Debt Dumpers 2020

[ruadisneyfan2]

Is toy story mania, the midway mania ride/game? If so, I totally agree! We have the same ride/game at California adventure and it's one of my faves.


Wow, 13 times! That's impressive!

Yes, I've only been to DLR once and don't remember it. Maybe there was a long line and we skipped it. Is it 3D in Cali?
Our last visit was Dec 2018, park was getting ready to close in about 30 mins. We had time for one more ride. The brand new Slinky Dog line was only 20 mins, down from 2 hrs earlier in the day, or 5 mins for TSM. Hmmm... tough decision but we couldn't resist a 5 min wait for TSM.

 

[pblack]

Yes, I've only been to DLR once and don't remember it. Maybe there was a long line and we skipped it. Is it 3D in Cali?
Our last visit was Dec 2018, park was getting ready to close in about 30 mins. We had time for one more ride. The brand new Slinky Dog line was only 20 mins, down from 2 hrs earlier in the day, or 5 mins for TSM. Hmmm... tough decision but we couldn't resist a 5 min wait for TSM.

It is also 3D here. it consistently has a 90+ minute wait throughout the day. When we stayed at the Grand Californian in October we were able to go into one of the parks (depending on the day) an hour before they opened. We did this for California Adventure and it was sooo great because all the rides that were open, including TSMM, were basically walk ons. i think we rode/played it 3 times that morning lol.

 

[imbatman]

Took some time away from the board after receiving some monumental news that is not of the best nature. Bad news: I have the same gene mutation my dad has that caused his prostate and breast cancer. Good news: I caught it before I've been diagnosed with cancer.

This has caused us to rearrange our budget:

1. Taking part of stimulus check to pay for new flooring. We've put it off. This doesn't put us behind in CC pay off at all and it'll finally be done. I am a DIY'er and will even call in favors for this one. Or I'll take it a section at a time. No hurry, as long as I do it correctly. I am going to purchase this on a CC for the rewards and immediately pay it off. Woot! Can't wait until that is a habit.

2. Small win: called the bank because they were suddenly not waiving our checking fee. Turns out that when they sold our mortgage, they "forgot" to re-enroll us on the free checking plan. $100 earned.

3. Start my battle with the insurance, who has already denied the testing.

4. Get a spreadsheet prepped so that I'm not paying more than the maximum out-of-pocket for the year. DH has his foot surgery next week, so we should meet it quickly.

I do have enough sick leave on the books to cover any leave, so that is good for our debt-free plans. COVID has messed up things like not being able to get in to see a surgeon (who is actively working with patients who currently are battling cancer) and I can't shop at thrift stores for clothing to modify before the surgeries. Yup...surgeries. I grateful for the gift of time. Not everyone gets that.

Now to go spend a grand on flooring...

 

[PhoenixStrength]

@imbatman I'm so sorry to hear of your medical news, but it's great you found out before anything developed so that you can make decisions. Good luck with the insurance company.

 

[Gr8t Fan]

@imbatman thinking of you and sending big hugs. So good to hear that you'll have time to decide what will be best for you.

Good luck finishing the floors!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Took some time away from the board after receiving some monumental news that is not of the best nature. Bad news: I have the same gene mutation my dad has that caused his prostate and breast cancer. Good news: I caught it before I've been diagnosed with cancer.

This has caused us to rearrange our budget:

1. Taking part of stimulus check to pay for new flooring. We've put it off. This doesn't put us behind in CC pay off at all and it'll finally be done. I am a DIY'er and will even call in favors for this one. Or I'll take it a section at a time. No hurry, as long as I do it correctly. I am going to purchase this on a CC for the rewards and immediately pay it off. Woot! Can't wait until that is a habit.

2. Small win: called the bank because they were suddenly not waiving our checking fee. Turns out that when they sold our mortgage, they "forgot" to re-enroll us on the free checking plan. $100 earned.

3. Start my battle with the insurance, who has already denied the testing.

4. Get a spreadsheet prepped so that I'm not paying more than the maximum out-of-pocket for the year. DH has his foot surgery next week, so we should meet it quickly.

