Debt Dumpers - 2019

[DisneyMandC]

For productivity reasons, I stopped sitting on my sofa and using my laptop when working from home. I am back at my desktop in the study and that means that my laptop is free to run ncraves all day instead, so I have started there since it is really passive. Also have been printing the coupons each day for $0.50, though today you get $1.00 for printing 50. I never actually print them out, I hit the cancel button on my printer once it goes through so I don't waste the paper. Always credits. This seems like it might be enough to earn about $25 each month without much more work. And when I see easy opportunities for some additional points, I grab those. And I always swag from DH's account because for every 10 points that he earns, my account earns 1 point. It is nice to get a little 10% bonus on everything that I do. Even an extra $330 towards the trailer loan this year would make me pretty happy.

I do the coupons too. You can always just save them as a PDF and it will credit as well! I do that without my laptop even hooked up to a printer and it always credits. Unfortunately I can't do ncraves or anything involving video since I have limited internet access at home, but I try to use SB for my shopping portal when I can.

 

[Eureka]

DH's agency got another extension through March 1 so they are still working. Today was going to be their last day. A big relief, but I'm still concerned about some of my friends (living in the DC area, we know tons of feds and contractors). I have a family member on food stamps too so that makes me nervous too, and I have offered to order him some food if he's in danger of going hungry.

In other news, if you remember, the delivery people said they couldn't disconnect our old/hook up our new washer and told me to call a plumber for something that did not need doing. Lowe's told me they generally don't question when the delivery company says they can't do something but looked at my paperwork and said they'll pay half the plumbing bill. So now I have $100 and change in my pocket. Will make for a nice dinner out with DH this weekend.

 

[Eureka]

I foresee that trying to get through these next few weeks with family matters is going to be an upheaval. Grandma's trust is all laid out, but there are some family noses who are bent out of shape about their "lack of." I expect exactly nothing from anyone, in terms of inheritance. Not grandparents, not parents. Heck, I hope my parents have a grand time spending what they earned. I've already been through two other family deaths where claws come out. It's painful to watch, to be a part of. Had someone fly off a handle because Grandma gave her pearls to my DD on her 16th birthday--more than two years ago. We never expected it and my DD cherishes them. I won't let her wear them to the funeral, even if she asks, for fear of comments or accusations.

The only upshot I have to report financially is that since this is the "skinny" week of the budget, I don't even have money to go buy junk food to stress eat. Just a little cushion of extra cash to get us through to next week, when both paychecks hits. Man, I can't wait to shed this debt and LIVE.

I'm sorry My grandma died six years ago and my grandpa almost three and I still think about them every day. Luckily, my grandma started giving me, my mom, my aunt, my sister and my niece her jewelry before she died so she could know we were enjoying. She also had many MANY strings of pearls, enough for each of us to have some plus several watches and a TON of costume jewelry. It's too bad people can't agree to share or just know that someone will be taking care of it/passing it down.

If I could virtually send you some junk food, I would.

 

[Eureka]

I'm not familiar with Anastacia, but Elton John's farewell tour comes through here next month and it's killing me that I can't go see him. My husband and I regret that we were too young to have been able to see Freddy Mercury perform live in all his glory. Elton John is one of those for me. So is Adele. But it would be $250 just for the ticket to go by myself. Not including parking or something to eat outside the stadium.

My mom came down and went with me to Elton in September. It was expensive but SO worth it. We had a great day together, went into DC early to do a museum, have dinner. We saw him and Billy Joel together in 1994 and I thought we just had to do this. My mom tried to find out how much the ticket was so she could give me money but I wouldn't let her...how often do you get a chance to treat your mom to one of her (our) favorite singers, you know? Anyway, I would say if there's any way you can swing it, do it. The show was awesome.

 

[StacyStrong]

I'm not familiar with Anastacia, but Elton John's farewell tour comes through here next month and it's killing me that I can't go see him. My husband and I regret that we were too young to have been able to see Freddy Mercury perform live in all his glory. Elton John is one of those for me. So is Adele. But it would be $250 just for the ticket to go by myself. Not including parking or something to eat outside the stadium.

Anastacia the Broadway musical (like the movie?), not the singer!

Elton is my absolute favorite.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

We have budget billing for our gas and electric bill to keep it at a consistent amount each month. I got the settlement notice last month saying that we could either pay the outstanding balance of $567 or if we took no action, they would just increase our monthly rate by $41. I didn't take any action and just budgeted for the higher amount in our monthly budget.

Well, I just got a notice that they billed us for the $567. So i basically now need to figure out where I am going to take $277 from in order to make up for the fact that the extra won't be spread out over the next year. UGH!

 

[Eureka]

We have budget billing for our gas and electric bill to keep it at a consistent amount each month. I got the settlement notice last month saying that we could either pay the outstanding balance of $567 or if we took no action, they would just increase our monthly rate by $41. I didn't take any action and just budgeted for the higher amount in our monthly budget.

Well, I just got a notice that they billed us for the $567. So i basically now need to figure out where I am going to take $277 from in order to make up for the fact that the extra won't be spread out over the next year. UGH!

I'd be calling them saying you did not authorize that option. Our electric company also has a budget plan. Ours just revised itself and we only need to start paying $10 more a month than we were.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I'd be calling them saying you did not authorize that option. Our electric company also has a budget plan. Ours just revised itself and we only need to start paying $10 more a month than we were.

