Debt Dumpers 2025

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

That's great news. We've cut everything down to the Disney+/ESPN+/Hulu+ package ($27/month) and Amazon Prime ($17/month that the DW uses to by makeup). Our Discovery+ is part of my Verizon phone, so we don't pay anything for it.

Found two more subscriptions to cancel and will save another $20/month from subscriptions I don't *need* to have. I'm not 100% sure, but I think I've canceled around $100 worth of subscriptions in the last week. (I did end up canceling Crunchyroll for at least a couple months)

 

[barkley]

Found two more subscriptions to cancel and will save another $20/month from subscriptions I don't *need* to have. I'm not 100% sure, but I think I've canceled around $100 worth of subscriptions in the last week. (I did end up canceling Crunchyroll for at least a couple months)

you'll probably get some decent offers over the next few months for them. somehow my email address ended up associated with Crunchyroll and some other anime subscription (hidive?) my oldest subscribes to and when there are periodic breaks in subscribing I get bombarded with 'we miss you SO MUCH, don't you miss us??? come back at this special rate of xyz' emails.

 

[royeheat]

That's great news. We've cut everything down to the Disney+/ESPN+/Hulu+ package ($27/month) and Amazon Prime ($17/month that the DW uses to by makeup). Our Discovery+ is part of my Verizon phone, so we don't pay anything for it.

If you purchase $35 or more on Amazon it is free shipping with No Amazon account and arrived 2-5 days

 

[Bellex917]

That's great news. We've cut everything down to the Disney+/ESPN+/Hulu+ package ($27/month) and Amazon Prime ($17/month that the DW uses to by makeup). Our Discovery+ is part of my Verizon phone, so we don't pay anything for it.

Sometimes I feel like you're trolling us LOL! I know you're not, I do think you are genuine, but do you see the absurdity here?! You pay $17 a MONTH, so your wife can BUY MAKEUP. That doesn't count the cost of the makeup. They sell makeup everywhere, including Walmart where you already go.

I love the progress you're making, but you really are still missing a lot of the point here.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Was supposed to take my mom to Walgreens this morning so she could transfer her prescriptions over since her new insurance uses them instead of CVS, but she decided instead of being ready at our pre-discussed time that calling Medicare was a better idea. While I'm glad she finally got off her butt and did that, I was kind of irritated that I got up to take her where she needed to go and she just blew it off.

Instead of just going back home I told my hubby I was going to try and do a spark order real quick to figure out what I'm doing. Ended up with a 2 stop order that had a $20 base pay plus a $20 tip. It says it should take an hour and although it was kind of a far drive, I went for it just to see. And man I'm glad I did! The sweet older man I delivered to 2nd (the house farther away) insisted I take an extra $30 cash tip! So in basically 1 hour I made $70.

I know that won't be the norm, but if it sounds like this might be enough of a side gig to do in conjunction with my current part time gig to not need to go back to the warehouse The next couple weeks will give me a decent idea on if this will be worth it or not.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

Haha. Not trolling. She buys it there because it's cheaper and cause she can get it faster, usually within a couple of hours. Plus, it keeps her from having to deal with Walmart (why do you think I grocery shop ... she loathes Walmart). That said, I might try and talk to her this weekend and see if she'd be okay cancelling Amazon membership. She probably won't, but I'll try. I know it's only $17, and we won't be able to do much of anything with that. But anything is better than nothing. Puts $17 more toward grocery bill, I guess.

Sometimes I feel like you're trolling us LOL! I know you're not, I do think you are genuine, but do you see the absurdity here?! You pay $17 a MONTH, so your wife can BUY MAKEUP. That doesn't count the cost of the makeup. They sell makeup everywhere, including Walmart where you already go.

I love the progress you're making, but you really are still missing a lot of the point here.

