Debt Dumpers 2022

[barkley]

...my "raise" appeared on this paycheck and I'm now receiving less money (~$40) than I have been. I'm going to leave my contributions as is for now.

so did the employer increase a deduction (with every raise i got from my former gov. job it seemed they upped our share of cost for something so unless it was significant it was a wash) or did it edge you up tax wise?

 

[npatellye]

We have had loose plans to do *something* for my bday/anniversary weekend. My best friend said she'd keep the kids and is off every other Friday. It just happens to land on my birthday weekend, so I've been debating between places to visit.

I can't decide if I want to do a quick 3 hour drive over to Branson, do a day at Silver Dollar City, a river boat dinner cruise, and a dinner at Dixie Stampede. That came out to be about $1300. But, we can realistically do this anytime since it's so close.

Orrrr... I played around with numbers and flights, hotel for 3 nights, and 2 days of park hoppers to WDW came out to $1800. We'd mainly focus on Epcot for food and wine because the last time we went I had 2 tiny humans and we didn't get to really enjoy everything in detail.


What would you do?

For a difference of $500, I would do the adults only Disney trip but that’s just me (and I’m a long way off from that being a reality right now lol).

 

[pblack]

so did the employer increase a deduction (with every raise i got from my former gov. job it seemed they upped our share of cost for something so unless it was significant it was a wash) or did it edge you up tax wise?

It was supposed to be a 2% raise, but they also upped our/my mandatory retirement contributions by 1%. So I'm thinking with that increase it essentially made the other 1% a wash. But it's also possible that it bumped me up tax wise. I didn't look too closely into it since I have a bunch of other stuff going on, but I do think it's the first one.

 

[jen7233]

I haven't posted in a bit and maybe the last I did was before a visit to Orlando a while back. We did GotG, and stayed in the Epcot area. DH is going down to the Coronado for a conference. With my work even though I'm remote right now, it's still full time 8-530 most days, and kids have school starting shortly and already doing fall sports training so going anywhere isn't going to happen. Still renting, but those interest rates right now make me a little less likely to want to buy. We have major changes coming up in the next couple years so will see how things unfold. And last but not least on updates, since when I jumped on here the topic is on pay, I got my yearly raise which after taxes comes out to a $41 extra every two weeks and doing more tasks at that.

I can't decide if I want to do a quick 3 hour drive over to Branson, do a day at Silver Dollar City, a river boat dinner cruise, and a dinner at Dixie Stampede. That came out to be about $1300. But, we can realistically do this anytime since it's so close.

I've done all three places in the past! Branson several times. You could make a weekend out of Branson, we've done that before and camped there also when we used to have a travel trailer. I think Disney works if adding in the travel time and the extra cost is worthwhile for a quick trip, I find that hard to do if adding in air travel to Orlando. Going to WDW I'd want to have three park days at least if I'm going that far. Can't go too wrong with Epcot though but then HS is right there so, a lot to do in a short time.

 

[Tygerlilly]

I've done all three places in the past! Branson several times. You could make a weekend out of Branson, we've done that before and camped there also when we used to have a travel trailer. I think Disney works if adding in the travel time and the extra cost is worthwhile for a quick trip, I find that hard to do if adding in air travel to Orlando. Going to WDW I'd want to have three park days at least if I'm going that far. Can't go too wrong with Epcot though but then HS is right there so, a lot to do in a short time.

Hubby isn't into MK at all and we could probably throw parm hoppers on to jump around between AK and HS so he can see the Star Wars stuff. We'd fly out late Thursday, spend Friday at Epcot, Sat at the other park, and Sunday springs before we leave. Plus with no kids we're flexible with moving around quicker than with them.

 

[barkley]

posted this on another thread but have to share-my oldest's employer just announced a new employee benefit of a $1 per gallon gas discount at their affiliated (next to the workplace) gas station the place already rivals costco on gas prices for our area so this will be a massive kiddo savings

 

[virge]

It’s been over 4 months since I updated, and lots has changed. In addition to increased costs for all the same things we were buying back in March, we bought a much nicer car than I’d planned to buy this year and had some VERY large vet bills. Now we have the looming costs that will come when my sons get their full driver licenses in September (increased car insurance costs, town/county taxes for the vehicles they hope to have, etc.) In addition to planning a dream trip to Costa Rica with friends, my family is planning a short trip to Disney World in November, when my husband will run the wine & dine half marathon. I’m definitely feeling much less financially confident now than I was at the start of the year.

