Debt Dumpers - 2019

[crazycatstacy]

Paid off my Disney trip today! YAY! Now we have to just save up spending money. I have about $150 in rewards from my Disney Visa that I will cash out and we are doing a DVC tour and getting $150 in gift cards for doing it, so that will be nice! I can't wait to be in Disney again!

 

[StacyStrong]

Paid off my Disney trip today! YAY! Now we have to just save up spending money. I have about $150 in rewards from my Disney Visa that I will cash out and we are doing a DVC tour and getting $150 in gift cards for doing it, so that will be nice! I can't wait to be in Disney again!

Congrats on paying it off!!!

I leave in 2 days and 21 hours! We are building droids, going to typhoon lagoon, and going to the Halloween party this time.

 

[jen7233]

Paid off my Disney trip today! YAY! Now we have to just save up spending money. I have about $150 in rewards from my Disney Visa that I will cash out and we are doing a DVC tour and getting $150 in gift cards for doing it, so that will be nice! I can't wait to be in Disney again!

Way to go on paying off your trip!

That's a good enough reason to do a DVC tour, getting $150 in gift cards!? Do you pick the location of the tour? Last visit I stopped and chatted with a DVC rep in the Poly. I liked that they weren't excessively pushy, because that doesn't work with me and turns me off and I will only be contemplating my exit when I feel salesman get annoying. I have no problems saying no to salesman in the end, just a harder time finding my breakaway to put a cap on it when I've heard all I want to hear. However, the DVC rep was very pleasant and I felt straightforward. But anyway, we got the basic numbers and ran them back in our hotel room, with just the raw numbers it seemed like if we (or our parents-now that would have been the real deal maker, though completely impossible as they never would have, but let's just say IF) had bought some years ago and passed it on it may have been quite worthwhile. We also estimated how many visits, etc., in our calculation and where it would make sense to go DVC vs. other. Anyway, I'd still be up for a tour next time, especially for FPs or gift cards, why not!

 

[crazycatstacy]

He didn't say we pick the location so I honestly have no idea. I had gotten an email that said if you do a tour you get a $50 gift card. I called to set up for that and it got bumped to $75 gift card for each of us plus 3 any time fast passes!! I would love to own DVC but right now it would not be the smartest financial decision for us so my plan is to not buy. I feel a little guilty doing the tour and taking the gift card when I'm not planning on buying this visit but they offered it!

 

[imbatman]

I am going to try to use a budget app. I am terrible at doing a spreadsheet. I forget to enter things. My mother gave me her version of quick books but I am lousy at it.

There are a couple that people use in here: YNAB (You Need A Budget) which is $84/year or Mint which is free. I know that a couple of ladies prefer YNAB over Mint. I tried YNAB for a year and failed. I use a snowball spreadsheet and made my own Excel tabs.

 

[kbelle8995]

There are a couple that people use in here: YNAB (You Need A Budget) which is $84/year or Mint which is free. I know that a couple of ladies prefer YNAB over Mint. I tried YNAB for a year and failed. I use a snowball spreadsheet and made my own Excel tabs.

that's one of the ones that I'm going to try. I will try a couple and see what works The quick books is old but it works and I will try to spend some more time with it.

 

[DLgal]

Debt Dumper friends, talk to me. I've never been to a World of Color anything. Last time I was at Disney, I was with family members who were grumpy and tired and just wanted to leave instead of watching WoC. DH and I are going to CA for a day next month and I'm torn: dining package at the Wine Trattoria ($100 + tax and tip) or the dessert package ($168 total) where we can SIT!

Dessert party all the way. Wine Country Trattoria has always been such a disappointment to me. The food is just not anything special. Having a seat at WOC is totally worth the dessert party price tag!

 

[imbatman]

I need to get better about cooking at home. Family life has sped up and I've fallen to the ease of catching something on the go. Spending my lunch hour collecting ideas and quick recipes to incorporate for the rest of the month. Gotta get the freezer cleaned out in time for the turkey sales!

 

[crazycatstacy]

I need to get better about cooking at home. Family life has sped up and I've fallen to the ease of catching something on the go. Spending my lunch hour collecting ideas and quick recipes to incorporate for the rest of the month. Gotta get the freezer cleaned out in time for the turkey sales!

Food is my budget and waist line downfall. It is sooooo easy to grab something! I believe I could save millions and lose weight if I ate at home more!

 

[pblack]

I feel like once you get into a routine of eating at home/bringing lunches to work, it makes it a lot easier to keep doing so. My DH and I used to eat out a lot when we first started dating and when we first got married, but now we hardly ever eat out. When we do eat out it's usually on the weekends. He brings a lunch every day (he drives all day long and it's not easy for him to pick up food anywhere) and I bring lunch almost every day. Sometimes I will splurge on lunch out with my co-workers.