 

[Willow Ufgood]

That's great news. We've cut everything down to the Disney+/ESPN+/Hulu+ package ($27/month) and Amazon Prime ($17/month that the DW uses to by makeup). Our Discovery+ is part of my Verizon phone, so we don't pay anything for it.

You're spending $528 annually for streaming and Amazon Prime. Imagine what that could do toward reducing your debt! It's expenses like these that don't seem like much by themselves every month but when you add them up and extrapolate it out for a year, it's a lot!

There's a lot of free streaming content out there. Tubi, Fandango to name a few. Plus local libraries often have DVDs to loan. And you can often get free trial subscriptions for premium content you just have to remember to cancel on time before you card is charged. Challenge yourself. Cancel Amazon and Disney+. You can always sign up again any time. Throw the money you save right at your debts. You would be surprised at how you don't really miss those subscriptions.

 

[DanceDisney23]

Haha. Not trolling. She buys it there because it's cheaper and cause she can get it faster, usually within a couple of hours. Plus, it keeps her from having to deal with Walmart (why do you think I grocery shop ... she loathes Walmart).

Is it really cheaper once you add the $204 prime membership fee? How often does she need to buy makeup?

Can’t she just show you what she needs to replace, and you buy it when you go to Walmart? Why does she need makeup within a couple of hours? Makeup is not an emergency. Can’t she plan ahead?

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

Where is a good place to watch free sports? That's the only caveat I see with canceling streaming. Again, as I said above, I will ask DW if she's okay canceling one or both. Just need to find a place to watch free sports. Maybe I can convince her to cancel Amazon and Disney+ (that one will be a challenge) and just go with ESPN+. I think it'll be much cheaper, and we'll still get our college sports.

You're spending $528 annually for streaming and Amazon Prime. Imagine what that could do toward reducing your debt! It's expenses like these that don't seem like much by themselves every month but when you add them up and extrapolate it out for a year, it's a lot!

There's a lot of free streaming content out there. Tubi, Fandango to name a few. Plus local libraries often have DVDs to loan. And you can often get free trial subscriptions for premium content you just have to remember to cancel on time before you card is charged. Challenge yourself. Cancel Amazon and Disney+. You can always sign up again any time. Throw the money you save right at your debts. You would be surprised at how you don't really miss those subscriptions.

 

[Bellex917]

Haha. Not trolling. She buys it there because it's cheaper and cause she can get it faster, usually within a couple of hours. Plus, it keeps her from having to deal with Walmart (why do you think I grocery shop ... she loathes Walmart). That said, I might try and talk to her this weekend and see if she'd be okay cancelling Amazon membership. She probably won't, but I'll try. I know it's only $17, and we won't be able to do much of anything with that. But anything is better than nothing. Puts $17 more toward grocery bill, I guess.

I'm going to be frank and personal. When I got serious about my finances in 2022 and wanted to get out of debt we looked at every dollar we made. We are objectively in a much better spot that you and your wife, and I do NOT say that to be harsh. Our networth in our early 40s is slightly over a million dollars, which for some is nothing, and for others is an unfathomable. I came from nothing and nobody taught me anything about money. We did not have any windfalls, nobody gifted us this. We paid for our own wedding, our own down payments, our kids daycare bills, and my masters degree (plus I paid loans on half my undergrad, we were fortunate to not have loans for my H's college). I'm a teacher. My husband is in tech and was laid off for 6 of the last 12 months, and is currently in a contract role that may or may not renew. I GET being worried.

But, when I was worried and my H was out of work, we didn't eat out a couple times a week. We didn't have extras. We got by without going into debt or even touching our savings (just my salary and unemployment) by living with no extras.
Why do I mention this? Bc even with where we are now, EVERY DOLLAR COUNTS. I buy generic. I buy food that's discounted and freeze it (and have never gotten sick, which I know you have a lot of concerns with food safety). I go out of my way for a discount. Heck, tonight we were getting takeout (first time in months- although we do eat one meal a week out every week, we never get takeout) and I intentionally went before 4 to pick up lunch specials so our dinner would be under $20.