Financial Goals

• Build regular savings account to a balance of at least $10,000. - Goal met. Traditional savings account is just over $10,000.
• New Goal - Keep traditional savings account at a minimum of $10,000.
• Put any “extra” money towards mortgage. (I count “extra” money as supplements from work, items sold on eBay/fb, etc.) - $210 “extra money” paid towards mortgage in February. - I continued putting “extra money” & an automatic $300 extra each month towards the principal of our mortgage until May, when I stopped putting any extra towards my mortgage. (See my new goal below, for what replaced this goal.)
• At the end of April, we traded in my mini-van and used the money from my car savings to purchase a 2021 Jeep. It was the least responsible financial decision I’ve ever made, but I don’t regret it My ”car savings” was intended to purchase a much cheaper car, and it wasn’t enough to cover the entire cost, even with trading in my van. I have a car payment for the first time in over 6 years New goal - Put any “extra” money towards the principal on my car loan.
• Increase automatic monthly transfers to 529 accounts to match salary increase that starts in Feb. - We didn’t receive our revised contracts until the day the direct deposits went in the bank, so I wasn’t able to do this for February. The great news is I was at one of the steps that needed to be corrected, so I received a larger increase than I expected. I’m modifying what to do with this increase. I’m going to increase each deposit by $100 starting with my March paycheck. - Goal met.
• Increase automatic monthly deposits towards supplemental retirement to match salary increase that starts in August. Given the changes over recent months, I doubt I will increase the deposit to match the salary increase. I will revise the amount in August, when I see the impact of the raise on my monthly paycheck.
• Organize financial info for my family. (I take care of all the bills & finances for my family, except my husband’s retirement accounts. I tease that he would be in trouble if something happened to me. I need to make sure he has all the info in one place, so it won’t ever be a real issue.) - I did this at the beginning of the summer. Before my summer break ends, I need to double check I really finished it.
• Run annual credit reports. Completed
• Planning a dream trip to Costa Rica with some friends for Spring 2023. I don't know the budget, yet, but I'm adding a goal of opening a vacation account & putting $200/month in it. That money will come from part of February's salary increase. - Still planning the trip to CR and it looks like we will book in the next month. Regrettably, I never started a vacation account, so I’m breaking this into 2 new goals…
• Pay for the flights & 9-day tour portion of Costa Rica trip, without carrying a balance on my credit card. (This may mean I borrow from our traditional savings account or delay putting August’s salary increase towards my supplemental retirement.) I‘m thinking this will be ~$2800.
• Start a vacation savings account for “extras” related to the trip (food not included in the tour, optional excursions, etc.). My goal is to have $2000 in the account.

 

[EilonwyWanderer]

Sigh. July was, once again, a bust. I feel like we've just been accumulating debt like crazy this year and can't seem to dig out. Part of it is still settling into the house and buying things we didn't know we'd need--and now we have a leaky oil tank AGAIN and it's less than 2 years old! Honestly if they come back and say we have to pay for a new one I might just go all in on like, heat pumps or something. Part of it is just living above our means, which I'm trying to pull us back in on. It was the first summer the kids went to camp and that was a hit to the pocket book. I pre-scheduled a few vacations for the future (school vacation weeks and such) so that hit us early but should be fun when they roll around? But I think next year we'll do the one February vacation and then mini-mostly-free-day-trips during the summer on weeks camps are out. I'm a month ahead on the mortgage (I always pay it every 4 weeks) so that gives me a little cushion if I ever want to use that to pay something off that month. Though that's last resort since I like staying ahead!

Goals for August:
-Throw money at the credit card and spend LESS than we put on it. I'm not even going to name a number here. It just leads to disappointment.
-Eat. Out. Less. Like it's just getting silly how are we this lazy.
-Walk in the mornings. Already set my alarm to get me up at 5 am tomorrow to go for a walk. I'M GONNA DO IT!
-Do smaller tasks around the house that don't cost a ton of money. The back porch REALLY needs to come down and I need to call and ask if we need a permit to pull it ourselves and then how much time we'll have to rebuild stairs off the back doorway (that i think we need due to fire code? Though we have another exit in the basement so...maybe not?)

 

[barkley]

Sigh. July was, once again, a bust. I feel like we've just been accumulating debt like crazy this year and can't seem to dig out. Part of it is still settling into the house and buying things we didn't know we'd need--and now we have a leaky oil tank AGAIN and it's less than 2 years old! Honestly if they come back and say we have to pay for a new one I might just go all in on like, heat pumps or something. Part of it is just living above our means, which I'm trying to pull us back in on. It was the first summer the kids went to camp and that was a hit to the pocket book. I pre-scheduled a few vacations for the future (school vacation weeks and such) so that hit us early but should be fun when they roll around? But I think next year we'll do the one February vacation and then mini-mostly-free-day-trips during the summer on weeks camps are out. I'm a month ahead on the mortgage (I always pay it every 4 weeks) so that gives me a little cushion if I ever want to use that to pay something off that month. Though that's last resort since I like staying ahead!