Yeah, I hate calling the electric company. They never seem to get anything right and I end up spending hours on hold or being transferred from place to palce. I just talked with DH and we found somewhere to take the money from and will pay ourselves back over the next 5 months. It actually ends up being $200 less over the course of the year and kind of "resets" our monthly bill lower, which mentally is a bit nice because it was starting to creep up into a territory that I didn't like seeing. So I am going to take lemons and just make lemonade, I guess.

 

[barkley]

We are way down in fuel usage this month, so I am thinking about putting anything left over at the end of the month towards the deficit as well.

i think i'm going to set up yet another little savings account at our credit union so that if i'm lucky enough to have anything left over from the 'household' expense budget at the end of a given month i'll transfer it in so that if in a subsequent month something unexpected crops up OR i want to take advantage of stocking up on a good sale priced item we normally use-i can pull the funds from this account. it may only be $5 or $10 most months but if that gives me $50 or $60 extra to stock up on paper goods when target is having a sale plus offering $5 gift cards i'll be able to take advantage without throwing the normal budget too far out of whack.

Our electric company also has a budget plan. Ours just revised itself and we only need to start paying $10 more a month than we were.

LOVE balanced payment plans. we do it with our power company and recently found out that the company that sells us propane (gas fireplace and stove/oven) offers a similar program. i'm hesitant to do the one with the propane company though-i don't know if doing it means they get to decide when to fill which could mean they would pick the highest cost months of the year. we've done our own calculations and set aside 1/12th of the cost each month into an account but we choose when the fill happens and we know that may or june and november are the lowest cost in our area, we save almost $1 per gallon timing it out right, and when you're talking a 1K gallon tank, saving $1000 is awfully nice.

 

[TashK]

DH is trying to figure out if we messed up his withholdings last year (not in our favor) could pretty much wipe out any chance of a refund which may mean cancelling our cruise (not the end of the world but definitely disappointing). Really frustrated because he used his work calculator. Oh well, it's a lesson learned. I'm just trying to remember how lucky we are that a mistake means cancelling (or really just pushing back) an honestly very luxurious vacation considering our age and income and not going without basic needs or into debt.

In good news, I took a part time job offer and will go to fill out paperwork today! They can work with my schedule and it's right on my street!

Congratulations on the new job.

 

[Tygerlilly]

I want to open an online savings account to start stashing away spare money each month. I know NOTHING about online savings. Do any of you have a preference? Preferably one without a super high minimum balance.

 

[dina444444]

I want to open an online savings account to start stashing away spare money each month. I know NOTHING about online savings. Do any of you have a preference? Preferably one without a super high minimum balance.

I like ally and they have no minimums and the return just went up to 2.20%.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I want to open an online savings account to start stashing away spare money each month. I know NOTHING about online savings. Do any of you have a preference? Preferably one without a super high minimum balance.

I also use Ally. It is easy to open an account and transfers to my main bank are super quick. And they have a decent return rate.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I sold another sewing machine and was able to make a $150 payment towards the trailer loan. It is so encouraging to see the amount on that loan continue to drop.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

DF wants Jimmy Buffet tickets for his birthday. I'm going to try hard to make it happen, but it's going to be a stretch. It's not even the tickets that are so expensive, it's everything else that goes with it!

OMG, I LIVE for Jimmy! I think between the seats and our tailgate we drop $1k at his shows! I won best tailgate in Detroit 2 years ago. I've got the ultimate set up! Where are you seeing him?

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I want to open an online savings account to start stashing away spare money each month. I know NOTHING about online savings. Do any of you have a preference? Preferably one without a super high minimum balance.

I love Ally.
I used to love Capital One 360 (formerly ING) but after last year I started noticing other banks having much higher interest rates. (1% at CO360)
Our whole adult lives we had cc & car debt and we rarely saved once we bought a house and had 2 kids, so it didn't bother me. Lately now we've been packing away as much as possible, usually around $2500/month, and figured we might as well get what we can from the banks.
My kids are both still with CO360. They don't listen. At least I was able to convince ds18 to put his car savings in a joint account with me at Ally. He doesn't want the temptation of easy access so this works well for him.

I moved my accounts to Ally in June and my interest for 2018 was $200.

 

[DisneyMandC]

I want to open an online savings account to start stashing away spare money each month. I know NOTHING about online savings. Do any of you have a preference? Preferably one without a super high minimum balance.

Another vote for Ally. I think I started the account with only $1000 in it and I can’t remember seeing anything about a minimum balance requirement.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Another vote for Ally. I think I started the account with only $1000 in it and I can’t remember seeing anything about a minimum balance requirement.

Definitely no minimums or monthly fees for savings accounts. My vacation account has been $0.25 since December 9. No problems.

 

[Tygerlilly]

OMG, I LIVE for Jimmy! I think between the seats and our tailgate we drop $1k at his shows! I won best tailgate in Detroit 2 years ago. I've got the ultimate set up! Where are you seeing him?

Tulsa, Ok at the BOK center. Crossing fingers tickets are still available next month when we get our work bonus.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Man I wish I could quit budgeting money to my medical category in YNAB. I coughed from thanksgiving until New Years, then DH got the flu in the middle of December, then he got a head cold, and now he’s given the head cold to me. Granted I’d rather have the head cold than the flu, but I’m really tired of buying DayQuil and cough drops!