Debt Dumpers - 2019

You will love Newport Bay Club. It kind of feels like the Yacht Club. Not a bad walk to the parks either, though DL Hotel and the New York themed hotel were closer but we couldn't afford the DL Hotel and NY is only 90 mins from us so it's not the big attraction that it may be for Europeans. We splurged on Club Level which gets you extra FP each day and a huge breakfast buffet. No alcohol like in the WDW club lounges but the big breakfast makes dh happy which always makes our trips smoother. lol

Yeah, I watched a great vlog that toured all of the hotels there and the host was actually saying how Newport Bay Club was his favorite. The NY themed hotel is actually still being renovated so will be closed while we're there. Apparently it's getting a Marvel theme. I asked my sister and she said she'd prefer a Yacht Club feel over a WL theme (which is what I gather Sequoia is close to) so that made up my mind. I wasn't able to book club level on their site though but that's okay - my sister doesn't really eat much breakfast so I think it's better that we save the money. Glad to hear some great positive comments about our hotel choice!
 
Now that DH is on board, he's all crazy about forecasting future stuff once the CC, car, and house are paid off. Like: next WDW trip, buying a rental house in a different state (where we plan to move within 5-10 years), and having a savings account. CC1 has made me a happy girl today. With the points, I'm able to fly out for vacation to a friend's house and rent a car for a week for exactly zero dollars.

Last week, I got into an "interesting" debate with my BIL. He kept going on and on and on...and on about how "unfair" it is that CC points match the dollar when earned, but the spending rate is not the same. After 15 mins of me repeating "that's the way it is and it'll never change," and him repeating that it was still unfair, I ended with: "by all means, keep complaining. I'll be using my points as I can and be grateful." (part of this stems from his lack of planning and trying to get free companion airfare on a CC offer WITHOUT reading the fine print)
 
Now that DH is on board, he's all crazy about forecasting future stuff once the CC, car, and house are paid off. Like: next WDW trip, buying a rental house in a different state (where we plan to move within 5-10 years), and having a savings account. CC1 has made me a happy girl today. With the points, I'm able to fly out for vacation to a friend's house and rent a car for a week for exactly zero dollars.

Last week, I got into an "interesting" debate with my BIL. He kept going on and on and on...and on about how "unfair" it is that CC points match the dollar when earned, but the spending rate is not the same. After 15 mins of me repeating "that's the way it is and it'll never change," and him repeating that it was still unfair, I ended with: "by all means, keep complaining. I'll be using my points as I can and be grateful." (part of this stems from his lack of planning and trying to get free companion airfare on a CC offer WITHOUT reading the fine print)

I have the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and points that are redeemed for travel are worth 1.25x in travel dollars.

Of course they are not going to give people $1000 in travel rewards just for charging $1000 on a cc. That is not a realistic business model.
 


DH's boss and boss's boss came back with a really terrible counteroffer on his salary, so he had me help him write one more email and he is starting to apply for new positions. I wish they would just value him as he should be because he works so hard and does such a good job, but it seems they would rather loose him and struggle to find an inadequate replacement instead. Oh well.
 
Had a good time at WDW, it’s been two years since last went and everything is familiar yet new. We did rope drop at HS, AK, and Epcot, but never hit MK rope drops. In HS, Star Tours had some new to me scenes that I half watched as that ride makes me a bit off to continuously watch the screen, definitely scenes seemed different to me. Hollywood Studios was great new addition with Toy Storyland (yet a very crazy crowded pushy rope drop) but I missed not having the Great Movie Ride. We did all the rides there and no shows as much group doesn’t like shows so much (but I do, so we vary in the parks a few here and there) so left early afternoon. I feel like in a year, it’s going to be a park we would stay longer in when the new rides come in. We also messed up our bus time missing the earlier bus in the morning, so ended up having to call an Uber. I saw the new gondolas in test motion outside HS.

Animal Kingdom the Pandora ride fills up extremely fast once park opened, but we had a fast pass for later and went to Kali river instead, not realizing it didn’t open until 10, so that meant trekking to a different side and losing rope drop time, and went over to Dinosaur.

Epcot, loved the topiaries throughout the park, it’s all very pretty. So many food choices right now with Flower and Garden. We also didn’t stick long at Epcot, left early and went to MK.

MK we did just about everything, pretty close minus meeting all the characters. The kids were amazed with Be Our Guest and how the cast member with the cart and our order finds us.

