Debt Dumpers 2021

[Tygerlilly]

Well, after waiting around for what seems like forever and checking the mail daily, hubby told me our W2s were waiting for him at work today. I normally have them in hand by the 6th and am already filed by the 10th every year. Good job Walmart. Way to be on top of things. So, my chore tomorrow is to get those filed and sent off so that hopefully I don't have to wait too long to get them back.

I've been following along with the 3rd stimulus check progress and it's looking like they will push it through no matter what, which makes me happy. I plan to take all of it and pay off our loans and hopefully have enough left over to buy the last few baby things needed.

Speaking of baby things, I've been snagging some amazing sales over the last month. I'm pretty sure I have enough clothes to last until winter. Adding it all up, I have spent around $30 for around 60 pieces of clothing, burp cloths, swaddles, etc. Also just waiting to find out how/when I get my pump for free through insurance.

I get 16 glorious weeks off at full pay this time around (much different than the 6 weeks at 60% with my last two) and I plan to enjoy every second of that. We are trying to sneak a trip to Disney at the tail end of leave when baby is right around 4 months.
Looking at staying at one of the Disney Springs area hotels. Has anyone stayed at one? I found a 2 bedroom room for $145/night with free parking, so I'm thinking with 3 kiddos it is better than trying to fit in an on site hotel.

 

[afan]

Speaking of baby things, I've been snagging some amazing sales over the last month. I'm pretty sure I have enough clothes to last until winter. Adding it all up, I have spent around $30 for around 60 pieces of clothing, burp cloths, swaddles, etc. Also just waiting to find out how/when I get my pump for free through insurance.

Target has baby stuff on clearance this month. It, along with toys, are one of their normal January clearance. If you haven't, you might check out your store for stuff you may need. It normally includes bigger items too, like car seats, strollers etc. I think the last I saw, one of the Target bloggers I follow, her store finally hit 70% late last week or earlier this week.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Target has baby stuff on clearance this month. It, along with toys, are one of their normal January clearance. If you haven't, you might check out your store for stuff you may need. It normally includes bigger items too, like car seats, strollers etc. I think the last I saw, one of the Target bloggers I follow, her store finally hit 70% late last week or earlier this week.

Dang. I'm on a tighter budget this month due to missing a few days of work unpaid, so I don't know if I can swing it, but maybe I'll stop in tomorrow since I need to go out anyway. Target is always dangerous.

 

[jackers]

Depending on how some things shake up in my life in the next week or two I may have to revisit all of my goals (have been interviewing for a new job), but until then, I will provide some updates based on what I had previously noted.

2021 Financial Goals:
DH’s Car Payment: Was going to pay this off making larger payments over the next 6 months, but decided to go ahead and pay this off using my bonus from December.

Max out 401K contributions – My current contribution level will complete this, however new job may change things (If I am offered and accept the new job, I will most likely have to take a small paycut, but I think I will be mentally happier so that is a tradeoff I am willing to risk).

Contribute $100/paycheck to my HSA – I have already signed up for this, so you could say I have already completed this.

Contribute $2,500 to DS15’s 529. = $100/2500

Grow savings by $5,000. – since I give and take depending on needs throughout the year, I will do a final update at year end on this.

2021 Personal Goals:

Finally started healthier eating this past week – I hit the “high score” on my bathroom scale and that triggered me into action. Already down 5 pounds this week, but that always happens when I shock my system. I’m sure that will slow down but it’s a good way to keep me motivated.

Other news: Need HSA forms for my taxes to be complete but should be getting a decent chunk of change back which will mostly go into savings. I’ve been considering a new couch purchase so that may be funded by this as well.

 

[imbatman]

Ok, so I have a question. How do you prevent the fruits from being soggy and disgusting when they thaw? I am fortunate to live in So Cal and have access to a huge variety of fresh fruits and veggies year round. However, in order to not waste, I freeze fruits quite often in the manner you described for smoothies. Its great for that purpose as well as baking, but any other use just does NOT work well. Once you freeze fruits, the ice crystals that form pierce the cell walls so that when you defrost them, all the juice leaks out and you are left with mush.

