Debt Dumpers 2023

[CGB]

Today my older one was offered a grad assistanceship that comes with some level of tuition remission and a stipend.

Our son worked as a graduate assistant with his college for his masters. They covered 100% of his tuition/fees and he received a stipend/pay for his work. His supervisor also worked with him to keep him in the position over the summer. After he graduated, the college hired him part-time in the same position until their grant was approved which hired him full-time. He stayed about a year and half until he moved on to his "big" job. GA positions are great and can help open doors of opportunities! Congrats to your son!

 

[barkley]

International relations.

impressive!

 

[goofytinkerbell]

Felt a lot more like myself this week, but I looked around and realized everything was a mess... If I'm not doing things, nobody's going to do it for me!

Financially:
1. Keep the credit cards empty - DONE! Still using them and paying them off before they start earning interest.
2. Figure out a way to put some sort of extra on the mortgage, even if it's the $100 minimum - DONE!
3. Get some things I NEED to have (rims/tires for the car, items that need replacing at home, etc)
-Picked up 5 things off my list this week, and installed 2 of them. I need decent weather to install one more, but at least it's here now.
4. Get a savings plan going for the big stuff that comes due in one lump sum payment (insurance, property tax)
-No progress this week

General stuff:
1. Make a will - DONE!
2. Continue to clear out the crap. I need to go through my clothes and that sort of thing. I got a pile done in 2022, but it really wasn't enough.
-6 items gone
-If the weather is bad again and I can't get outside, I'm hoping to be able to work on this over the weekend, but we'll see
3. Look for a new job. The reason nothing has been getting done is because I'm burned out from my existing job and I'm being severely underpaid for the work I do.
-Checked the email notifications and jobs sites every day. I applied for 7 jobs, which is good, but I hope I'm not lowering my standards unintentionally.
-Read a "self improvement" book that's recommended for job seekers.
4. Get my passport.-DONE!
5. Knock some half-finished projects off the list. Everything from making a scarf to some jewelry. Lots of stuff has been started, but not finished. Enough already!
-Nothing
6. Get into better shape. I'd like to say 'lose weight', but I'd be happy to be able to run up my own steps without getting winded. The weight loss may or may not come, but it's not as important.
-2 workouts this week, and I mowed the lawn (push mower)
7. Spend more time with loved ones. I don't see friends/family much. I guess I really need to do #3 in order to facilitate this one.
-Nothing this week
8. Organize my stuff!
-Nothing this week

 

[Eureka]

impressive!

Thanks. He double majored in govt and politics and film studies for undergrad. He has always liked being busy!

 

[Tygerlilly]

Won a free cruise from the casino. It's limited dates and cruises, but I'm hoping to maybe swing one of them. We have til end of year to book so I'll see what's available after our Disney trip in November.

Tomorrow night is a huge hourly drawing and at 10pm they're giving away 10 vehicles. I'm gonna go down and just see what happens.

 

[jen7233]

Won a free cruise from the casino. It's limited dates and cruises, but I'm hoping to maybe swing one of them. We have til end of year to book so I'll see what's available after our Disney trip in November.

Tomorrow night is a huge hourly drawing and at 10pm they're giving away 10 vehicles. I'm gonna go down and just see what happens.

Congrats on winning a cruise! I occasionally play lotto or Powerball and sitting here with a $10 scratcher win to go to 7-11 to get my big win cashed in

 

[pblack]

Won a free cruise from the casino. It's limited dates and cruises, but I'm hoping to maybe swing one of them. We have til end of year to book so I'll see what's available after our Disney trip in November.

Tomorrow night is a huge hourly drawing and at 10pm they're giving away 10 vehicles. I'm gonna go down and just see what happens.

Man, I need your luck at the casino! Lol. Congrats! Hope you're able to take advantage of it.

 

[barkley]

i finally experienced a positive aspect to common core math!!!!!

went to the grocery store with a raincheck in hand for 99 cent per pound chicken thighs (when the sale hit the paper a few weeks ago they were wiped out same day). found the thighs with a current price of 2.29 per pound , snagged 4 family value packs (about 20 pounds). took the item to checkout, presented the raincheck to the nice young cashier (looked to be one of the high school kids) who whipped out a calculator and started determining what to charge. when i saw the amount he entered i said 'i don't think that's right, it seems like i should be paying more, should'nt it just be $1.30 per pound less? he looks at me and says 'that's not the way i learned to calculate it, don't worry it will be right'. ummmmmmmmm ok

net result on my caculator when i got home-common core math rewarded me with thighs for 69 cents per pound.


oh well, i guess it offsets the number of times safeway has OVER charged me on stuff.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Well, no new Jeep for me. But I did come home with a little over 4k that I won completely off my free play. So still a win!

At some point my luck is going to end.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Felt a lot more like myself this week, but I looked around and realized everything was a mess... If I'm not doing things, nobody's going to do it for me!