I do have enough sick leave on the books to cover any leave, so that is good for our debt-free plans. COVID has messed up things like not being able to get in to see a surgeon (who is actively working with patients who currently are battling cancer) and I can't shop at thrift stores for clothing to modify before the surgeries. Yup...surgeries. I grateful for the gift of time. Not everyone gets that.

Now to go spend a grand on flooring...

Sorry to hear of your news and impending surgery, but that is great that you're able to get ahead of it. Hope you're doing ok, keep us updated!

 

[pblack]

So sorry to hear your news @imbatman. Sending you all the good vibes and positive thoughts for your surgery and flooring endeavours.

 

[WeatherLights]

@imbatman wow, that sounds like a massive amount of added worry. Lots of hugs to you and, while I'm just a stranger on a screen, please know that I'm hoping the best for you!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

@imbatman I'm sorry you're going through all this. Sending virtual hugs to you. Like you say, at least you found out before you developed cancer and have the gift of time to think for a bit and do what's best for you.
Stay safe. Stay strong. We're always here for you if you need to vent or when you're not feeling so strong.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Things are going ok over here. Waiting to find out if I'm working from home for a couple more weeks or if we go back next Monday. It's not my boss' decision, but our state supreme court that makes the call, so I'm just haunting their website waiting to find out lol. In the meantime, we're still just hanging out at home, saving a ton of money (thankfully). I'll probably spend about $500 on groceries this month when it's all said and done since I put in another $200 grocery order yesterday to pick up on Thursday. We got takeout one time this month when our power went out for three hours and we couldn't cook dinner, and I'm planning to pick up Chick Fil A for lunch when I get our groceries Thursday. Other than that, we just haven't been spending anything other than a couple Amazon orders here and there. My husband is dying to buy some more flowers and there's a locally owned farm right around the corner from us that operates on the honor system for going and picking out stuff and leaving cash, so I'll get a little bit of money out of the ATM Thursday so he can do that.

I moved our stimulus check to savings for the time being. It will go to getting the house painted whenever we can have someone out here again, but for right now will just collect some interest. I also got my refund from Fed Loan Servicing for my March student loan payment! It took about two and a half weeks to get here from when I called. I made a special bucket in my Ally account for student loans and just moved 6 months worth of student loan payments into that for now. Come November, I'll use that money to pay down/off DH's student loan, since that is not in forbearance.

So far, everything is ok with our jobs. My jobs is secure regardless, and DH has survived two rounds of furloughs and continues to be really busy with work. We did have to cancel our trip to Japan in June that was a bummer, but we're planning to try to go next spring instead, and still have plans to go to Hawaii for Christmas this year. I'm planning to book all of that before the end of May since it looks like just about all the major airlines and hotels are allowing free cancellations for anything as long as you book by then.

Hope everyone is hanging in there!

 

[bellylaugh]

@imbatman sorry to hear of your news but I’m so glad you caught this early. Sending all my good thoughts to you and your family.

 

[jen7233]

@imbatman I'm sorry you are going through this right now! It must be a scary time.

@DisneyMandC glad your job is secure in this. That does stink to have to cancel your trip to Japan. I can't imagine Hawaii wouldn't be a go for Christmas, knock on wood! I still find myself thinking I couldn't have even believed we'd all be in a strange situation like the current one when New Year's 2020 hit!

 

[jen7233]

Just checked my Southwest account again, looks like all my travel funds are reflecting expiration of Sep 7, 2022. Good on that. Have to cancel still the July trip on Southwest we aren't planning to go on.

 

[DisneyMandC]

@DisneyMandC glad your job is secure in this. That does stink to have to cancel your trip to Japan. I can't imagine Hawaii wouldn't be a go for Christmas, knock on wood! I still find myself thinking I couldn't have even believed we'd all be in a strange situation like the current one when New Year's 2020 hit!

Yeah I'm bummed about Japan. We knew it was going to have to be canceled for safety purposes anyways, but my state is on a stay at home order too until June 10. Then my work sent out a notice that if we travel in violation of the stay at home order, we have to quarantine for 14 days after we get back and must use our own PTO to do it. So that was the final nail in the coffin.