January is when we have THE BEST local strawberries. We have a farm stand a mile away that sells the giant kind they dip in chocolate for Valentines day and they are SO good. I hardly buy them though because you have to buy a whole flat at a time and they lose so much of their goodness when you freeze them. Might as well just buy bagged frozen strawberries that are much cheaper.

I have never found frozen fruits to be edible in their thawed form "as is." It seems so crazy to me that you can't get fresh fruits in the winter. Where do you live?

Far Nor Cal here (**read: NOT San Francisco** ). I put my freezer as low as it'll go to flash freeze stuff. I do slice on the thin side and use a vacuum bag to store them in the freezer. Those seem to keep the crystallization away. Or the "protective layer" as my hubby teased me on the year I used freezer bags and left them in the freezer too long. OOOh! You can also freeze your cookie sheets first, to speed up the process. I do it so often that I forgot to mention that part.

If you're freezing them for smoothies, you can blend them down ahead of time and thaw it in the fridge for a quicker blend time. I LOVE fresh strawberries! We have two seasons of them up here.

 

[pblack]

End of January update:

• Save additional $1000 towards emergency fund outside of monthly transfers......Once our roommate gives me his rent for February this will be at $600/$1000. Assuming I won't need his March rent check for anything else, this goal should be completed in March.
• Increase retirement contributions for DH and myself.......This has been completed. E-mailed to increase mine in mid-January and should take effect with March's paycheck.
• Pay $1000 extra towards Highlander loan.......Currently at $353/$1000
• Figure out how to pay for roof replacement......I *think* we are going to push this off again. We had someone come out to look at our roof and he said it wasn't in terrible shape and since we don't have any leaks (except a small one over the garage we plan on getting patched) we could probably put this off for another year or 2.

After March I'm hoping to be able to give our roommate the boot. Even though he's hardly ever here, I'm tired of sharing my house with someone other than my DH lol. I don't regret having him as a roommate since his money helped us pay off our credit card debt and our student loans. We had an incident at the end of December where I almost kicked him out right then and there, but since then he's been ok. I keep telling myself only a few more months and then he's gone! Also, since we probably won't replace our roof this year my DH is still really wanting to replace our gutters. Our current gutters are horrible and don't really work. (This was also a big factor for wanting to re-do the roof, to have everything done at once.) I'm going to start funneling some money to another savings account to help offset the cost of the gutter replacement.

As far as personal goals go I've been trying to make exercise a daily part of my life and I'm happy to say I've worked out 5 days a week for 45 mins a day (1 or 2 days it was only 30 mins) since the beginning of January. I've also been trying to be really conscious of what I'm buying and trying to not buy things I don't actually need. We have a lot of meat in our freezer that I'm trying to work through instead of buying more and this has definitely helped with how much I usually spend at Costco lol.

Happy almost February everyone! We've made it through the first month of 2021!

 

[barkley]

We just closed on our refinance!! So excited to get $410 a month back in our pocket!

congratulations! that's a spectacular savings!!!

just for the heck of it-have you tried plugging in your new mortgage terms into an online calculator and looking at how much time throwing that $410 per month at the principle would cut off the life of the loan? when we did a refi several years ago we didn't manage to save near that on a monthly basis but by throwing what we had saved at the principle it cut over a decade off.

 

[barkley]

Far Nor Cal here (**read: NOT San Francisco** ).

how are you doing with the weather? we've been communicating with friends and family and it's crazy what some of the areas are getting (db drove into redding and found 6" of snow and drivers sliding all over the place, people's backyards in napa look like lakes, and oh lord those mudslides!).

hope you and everyone else in the bat cave are safe and out of harm's way.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Just got my 2nd shot of covid vaccine. So relieved.
I have zero plans for the weekend in case I feel icky.

