cost over my 1k deductible, including any physical therapy or acupuncture she might need after the surgery. Already almost at that amount after the emergency vet and the appt with the specialist this afternoon. I will have to cancel my upcoming trip home for the 4th to stay here with her. She isn't very mobile

That's sad! Hope she gets better. Maybe I should consider pet insurance?!

 

[jen7233]

if you decide to continue yours or reactivate your dh's-haggle them down on the price. i've been doing 6 month subscriptions for the past few years and the most recent 6 month rate (including taxes and fees) for sirius select i've gotten was right at about $42.00. i threaten to cancel a couple of weeks before the renewal date (and i never pay w/credit card-they can charge me the few dollars to paper bill so i can send a check and they CAN'T auto renew). it's a stupid dance with them of me saying 'no, it costs too much-just cancel it' and them saying 'well, lets see what more we can do' until we get back down to the same promo price i've been paying for the last few years.

yes, that's what I do with them every year. It's silly the invoice they send out, I ripped it up but I think it was $245 for renewal.

I'm the owner so to speak of his account, since I initiated it several years ago for Father's Day as I mentioned, so been taking it upon myself to do renewals and the log-in info. They offered $60 for the year renewal after the "are you really sure, we can offer you this" bit, plus we know I ought to tack on music royalty fees and taxes to that amount also. But, DH had told me just to cancel when I said I have to make the call for renewal, so I made sure with him no matter what he wanted to cancel, and he did, so, will see how he likes using his apps for music and plugging in to the car. If he hates it, we can get another subscription. I plug the phone in for podcasts, or on occasion my iTunes library, I'll see how I like my year of having Sirius radio. It's been years since I had it in my car until now, and trying it again.
Taking a look at what my bill was in Jan, here's the breakdown:
Service 12m $60, fees (royalty) $11.46, state tax $3.57, total: $75.03

 

[crazycatstacy]

I've never ordered Bradford Exchange but they should have notified you if they added a piece to the collection!

On subscriptions topic:
We cancelled Sirius radio for DH before the 1 July auto renewal, he confirmed he's good to use his phone apps and plug that in for music in the car. He's had it for several years, which I had been giving as part of Father's Day gifts. Wonder how he'll get used to no Sirius. I have it right now, but also considering if I will renew it or not when it comes around in January.

That's what my husband and I said! Really- you are going to charge me and send me something without even a "hey great news another piece was added"!

 

[Shughart]

yes, that's what I do with them every year. It's silly the invoice they send out, I ripped it up but I think it was $245 for renewal.

I'm the owner so to speak of his account, since I initiated it several years ago for Father's Day as I mentioned, so been taking it upon myself to do renewals and the log-in info. They offered $60 for the year renewal after the "are you really sure, we can offer you this" bit, plus we know I ought to tack on music royalty fees and taxes to that amount also. But, DH had told me just to cancel when I said I have to make the call for renewal, so I made sure with him no matter what he wanted to cancel, and he did, so, will see how he likes using his apps for music and plugging in to the car. If he hates it, we can get another subscription. I plug the phone in for podcasts, or on occasion my iTunes library, I'll see how I like my year of having Sirius radio. It's been years since I had it in my car until now, and trying it again.
Taking a look at what my bill was in Jan, here's the breakdown:
Service 12m $60, fees (royalty) $11.46, state tax $3.57, total: $75.03

My husband and I bought bought new cars recently (2017 & 2019) and both of course came with those packages they give you with free satellite radio. Both have lapsed now, but they are still sending BOTH of us offers to come back and keep the service. We never used it. Both our cars are equipped with android auto and we use spotify premium as a family (which looks more expensive than your satellite, but we can use it amongst multiple people/places/devices). We really like it.

 

[Dentam]

That's sad! Hope she gets better. Maybe I should consider pet insurance?!

I definitely would! They quoted me 5k for the surgery. I will pay $500 of that.

 

[TashK]

I definitely would! They quoted me 5k for the surgery. I will pay $500 of that.

I'm sorry to hear about your fur kid. As a former vet nurse quite often we would see the cruciate on the other leg weakening also. It depends on the breed and structure but weight bearing during recovery can cause the other knee to tear.
Be very glad at your foresight to have insurance.

Was this your work trip to Paris that you had to cancel?

