Debt Dumpers - 2017

[MEM]

Yeah, I nearly just booked us a trip to HK Disney but managed to not take the deal. My psychology is very much centred around not passing up a great deal and telling myself that I'll have it paid off soon/before the trip rolls around. And I will, we will just never be ahead that way.

So I passed on $1700 for the 4 of us (not sure what US prices would be like but that is a mega discount for us!) to fly to Hong Kong even though it kills me. Instead settled on a $10 paint pen thingy for a nephew to kick start the Christmas shopping and 2 pairs of shoes for DD for $32. Black Friday shopping do n e for underv $50!

From my home in Boston to Hong Kong, non-stop flights start at about $850 per person! $1700 for 4 would be a steal!

 

[DisneyMandC]

I showed these to DH, and we have a list of people that might get these for Christmas now They're kind of perfect for the person that has everything. Only problem is we want to include my MIL, but she has 3 dogs... lol.

We had the same problem as my MIL also has three dogs! We just picked the best picture of one dog and went with that. I would suggest buying the large size unless your friends/family have very small feet. I got DH a large and he is a size 12 and said they are a little small on him.

Today I kept my self busy decorating the house.
Finally I have a "just right size " tree for my home and it looks great.
I set up my brothers snowman train set and added some lights to it,it actually looks great
and it is nice to have something of his on display during the holiday season.
I think the first Christmas after losing someone is the hardest,we used to do a ton of stuff together at Christmas time so I am trying to find new traditions. My youngest son picked up tickets to see the new Star Wars movie in Dec and I am looking forward to go to see it. We will be going away for a week after Christmas to Cuba ,,family time and some fun in the sun.
I did pick up some snowman plastic gift bags ($2.00 for 18 bags x 2) and plan to fill them with a few treats for the kids in my grade 1/2 class.
2 months from now (Feb 1 2018) I will officially be half days at work and I am busy writing up a budget.
Right now I keep telling myself you can do this and
KEEP ON SWIMMING!

Hugs Mel

Wow Cuba!! You'll have to share pictures of your trip when you get back!


It was another exciting Sunday afternoon around here with another trip to the ER- this time for my grandma who fell three times overnight but didn't want to tell anyone until this afternoon, when she also admitted she had been lightheaded all day. She was released with a clean bill of health after extensive tests though. The diagnosis was "getting older," unfortunately. She is almost 96 though, so she has been very fortunate with her health. A family member is staying with her tonight and then we are going to discuss more options.

 

[Aurora_Australis]

From my home in Boston to Hong Kong, non-stop flights start at about $850 per person! $1700 for 4 would be a steal!

Yeah, it's pretty awesome. (2 are kids so a little cheaper...) But we were not planning on a trip til April/May 2018 and should have $$ coming in over the next two weeks to almost clear the cc pre Christmas so should just wait for another awesome deal to anywhere next year when I have the cash on hand. Or just not go but it is our 10 yr anniversary.


And I ended up spending $70 on keep cups for us so make that an even $100. That will be our stocking stuffers though and I've been after some for a while.

 

[pblack]

I hope everyone had a fabulous holiday and black friday shopping weekend!

Ours turned out to be expensive, but not for the obvious reasons. On Thursday my husband noticed that our cat, Luna, was going to the bathroom more often than normal and that her urine was a tinted a pink color. Since we didn't want to pay the ridiculous price for the emergency vet and she seemed fine otherwise, we waited until Friday to take her in. The vet took an x-ray which showed that her bladder was really inflamed. Because of this they thought maybe she had a UTI, but they wanted to do a urinalysis to be sure. They ended up having to keep her for a few hours and give her some fluids because she didn't have enough urine in her bladder for a sample. When all was said and done on Friday it cost us $286. On Saturday we got a call from the vet saying that the urinalysis came back showing she had a lot of protein in her urine (which she shouldn't) and that they wanted to do a urine culture to the tune of another $170. Ultimately my husband and I decided to do it, because we wanted to find out what was causing our little Luna-bug pain. She also prescribed us a few pain pills for her since she wasn't really eating or drinking. ($22) Well a few hours later after we gave her one of the pain pills she still wasn't really eating or drinking so we ended up taking her back in for fluids ($42) because we didn't want her getting dehydrated. In total we spent just over $500 crazy2:) at the vet over the weekend and we're still waiting on the results from the culture, so that amount is likely to go up. She was eating and drinking a little this morning, but we're still hoping she doesn't get dehydrated. Today is the first day i've had to leave her all week and it's killing me to be at work worrying about whether she's eating or drinking enough. As you can see from the attached picture...all she wanted was momma cuddles over the weekend. It's killing me to be at work today and worrying about whether she's eating/drinking enough.

