Debt Dumpers 2025

No changes yet but working on convincing my youngest to cancel our Disney+/Hulu/ESPN+ subscription as the price keeps climbing and climbing.

We actually talked the other day and canceled our legacy bundle. We never watch Hulu and rarely ESPN+. I'm pretty sure they really only watched Bluey on Disney+ and honestly, I can put the Bluey channel on YouTube and they would be happy. It's $27/month I just don't need to spend. I also stopped our Max sub for a little while, so that was $10/month.


not to entice you to spend but if you are inclined to keep some of this streaming stuff and want to save some $$-we recently looked at all of our subscriptions and cancelled some to do a Disney+/Hulu/Max bundle. the three together (with ads) runs $19.99 BUT if you have an American Express card there's an offer where if the subscription autopays from the card you get a $7 per month credit back each month from American Express so it lowers the cost (esp. from individual subscriptions) considerably.

They should really teach us how to deal with aging parents and this stuff. Even asking the person at DSHS didn't get me anywhere, there's nowhere she could direct me for help on how to handle it.

it's SO HARD and I get it from both standpoints. as a soon to be 'official' senior citizen I understand not wanting to let go of some aspects of control (esp. financial) but as someone retired from dshs and seeing how much MORE creative scamming has gotten combined with how confusing and complicated some day to day let alone annual process have become it's just ripe for elder financial abuse :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: one resource that can provide some guidance that I highly recommend for advice/resources is your local ombudsman.

I'm dealing with this so much with my mom. She just can not wrap her head around the fact that she can't spend what she used to when my dad was alive and working. She has a fixed income. She has a set amount of bills. But she constantly spends on nonsense and I have to figure out how to cover whatever bill is coming up that she can't because she spent money I told her not to.

idea?suggestion? i'm the legal guardian of my disabled adult son but that doesn't include his financials (it's a GOD AWFUL complicated process/reporting requirement in our state and since his only income is SSDI we did'nt pursue it). I still handle his bills and such but he wants (needs and deserves) some financial autonomy so to ensure his bills are covered and to protect against overspending/financial abuse what we've done is-

his income goes into a bank account that has no debit card associated with it and it's set up to auto pay his regular bills. it's also set up to auto transfer to a separate account (that he DOES have a debit card for) his monthly budget amount that he can reasonably spend without messing up his budget. we purposely set up this account so it's not eligible for overdraft so he can't overspend and have it pulled from the account that needs to cover his bills.

there's also the method we used with our oldest in college-we got a single VERY LOW limit credit card in our name with the kiddo as the authorized user (so no ability for authorized user to change the credit limit)-low as in what the monthly budget was maxed at. kiddo could keep track of spending :rotfl: or call the 800 number and find out what the current balance was but when it maxed out in a given month that was it on spending for non emergent (and in that case we could always pay down the balance to allow for an emergent charge). it got paid in full every month as a budget line item just like other monthly bills from kiddo's monies.
 
I probably can. I think I'll be able to finish the one I'm on before the billing month is up and then I can just cancel for a couple months and just watch whatever Anime is on Netflix. We're getting into Gymnastic Meet season so it's going to be busy for a few months and I doubt I have a ton of time to watch anyway.

you anime junkies :rolleyes: it's because of you (my adult kids being the 'you's') that I get constant 'we found something you might like' notices from Amazon about new anime products. if someone were to look at my Amazon history they would think i'm an anime/d&d/martial arts/virtual reality junkie because the Christmas and birthday gifts I buy dh and the kiddos dominate my algorithm🐉🎲🥋👒
 
you anime junkies :rolleyes: it's because of you (my adult kids being the 'you's') that I get constant 'we found something you might like' notices from Amazon about new anime products. if someone were to look at my Amazon history they would think i'm an anime/d&d/martial arts/virtual reality junkie because the Christmas and birthday gifts I buy dh and the kiddos dominate my algorithm🐉🎲🥋👒

So, we have a Samsung TV that has Samsung TV plus or whatever it's called on it. I've never really paid much attention to it but tonight just randomly decided to scroll thru. They have anime channels, including my favorite, Sailor Moon! 🤣 Guess what I've been watching all evening?
 