Weather was pretty great, just a bit of rain, nothing like we get in summer, in fact had many clear days this trip and not the same humidity level. We’ve never gone outside of summertime and I have to say, I like it better in April. Hot yet not wanting to melt at 9 a.m. I’d probably like early fall, too. Anyway, lots of good things to say this trip. Have to figure out the spending damage, did a quick tally yesterday. I think I stayed pretty much in line with what I figured we’d spend. The trip began stressful the night before leaving with a family issue outside of our house but family, anyway I had to deal with right then and there or I’d be dealing with it on the trip, so the trip could have started smoother, now have some budgeting rearranging I now need to do I didn’t anticipate so early and happen the night before leaving. Still had to pack, stressful, always something it seems. Hard to believe summer is right around the corner! We stopped and listened to a quick bit on the DVC while in Disney, seems interesting. Not sure if we’d come here that often though, currently thinking I’d like a cruise next! I’m revisiting May expenses later next week, going through credit card statements as we intermixed using my CSP, Freedom, and DH’s Amex. Publix instacart to the hotel gave us 5% on the Freedom for the grocery this quarter, didn’t think that would code as groceries, but anyway, that’s the story, I didn’t have any gift cards.
 
Just wanted to give an update on dining reservations. To my amazement, I was able to book for 9 people for Be Our Guest at lunch. Also got all 9 of us into Artist Point character dinner and a lunch at Mama Melrose. The other reservations were all for less people, but I managed to get everything we wanted with the exception of Ohana’s for DD’s birthday dinner. I plan to keep trying but I booked Maria and Enzo’s for that evening just in case.
 


Checking in. Yay to all the "last payment" people. I'm so jealous! Anyway, this will be a difficult couple weeks. I've stayed on track and still haven't charged anything since Christmas and continue to pay off my debt. But, I went to visit my daughter a couple weeks ago and took some vacation time. No overtime and no diffs equal a paycheck Friday that was a full $1000 less than normal. Luckily, it's a light bill period, but it still sucks that I'll be basically poor for the next two weeks. I need to get my hair done and it'll probably have to wait until my next check. It's seriously annoying. But, I'm doing my best to stay on track and be responsible so I can worry less down the road when my paycheck sucks.
 
So final update on DH's promotion. His boss gave him a bit more money to account for the merit raise that he would otherwise have gotten. It didn't amount to quite as much as DH was asking for, but he decided that it was enough for now and that he would stay at his current position for at least one more year. There is the chance that they will give him another significant salary increase next year so he would probably consider staying if that was the case. The benefit to taking the promotion and staying put this year is that if he decide to look at for another job in a year, his salary will be quite a bit higher and he will now be in an intermediate position rather than associate, so this will probably increase his chances of getting a better position later on.

What this means financially is that we will probably be able to pay off DH's car by December or January. We would then take all of the money that was going towards his car and put it towards the emergency fund to pay ourselves back for the DVC purchase. We would probably be close completely paying ourselves back before baby #2 would start daycare. We would then need to use most of that money towards daycare expenses. But before then, we would likely have gone through another cost of living/merit increase period, so there will likely be a bit more wiggle room. We will see. But that is the plan for now.

ETA: And one of the biggest perks is that DH now gets the same amount of vacation time as me (2 days per month), so we won't have to worry about DH taking unpaid leave on the WDW trip in December because DH will have plenty of vacation time available by then.
 
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I did a rough tally and looks like our Disney trip expenditures (not including hotel, park tickets, and early bird SW fees) for 9 nights, 10 days travel cost us $2500. That total includes food, souvenirs, several extra things, the cost of dog boarding and a vet bill in there as she had to be seen and given medication while we were gone, and then the Uber costs to and from home to airport, and to and from MCO.

Food: We were not on the dining plan. Some places I'm reflecting we could have saved, well the Epcot F&G booths are pricey if you're walking around and trying things, and many of the amounts are small portioned in my opinion for the price. Also, I could have done without the Plaza restaurant for lunch one of the days, inside MK, what a rip I thought and not worth it didn't even get the bottomless milk shakes, much more enjoyed the Be Our Guest for our lunch the ambiance is better to me. Also I could have done without the Grand Floridian Café dinner one night, I just didn't feel like anything on the menu appealed to me once there, and again, didn't think the quality was worth it. I did very much enjoy the Boathouse in DS, we went on a perfect evening not a cloud in the sky with 6:30 reservation and sat outside. I'm sure there are varying opinions on restaurants and some Plaza and Grand Floridian lovers, but I just didn't enjoy it and could have went with quick service meal instead!

Anyway, overall I'm thinking how can money be saved more on expenditures while there. I think I can look to another time of maybe getting Disney gift cards when I see discounts, yes Target at 5%, but I think 10 or more if possible would be worth it better, versus having the points afterword from using cc with 2 points per dollar spent.
 