I think Hawaii would be fine by Christmas. I hope so, anyways. I think even if (when) we do get a second wave, it will fall before that, so hopefully we'll be ok.

 

[pblack]

@DisneyMandC sorry about your Japan trip ☹. I have my fingers crossed for your Hawaii trip!

We're doing ok over here. I have no idea when I'll be able to go back to working from my office and not from home (DH is still working.) I'm really starting to feel cooped up in the house. We have a tentative trip to Texas planned for July, but I don't know if it will actually happen or not. Still planning for WDW and my cruise in November like it's going to happen.

Budget wise we're ok right now. We've mostly been eating at home and eat out once a week. Over the weekend we did eat out both days. Saturday we treated my in-laws (picked up food for them) so we spent a decent bit over the weekend.

Looking forward to the weather this week/ weekend as we're supposed to be in the 80s. I may even attempt getting in the pool this weekend, or at least sticking my feet in. I need to make a Costco run sometime this week and I plan to pick up stuff to make margaritas. Trying to make the best of things somehow .

Hope everyone is staying safe and sane!

 

[dina444444]

Just checked my Southwest account again, looks like all my travel funds are reflecting expiration of Sep 7, 2022. Good on that. Have to cancel still the July trip on Southwest we aren't planning to go on.

Same here, a few of mine had updated over the weekend. The rest updated overnight last night.

 

[Nettlelondon]

@iambatman - sorry to read your news, but hopefully things can be sorted before they cause any problems.

Over here in the UK things are jogging along in this bizarre new normal. We should have been on vacation in Malta this week but obviously that got cancelled. I have a credit on account with British Airways for the full cost of the trip, and I was able to cancel all the other bits and bobs related to the trip (airport parking, a couple of pre-booked activities). If I can't use the credit within a year I can convert it in to cash. At the moment we have a lot of plans that will use it - assuming we are allowed to travel again - so I am not worried.

DH did think his work would potentially drop to a minimum by now but it hasn't. He works for himself in IT/business process consulting and he thought his clients might start to limit how much work they needed him to do but he is still flat out which is good. Now we just have to persuade them to actually settle the invoices.

Part of the reason for having the travel plans is that I know he is giong to want some time off as soon as he can do something useful with it as he is definitely feeling the effects of the hours he is working but as he has limited alternative uses for his time at the moment - he isn't much of a TV watcher, we don't have a garden and most of his hobbies are outside the home - he figures he might as well take advantage of the opportunity to earn while he can. We are due to go to a few weekend long music festivals during the summer. Some have been cancelled but, as yet, some haven't. We fully expect they will all be rescheduled to 2021 so next year's trips are getting planned now without us really being involved.

We are spending more on groceries than normal but much less on eating out. For various reasons it isn't unusual for one or both of us to eat out 3 or 4 times a week in normal times so this is a bit of a saving. We are having take out (or delivered in) once a week and trying to support local restaurants rather than chains as much as possible and DH got take out from the real ale bar two doors away the other day, again as much to support them as for the drink in itself.

Today I spend some money on fence paint and brushes so attempting to paint some fencing will provide this weekend's entertainment.

Stay safe everyone.

 

[imbatman]

I think Hawaii would be fine by Christmas.

I misread that and thought, "Of course Christmas in Hawaii would be fine!"

Thanks for the good wishes, everyone. I'm extremely grateful to have the time to research and write out thoughts and questions. Date night tonight is heading to Home Depot for flooring.

 

[Scoobie]

I live in Washington. Our stay at home order is through May 4th. However, our county commissioner (Franklin) has put out an order that everything can reopen, everyone can go out and go back to work if they want. He put in the order that the actions of the Governor were "unconstitutional" and therefore never legal. Our Sheriff's dept. echoed the same, saying they would not do anything to people, businesses, or churches that wanted to go back to operating. It's anarchy over here! Also, we snagged some toilet paper from Costco yesterday.

 

[arlinar]

I feel like we threw our budget out the window this month.

At this point, it's just buy groceries whenever we need to. We order out about once or twice a week depending on how tired we are.

We are currently budgeting on our new baby that will be here in November.