 

[amalone1013]

I think January has been 3 months long already

Originally my plan at the beginning of the month was to hash out some goals with DH. One of those was going to be starting to put money aside for a small barn/workshop on our property. DH was going to get some estimates and we were thinking probably 2-3 years down the line. We have a 3rd garage stall and thought, plenty of room for DH to work in for the time being.

Mid month his grandpa passed away, so we've been mainly dealing with that... grandma is going to sell the house, so everything has to come out. House needs a bit of work to be brought up to code to sell (because Grandpa did what he wanted, codes be d*****). Grandpa had an oversized garage, a carport he enclosed, and a shed stuffed full of things, thousands of dollars in tools, equipment, etc. And then because this stuff brings out the worst in people, it changes day to day on if the family is fighting or not. So it's been fun. And then some associated expenses like more meals to go or out, we rented a uhaul for tomorrow to try and get the last of the stuff out of the house - just lots of big items to go to people's houses and bit the bullet vs multiple single item trips btw DHs truck and his cousins truck. I think we're supposed to get some money back from people on that but I don't even care, it's under $150 and will be best to get grandma/MIL/her sister out of that house because it's been dragging on and not good for them mentally.

Soooooo we've brought quite a few things home so far and have now filled the 3rd stall with 3 riding lawn mowers lots of tools, and all of the pieces to a 1920s car DH is inheriting. The vehicle itself has gone to ILs barn for the time being, but literally the only thing inside of it is the steering wheel so everything else is in the garage. Partly it just needs organized and put up on the shelving and at least one of the lawn mowers is going away so that will make a big difference. But it definitely means the timeline on the barn is moving up so that will probably be our next big thing to cashflow, while still putting aside vehicle, home maintenance savings, etc. So maybe in February I will be back with actual goals, which would be nice because I feel like I stay on track better if I write them down. Last year felt more anti climatic since we just socked the majority of it into the house savings... until we bought our house and watched it plummet

 

[slightly_obsessed]

I think January has been 3 months long already

Originally my plan at the beginning of the month was to hash out some goals with DH. One of those was going to be starting to put money aside for a small barn/workshop on our property. DH was going to get some estimates and we were thinking probably 2-3 years down the line. We have a 3rd garage stall and thought, plenty of room for DH to work in for the time being.

Mid month his grandpa passed away, so we've been mainly dealing with that... grandma is going to sell the house, so everything has to come out. House needs a bit of work to be brought up to code to sell (because Grandpa did what he wanted, codes be d*****). Grandpa had an oversized garage, a carport he enclosed, and a shed stuffed full of things, thousands of dollars in tools, equipment, etc. And then because this stuff brings out the worst in people, it changes day to day on if the family is fighting or not. So it's been fun. And then some associated expenses like more meals to go or out, we rented a uhaul for tomorrow to try and get the last of the stuff out of the house - just lots of big items to go to people's houses and bit the bullet vs multiple single item trips btw DHs truck and his cousins truck. I think we're supposed to get some money back from people on that but I don't even care, it's under $150 and will be best to get grandma/MIL/her sister out of that house because it's been dragging on and not good for them mentally.

Soooooo we've brought quite a few things home so far and have now filled the 3rd stall with 3 riding lawn mowers lots of tools, and all of the pieces to a 1920s car DH is inheriting. The vehicle itself has gone to ILs barn for the time being, but literally the only thing inside of it is the steering wheel so everything else is in the garage. Partly it just needs organized and put up on the shelving and at least one of the lawn mowers is going away so that will make a big difference. But it definitely means the timeline on the barn is moving up so that will probably be our next big thing to cashflow, while still putting aside vehicle, home maintenance savings, etc. So maybe in February I will be back with actual goals, which would be nice because I feel like I stay on track better if I write them down. Last year felt more anti climatic since we just socked the majority of it into the house savings... until we bought our house and watched it plummet

I'm sorry for your loss.