Financially:
1. Keep the credit cards empty - DONE! Still using them and paying them off before they start earning interest.
2. Figure out a way to put some sort of extra on the mortgage, even if it's the $100 minimum - DONE!
3. Get some things I NEED to have (rims/tires for the car, items that need replacing at home, etc)
-Picked up 5 things off my list this week, and installed 2 of them. I need decent weather to install one more, but at least it's here now.
4. Get a savings plan going for the big stuff that comes due in one lump sum payment (insurance, property tax)
-No progress this week

If you don't mind me asking, how do you currently handle these types of bills? I would be sweating bullets to not have these funds ready when the bill comes. Before I started individual savings accounts for each of these, I would use a 3rd paycheck on the months that we have them. Dh and I get paid biweekly on opposite weeks so every few months, one of us gets our turn with 3 checks per month. Still, other expenses would often crop up and it would stress me out terribly.
I love my sinking funds.

Glad to hear you're feeling better.

 

[barkley]

If you don't mind me asking, how do you currently handle these types of bills? I would be sweating bullets to not have these funds ready when the bill comes. Before I started individual savings accounts for each of these, I would use a 3rd paycheck on the months that we have them. Dh and I get paid biweekly on opposite weeks so every few months, one of us gets our turn with 3 checks per month. Still, other expenses would often crop up and it would stress me out terribly.
I love my sinking funds.

Glad to hear you're feeling better.

same here-i have a set amount that auto transfers from checking each month to cover the non monthly expenses-

property taxes
all forms of insurance (paying them once or twice per year gets me a discount)
estimated 2x top off of our propane tank
pest service
weed abatement
generator annual maintainance
hvac protection plan
sirius and norton subscriptions
"just in case" funds (for smaller unplanned expenses-like the electrician to replace the gfi, the plumber to put in a couple of new spigots, the repair of our tractor mower-keeps the emergency fund untoched for the scary larger expenses).

anything that's in the account at calendar year end rolls into next year so that it helps offset increased expenses (and i up the amount a bit). keeps me from stressing out twice a year when it seems like a bunch of those expenses all come due at once.

 

[goofytinkerbell]

If you don't mind me asking, how do you currently handle these types of bills? I would be sweating bullets to not have these funds ready when the bill comes. Before I started individual savings accounts for each of these, I would use a 3rd paycheck on the months that we have them. Dh and I get paid biweekly on opposite weeks so every few months, one of us gets our turn with 3 checks per month. Still, other expenses would often crop up and it would stress me out terribly.
I love my sinking funds.

Glad to hear you're feeling better.

same here-i have a set amount that auto transfers from checking each month to cover the non monthly expenses-

property taxes
all forms of insurance (paying them once or twice per year gets me a discount)
estimated 2x top off of our propane tank
pest service
weed abatement
generator annual maintainance
hvac protection plan
sirius and norton subscriptions
"just in case" funds (for smaller unplanned expenses-like the electrician to replace the gfi, the plumber to put in a couple of new spigots, the repair of our tractor mower-keeps the emergency fund untoched for the scary larger expenses).

anything that's in the account at calendar year end rolls into next year so that it helps offset increased expenses (and i up the amount a bit). keeps me from stressing out twice a year when it seems like a bunch of those expenses all come due at once.

At this point, I mostly handle them by panicking. I'd love to get to the point where I have money to put aside for them, but most of the time I'm barely able to deal with whatever is currently on fire. I simply don't make enough money to pay for everything. I don't have any crazy extra expenses, and have cut out as much of the 'extras' as I can. I have a full time job (which doesn't pay for overtime, so no extra can be made there) and I had a part time job until covid hit, when they got rid of me. That caused some issues. I also pick up individual things where I can, but I have to be careful not to violate the no-compete clause in my contract.

As I often like to point out, "it's expensive to be poor". I wouldn't class myself as poor, but according to tax brackets I'm just barely above it. Technically I'm "lower middle class" in one bracket, and upper poor in the other.

 

[pblack]

End of August update:

2023 Financial Goals:

• Pay off our Highlander loan (Roughly $19500 at the start of the year) - DONE! I ended up pulling some money from my savings to pay it off this month instead of waiting. I was to the point where I just really wanted it gone.
• Increase my contributions to my "other" savings accounts (pets/gifts/CC fees). - I will restart my focus on this in October once our vacation is done.

2023 Personal Goals:

• Travel more - We're coming up on some busy weekends for us before our vacation. Concert and then a brewfest. I was able to rebook my hotel for the concert 2 different times though and managed to save like $50. Counting down the days till New Orleans/cruise.
• Finish replacing the fence that needs to be replaced - This has now been finished and it looks great.
• Live life and be happy - I had one week where I didn't get much exercise in, but all the other weeks i've been able to get something in 4 days out of the week. I don't remember why it didn't really happen for the first week. Took advantage of the sunshine and warm weather over this past weekend and pretty much lounged in the pool all weekend. It was nice.
• *New* Look into how much a breast reduction will cost - I still haven't made the appointment for this yet. It's still a thought in the back of my mind, just haven't put forth the effort to make the appointment. But i'm going to leave this goal up to keep reminding myself lol.

