Debt Dumpers 2021

[Eureka]

In my local school district, teachers were required to virtual teach from their classroom. They let them virtual teach from their homes last spring and it didn’t work. Come fall, they were back in the classroom.

Ours are too except for on Wednesdays, which are asynchronous/deep cleaning days. But on a snow day theoretically they could have brought their laptops home and work from there.

 

[afan]

Ours are too except for on Wednesdays, which are asynchronous/deep cleaning days. But on a snow day theoretically they could have brought their laptops home and work from there.

But that assumes all teachers have the capability to do it from home. Just because they have doesn't mean it worked well or that they still have the space/internet etc to do it. Snow days are built in to the calendar, I don't see why it's such an issue.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

But that assumes all teachers have the capability to do it from home. Just because they have doesn't mean it worked well or that they still have the space/internet etc to do it. Snow days are built in to the calendar, I don't see why it's such an issue.

Maybe I just assume too much. Half the country is working from home so I assume teachers are too.
Back in July I was xraying a Philadelphia teacher and we chatted about starting the new school year and she said “And now they want us to go back into that building!” I replied, “Yes, just like we are here.” while I am probably 2” away from her and holding certain body parts of hers in my hand. We wear a face shield and change gloves about 50x per day so I feel very protected.
Anyway, I assumed from her comment that teachers would prefer to stay virtual from home. I shouldn’t generalize.

 

[EilonwyWanderer]

In our district even if teachers are only teaching remote classes they HAVE to do so from the classroom at the school. It makes zero sense. But we also don't get snow days -- on those days teachers are "allowed" to teach their remote classes from home.

 

[ctinct]

In our district even if teachers are only teaching remote classes they HAVE to do so from the classroom at the school. It makes zero sense. But we also don't get snow days -- on those days teachers are "allowed" to teach their remote classes from home.

We are the same in our district, but I think what the central office forgot when they made these plans is many of the younger teachers have small children at home. With daycares closed because of the snow, there are a lot of babies and children in class today. Sometimes quiet; sometimes not. It’s hard to teach with a crying baby in your lap.

 

[tinkerbelletreasure]

My January recap: I didn’t make any additional headway besides what we normally pay on credit card debt, but we do pay over minimums. But I did sit down and lost out all of our card balances and what we normally pay on them each month. Then I created a snowballing plan of paying them off. And I added both to my budgeting spreadsheet. I’m happy to say that we will start by paying off the smallest card in mid February. March is when we will really kick in high gear because my husbands alimony ends and we can start putting $1700/mo towards debt. I have a plan. It’s doable. And I’m excited to start knocking debt down.

 

[imbatman]

I’m happy to say that we will start by paying off the smallest card in mid February.

Starting is the hardest! Congrats!

 

[npatellye]

January recap of 2021 Financial Goals:

• Increase home project account–working on it but we are in the middle of the front porch and sunroom addition right now so we are actually draining whatever we add; the nor’easter here in CT has the project on hold after an amazing week of work last week
• Increase our giving to our local food pantries—done We’ve set up weekly, recurring donations to our local food pantry where we are meeting their high needs items: Week 1 is cases of shelf stable milk and oatmeal, Week 2 is cases of pasta and sauce, Week 3 is cases of canned vegetables and cases of tuna, Week 4 is cases of pancake mix and syrup, and Week 5 will be a cash donation. Next step: increase our giving to our local youth and family services bureau.
• Take our Disney Cruise Refund and put it into a savings account to be used for our kids to buy toys next fall for the toy drives held in our area—DONE
• Begin a retirement home account so we can buy a retirement home in 15 years (we won’t be ready to retire but I want to have enough together to buy one as soon as we qualify for a 55+ community)—it’s tiny but we have started it

2021 Personal Goals:

• Take more day trips—in progress; we took some day trips to local ski resorts
• Make LegoLand NY a priority for at least 3 long weekends—it’s not open yet so no progress
• Lose 10 lbs—in progress but down 5; I may increase this goal to 15 lbs as I get close to the 10 lb mark
• Be a bit more disconnected from work, especially on weekends and after 7 pm—done
• Splurge on new furniture for the sunroom and front porch that should be completed by the spring—not yet done because the sunroom and porch aren’t done
• Convince my husband that we should drive to WDW at least once—not even close

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Starting is the hardest! Congrats!

This is so true. It means having to face the fact that we have a problem (that was my fault entirely) and need to change our ways in order to create a solution. People in general don't like change and no one likes the feeling that they'll have to deprive themselves of things they enjoy. It's far easier to go back to sticking our head in the sand.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Update:
We have $1800 remaining to save up to pay off our 0% Discover card for ds20's welding school. If all goes to plan, we should be done with that by March 5. The 0% doesn't expire until mid-May so I'm just holding onto the cash in savings until the date gets closer. Our Varo savings account offers 2.8% interest rate on up to $10,000 which works out to earning around $23.xx per month. It's not spectacular but it helps offset the BT fee.
I'm looking forward to getting back to attacking our mortgage. It's down into to the sixties which is always exciting each time that first digit drops, regardless of the total.
Progress baby!!!