Goals for August:
-Throw money at the credit card and spend LESS than we put on it. I'm not even going to name a number here. It just leads to disappointment.
-Eat. Out. Less. Like it's just getting silly how are we this lazy.
-Walk in the mornings. Already set my alarm to get me up at 5 am tomorrow to go for a walk. I'M GONNA DO IT!
-Do smaller tasks around the house that don't cost a ton of money. The back porch REALLY needs to come down and I need to call and ask if we need a permit to pull it ourselves and then how much time we'll have to rebuild stairs off the back doorway (that i think we need due to fire code? Though we have another exit in the basement so...maybe not?)

i remember the summer camp years. they were a hit to the pocketbook (though thankfully the ones my kids went to were not of the very costly variety) but i have to admit that i looked forward to them as much as the kids did (maybe more ). even if i didn't take time off from work i could come home from work and get so much accomplished! that said-it helped us budget/sticker shock wise to do something akin to a 'christmas club' account for camp. every month of the year 1/12th of what camp cost us the previous year went into an account so the only sticker shock was coming up with whatever the increase in cost added up to. if you can make it fit into your budget i highly recommend it.

 

[EilonwyWanderer]

Yeah we're trying to see if the childcare stuff my husband's job offers will cover camp. I'm hoping we can start "catching up" come September because we are NOT doing afterschool care since one of us is always working from home (and we live 2 minutes away from the school) so that should be an extra $1100/month that we can just chuck at the credit card. It hasn't been so high in a LONG time and I want it gooooone. Luckily it's the only one we have, but still. Go awaaaaaay credit card debt!

 

[barkley]

Yeah we're trying to see if the childcare stuff my husband's job offers will cover camp. I'm hoping we can start "catching up" come September because we are NOT doing afterschool care since one of us is always working from home (and we live 2 minutes away from the school) so that should be an extra $1100/month that we can just chuck at the credit card. It hasn't been so high in a LONG time and I want it gooooone. Luckily it's the only one we have, but still. Go awaaaaaay credit card debt!

i DO NOT miss childcare costs! i remember when my employer was trying to cut costs and offered voluntary time off-unpaid but you still accrued the same benefits/retirement contributions/ paid vacation and other leave time as if you continued f/t. i ran the numbers with our cpa and we realized we would be AHEAD financially if i cut my hours by 2 per day b/c (1) it dropped us into a lower tax bracket and (2) it totally eliminated the expense of after school care.

 

[EilonwyWanderer]

Childcare costs are absolutely INSANE around here! It was way worse when they were both in daycare--like we're talking 4k a month. A MONTH! We survived on pasta during those years which must be why we like eating out now

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Childcare costs are absolutely INSANE around here! It was way worse when they were both in daycare--like we're talking 4k a month. A MONTH! We survived on pasta during those years which must be why we like eating out now

Our kids day camp was $400 per kid per week and that was a while ago. They are now 25 and 22. I totally feel your pain. My kids weren't even that fond of day camp in general and we didn't have many to choose from that covered our work hours. We tried several and they really just wanted to be home and wanted me to be a SAHM like the other moms on our street, moms of their friends. I was the oddball working FT.

Dont wish it all away cuz when you’re done with camp, you’re done with someone watching over them. That is scary too and makes you worry more about what they’re doing and who they’re with.

ETA: Dh and I would take off differnt, separate weeks in the summer to cut out 2 weeks of needing camp.

 

[disney-inspired]

Happy August!

2022 Financial Goals
- Focus on paying down private student loans until federal loans go back into repayment. Current combined balance is $48,108.03, a decrease of $317.93. Not really going full steam on this because I made so many additional payments that I don't have a required minimum payment at this time. I waffle between paying $250 a month or skipping it altogether since I'm ahead on payments. I'm cash flowing several trips/outings planned throughout the rest of the year because that's what's making me happy right now. If they extend the pause again (have a feeling they will) I will focus on paying off my federal loans (around $15k) that will be at zero interest.
- Save for a new car - Now that I do mostly street driving, and gas costs being so high, I want to trade in my car and buy a hybrid. I'm looking at a '22 Toyota Rav4. Estimating a $35k cost and want to have 3/4 of it with savings and trade-in value of my corolla. I estimate I could have this by summer 2023. - I kind of knew this urge to get a new car was impulsive and would eventually fade away, and so it has for the time being. No current plans to sell my car/buy a new one while the cost of used cars is so ridiculously high. There is really no need for it as I WFH and my car isn't that old.
- Buy a new ECV scooter. - I purchased this to find out the model I ordered is backordered 4.5 months. They will allow me to cancel the order any time before it ships out so I'm trying to decide if I want to cancel the order and go elsewhere. I would love to not need this but with any autoimmune disorder, you never know when you'll get a huge flare up and be out of commission.
- Fully Fund SD vacation - Goal Met
- Fully Fund USO/IOA Trip - Goal Met
- Fully Fund DL weekend trip - ($250/300) 83% complete
- Fully Fund WDW 2023 vacation - ($346/ $1432) 24% complete