August was a spendy month for me. Trying to make sure we have what we need for our vacation, bought some Halloween decorations, just did my annual big restock at Costco on cleaning items. For those of you who don't know Costco is running a promotion on P&G products (tide, downy, crest, bounty, etc) where if you spend $100 on applicable items you can submit your receipt for a $25 Costco shop card with a limit of 2 cards per membership. I normally spend the full $200 to get the $50 back. Yesterday I spent $100 and i'm undecided if I will end up spending another $100 before the promotion ends. But along with that purchase I was also out of most of the meat in my freezer so I had to make some meat purchases and meat prices are just stupid. August was also comprised of 3 birthdays and our anniversary, all in the same week. We really didn't plan out our wedding date very well.

Next year is our 10 year wedding anniversary and I definitely plan on doing some traveling for it. We didn't do anything this year. Not sure what we'll do next year, lots of places I/we want to go, but need to have the money to make it happen lol. Some of our ideas include the Maldives or Bora Bora (these locations would definitely be dependent on flight prices since that seems to be the most expensive part), Ireland, England, Dominican Republic, Mexico (like actually flying to and staying somewhere in Mexico), or a cruise out of somewhere we haven't been yet. Obviously some of these would be easier on the wallet than others, so i'll be keeping my eye out for travel deals and we'll see what ends up happening.

Hope everyone had a good August! Happy almost 3-day weekend (for those of us in the states)!

 

[barkley]

Pay off our Highlander loan (Roughly $19500 at the start of the year) - DONE! I ended up pulling some money from my savings to pay it off this month instead of waiting. I was to the point where I just really wanted it gone.

pay-offs are so enjoyable!!!!

 

[goofytinkerbell]

I swear every week there's another disaster. We had a sick family member be hospitalized and we don't think he's coming out. There was what I'd consider malpractice involved, but welcome to Canada, where it's the "too bad for you, you can't do anything" situation.

We also had an... extended family (?) member be hospitalized, who passed away this morning.

Financially:
1. Keep the credit cards empty - DONE! Still using them and paying them off before they start earning interest.
2. Figure out a way to put some sort of extra on the mortgage, even if it's the $100 minimum - DONE!
3. Get some things I NEED to have (rims/tires for the car, items that need replacing at home, etc)
-Installed 1 item that I'd already picked up. I think everything I've purchased has now been installed, so once things settle down I'll work on the next thing to do.
4. Get a savings plan going for the big stuff that comes due in one lump sum payment (insurance, property tax)
-No progress this week

General stuff:
1. Make a will - DONE!
2. Continue to clear out the crap. I need to go through my clothes and that sort of thing. I got a pile done in 2022, but it really wasn't enough.
-42 items gone
3. Look for a new job. The reason nothing has been getting done is because I'm burned out from my existing job and I'm being severely underpaid for the work I do.
-Checked the email notifications and jobs sites every day. Nothing new to apply for this week
-Read another "self improvement" book that's recommended for job seekers. This one was useless and awful, but I'm trying.
4. Get my passport.-DONE!
5. Knock some half-finished projects off the list. Everything from making a scarf to some jewelry. Lots of stuff has been started, but not finished. Enough already!
-Worked on one project, which is expected to take a long time to finish.
6. Get into better shape. I'd like to say 'lose weight', but I'd be happy to be able to run up my own steps without getting winded. The weight loss may or may not come, but it's not as important.
-Nothing this week. I've been busy and stressed. They say exercise helps with this, but I find the opposite.
7. Spend more time with loved ones. I don't see friends/family much. I guess I really need to do #3 in order to facilitate this one.
-Saw friends once, and extended family once, but that was mostly related to sick people
8. Organize my stuff!
-I went through a pile of paperwork that I'd had to keep for legal reasons, old user manuals and documents and things.

 

[pblack]

I'm sorry to hear about the loss of one of your family members @goofytinkerbell. Sending good thoughts and wishes for your other family member. I hope they're able to come home.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

@goofytinkerbell I'm so sorry for your loss. I hope things start to turn around for you and improve.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Sorry for your loss @goofytinkerbell

 

[ariel1025]

Jumping in!

Debt goal: Pay off all debt. Current focus - credit card #1 w/ $413.47 balance

Misc goal: Stick to our food budget and stop going out to eat so darn much! Currently have $87.62 left in our grocery budget and $100 left in our restaurant budget. Will reset on 9/14.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Jumping in!

Debt goal: Pay off all debt. Current focus - credit card #1 w/ $413.47 balance

Misc goal: Stick to our food budget and stop going out to eat so darn much! Currently have $87.62 left in our grocery budget and $100 left in our restaurant budget. Will reset on 9/14.