In your situation you can't look at it as "only 17" bc if you cut all these extras you'd be in such better shape.

Keep the Disney+, you do need some entertainment. But, cut buying candy for work, cut bringing THREE THINGS to the office potluck (that was the first time I started to question if you're truly trolling us... you do have a generous spirit, which is lovely, but right now one thing would be enough), cut all the extras. You truly need to cut the eating out completely and the vacations (which you have been avoiding discussing lol).

You truly can do this. But you have to get to the point where you're sick and tired of being sick and tired.

 

[afan]

I buy generic. I buy food that's discounted and freeze it (and have never gotten sick, which I know you have a lot of concerns with food safety). I go out of my way for a discount.

Two things here. Agree about the sick thing. Only time I've gotten sick off something I ate was restaurant food.

The other thing, only shopping at Walmart should stop. Don't need to change stores, but look at the grocery store ads every week and find the deals for the stuff you buy. Walmart or Target, generally doesn't ever match the loss leader deals on a lot of the stuff the grocery store will

I only shop at Safeway for their sales because I find their normal prices to be too high. My favorite part is hearing the self checkout tell me my total and hoe much I saved. It's generally a good amount but extra exciting when I save more than I'm spending. Also who is buying these things at full price.

There's no reason, even including cleaning supplies and paper products that $600 is the budget for 2 people.

 

[Bellex917]

Two things here. Agree about the sick thing. Only time I've gotten sick off something I ate was restaurant food.

The other thing, only shopping at Walmart should stop. Don't need to change stores, but look at the grocery store ads every week and find the deals for the stuff you buy. Walmart or Target, generally doesn't ever match the loss leader deals on a lot of the stuff the grocery store will

I only shop at Safeway for their sales because I find their normal prices to be too high. My favorite part is hearing the self checkout tell me my total and hoe much I saved. It's generally a good amount but extra exciting when I save more than I'm spending. Also who is buying these things at full price.

There's no reason, even including cleaning supplies and paper products that $600 is the budget for 2 people.

YUP. I am a family of 4- 1 teenage boy, and 1 child with ARFID (which if you're not familiar is an eating disorder with a phobia of food, so she only eats certain foods, I can't substitute.. and she will choose death over eating other foods, it's horrible).

I spend $500-600 a month for all four of us. I look at my ShopRite flyer and buy the loss leaders. If there's nothing good/worth stocking up on, I shop at Aldi. Periodically I go to a store by me that has great mark downs and I load up my freezer on stuff I find. I got 20 lbs of chicken last month at $2 a lb on clearance there. It takes SOME work, but not a ton... and once you get the hang of it, it's fun.

 

[afan]

YUP. I am a family of 4- 1 teenage boy, and 1 child with ARFID (which if you're not familiar is an eating disorder with a phobia of food, so she only eats certain foods, I can't substitute.. and she will choose death over eating other foods, it's horrible).

I spend $500-600 a month for all four of us. I look at my ShopRite flyer and buy the loss leaders. If there's nothing good/worth stocking up on, I shop at Aldi. Periodically I go to a store by me that has great mark downs and I load up my freezer on stuff I find. I got 20 lbs of chicken last month at $2 a lb on clearance there. It takes SOME work, but not a ton... and once you get the hang of it, it's fun.

I miss living in NC with the double and triple coupons and the CVS deals with mile long receipts.

It was a sad day after I moved home to seattle and I had to start buying dental floss because I'd finally run out of all my freebies from coupons. I do floss daily so I always got as many as I could

 

[barkley]

Is it really cheaper once you add the $204 prime membership fee? How often does she need to buy makeup?

Can’t she just show you what she needs to replace, and you buy it when you go to Walmart? Why does she need makeup within a couple of hours? Makeup is not an emergency. Can’t she plan ahead?

for that matter (if same day makeup delivery is essential ) a person can get a full years Walmart+ membership for $49 right now (regular price $98) and get the same 'same day delivery' as amazon AND get their choice of either paramount+ essential or peacock premium streaming for an entire year (and you can switch back and forth every 3 months).