2022 Other Goals:
Health:
- Increase physical activity to be consistent 4x a week - Summer in SoCal desert is pretty terrible. I was also sick for 2 weeks with a serious cold (maybe flu - def not covid, tested negative twice) so didn't get out of the house much. I'm really looking forward to fall so I can be outside without combusting into flames.
- Find feasible healthier eating options - After a recent doctor's appointment, I am recommitted to eating healthier. I am going on vacation to San Diego this week so won't be as reserved but will be mindful of what I'm eating out there. I've already dropped my regular Starbucks order - too much sugar, I get decaf so caffeine isn't really the priority here LOL. Focusing on healthier alternatives will not only save me from eating junk but also save me money.

 

[Tygerlilly]

I'd been feeling pretty crummy for a few months now and I kept blaming it on postpartum exhaustion and general life with 3 kids and working 12 hour shifts. As we were deep cleaning in preparation of my aunt coming to visit (it was an amazing visit!), I found my blood glucose monitor from when I was pregnant. I had Gestational Diabetes with all 3 kids, and it made me realize that I felt exactly like I did when I'd be running high while pregnant. Long story short, a couple days of testing resulted in numbers WELL above normal.
I've since changed my diet and cut out regular soda and it seems to be working out. Bonus is I'm down 5lbs over the last 10 days. I'm going to start working out again this week so that should help as well.

We finally got hubby dental issues going. He goes the 15th to get his denture fitting and then we can schedule the teeth removal immediately after. I'm going to call the denture place and see if they can do everything there instead of doing the dentures at one place and procedure at the private practice (hopefully for slightly less than private practice prices).

Since his dental stuff will be coming soon, we may have to reschedule our trip to Chicago to see family. We've also decided to postpone our trip to PA to see my family from late fall to spring when the weather is just a little better.

Basically, we're in limbo paying for needed health related things before we can make plans to do anything else.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I'd been feeling pretty crummy for a few months now and I kept blaming it on postpartum exhaustion and general life with 3 kids and working 12 hour shifts. As we were deep cleaning in preparation of my aunt coming to visit (it was an amazing visit!), I found my blood glucose monitor from when I was pregnant. I had Gestational Diabetes with all 3 kids, and it made me realize that I felt exactly like I did when I'd be running high while pregnant. Long story short, a couple days of testing resulted in numbers WELL above normal.
I've since changed my diet and cut out regular soda and it seems to be working out. Bonus is I'm down 5lbs over the last 10 days. I'm going to start working out again this week so that should help as well.

We finally got hubby dental issues going. He goes the 15th to get his denture fitting and then we can schedule the teeth removal immediately after. I'm going to call the denture place and see if they can do everything there instead of doing the dentures at one place and procedure at the private practice (hopefully for slightly less than private practice prices).

Since his dental stuff will be coming soon, we may have to reschedule our trip to Chicago to see family. We've also decided to postpone our trip to PA to see my family from late fall to spring when the weather is just a little better.

Basically, we're in limbo paying for needed health related things before we can make plans to do anything else.

Wow, good that you recognized that feeling and taking steps to correct it. I would still see an endocrinologist and get a full work up instead of trying to treat it on your own. JMHO. You might need meds to help keep it on track.

Good luck with your hubby’s dental care.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Wow, good that you recognized that feeling and taking steps to correct it. I would still see an endocrinologist and get a full work up instead of trying to treat it on your own. JMHO. You might need meds to help keep it on track.

Good luck with your hubby’s dental care.

I definitely plan to, just trying to work with one medical issue at a time. Lol. I was on medication while pregnant, so I'm not against it now. But I know it's often "treatable" with good diet and exercise.

 

[princesscinderella]

I definitely plan to, just trying to work with one medical issue at a time. Lol. I was on medication while pregnant, so I'm not against it now. But I know it's often "treatable" with good diet and exercise.

Have your thyroid checked out too pregnancy can burn it out and you become hypothyroid. Happened to both my sister and I after having kids. Best of luck in all your endeavors

 

[EilonwyWanderer]

That happened to me with my second pregnancy. Just absolutely destroyed my thyroid and it wasn't caught for two years.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I definitely plan to, just trying to work with one medical issue at a time. Lol. I was on medication while pregnant, so I'm not against it now. But I know it's often "treatable" with good diet and exercise.

True. Same with high blood pressure.

I’ve also been reading about how weight gain is associated with lack of sleep. I decided to make a conscious effort to go to bed early. Dh is so good at it. He literally drops whatever he is doing/watching/reading at 9:30pm and goes to bed. I was good one night but that left some things still on my to do list. So then last night my list was longer plus ds22 came over to visit so it ended up being more like 11:30 when I went to bed. Try, try again.