 

[Scoobie]

I can't believe I just found this thread. You're all my kind of people! Read back several pages (110 is a lot!) and everyone here seems thoughtful and supportive - as well as like minded. I 've been working on this very thing the last few years. My goals seem to align with all of yours - pay down cc debt (only one left!), build up savings (met my goal for the year this month), declutter my house (and sell stuff on ebay), and continue trying to stay healthy. Been ramping our retirement for awhile now, trying to max that as well- all this while saving for a DW trip and weathering life's little mishaps (just paid $1500 to get DH's truck fixed). On one income - I had to "early retire" some years ago due to health. Hello all!

 

[TashK]

Hey Scoobie

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I can't believe I just found this thread. You're all my kind of people! Read back several pages (110 is a lot!) and everyone here seems thoughtful and supportive - as well as like minded. I 've been working on this very thing the last few years. My goals seem to align with all of yours - pay down cc debt (only one left!), build up savings (met my goal for the year this month), declutter my house (and sell stuff on ebay), and continue trying to stay healthy. Been ramping our retirement for awhile now, trying to max that as well- all this while saving for a DW trip and weathering life's little mishaps (just paid $1500 to get DH's truck fixed). On one income - I had to "early retire" some years ago due to health. Hello all!

Welcome!

 

[jen7233]

I definitely would! They quoted me 5k for the surgery. I will pay $500 of that.

I'll look into it now, wonder what it can save me for future visits. I have said I won't spend much for my current dog if something happens to her medically that I did on medical in the past for my others that have passed on, because it was just so much we went through over the course of their lives after they were about 7 years old then things started going south - one had cancer eventually, the other had seizures, etc., but as we know pets are like family and it's hard to say no. Our current dog's life span from what I see for the breed is 10 years, she's 6. But, I'm still looking into the pet insurance now. We've had one surgery, which luckily we escaped with under 1k with her, and she had a time where they thought she had a blockage and those exams with xray, was over 1.5k, and turned out no, she didn't have one. I was not thrilled at the out of pocket when it turned out she didn't have one, but yes, I know, can't be sure. I try not to go to the vet for everything. I wonder if owning a cat is cheaper than a dog!

 

[pblack]

I wonder if owning a cat is cheaper than a dog!

That's debatable lol. My BFF spent a couple grand on her cat when all of sudden he was vomiting uncontrollably for no reason, turns out he'd eaten a bunch of hair ties that ended up knotted in his stomach. Shortly after that they also found out he has feline diabetes and they have to pay out of pocket for his insulin every month, but i'm not sure on the cost of that. A year after we got our cat (we've had her since she was 8 weeks and will be 3 this year) we noticed her going to the litter box every 30 seconds trying to go to the bathroom and we thought she had a UTI. Long story short she did have a UTI, but then ended up having some other kind of infection going on and our grand total after all the vet visits was probably about $1000. Luckily (knock on wood and fingers crossed) we haven't had any other issues with her since then. We've also changed her diet and got a pet water fountain to promote drinking more water to rid off UTI's.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Alright, June update. And mid-year as well!

So as for the mid-year, here are our 2019 goals with progress updates:

• Save $6,000 towards our emergency fund
  • On track. We have saved $3k towards this goal so far this year.
• Pay $1000 (or more) each month towards the HELOC
  • We have done pretty well on this so far. We have been putting $1k per month towards the basement expenses, but it isn't quite all going to the HELOC because we have some of it on no interest credit cards and I need to put about $400 per month on those cards to meet the minimum payments. The rest is going towards the HELOC each month.
• Save $2400 in DDs 529 account
  • Totally on track for this. We have saved $1200 so far this year and DD's college fund is now up to $5600.
• Pay as much as possible towards our trailer loan, currently at $13,600.
  • The loan is now down to $10,500 and should be under $10k by the end of July.

As for June, we went way over on our dining out and family fun money budget. I had DH sit down last night for a budget meeting, which we haven't had in a few weeks. I told him that we need to curb things in July so that we don't get way off on our budget. If we can be frugal in these areas, then things should be fine going forward. Other than that, everything is progressing pretty much to plan.

And the basement should be finished by the end of July. The painter needs to come back one more time (probably next week) in order to do touch-ups. Then we can have the carpet installed. The wet bar countertop is getting templated today and will be installed around July 20. Then the builder needs to come back and do some final things, such as installing the backsplash, replacing the handrails on the stairs and installing some hardware on sliding doors. The end is finally near.