 

[Ngwira]

I hope everyone had a fabulous holiday and black friday shopping weekend!

Ours turned out to be expensive, but not for the obvious reasons. On Thursday my husband noticed that our cat, Luna, was going to the bathroom more often than normal and that her urine was a tinted a pink color. Since we didn't want to pay the ridiculous price for the emergency vet and she seemed fine otherwise, we waited until Friday to take her in. The vet took an x-ray which showed that her bladder was really inflamed. Because of this they thought maybe she had a UTI, but they wanted to do a urinalysis to be sure. They ended up having to keep her for a few hours and give her some fluids because she didn't have enough urine in her bladder for a sample. When all was said and done on Friday it cost us $286. On Saturday we got a call from the vet saying that the urinalysis came back showing she had a lot of protein in her urine (which she shouldn't) and that they wanted to do a urine culture to the tune of another $170. Ultimately my husband and I decided to do it, because we wanted to find out what was causing our little Luna-bug pain. She also prescribed us a few pain pills for her since she wasn't really eating or drinking. ($22) Well a few hours later after we gave her one of the pain pills she still wasn't really eating or drinking so we ended up taking her back in for fluids ($42) because we didn't want her getting dehydrated. In total we spent just over $500 crazy2:) at the vet over the weekend and we're still waiting on the results from the culture, so that amount is likely to go up. She was eating and drinking a little this morning, but we're still hoping she doesn't get dehydrated. Today is the first day i've had to leave her all week and it's killing me to be at work worrying about whether she's eating or drinking enough. As you can see from the attached picture...all she wanted was momma cuddles over the weekend. It's killing me to be at work today and worrying about whether she's eating/drinking enough.

Hope Luna feels better .

 

[Dentam]

I hope everyone had a fabulous holiday and black friday shopping weekend!

Ours turned out to be expensive, but not for the obvious reasons. On Thursday my husband noticed that our cat, Luna, was going to the bathroom more often than normal and that her urine was a tinted a pink color. Since we didn't want to pay the ridiculous price for the emergency vet and she seemed fine otherwise, we waited until Friday to take her in. The vet took an x-ray which showed that her bladder was really inflamed. Because of this they thought maybe she had a UTI, but they wanted to do a urinalysis to be sure. They ended up having to keep her for a few hours and give her some fluids because she didn't have enough urine in her bladder for a sample. When all was said and done on Friday it cost us $286. On Saturday we got a call from the vet saying that the urinalysis came back showing she had a lot of protein in her urine (which she shouldn't) and that they wanted to do a urine culture to the tune of another $170. Ultimately my husband and I decided to do it, because we wanted to find out what was causing our little Luna-bug pain. She also prescribed us a few pain pills for her since she wasn't really eating or drinking. ($22) Well a few hours later after we gave her one of the pain pills she still wasn't really eating or drinking so we ended up taking her back in for fluids ($42) because we didn't want her getting dehydrated. In total we spent just over $500 crazy2:) at the vet over the weekend and we're still waiting on the results from the culture, so that amount is likely to go up. She was eating and drinking a little this morning, but we're still hoping she doesn't get dehydrated. Today is the first day i've had to leave her all week and it's killing me to be at work worrying about whether she's eating or drinking enough. As you can see from the attached picture...all she wanted was momma cuddles over the weekend. It's killing me to be at work today and worrying about whether she's eating/drinking enough.

Hope Luna feels better soon! Have you looked into pet insurance? I have it for my dog since her breed is prone to some expensive issues.

 

[pblack]

Thanks @Ngwira and @Dentam! We thought about pet insurance, but ultimately decided against it. Even if we wanted to get it now, I don't know how that would work out if she has a "pre-existing condition" depending upon what the vet comes back with when the culture comes back.