So, we have a Samsung TV that has Samsung TV plus or whatever it's called on it. I've never really paid much attention to it but tonight just randomly decided to scroll thru. They have anime channels, including my favorite, Sailor Moon! 🤣 Guess what I've been watching all evening?

Tsuki ni kawatte, oshioki yo!
 

So, we have a Samsung TV that has Samsung TV plus or whatever it's called on it. I've never really paid much attention to it but tonight just randomly decided to scroll thru. They have anime channels, including my favorite, Sailor Moon! 🤣 Guess what I've been watching all evening?

I tell my kiddos that while I know it's a different style of animation I can't get into the whole anime genre b/c it just makes me flash back to the terrible stuff on tv when I was a kid and I start hearing the theme songs to 'speed racer' and 'kimba the white lion' running through my head:crazy:
 
I tell my kiddos that while I know it's a different style of animation I can't get into the whole anime genre b/c it just makes me flash back to the terrible stuff on tv when I was a kid and I start hearing the theme songs to 'speed racer' and 'kimba the white lion' running through my head:crazy:
Well you could try watching the first Disney anime that’s running right now: Disney Twisted-Wonderland.
 
I have never wanted to pay more than more standard cable package for things like AppleTV or Netflix. However my mum's bank account comes with Disney+ that she has no desire to use so I have that, my cellphone comes with Paramount+, I have Amazone Prime so that gets us their TV/video service which really just leaves Netflix - and to date we have managed without. However, we really want to see the new Knives Out film but have no time to do so during the limited cinema release so will be doing a Netflix free trial to watch that early in the New Year when we have two weeks that we keep clear of all distractions and just hunker down to reset after the annual madness that is the last quarter of the year, always our busiest time.
 
I honestly wish me and DH weren't big sports fans because then we could skip the live streaming also, but we're both big fans of both professional and college sports that we have to keep it.
 
This is us. Huge college football and college basketball fans. We've gotten rid of cable, and now we just use ESPN+ but it doesn't have all of the stuff on ESPN and ESPN2. We also have a $30 antenna to get all the main locals. So that's helped. But our Disney+ is grandfathered in, and now we're paying $27 or something crazy. We've also found YT has lots of live college sports (not YT TV but actual YT), so we've started watching some there that we can't get on ESPN+.

I honestly wish me and DH weren't big sports fans because then we could skip the live streaming also, but we're both big fans of both professional and college sports that we have to keep it.
 
Oh! I forgot til just now! While I haven't been able to get hired on full time yet, I was approved this morning to do Spark deliveries for Walmart in my town. Will it earn me $1500 a month? Probably not, but at this point any little bit helps until I can get on full time somewhere. My best friends kiddo who babysits for us mentioned several people at her job getting fired, along with managers. While fast food isn't my preferred choice, they are open 24 hours and would likely work with the weird hours I have available.
 
Oh! I forgot til just now! While I haven't been able to get hired on full time yet, I was approved this morning to do Spark deliveries for Walmart in my town. Will it earn me $1500 a month? Probably not, but at this point any little bit helps until I can get on full time somewhere. My best friends kiddo who babysits for us mentioned several people at her job getting fired, along with managers. While fast food isn't my preferred choice, they are open 24 hours and would likely work with the weird hours I have available.
It's all progress.
 
That's so awesome. We're thinking about doing uBer or Lyft from DFW Airport. The only issue I see, is it costs $9 in tolls every time you go to the airport. So if I do 10 rides a day, that's $90 just in tolls. And there's no way around that. But I'd hope I make at least that on 10 Lyft or uBer pickups.

Oh! I forgot til just now! While I haven't been able to get hired on full time yet, I was approved this morning to do Spark deliveries for Walmart in my town. Will it earn me $1500 a month? Probably not, but at this point any little bit helps until I can get on full time somewhere. My best friends kiddo who babysits for us mentioned several people at her job getting fired, along with managers. While fast food isn't my preferred choice, they are open 24 hours and would likely work with the weird hours I have available.
 