 

[Ngwira]

Mid Month Check in:
1) $50,000 in our emergency fund: 75 Percent there!
2) Save $1,000 per month: Saved $500 this month and will be able to save AT LEAST $1,000 per month going forward as we only have one more trip this year.
3). Save 10 percent in retirement fund: Doing this and employer just dumped $8,000 in 401k last pay period as a bonus.
4) Lose weight: Down 33 pounds since January 1, 2019.

 

[Dentam]

I'm sorry to hear about your fur kid. As a former vet nurse quite often we would see the cruciate on the other leg weakening also. It depends on the breed and structure but weight bearing during recovery can cause the other knee to tear.
Be very glad at your foresight to have insurance.

Was this your work trip to Paris that you had to cancel?

Yes, the surgeon did mention that it is likely the other knee will go within a year.

No, this was a trip home to see my family for the 4th. I was able to change it to Christmas instead - flight prices were the same so I just had to pay the change fee, which was $200. Bummer they don't have Southwest flying into their airport since they let you change your flight for free. Oh well, it was better than losing the ticket altogether and then needing to purchase a new ticket for Christmas anyway!

My work trip to France is in late August. The surgeon recommended waiting until I get back to have the surgery done since the first 8 weeks post op are crucial. My pup is doing a bit better now with the pain and anti-inflammatory meds kicking in. The surgeon said she can even go for short walks in the time leading up to her surgery since she can't hurt it any worse... just no playing with other dogs.

I'll look into it now, wonder what it can save me for future visits. I have said I won't spend much for my current dog if something happens to her medically that I did on medical in the past for my others that have passed on, because it was just so much we went through over the course of their lives after they were about 7 years old then things started going south - one had cancer eventually, the other had seizures, etc., but as we know pets are like family and it's hard to say no. Our current dog's life span from what I see for the breed is 10 years, she's 6. But, I'm still looking into the pet insurance now. We've had one surgery, which luckily we escaped with under 1k with her, and she had a time where they thought she had a blockage and those exams with xray, was over 1.5k, and turned out no, she didn't have one. I was not thrilled at the out of pocket when it turned out she didn't have one, but yes, I know, can't be sure. I try not to go to the vet for everything. I wonder if owning a cat is cheaper than a dog!

The insurance I have is with Trupanion. It is designed to help you with bigger issues like surgeries, recovery physical therapy, cancer treatments, etc. They don't cover wellness stuff but I know that some other insurance companies do. From my research when choosing a company, the other companies didn't cover as much for the big stuff, or they had a lifetime limit on their coverage, which Trupanion does not. Most of the pet insurance sites will give you a free quote based on the age and breed of your pet and the area you live in. Mine also allows me to adjust the deductible to give me a monthly payment I can afford. My deductible is 1k, but I could have had it set lower than that and paid more monthly. Since my dog's breed tends to have more joint issues and cancers, I pay more monthly than I would if I had a different breed that is less prone to those issues.

For me, cats have definitely been cheaper! My ten year old cat has only ever needed routine vaccinations.

 

[Dentam]

Mid Month Check in:
1) $50,000 in our emergency fund: 75 Percent there!
2) Save $1,000 per month: Saved $500 this month and will be able to save AT LEAST $1,000 per month going forward as we only have one more trip this year.
3). Save 10 percent in retirement fund: Doing this and employer just dumped $8,000 in 401k last pay period as a bonus.
4) Lose weight: Down 33 pounds since January 1, 2019.

Wow, you are doing great this year - congratulations!

 

[Shughart]

I can't believe I just found this thread. You're all my kind of people! Read back several pages (110 is a lot!) and everyone here seems thoughtful and supportive - as well as like minded. I 've been working on this very thing the last few years. My goals seem to align with all of yours - pay down cc debt (only one left!), build up savings (met my goal for the year this month), declutter my house (and sell stuff on ebay), and continue trying to stay healthy. Been ramping our retirement for awhile now, trying to max that as well- all this while saving for a DW trip and weathering life's little mishaps (just paid $1500 to get DH's truck fixed). On one income - I had to "early retire" some years ago due to health. Hello all!

Welcome!