 

[slightly_obsessed]

January recap
2021 Financial Goals

• Discover - Gone! Between the unexpected productivity bonus and extra paycheck this month, I was able to pay off the last ~$4000. Now's where I admit this was up over $22,000 last January . I finally added up all the interest we have paid on it and felt pretty sick about it. Such a waste. Life was so crazy, I just stuck my head in the sand and mostly ignored this for years. So beyond relieved that it's paid off and now time to move on.
• DVC loan - Made my check list for payments. Starting on this in February and aiming for $5000 extra off by the end of the year.
• Emergency fund - $6100/$10,000
• Pay for any vacations in cash. $1000/$1800 to go for our April vacation, assuming that still happens.

2021 Personal Goals

• Focus on health. I quit pop this month. That's about as far as I got.
• Hopefully get pregnant.
• Focus on focusing. This is so broad a goal, I decided I'm going to make mini focus goals for the month. January I focused on getting Quicken up to date. We used this for years but I started having trouble with it and was frustrated with the yearly fees, after being able to buy new software every 3ish years. I tried Mint, among other things, and just wasn't happy over the last two years. Now that's updated and ready to go. I figure it staying on top of it helps keep me mindful of where our money goes and pay off debt faster, the $100/year is probably worth it.
• Get a will/trust done.

 

[imbatman]

how are you doing with the weather? we've been communicating with friends and family and it's crazy what some of the areas are getting (db drove into redding and found 6" of snow and drivers sliding all over the place, people's backyards in napa look like lakes, and oh lord those mudslides!).

hope you and everyone else in the bat cave are safe and out of harm's way.

Doing great! Snow on Weds. but it's already gone. Thank goodness because people here are idiots driving in the snow.

I think January has been 3 months long already

Yup, yup, yup.

And then because this stuff brings out the worst in people, it changes day to day on if the family is fighting or not. So it's been fun.

Oh, my heart aches for you. This part is awful. My parents have tried to make sure this won't happen when they pass, but...it will be tricky.

Discover - Gone! Between the unexpected productivity bonus and extra paycheck this month, I was able to pay off the last ~$4000. Now's where I admit this was up over $22,000 last January . I finally added up all the interest we have paid on it and felt pretty sick about it. Such a waste. Life was so crazy, I just stuck my head in the sand and mostly ignored this for years. So beyond relieved that it's paid off and now time to move on.

You are amazing!!!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Far Nor Cal here (**read: NOT San Francisco** ).

 

[amalone1013]

Oh, my heart aches for you. This part is awful. My parents have tried to make sure this won't happen when they pass, but...it will be tricky.

Its so hard. People get so weird. I dread when my own grandpa goes as my grandma is gone, my mom is gone, my sister hasn't spoken to him in a couple years and the last time was to try and get money from him. And he's told me that there are some things that I'm the only one on (others my uncle who is unmarried/ no kids is first and I'm 2nd) and that its my choice if I give my sister something I'll keep grandpa as long as I can though

 

[slightly_obsessed]

You are amazing!!!

Aww, thank you!

 

[slightly_obsessed]

Its so hard. People get so weird. I dread when my own grandpa goes as my grandma is gone, my mom is gone, my sister hasn't spoken to him in a couple years and the last time was to try and get money from him. And he's told me that there are some things that I'm the only one on (others my uncle who is unmarried/ no kids is first and I'm 2nd) and that its my choice if I give my sister something I'll keep grandpa as long as I can though

Losing a loved one is hard enough without all those extra concerns and baggage. There are a few family members I dread losing too, not only because of the hole it will leave and we love them dearly, but also because of other complicated family relationships that will make it harder.

I hope you get many more wonderful years with your grandpa.

 

[CaleCakes]

January Month End Updates:

° Discover balance $6,311 PAID IN FULL AT BEGINNING OF JANUARY!!

° AMEX balance $8125- paid another $500 on 1/29 CURRENT BALANCE $4148

° Start a Roth IRA for myself. Need to look into this hopefully this week- Still haven't done this

°Keep money in savings! Haven't touch savings since beginning of the month to pay off discover.

°Purge the garage- work in progress.