 

[DisneyMandC]

I hope everyone had a fabulous holiday and black friday shopping weekend!

Ours turned out to be expensive, but not for the obvious reasons. On Thursday my husband noticed that our cat, Luna, was going to the bathroom more often than normal and that her urine was a tinted a pink color. Since we didn't want to pay the ridiculous price for the emergency vet and she seemed fine otherwise, we waited until Friday to take her in. The vet took an x-ray which showed that her bladder was really inflamed. Because of this they thought maybe she had a UTI, but they wanted to do a urinalysis to be sure. They ended up having to keep her for a few hours and give her some fluids because she didn't have enough urine in her bladder for a sample. When all was said and done on Friday it cost us $286. On Saturday we got a call from the vet saying that the urinalysis came back showing she had a lot of protein in her urine (which she shouldn't) and that they wanted to do a urine culture to the tune of another $170. Ultimately my husband and I decided to do it, because we wanted to find out what was causing our little Luna-bug pain. She also prescribed us a few pain pills for her since she wasn't really eating or drinking. ($22) Well a few hours later after we gave her one of the pain pills she still wasn't really eating or drinking so we ended up taking her back in for fluids ($42) because we didn't want her getting dehydrated. In total we spent just over $500 crazy2:) at the vet over the weekend and we're still waiting on the results from the culture, so that amount is likely to go up. She was eating and drinking a little this morning, but we're still hoping she doesn't get dehydrated. Today is the first day i've had to leave her all week and it's killing me to be at work worrying about whether she's eating or drinking enough. As you can see from the attached picture...all she wanted was momma cuddles over the weekend. It's killing me to be at work today and worrying about whether she's eating/drinking enough.

Poor kitty! Hope she feels better soon.

 

[piccolopat]

Is it ever possible to take the car for an oil change and it only be just that? Tire light was on and I thought it was just from the cold since we had our first hard freeze last night. Nope, I had a nail in the tire and placement was such that it couldn’t be fixed and had to be replaced. Plus I needed wiper blades. $300....Plus I spent a ton on groceries, some of which is for Thanksgiving but I haven’t even picked up or paid for the turkey yet. Sigh.

Here's a laugh for you. Years ago, my husband went to the dealership while I was at work because the car needed an oil change. When he came to pick me up from the train station at the end of the day, he showed up with a new car! I suddenly had car payments again and I didn't even like the car. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper for a long time.

 

[piccolopat]

We tried the shield, but she was just really fussy with or without it. I am off for 3 months. I feel like that is a good amount of time to have provided breastmilk. It isn't what I originally had envisioned, but as @DisneyMandC said, fed is best. She will do well on the formula. We have had to supplement with it due to supply issues, so I know that she will take it in a bottle without issue once she goes to daycare. I just don't think my sanity will last if I continue further than that.

When my DD was born, she would get fussy at times when I nursed her. I started to pay attention to what I was eating to see if there was a pattern and found that when I ate anything with garlic, she had problems. I changed my diet and the fussiness decreased quite a bit.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Here's a laugh for you. Years ago, my husband went to the dealership while I was at work because the car needed an oil change. When he came to pick me up from the train station at the end of the day, he showed up with a new car! I suddenly had car payments again and I didn't even like the car. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper for a long time.

LOL ok, that's really bad, but also pretty funny!

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

We didn't do too badly in terms of shopping over the weekend. We bought $400 worth of infant formula at 25% discount from the Enfamil website. We have decided to transition to formula in time for daycare and my return to work. Figuring out exactly when I want to start tapering down the pumping, but it will be some time in the next month for sure. We figured that since we would be using the formula eventually, it just made sense to buy some at a discount now.

Also renewed our Loot Crate subscription today for 30% discount. I finished paying ourselves back for my sewing cabinet and Apple watch, so I decided that I could splurge a little on the Harry Potter loot crate for myself too. With the 30% discount, it comes out to $13 per month, so not a huge dent. I am looking forward to getting something just for me.

I also ordered our holiday cards at a 25% discount today. I also splurged a little here and paid extra for pre-printed envelopes so I don't have to spend time addressing anything this year. I feel like it will definitely be worth the extra $15 given how busy/exhausted I have been lately.