The other thing, only shopping at Walmart should stop. Don't need to change stores, but look at the grocery store ads every week and find the deals for the stuff you buy. Walmart or Target, generally doesn't ever match the loss leader deals on a lot of the stuff the grocery store will

ABSOLUTLY! I did my Walmart online order for pickup today and when I was putting it together Wednesday I was bouncing between their site and the online and for the grocery store I pass on the way to price compare. for the most part Walmart was better priced but there were on a couple of items of produce, some beverages and at least one frozen item I saved as much as half the cost.

loss leaders are THE BEST-this week one of our local stores has potatoes on sale. at Walmart russet potatoes are .89 cents per pound/at the local store they are selling a 10 pound bag for .69 cents TOTAL-so 6.9 cents per pound. NO we won't consume 10 pounds of potatoes but I needed more that .69 cents worth at Walmarts prices so I went with the loss leader and already found a neighbor happy to take several pounds off my hands

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

I am going to start checking Krogers and Tom Thumb. I also learned we have a Market Street, Sprouts and Trader Joes nearby. Those are the options along with Walmart and Sams. We buy gas at Sams as well as TP and a few other odds and ends. We're going to Trader Joes tomorrow afternoon to check it out. We do have an Aldi, but we went in once, and it felt dirty and like a dollar store. I think it's just a dollar store but for groceries. Anyway....

I tried to talk to DW at dinner tonight about canceling Amazon and Disney+. She said she buys too much stuff on there (I went back and checked my year to date expenses sheet to see what we've spent on Amazon). I told her I've been thinking about budgeting and trying to get out of debt. She said why and that it's too late and she's going to be stuck with everything. She said she's paying for my school loan, and we didn't even know each other when I was in college. So she's not about looking toward the future. She did mention we spend $24k a year on rent. And I was like yep, and that's one of the reasons I want to pay off all this debt, so we can eventually buy a house.

Very frustrating. And it looks like it'll only be me working on budgeting and our future. At least I tried.

On a bright note, I did get a 25 minute workout in today after work and before she got home. I went on Youtube and searched for at home exercises, and I found one that was running in place and doing some other stuff. It was really, really tiring, and I was sweating. But I was able to get in about 2,500 steps during that workout. So that was nice. Will probably walk the neighborhood tomorrow and Sunday as I'm off all day, so I can do it when it's daylight.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

Alsso, when I approached her about possibly canceling Amazon, she threw baseball cards in my face and said my buying baseball cards is the reason we're always broke. I didn't have the to tell her she's spent almost twice as much on Amazon as I have on sports cards.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

I asked DW about that, and she said that's not the case on everything. She said what she buys doesn't qualify usually. I don't know as I don't buy there, so I'm not sure how it works. I'm just going off what she said.

If you purchase $35 or more on Amazon it is free shipping with No Amazon account and arrived 2-5 days

 

[FreeTime]

@WDW_fan_in_TX Do you feel safe at home? This is a legit question. It is okay for you to leave the home if your safety is at risk. Your wife seems to be verging on physical abuse. The mental, emotional and financial abuse, I think has been pretty clear for awhile. It is hard for men to do so, but it is okay to GET HELP!!

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

I absolutely feel safe. No doubt about it, and I've never questioned it. DW would never do anything like that. She wouldn't hurt a flea. We've married more than 20 years. I'm not going anywhere (don't have the money to anyway, lol).

@WDW_fan_in_TX Do you feel safe at home? This is a legit question. It is okay for you to leave the home if your safety is at risk. Your wife seems to be verging on physical abuse. The mental, emotional and financial abuse, I think has been pretty clear for awhile. It is hard for men to do so, but it is okay to GET HELP!!