Anyway, overall I'm thinking how can money be saved more on expenditures while there. I think I can look to another time of maybe getting Disney gift cards when I see discounts, yes Target at 5%, but I think 10 or more if possible would be worth it better, versus having the points afterword from using cc with 2 points per dollar spent.
This is my preferred method. I will make a rough budget of what I think I will spend and then fine tune as the trip gets closer, I know what TS we plan on, etc, and that is my goal amount in GCs. I love using my credit card points for travel, but for that situation I'd rather have 10%+ cash back in my pocket. There's a gift card thread on here you can follow to help find deals.
 
Today my final car payment was auto-debited from my account. We now have two cars and no car payments!
:banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:

I shall be there soon!

A tad frustrated about DH's inheritance. Cousin is dragging her feet. Five months now. There was a trust and a will, but she's got a million excuses. Not like we're using this money to go hog wild. And it's put me in an awkward situation to ask twice if she needs any help. "No, waiting on a phone call." "No, waiting on the tax I.D. number." Don't know what else to do than to wait. I just want to be that much more closer to being debt free. Grandma would be so upset if she knew this was happening.
 
This is my preferred method. I will make a rough budget of what I think I will spend and then fine tune as the trip gets closer, I know what TS we plan on, etc, and that is my goal amount in GCs. I love using my credit card points for travel, but for that situation I'd rather have 10%+ cash back in my pocket. There's a gift card thread on here you can follow to help find deals.
I know, something to consider and it seems that would be a better way to go. I'm mainly looking next time at where I can get best benefit using a cc discount for Disney cards. I can do Target for 5%, but looking more into when there are deals on credit cards I see posted on the boards occasion, such as Staples running 10% off by using a certain card, etc. I should follow those boards a little closer, especially if I have an upcoming trip (but currently, none planned!) For me, I think I just don't have trips planned enough in advance! But, trip all done, letting things finish posting over from pending to accounts, then plan for pay off plan.
 
:banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:

I shall be there soon!

A tad frustrated about DH's inheritance. Cousin is dragging her feet. Five months now. There was a trust and a will, but she's got a million excuses. Not like we're using this money to go hog wild. And it's put me in an awkward situation to ask twice if she needs any help. "No, waiting on a phone call." "No, waiting on the tax I.D. number." Don't know what else to do than to wait. I just want to be that much more closer to being debt free. Grandma would be so upset if she knew this was happening.

I don’t know his cousin at all, but it’s possible it is just a lengthy process. I work with employee benefits and process trusts/estate documentation and it can take a LONG time to get TINs, court docs, etc and the you have to get them approved with individual companies, etc.

I feel for you if she's just dragging her feet, but do keep in in mind it can be a cumbersome process.
 
:banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:

I shall be there soon!

A tad frustrated about DH's inheritance. Cousin is dragging her feet. Five months now. There was a trust and a will, but she's got a million excuses. Not like we're using this money to go hog wild. And it's put me in an awkward situation to ask twice if she needs any help. "No, waiting on a phone call." "No, waiting on the tax I.D. number." Don't know what else to do than to wait. I just want to be that much more closer to being debt free. Grandma would be so upset if she knew this was happening.

We went through this too when my FIL died, except that dh’s sister (and executor) was spending FIL’s $ and living in his home. Things didn’t get rolling until over a year after his death when one of dh’s brothers threatened to sue.
It wasn’t my family and didn’t want to add to dh’s turmoil so I stayed out of it. It all worked out in the end. The house sold in a week.
 
A tad frustrated about DH's inheritance. Cousin is dragging her feet. Five months now. There was a trust and a will, but she's got a million excuses. Not like we're using this money to go hog wild. And it's put me in an awkward situation to ask twice if she needs any help. "No, waiting on a phone call." "No, waiting on the tax I.D. number." Don't know what else to do than to wait. I just want to be that much more closer to being debt free. Grandma would be so upset if she knew this was happening.
I am into month six from when my father's filed in probate. In general, the only thing that annoys me from the process is the lack of the executor telling anyone anything, but yet not surprising. I debated hiring an attorney on behalf of my siblings and myself to fight her, but, felt the end result would be me paying more in attorney fees than anything worthwhile. I consulted an attorney and we debated that I file under law of intestacy, but didn't, and the property is jointly theirs anyway. Anyway, I understand the dragging of feet annoyance. For me, I don't have the debt, in fact I would have just stuck it in some account anyway to be passed down to my kids, so disappointed in my father for that, I'm just in principal ready to wash my hands and close this chapter of life and be done, it's been a long road.
 

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