Finally, we ordered a few items to help us with organizing our new electronics (2x iPhones, 2x Apple watches) which included a charging dock and a multi-usb charging plug. Should help us to wrangle the cord mess that is all over the house right now.

 

[Eureka]

I did very well over the long weekend. Picked up a few holiday gifts - some were just GC, but others were on sale, including a men's dress shirt for $16 which is almost unheard of. I ordered our holiday cards yesterday at Shutterfly with lots of discount codes and a whopping 7% back from Ebates. Also ramped up our giving...our electric company has a campaign where you can add $1 on to your bill and it goes to others who are having trouble paying, so I did that, and today made a donation to the local soup kitchen of which DH is on the board. I created a Facebook fundraiser for it (and hopefully my local friends will all see it and donate!) because if you do it that way, the Gates Foundation is matching donations to nonprofits today.

DS16 is taking his driving test in a couple weeks (right before his birthday so I hope he passes - it will be an all-around celebration) so I made an appointment to take the van in this weekend. The AC didn't work all summer and the headlights need refreshing. At least this time I know it will not be cheap, but we have savings to use.

Still waiting for my $19 Old Navy money back from the price match. @Jen and Ashwin, once Paribus notifies the company, do you know how long it should take to credit? I ended up paying my CC already, so will have a credit when it actually goes through.

 

[mco65]

Car repairs.. ugh.
just under 1k. i was worried that i might have to put some or all on a credit card but i was able to pay cash.. things are tight now because of it but its nice not to have to dump that all on a cc... it did illuminate the fact that i had an extra 1k that could be putting towards cc every other month.....

 

[DisneyMandC]

I picked up a couple more things on Cyber Monday, but didn't do too bad. Found an Adidas track jacket my niece wanted at Kohl's. I couldn't use their promo codes since it's Adidas, but I did shop through Ibotta for 20% back so I got $6.60 back from that. Then I checked Target's 15% off sale and found a small bookcase I liked. I've been asking/telling DH for several months now that I need another small bookcase as my two large bookcases are slam full. I shopped through Ibotta again for 20% off and got back $11 on that purchase. I decided to just go ahead and round out my shopping with Ibotta by buying my dog another bag of dog food with 20% back. He doesn't need a bag right this second, but we will obviously use it and it was nice to get $9 back on it!

I have my Target 20% off coupon to use, but I honestly don't NEED anything from there. I'm considering just shopping at Target for groceries next week and using it on that. It looks like the only thing it excludes is milk, which is fine. Speaking of groceries, if any of you have Kroger-brand stores nearby, make sure you check out their 25 days of deals. They had a coupon for a free box of four frozen yogurt bars yesterday.

My Chromebook arrived yesterday! I used it briefly last night and can already tell I'm going to like it.

 

[DnA2010]

We didn't do too badly in terms of shopping over the weekend. We bought $400 worth of infant formula at 25% discount from the Enfamil website. We have decided to transition to formula in time for daycare and my return to work. Figuring out exactly when I want to start tapering down the pumping, but it will be some time in the next month for sure. We figured that since we would be using the formula eventually, it just made sense to buy some at a discount now.

Also renewed our Loot Crate subscription today for 30% discount. I finished paying ourselves back for my sewing cabinet and Apple watch, so I decided that I could splurge a little on the Harry Potter loot crate for myself too. With the 30% discount, it comes out to $13 per month, so not a huge dent. I am looking forward to getting something just for me.

I also ordered our holiday cards at a 25% discount today. I also splurged a little here and paid extra for pre-printed envelopes so I don't have to spend time addressing anything this year. I feel like it will definitely be worth the extra $15 given how busy/exhausted I have been lately.

Finally, we ordered a few items to help us with organizing our new electronics (2x iPhones, 2x Apple watches) which included a charging dock and a multi-usb charging plug. Should help us to wrangle the cord mess that is all over the house right now.

