Debt Dumpers 2021

[Nettlelondon]

My husband used to have the theme tune to the Muppet Show as the ringtone for his work phone. It used to make him feel slightly better when it rang with a work call at some totally inappropriate moment, generally well outside of office hours.

He then switched it to a very unusual version of "The Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum" - a UK hit from the early 1980s that was only recognisable if you knew what it was, but it always raised a smile among those that knew what it was.

When he started working for himself he named his company a name that is a set of initials. People think it relates to our names but in fact it is a little, slightly sarcastic, take on how demanding clients can be.

You have to find amusement where you can

 

[imbatman]

Savings update: down to $1000. Had to help out oldest daughter financially. And while I'm lamenting the loss of the funds, I have to take the small win of having the money to help her.

*Also* red light traffic tickets are expensive. (this is the reason we had to help her out...)

This was my weekend:

Still need to finish the section to the front door and install the quarter round, but it's looking a million times better already! And, my back is not happy, but there's always ibuprofen.

 

[crazycatstacy]

@imbatman your floor looks great!

 

[pblack]

@imbatman I have 2 small bathrooms that need to re-floored when you're done.

 

[imbatman]

@imbatman I have 2 small bathrooms that need to re-floored when you're done.

I did my main bathroom last year. Cute peel and stick tiles from Amazon! You can cut them with scissors. I'm all about the easy way!

(and yes...that's a kraken shower curtain )

 

[crazycatstacy]

I did my main bathroom last year. Cute peel and stick tiles from Amazon! You can cut them with scissors. I'm all about the easy way!
View attachment 588785
(and yes...that's a kraken shower curtain )

I am glad to know the amazon ones are easy to cut. I am purchasing them to put in the cabinets under the kitchen and bathroom sinks!

 

[imbatman]

I am glad to know the amazon ones are easy to cut. I am purchasing them to put in the cabinets under the kitchen and bathroom sinks!

Prep, prep, prep! I cleaned the flooring with two types of cleaner and a stripper (not THAT kind). Between the cleaning, I sanded with a medium grit. It's my main bathroom and none of them have come up!

 

[crazycatstacy]

Prep, prep, prep! I cleaned the flooring with two types of cleaner and a stripper (not THAT kind). Between the cleaning, I sanded with a medium grit. It's my main bathroom and none of them have come up!

Well, that's a lot more work than I thought! I will check the yellow pages for available strippers to help!

In I like to spend money news, I texted my nephew's mom and asked if he needed anything for school and his stepdad said he is in desperate need of clothes. He has been homeschooled and doesn't have the greatest homelife so I am fairly certain his daily outfit has been pajama pants for several years. When we had him in Jacksonville we bought him some shirts, shorts, underwear, socks and new shoes to wear when he was with us (and then we send them home with him). Under Armour is having a good sale and we are first responders so even more of a discount- sent him three pairs of pants and three shirts for school and ordered shorts, swim trunks and swim shirt to take to Disney in December.

 

[barkley]

and yes...that's a kraken shower curtain )

i like it better than what is in ours-the transporter room from the original star trek complete with matching bath mat and a communication panel on the wall as you enter the bathroom

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

i like it better than what is in ours-the transporter room from the original star trek complete with matching bath mat and a communication panel on the wall as you enter the bathroom

My FIL would have gone crazy for this.

 

[huggybuff]

Oh my, that was a lot to catch up on! I slowly made my way through the thread over the last month or so when I had the time. Glad to see everyone on task even when dealing with life's curveballs, both happy and sad. Here's my update...

2021 Financial Goals:

• Continue to settle accounts through my debt settlement program. I would love to get all accounts settled (though not fully paid off) by the end of next year. I have 5 accounts left to settle. I settled 3 more accounts on my own outside of the debt program because the terms were so favorable that I didn't see the point of sending the offer to the program and having them charge a fee on top of the settlement amount. 2 of these accounts will be paid over the course of the next 11 months so more money per paycheck is going to debt than before but I feel it's worth it.
• Save $10,000 towards my summer or fall wedding. This has been pushed to summer 2022 because of Covid. Which is financially beneficial in that I have more time to save.
• Start saving towards a family party (reception by another name) by the end of the year. This is on hold. A lot of my boyfriend's family moved out of state so the scope of the party is going to change.
• Give my boyfriend more money towards the household expenses if needed. We're going to rebudget once we get a feel for the utility bills in the new house. It turned out that rebudgeting didn't change the amount that I give to him every month. I am about a month behind in giving him his money though due to the lump sum that I paid on that 3rd credit card that I settled myself a little while back. I will be caught up by September at the latest and he is fine with it. He keeps a decent cushion in his checking. I also found out today that I'll be getting the $600 CA stimulus check sometime in early fall.
• Refinance my car loan if my credit score improves. I attempted this but was denied based on accounts in collection. My credit score is now in the Fair range and keeps creeping up so perhaps I will try again before the end of the year.

