Debt Dumpers - 2018

[Alexle2007]

I feel your pain. I hope it all works out for you. Dh is a government contractor and our govt just started a shutdown. His agency has two weeks of funding and if the shutdown continues, he won’t be working. Luckily he has some vacation time saved up but wants to save it. However, he can’t take too much time off without pay either!

Hopefully it won’t last long. We were lucky that our federal agency was fully funded so no furlough for us. Although DH and I both off until the New Year since we had annual leave we had to use since we couldn’t carry it over.

 

[4kids4karen]

I feel your pain. I hope it all works out for you. Dh is a government contractor and our govt just started a shutdown. His agency has two weeks of funding and if the shutdown continues, he won’t be working. Luckily he has some vacation time saved up but wants to save it. However, he can’t take too much time off without pay either!

What type of contract do they have that is only funded for two weeks? I am just not familiar. DH was a contractor with Northrup Grumman and Camber Corp and those contracts were fully funded a year in advance. He is currently a DoD Civilian not under the shutdown for this current round.

 

[Eureka]

What type of contract do they have that is only funded for two weeks? I am just not familiar. DH was a contractor with Northrup Grumman and Camber Corp and those contracts were fully funded a year in advance. He is currently a DoD Civilian not under the shutdown for this current round.

He is a contractor for the justice dept. Overall, their contract is longer - they are rebidding this coming year- but in the case of a shutdown, they only have two weeks’ funding.

 

[imbatman]

Oh you guys! Just wanted to share with you the most awesome/weirdest budget thing. Last week, I spent hours catching up. It was sad, but I knew it was towards a goal. This morning, my DH informed me that two payments had cleared for the CC. What?! "You told me to make a payment."

Now, let me say, I don't think I did. However, last week, we had a surplus in the cash and I had mentioned, "I think we should leave it there until after the first of the year." Thank GOD I did that. We are still fine and unintentionally made two whopping payments!

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with their loved ones. DH, DD and I just relaxed at home and watched some movies. Today I went and got my first mani/pedi since before I got pregnant, so that was a nice treat. I tried something called a powder dip. It looks really nice and is supposed to last about 3 weeks, so hopefully it will. And then I met DH at Sur La Table for a cookie decorating class that I gifted him in his stocking. We both had a really nice time, but of course we ended up buying some items so that we could practice decorating cookies at home. Daycare ended up calling right towards the end because DD had thrown up twice. She has been acting totally fine since we brought her home.

I did have something unexpectedly awesome happen the other day. When I got the mail on Monday, there was a settlement check for $263 from a class action lawsuit against the bar exam prep course company I used to study for the bar. I took the money and made an extra principal payment towards our trailer loan. We have now paid off $1700 in two months and have $13300 left on the loan. I don't think that we will be able to keep up that pace for paying it off, but it has been nice to see us take such a big chunk out of it so quickly.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with their loved ones. DH, DD and I just relaxed at home and watched some movies. Today I went and got my first mani/pedi since before I got pregnant, so that was a nice treat. I tried something called a powder dip. It looks really nice and is supposed to last about 3 weeks, so hopefully it will. And then I met DH at Sur La Table for a cookie decorating class that I gifted him in his stocking. We both had a really nice time, but of course we ended up buying some items so that we could practice decorating cookies at home. Daycare ended up calling right towards the end because DD had thrown up twice. She has been acting totally fine since we brought her home.

I did have something unexpectedly awesome happen the other day. When I got the mail on Monday, there was a settlement check for $263 from a class action lawsuit against the bar exam prep course company I used to study for the bar. I took the money and made an extra principal payment towards our trailer loan. We have now paid off $1700 in two months and have $13300 left on the loan. I don't think that we will be able to keep up that pace for paying it off, but it has been nice to see us take such a big chunk out of it so quickly.

Ok, I’ve gotta ask... which bar prep company and what happened?! I don’t think I’ve heard anything about this.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Ok, I’ve gotta ask... which bar prep company and what happened?! I don’t think I’ve heard anything about this.

It was BARBRI. The lawsuit alleged that BAR/BRI and Kaplan violated federal antitrust laws by agreeing to limit competition in the market for full-service bar review courses between 2006 and 2011. Basically price fixing.

 

[DisneyMandC]

It was BARBRI. The lawsuit alleged that BAR/BRI and Kaplan violated federal antitrust laws by agreeing to limit competition in the market for full-service bar review courses between 2006 and 2011. Basically price fixing.

Dang, sounds like I used Barbri 3 years too late lol

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Dang, sounds like I used Barbri 3 years too late lol

I took my course in 2010, so just within the window. I think by the time you took your bar exam there were a lot more companies offering prep courses. I looked into doing Themis, but they didn't offer it for Texas yet. It was so much cheaper than Barbri.

 

[DisneyMandC]

I took my course in 2010, so just within the window. I think by the time you took your bar exam there were a lot more companies offering prep courses. I looked into doing Themis, but they didn't offer it for Texas yet. It was so much cheaper than Barbri.