I'm not sure if yours is the same, but the Costco Kirkland formula here is made by enfamil and is the same product- it costs more than 50% less when you work it out and all the babies I know that have used it have done great on it. Good for you for giving breastfeeding a shot despite all the challenges, but IMP fed is best

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

I'm not sure if yours is the same, but the Costco Kirkland formula here is made by enfamil and is the same product- it costs more than 50% less when you work it out and all the babies I know that have used it have done great on it. Good for you for giving breastfeeding a shot despite all the challenges, but IMP fed is best

I’ve also heard excellent things about the Costco brand formula and I’m in the states! It’s orobably what we will end up using if we need to supplement or formula feed.

 

[Eureka]

I have my Target 20% off coupon to use, but I honestly don't NEED anything from there. I'm considering just shopping at Target for groceries next week and using it on that. It looks like the only thing it excludes is milk, which is fine.

Thank you for reminding me that I have one too! We do a lot of grocery etc. shopping at Target so it will not to go waste, but I would have forgotten I have it.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I did very well over the long weekend. Picked up a few holiday gifts - some were just GC, but others were on sale, including a men's dress shirt for $16 which is almost unheard of. I ordered our holiday cards yesterday at Shutterfly with lots of discount codes and a whopping 7% back from Ebates. Also ramped up our giving...our electric company has a campaign where you can add $1 on to your bill and it goes to others who are having trouble paying, so I did that, and today made a donation to the local soup kitchen of which DH is on the board. I created a Facebook fundraiser for it (and hopefully my local friends will all see it and donate!) because if you do it that way, the Gates Foundation is matching donations to nonprofits today.

DS16 is taking his driving test in a couple weeks (right before his birthday so I hope he passes - it will be an all-around celebration) so I made an appointment to take the van in this weekend. The AC didn't work all summer and the headlights need refreshing. At least this time I know it will not be cheap, but we have savings to use.

Still waiting for my $19 Old Navy money back from the price match. @Jen and Ashwin, once Paribus notifies the company, do you know how long it should take to credit? I ended up paying my CC already, so will have a credit when it actually goes through.

Paribus doesn't have any control over how long the refund takes. That is based on each individual merchant, so it can vary.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Resisted Black Friday shopping (a first for me! I've gone every year for the last 10). I guess the idea of hauling both girls to the masses just wasn't on my list of priorities. It's funny how that changes once parenthood comes around. I would have grabbed a few online deals (my favorite cloth diaper site had diapers for 3.50!!), but since I moved to the cash only system, I didn't have enough extra on my debit card to really make purchasing worth it. I did run into walmart later on Friday and managed to snag each girl a Disney bedtime story book for $5 each. And I got them similar Minnie Mouse christmas jammies.

Spoke to the step son's girlfriend yesterday regarding our trip back to Orlando in October 2018. We've decided on doing Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and both parks at Universal Studios. We may send those two off to Universal an extra day and go check out Hollywood Studios a day.
I figured out that between our family trip in 2018, mine and DF's honeymoon trip in April 2019, and another trip in October 2019, we are going to just get annual passes for both Disney and Universal. Over 3 trips, it will definitely pay for itself. Piper will still be free for the trip in 2018, but I'll have to actually buy her ticket in 2019, which still, won't be too expensive. Hailey will be free for several more trips. So, I'm looking at budgeting in $7,000 over the next 10 months to buy all the passes.

We also have a trip to Pigeon Forge in May with DF's twin brother and sister in law. I'm expecting about $1500 there. They paid for their share of the rental house on our October trip this year and unfortunately had to cancel. They refused to take money back from us, so I'm thinking we will foot the bill for the hotel/rental there. Luckily, it seems like quite a bit there in free/cheap. I know we want to do Dollywood (I couldn't find ticket prices, but I'm guessing $60/person) and Dixie Stampeed (estimating $160 for that because I'm unsure if they will charge for the toddler). I'm sure we will go to the aquarium and do some shopping and I know DF wants to go on the alpine coaster. Either way, I think $1500 should cover everything easily.

Other than that, Christmas shopping is 90% done, just need a few small things for the girls and stocking stuffers for everyone and we just got our family gift exchange names, so we have those 4 left as well. Should be about $250 total there. And DF has to get the last few things he wants for his son (we already got most of it, he just wants to find a couple little unique things). We each got our work bonuses of $450 each, so the last of our shopping should easily be covered by that and after bills, I think we will actually have a little chunk left over to put back!