 

[Tygerlilly]

Decided to wanted to make a conscious effort to get back into making more bulk meal prepping and freezer meals. We've spent so much money the last few weeks on grabbing food out because we've been working ridiculously late hours and getting up without a ton of time to cook things. So I'm making a plan to do 2 batches of 10-12 different meals and loading up our deep freezer. I'm hoping that by doing this we can cut our grocery bill down, stop eating out, and have ready to go meals available to just toss in the oven or crock pot. Bonus is getting into the routine now will help get myself organized for when baby comes in July.

 

[Eureka]

Update:

I'm looking forward to getting back to attacking our mortgage. It's down into to the sixties which is always exciting each time that first digit drops, regardless of the total.
Progress baby!!!

Our mortgage is into the sixties now too, so cool to see it drop. We have six years left on our mortgage. Doubt we'll pay it off early (or if so, not much) since we'll have two in college for most of the time we have left on it.

 

[DnA2010]

Decided to wanted to make a conscious effort to get back into making more bulk meal prepping and freezer meals. We've spent so much money the last few weeks on grabbing food out because we've been working ridiculously late hours and getting up without a ton of time to cook things. So I'm making a plan to do 2 batches of 10-12 different meals and loading up our deep freezer. I'm hoping that by doing this we can cut our grocery bill down, stop eating out, and have ready to go meals available to just toss in the oven or crock pot. Bonus is getting into the routine now will help get myself organized for when baby comes in July.

I just did a bunch of this and it feels good!
Here's what I did:
-Cooked off a bunch of ground meat (we mix beef and pork) and separated it into meal portions for tacos, spag sauce, chilli, shepherds pie etc
-Prepped some stuffed peppers with some of the meat, some leftover rice I had tossed in the freezer
-Batch of spaghetti meat sauce into freezer
-Made pulled pork and taco chicken in the crock pot- these are handy for sammies, quesadillas etc
-Turkey soup from the carcass in the freezer

Other things I've done off the top of my head:
-crock pot "refried" and baked beans- so cheap when you use dried beans and wayyy cheaper than buying cans
-precook rice in versions seasonings for use as a side dish- freezes well
-broth

 

[jen7233]

I'd like to do meal freezing also. How do you store what you made, containers and if so what kind, or ziplocs? Any tips on defrost/cooking?

Here's what I did:
-Cooked off a bunch of ground meat (we mix beef and pork) and separated it into meal portions for tacos, spag sauce, chilli, shepherds pie etc
-Prepped some stuffed peppers with some of the meat, some leftover rice I had tossed in the freezer
-Batch of spaghetti meat sauce into freezer
-Made pulled pork and taco chicken in the crock pot- these are handy for sammies, quesadillas etc
-Turkey soup from the carcass in the freezer

My kids have been out of the classroom since last March. I was betting on them going back end of May in time to do last minute things and kids to graduate, but looks like March is our next projected dates. It's been almost a year already, wow!

 

[afan]

The work on my rental is about half done, should be finished next week. Paid off the 5k deposit on my cc today. Sad to see my savings account so low, but I know it'll be much higher soon enough. Having the work done and selling the house is great and so helpful, but the whole thing is more emotional than I thought it'd be. It long ago stopped being my home and is just my house, but seeing it get a nice refresh and knowing I don't get to live in it is a bummer. Not that I want to move back to NC, but it still brings stuff I hadn't expected. And then draining my savings to pay for it, which I know will get put back in soon enough once it sells, and that I'll be able to use what I was putting towards the mortgage to my car and vacation savings is good. Though I was using the rental towards that already so not much of a change. Just can't wait for it to get listed.

 

[DisneyMandC]

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.

Sorry, I haven't been on since last week so I'm just now seeing this. But that's exactly what we're doing! We'd gone back and forth on saving it/paying down principal, but we finally decided to pay down principal. We are planning to do a major renovation in 4-5 years and would like to maximize the amount of equity we have/cut down on the long term increase in our mortgage from the construction loan, so we're going to keep paying on it.

 

[crazycatstacy]

Submitted my employment certification for the public service loan forgiveness for my student loans and got verification that all of the "no payment payments" due to covid. I am finally almost half way done

 

[4 Ears]

Thanks to DH bonus, we made a payment of $1,800.00 on a loan today. Crossing our fingers my aggressive payment plan keeps working

 

[Tygerlilly]

I'd like to do meal freezing also. How do you store what you made, containers and if so what kind, or ziplocs? Any tips on defrost/cooking?

Yup, mostly ziplock bags. Unless I'm doing an actual meal that would go in the oven, then I put it in a aluminum pan with foil over the top.

 

[jen7233]

Yup, mostly ziplock bags. Unless I'm doing an actual meal that would go in the oven, then I put it in a aluminum pan with foil over the top.

Do you use disposable type pans? I have only glass Pyrex 8x8 and 13x9 pans, so getting together a list of items to buy for freezer prep meals that can right into the oven to heat.