The only three I ever saw offered at my school were Barbri, Kaplan, and Themis. I'm sure there were others, but they never came around. I didn't go to a particularly big school though. Themis was definitely a lot cheaper, but I heard a lot of mixed reviews. I was happy with Barbri though, and one of my bar exam essays was almost verbatim from the practice essays.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Anyone that uses TurboTax to do their taxes might be interested in this deal. I just got Deluxe + State for $40 plus got a $10 Amazon gift card, so net cost of $30. This is probably the lowest price that you will see it at based on previous years' deals. Other versions also available:

https://slickdeals.net/f/12556960-f...eluxe-30-deluxe-state-40-premier-state-55-f-s

 

[MerissaAndMomLoveDis]

Anyone that uses TurboTax to do their taxes might be interested in this deal. I just got Deluxe + State for $40 plus got a $10 Amazon gift card, so net cost of $30. This is probably the lowest price that you will see it at based on previous years' deals. Other versions also available:

https://slickdeals.net/f/12556960-f...eluxe-30-deluxe-state-40-premier-state-55-f-s

Thanks for posting this! I got the Deluxe for net cost of $20 (we don't have state taxes here). Great deal!

 

[MerissaAndMomLoveDis]

It was BARBRI. The lawsuit alleged that BAR/BRI and Kaplan violated federal antitrust laws by agreeing to limit competition in the market for full-service bar review courses between 2006 and 2011. Basically price fixing.

Interesting. I took BAR/BRI in 1994 for the Texas bar exam. I know there were just 2 choices-- BAR/BRI and I think the other was Kaplan. Everyone I knew took BAR/BRI, which was a bit more expensive but had a better reputation at the time amongst my peers. To tell you what a dinosaur I am, it was all taught by giant paperback books and in person classroom lectures. I believe by the time you took it, it was online?? And yes, it sure felt like price fixing then. They had a corner on the market.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Interesting. I took BAR/BRI in 1994 for the Texas bar exam. I know there were just 2 choices-- BAR/BRI and I think the other was Kaplan. Everyone I knew took BAR/BRI, which was a bit more expensive but had a better reputation at the time amongst my peers. To tell you what a dinosaur I am, it was all taught by giant paperback books and in person classroom lectures. I believe by the time you took it, it was online?? And yes, it sure felt like price fixing then. They had a corner on the market.

They still have the paperback books and classroom lectures! Though the lectures are also put online and there are practice quizzes and all sorts of stuff to do on their website, in addition to the books. My school was not a “lecture” school, but they would play the lectures online everyday in an auditorium so you could come sit there and watch them if you wanted to.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Interesting. I took BAR/BRI in 1994 for the Texas bar exam. I know there were just 2 choices-- BAR/BRI and I think the other was Kaplan. Everyone I knew took BAR/BRI, which was a bit more expensive but had a better reputation at the time amongst my peers. To tell you what a dinosaur I am, it was all taught by giant paperback books and in person classroom lectures. I believe by the time you took it, it was online?? And yes, it sure felt like price fixing then. They had a corner on the market.

They still have the paperback books and classroom lectures! Though the lectures are also put online and there are practice quizzes and all sorts of stuff to do on their website, in addition to the books. My school was not a “lecture” school, but they would play the lectures online everyday in an auditorium so you could come sit there and watch them if you wanted to.

I actually did the majority of my BAR/BRI course as a study at home option. You watched the lectures on a tiny iPod screen. The iPod came with the course, preloaded with all of the lectures, as it was the only option for watching the video lectures. You had to return the iPod at the end or you were charged a crazy fee. And the rest of the materials were in huge books. I liked not having to go to a physical location every day since traffic in Austin can be terrible. But it definitely required a lot more self discipline than going to a classroom probably would. I did go to a physical location for the essay portion of the exam prep. It was over two weekends in a hotel conference room in downtown Austin.

 

[amalone1013]

You watched the lectures on a tiny iPod screen. The iPod came with the course, preloaded with all of the lectures, as it was the only option for watching the video lectures. You had to return the iPod at the end or you were charged a crazy fee.

This is so crazy to think about

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

This is so crazy to think about

Yup. I am pretty sure they did it this way to discourage piracy of the videos. They were likely encrypted on the iPod.

 

[Dentam]

Anyone that uses TurboTax to do their taxes might be interested in this deal. I just got Deluxe + State for $40 plus got a $10 Amazon gift card, so net cost of $30. This is probably the lowest price that you will see it at based on previous years' deals. Other versions also available:

https://slickdeals.net/f/12556960-f...eluxe-30-deluxe-state-40-premier-state-55-f-s

I use them every year - thanks for posting this deal!

ETA: Oh, darn - just saw that it was only good yesterday.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I use them every year - thanks for posting this deal!

ETA: Oh, darn - just saw that it was only good yesterday.

Sorry that you missed it. I would set an alert on Slickdeals and hopefully a similar price will be available soon.

 

[dina444444]

I use them every year - thanks for posting this deal!

ETA: Oh, darn - just saw that it was only good yesterday.

Not sure if you are Costco member I know they have good rates on the turbo tax software with a manufactures discount going on right now.