2021 Personal Goals:

• Lose weight so I can feel confident in my wedding dress. This has been a disaster. I've definitely added weight, unfortunately. My boyfriend has offered to walk with me in the mornings and I thought about it and agreed, but...see the next bullet point.
• Start using my workout DVDs now that they're out of storage. I still haven't bothered to find my exercise clothes and shoes.
• Learn to let go of material possessions that I no longer need/use. Letting go is really hard for a person with OCD! Our bedroom is a nightmare. I have so many things strewn about. I decided this morning that I'm going to start by organizing everything on the dresser or on the floor into piles based on either pants/dresses/shirts, etc. This way I'll have everything moved and not feel I'm just tilting at windmills. Sigh. OCD sucks. I get so frozen by the thought of not doing something perfectly that I don't bother to start the task.

 

[pblack]

Mid-month somewhat update:

The good: I was able to make a $600 payment towards our Camry loan (the one we're trying to pay off first because we owe less than the Highlander) which will bring us down to under $15k left on the loan. Not sure how often I'll be able to make payments like this with our roommate moving out, but I'll take it for now. (Also not related to that we are $1050 away from $10,000 in our main savings account!!! I've never been able to save that much before and I'm so excited about this!)

The bad: Speaking of our roommate he was supposed to be out this weekend, but his apartment isn't ready yet so he'll be moving out next weekend. I'm annoyed it was pushed back by a week, but honestly we have bigger issues than him at the moment. Speaking of those bigger issues this whole roof and solar project has been nothing but a headache. To try and make a long story short: I know I mentioned previously that they told us we needed to upgrade and relocate our current electrical panel, but that isn't exactly an option for us since we are in a neighborhood that still has above ground power lines vs. underground. So the company reached out to SMUD (our electric company) to see what our options are and SMUD basically came back to say that our only option is to move our power underground because our power line cuts the corner of our pool which is against current codes. Well we refuse to do this as this would more than likely cost us 10s of 1000s of dollars since we'd end up needing to rip up our backyard. So the company ordered a main breaker replacement part that they hope will work with our current panel and will allow us to still do the solar. Honestly at this point I just want to pull the plug on the solar portion since I'm over the whole thing, but I think that if we try and do that now they will end up charging us a cancellation fee. The roof has already been replaced (and it looks great), but I also wish we would have put a pause on the whole thing until we got the solar stuff figured out. But you know...hindsight. So if the solar doesn't end up working out then we're going to have to figure out how we want to pay for the roof since I'd rather not use their financing company for it.


All in all I'm trying not to stress over any of it until we find out what is going to happen with the solar. I'm hosting a going away party for my boss at my house this weekend so that's pretty much going to take up all my energy. I was also debating buying tickets for the Oogie Boogie Bash at DL in September, but the Saturday party would cost us $169/ea and I just don't know if I want to spend that and only get to be in 1 park from 3pm to 11pm. So instead I'm debating maybe buying a 1 day park hopper ticket and going in November or December since I prefer the Christmas décor over Halloween and I'm hoping that Taste of the Holiday's will come back to DCA this year. But we'll see since it would cost us a little more than the Halloween party, but I feel like we'd also get more out of it.

We're just over halfway through the year fellow debt dumpers!

 

[Tygerlilly]

Well, went into about $4000 more in debt on Monday. But I think it's worth it. We are both doing amazing despite some struggles during/after birth.

The downside? Both mine and hubby's loa has *yet* to be updated regarding the leave starting Monday and if it isn't updated by tomorrow, our checks are going to be reallllly bad.


But, in happy news, here's a picture of our newest family member!

 

[pblack]

Congratulations @Tygerlilly!!

 

[fofinia]

Well, went into about $4000 more in debt on Monday. But I think it's worth it. We are both doing amazing despite some struggles during/after birth.

The downside? Both mine and hubby's loa has *yet* to be updated regarding the leave starting Monday and if it isn't updated by tomorrow, our checks are going to be reallllly bad.


But, in happy news, here's a picture of our newest family member! View attachment 589816

Congratulations! So happy for you!

 

[npatellye]

But, in happy news, here's a picture of our newest family member! View attachment 589816

Congratulations!!!!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Congratulations @Tygerlilly !

 

[jen7233]

@Tygerlilly congratulations!

 

[CaleCakes]

Congratulations @Tygerlilly on your new baby I just love babies

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

@Tygerlilly Congrats! He is beautiful! Your girls must be fawning over him.