°Eat better and drop a few pounds- I weighed myself for the first time in 3 years this week. Saw what I expected. I have made a conscious effort make better choices and only eat between 10 and 6. No snacking at night and I got on the treadmill twice for 48 mins each (that's how long the show was I was watching). I hope to keep this up. I'll see on Monday if the scale moved at all. Goal is 20 pounds so 0/20 for now. It's ok if it doesn't yet because.... there's been another change in my plans...

°I know I said I had no real vacation plans other than the cruise in November that I'll cancel if there masks etc. Well I have a milestone birthday this year and my friend planted a seed in my mind that we should go to Disney for my birthday. Well that's all she needed to say and I was on the phone getting prices. Had some trouble narrowing down dates but I was able to eliminate basically this first half of the month because my job is crazy the first part of every month (well all month really but the first week forget it). I didn't need to go exactly for my birthday so looked in parts of May, June, and August but the prices for early summer were high for what we are looking for. We want a 2 bedroom villa in a deluxe and I wanted to get a military rate if possible. So for now we are booked August 14-22 at Copper Creek in a 2 bedroom villa for $6444. I will use JetBlue miles so I won't need to pay airfare. I put a request in for the 6 day hopper military promo ticket which is $301 pp (1204 total) which the 2020 promo needs to be purchased by 2/14/21. I requested through Shades and they said they may not get to every request before 2/14. I'm sure the next promo will be similar, maybe a few dollars more which is ok. The kicker here is after I did the booking my friend tells me she may decide not to go because it is "not the same" with the restrictions and muted experiences. I decided that is ok and I still plan on going with the kids and DH if he is able. I'll still wake up in Disney even if I have to wear a mask outside my room. I know what to expect and when I'm sufficiently annoyed with it I'll go back to the hotel and hang by the pool. My kids love the water. Speaking of kids, the trip will actually fall on my daughters 4th birthday so it's a big secret for now. I don't have a Disney budget for this yet but currently paid $200/$6444 for hotel and $0/$1204 for park tickets

°Landscaping- I was given 5 palm tree bulbs but I know nothing about them (species etc). I am headed outside today to at least get them in a giant pot . I still need to get a professional over here to get some ideas on how to change up the beds.

°Other things on my mind:
- getting my taxes done. I've never had to pay but this year I feel I will need to pay.
- house refinance is still underway currently in underwriting. I think the rate is currently at 2.7% down from 3.99%. I don't think we will save much monthly but in the long run it'll be a huge savings in interest. The appraisal came back amazing and we are very pleased with the equity we have built in just over a years time.
- I want to look for a new job. There are lots of challenges with the operation of the job itself coupled with lack of any benefits what so ever. I'm just feeling defeated by it and I am not a quitter but I do know when I am not happy, and I am almost there.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

 

[pblack]

Discover balance $6,311 PAID IN FULL AT BEGINNING OF JANUARY!!

Id give you a banana dance but my phone is wanting to be stupid and not giving me the option. So instead, congratulations!! Thats amazing!

 

[WeatherLights]

@amalone1013, I'm so sorry for your loss and having to deal with the family issues on top of your grief. Many hugs for you!

January was a bit less spendy than the previous months, so that's good. My main goal has been to keep up with retirement and HSA savings and getting the mortgage paid off early. We continue to be on track with those things. But, ugh, I'm really struggling to stay happy at my job and without that income things would get really tight. We are financially comfortable on both our incomes, which is awesome, but not so financially comfortable that losing half our wages would work out well.

"Just one day at a time" is a cliché but thinking that way really does help me keep at it. I'm going to focus on productivity and gratefulness at work next week and take the Anna approach--do the next right thing--and not think about ALL the things all at the same time.

Edit: I forgot to mention, Disney related, that I finally bought a coupe of magic candle company candles. I've been wanting to try them ever since I read about Disney scented candles (probably on this board) but I rarely make "frivolous" purchases. I got the pirate life and beach resort scents. They both smell very nice, but I'm not getting much of a reminiscence of POTC from the pirate life one.