What works for us dinner wise is quick and easy meals since I don't really meal plan. It just doesn't work for us since I never know what i'm going to be hungry for. (I usually decide dinners since DH doesn't care and is less picky than I am.) Some of my quick and easy go to meals are: spaghetti, soft tacos, grilled/air fryer chicken w/ rice and veggies, grilled meats w/ rice or potatoes and veggies (we bbq all year long), burrito bowls, crock pot pot roast, lasagna soup, potato soup, and copycat panera chicken and wild rice soup (this one takes a little longer than the other 2 soups). We also always have frozen pizzas and frozen breaded chicken breasts in our freezer. I'll also stock up on frozen lasagna when I can find the Stouffer's kind for $5 at Safeway or Raleys/Bel-Air.

 

[imbatman]

I'll also stock up on frozen lasagna when I can find the Stouffer's kind for $5 at Safeway or Raleys/Bel-Air.

Tell me when you see those! My family LOVES lasagna. Me, not so much. But I like to have a couple on hand for them.

Tonight, I'm putting some chicken in the crockpot and cooking it while I clean out the freezer. The rain is supposed to move in around 10 pm and I'm SO EXCITED! Just an overnight shower, but I hope it'll knock down the smoke we have.

 

[jen7233]

I feel like once you get into a routine of eating at home/bringing lunches to work, it makes it a lot easier to keep doing so. My DH and I used to eat out a lot when we first started dating and when we first got married, but now we hardly ever eat out. When we do eat out it's usually on the weekends. He brings a lunch every day (he drives all day long and it's not easy for him to pick up food anywhere) and I bring lunch almost every day. Sometimes I will splurge on lunch out with my co-workers.

What works for us dinner wise is quick and easy meals since I don't really meal plan. It just doesn't work for us since I never know what i'm going to be hungry for. (I usually decide dinners since DH doesn't care and is less picky than I am.) Some of my quick and easy go to meals are: spaghetti, soft tacos, grilled/air fryer chicken w/ rice and veggies, grilled meats w/ rice or potatoes and veggies (we bbq all year long), burrito bowls, crock pot pot roast, lasagna soup, potato soup, and copycat panera chicken and wild rice soup (this one takes a little longer than the other 2 soups). We also always have frozen pizzas and frozen breaded chicken breasts in our freezer. I'll also stock up on frozen lasagna when I can find the Stouffer's kind for $5 at Safeway or Raleys/Bel-Air.

I am with you on what works for me, quick and easy dinner meals. I've tried recipe type dinners, I feel I waste more money and time than anything. And then, the kids don't seem to care for it so I like to keep it simple. Last night I did baked barbeque chicken and frozen corn, the night before I did turkey sausage, with rice and frozen broccoli. Monday I bought a rotisserie chicken (though I should check Costco first) and made a chicken salad with it, just cutting tomatoes and the chicken since I went quick and easy and bought premade salad bags. Lunch, however, doesn't work this way! DHs work, not really possible. Breakfast are usually the cheapest and easiest here, my kids just like a few favorite things.

 

[EilonwyWanderer]

Banks are so dumb and I just have to vent:

We have an unwarrantable condo since one guy owns more than 20% of the building and rents them out. This wasn't a problem back when the bank first gave us a mortgage, but now apparently is a problem due to things changing after the crash, so no one will refinance us because it's deemed too risky.

They will, however, give us a home equity loan that's only 11k less than what we owe on the mortgage. Like, c'mon guys! Do you not see how dumb that is?

Our plans to zero out our debt by selling our place and renting somewhere bigger were also dashed due to discrimination when we tried to rent. Our state has very strict laws on lead and children under 6 (of which we have two) and realtors would GHOST on us once they realized we had young children. We had one realtor tell us a 2 bedroom that was 300 square feet BIGGER than our current place would be "too small" and refused to even show it to us and had TWO places go to the lengths of pulling their listings so that they didn't have to rent to us. It was so incredibly disheartening that after a few months we just decided we're stuck where we are for at least another two years before we can try again.

So, in the meantime, we've taken out a home equity loan that will allow us to consolidate our debt into one big monthly payment that will still be less than all the little payments combined. I'm not thrilled with this outcome, but it appears to be what we're stuck with for now.

 

[jen7233]

So, I'm terrible with Swagbucks earning, and quite honestly am not giving any more effort to it, but just cashed out $50 in Regal Cinemas with Microsoft Rewards. Ready for Star Wars movie tickets! I think they go on sale Monday. The (third?) trailer is supposed to be released during Monday Night Football.