Huge college football and college basketball fans
I am SO NOT into sports to the extent that I had no idea what a HUGE college basketball town we were moving near until I was on the plane traveling back to our prior home after having found the new house and encountered the drunkest, happiest and most celebratory passengers i've ever seen. I asked the stewardess what the deal was and she had to explain that fans and alumni routinely flew in for the games.

I was approved this morning to do Spark deliveries for Walmart in my town. Will it earn me $1500 a month?
I don't know how these types of jobs work but if they generate tips keep in mind that the tax laws change in 2026 so the tips won't be taxed so that would net a bit more.


It's all progress.
absolutely.
 
This is us. Huge college football and college basketball fans. We've gotten rid of cable, and now we just use ESPN+ but it doesn't have all of the stuff on ESPN and ESPN2. We also have a $30 antenna to get all the main locals. So that's helped. But our Disney+ is grandfathered in, and now we're paying $27 or something crazy. We've also found YT has lots of live college sports (not YT TV but actual YT), so we've started watching some there that we can't get on ESPN+.
And again, sports entertainment means nothing if you are over budget each month. Listen to your local radio network for local games. Cut the cost!
 
That's so awesome. We're thinking about doing uBer or Lyft from DFW Airport. The only issue I see, is it costs $9 in tolls every time you go to the airport. So if I do 10 rides a day, that's $90 just in tolls. And there's no way around that. But I'd hope I make at least that on 10 Lyft or uBer pickups.
Tolls are usually paid for by the rider, not the driver. Also, DH used to do Uber for a very short time, and he could set his workplace as where he wanted to go, and Uber would have him pick someone up on the way, and drop them off near his work.
 
That's so awesome. We're thinking about doing uBer or Lyft from DFW Airport. The only issue I see, is it costs $9 in tolls every time you go to the airport. So if I do 10 rides a day, that's $90 just in tolls. And there's no way around that. But I'd hope I make at least that on 10 Lyft or uBer pickups.

You’re thinking of doing it as a driver? Make sure you check your insurance coverage. You may need to add or change your insurance if you decide to drive a ride share. Many policies don’t cover if you’re using it as a commercial vehicle.
 
So how does a rider cover it if it comes out of my toll account automatically? I'd be interested in figuring this out. I am really hesitant to try to drive for uBer/Lyft cause you hear so many stories of drivers getting assaulted and killed. I feel if I just do airport pickups, that'll cut down on that as well as cut down on drunk idiots being in my car.

Tolls are usually paid for by the rider, not the driver. Also, DH used to do Uber for a very short time, and he could set his workplace as where he wanted to go, and Uber would have him pick someone up on the way, and drop them off near his work.
 
Thinking about it. But not sure I want my insurance to go up any more. It just went up to $447/month in June, but dropped back to $350/month starting in December. Not sure it can go up any higher, lol.

You’re thinking of doing it as a driver? Make sure you check your insurance coverage. You may need to add or change your insurance if you decide to drive a ride share. Many policies don’t cover if you’re using it as a commercial vehicle.
 
@WDW_fan_in_TX , as a Uber or Lyft driver you would be an independent contractor. You will be responsible for paying all self-employment taxes on your earnings. That means Medicare and Social Security taxes as well as income taxes on your earnings. It's not as easy as saying I'll do 10 rides a day and everything I make is mine to keep. You need to be deciplined enough to set aside those tax monies to pay them when they are due.

Typically, self employed people estimate income and pay their taxes every quarter. And they pay the full amount for Soc. Sec and Medicare. When you are an employee, your employer pays half and you pay half. I comes right out of your paycheck, so you never see it.

I'm not trying to discourage you from trying a side gig. I just want to make you aware that you will need to be very careful and not spend money that needs to go toward paying those taxes. Uncle Sam will want his share and he will go after you for it (with penalties and interest)
 
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