 

[imbatman]

So, I'm terrible with Swagbucks earning, and quite honestly am not giving any more effort to it, but just cashed out $50 in Regal Cinemas with Microsoft Rewards. Ready for Star Wars movie tickets! I think they go on sale Monday. The (third?) trailer is supposed to be released during Monday Night Football.

One of the few redeeming qualities of the DH's job is that the boss is a total Star Wars nut and rents out the entire theater. We get to see it twice on opening day!

 

[MegWheels]

Has anyone ever gotten credit for a referral of a Disney Visa? I finally talked my mom into getting one so we could use it to pay down our trip! I read online that it is applied as a statement credit. I always thought it would just be applied to my account in rewards dollars to load onto a redemption card. Which one is it? I very rarely use my card, except for when I am in the parks or at a Disney Store so that I can get the applicable discounts. I'm worried I'll lose out on the referral bonus if it's a statement credit. Will it stay on my account for a while or will it go away after a month or so?

 

[amalone1013]

Has anyone ever gotten credit for a referral of a Disney Visa? I finally talked my mom into getting one so we could use it to pay down our trip! I read online that it is applied as a statement credit. I always thought it would just be applied to my account in rewards dollars to load onto a redemption card. Which one is it? I very rarely use my card, except for when I am in the parks or at a Disney Store so that I can get the applicable discounts. I'm worried I'll lose out on the referral bonus if it's a statement credit. Will it stay on my account for a while or will it go away after a month or so?

The referral bonus for you should be $100 reward dollars you can load to your redemption card. The sign up bonus for a new card used to be a Disney gift card but now it is given as a statement credit, so that is what your mom would be getting. I almost never use my card either, but if you would end up with a statement credit it would stay on your account unless you requested the balance was mailed to you by check (some cards will do that automatically after a certain amount of time) or spent whatever the amount of the credit was to bring your balance back to zero.

 

[Scoobie]

So, realized DS 27 (special needs) was going to need new tennis shoes before the trip - so had to hurry and figure that out. He is super picky, has had the same 3 pair of Nike for 4 years since I can never get him to go shoe shopping. They are all super worn. Started looking online a few days ago for styles similar to his, and Nike still makes them! Except they aren't cheap (paid almost $500 for the 3 pairs he's been wearing, but he really wears 'em out so we got our moneys worth I guess). Found 2 of the 3 colors, and both on sale!! Went to buy them, and my Rakuten (used to be ebates) popped up and said there were 2 coupons to apply, saved 15% more. They were already a good price, then saved $36 more. And 4% cash back. Shoe shopping for him was never easier or cheaper!! And he's happy, that was the priority. And no one had to leave the house........

 

[DisneyHardin]

Has anyone ever gotten credit for a referral of a Disney Visa? I finally talked my mom into getting one so we could use it to pay down our trip! I read online that it is applied as a statement credit. I always thought it would just be applied to my account in rewards dollars to load onto a redemption card. Which one is it? I very rarely use my card, except for when I am in the parks or at a Disney Store so that I can get the applicable discounts. I'm worried I'll lose out on the referral bonus if it's a statement credit. Will it stay on my account for a while or will it go away after a month or so?

We just did it. We had a Disney Visa in DH's name and he "referred" me. I got a $200 statement credit on my first bill after I charged $500. On the next statement cycle, we had $100 worth of rewards added to DH's card.

 

[WVMomof3]

So, realized DS 27 (special needs) was going to need new tennis shoes before the trip - so had to hurry and figure that out. He is super picky, has had the same 3 pair of Nike for 4 years since I can never get him to go shoe shopping. They are all super worn. Started looking online a few days ago for styles similar to his, and Nike still makes them! Except they aren't cheap (paid almost $500 for the 3 pairs he's been wearing, but he really wears 'em out so we got our moneys worth I guess). Found 2 of the 3 colors, and both on sale!! Went to buy them, and my Rakuten (used to be ebates) popped up and said there were 2 coupons to apply, saved 15% more. They were already a good price, then saved $36 more. And 4% cash back. Shoe shopping for him was never easier or cheaper!! And he's happy, that was the priority. And no one had to leave the house........

I did the same thing recently with my son. He is 17 and shoes have always been a nightmare shopping with him. So I looked at his old shoes and ordered the exact same pair. They come in the mail and he hated them! lol Oy. He said they did not fit the same. So returned them and he is still wearing his old pair. This was several months ago and he hasn't complained about the old pair anymore, but they definitely need replaced soon.