disney-inspired
Disney on the brain 24/7/365!
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2008
I signed up my DH up for a Southwest credit card (with his permission obviously) in order to get the companion pass they're offering for the year. It had a $4k minimum spend in 3 months in order to get the pass. We just got the card in the mail and I already met the $4k spend. We needed to pay off our May cruise and then I put down the difference that I still needed to spend on our August cruise. We have the money to go ahead and pay off the $4k now so no worries there. Once he gets the companion pass email I can go ahead and get that applied to our Miami flights for our 2nd cruise. The companion pass will save us about $1000 for these flights alone. I'm also trying to talk him into going to Mexico over Thanksgiving to really get the most bang for our buck with the companion pass.
Good tip! I'll have to check it out. I've had a SW card myself for the past 5 or so years, but I dont know that I've ever checked this out. I have another card that's my primary credit card because it has better rewards, but I get use out of my SW card rewards also so I still keep it.That's awesome. Also while you're doing that, sign up for SW's dining rewards. We found several area resturants offer rewards points when we eat there. You have to link a credit card, then you have to pay with that linked card. But it's not. It's not many points. You get like 10 points for every $. If we go on a Friday night, we'll spend $50 between 2 entrees, an appetizer and 2 drinks. Of course we haven't done it lately as we've been trying to save money and eating out fewer. But it's still a nice reward for eating at some places.
Got taxes all put in except for my gambling losses. I'm going Monday to our local casinos I play at to get my win/loss statements. I can claim my losses and it will reduce down some of my wins which makes a HUGE difference in our return.
A 2 week budget is a start but I recommend you look at everything you earned and spent money on last year. That will give you a better idea of how much you need each month to cover expected required and optional spending. The goal should be to identify and cut or reduce most optional spending, things like eating out, travel, streaming/cable/internet/cell services, clothing or home items, gifts, etc. All accounts, yours and your wife's, should be looked at. You'll be amazed how good being debt free feelsWe haven't bought the GCs this year becuase we don't have a trip booked and aren't doing a trip. Not even planning or thinking about it. NOt even in 2025. Not until all these finances are in line. We're not saving for a trip in any way, lol.
And I did write up a quick budget last night. Only did it for these next 2 weeks worth of paychecks (to be able to start small). I didn't tell her about it, so I feel bad going behind her back and not telling her. But I have done out a quick budget. And yes, I will start looking at my CC statements. As I said, I just see the email that it's due, log in and pay what they tell me to pay.
A 2 week budget is a start but I recommend you look at everything you earned and spent money on last year. That will give you a better idea of how much you need each month to cover expected required and optional spending. The goal should be to identify and cut or reduce most optional spending, things like eating out, travel, streaming/cable/internet/cell services, clothing or home items, gifts, etc. All accounts, yours and your wife's, should be looked at. You'll be amazed how good being debt free feels
Just don't fall into bad habits once you're there and go back into debt.
We got our tax refund and COMPLETELY paid off our sharky loan.
Weekly update (Feb. 18)
This one has been a while in the making and will help relieve some, well a lot, of our financial frustrations.
Whoo hoo - that's great news. Getting rid of that is a great start - and shows a bit of a change in mindset all round. Now, as you say you just have to stop her taking another. But maybe seeing that borrowing $700 a few weeks ago has cost you 178+178+720 - 700 = $376 in such a tiny amount of time will help her see just how much of an issue things like that can be.Sharky Loan Update
We got our tax refund and COMPLETELY paid off our sharky loan. Hopefully I'm done talking to those people and a certain someone doesn't go and take out another loan without telling me. We refinanced $700 in January, made 2 payments of $178+ and paid off the rest today (the payoff was a little over $720). I specifically asked about penalties for paying off early, and they said there were none. The lady taking my call said they actually want people to pay off their loans early. Not sure why because they lose so much interest (free money). BUT THAT DANG THING IS PAID OFF!!!!!!
Weekly update (Feb. 18)
This one has been a while in the making and will help relieve some, well a lot, of our financial frustrations.
Financial
Sharky Loan Update
We got our tax refund and COMPLETELY paid off our sharky loan. Hopefully I'm done talking to those people and a certain someone doesn't go and take out another loan without telling me. We refinanced $700 in January, made 2 payments of $178+ and paid off the rest today (the payoff was a little over $720). I specifically asked about penalties for paying off early, and they said there were none. The lady taking my call said they actually want people to pay off their loans early. Not sure why because they lose so much interest (free money). BUT THAT DANG THING IS PAID OFF!!!!!!
Budget
I put together a spreadsheet of all of our expenses for the first 45 days of 2024. I checked out bank account and applied every single credit/debit into some category (incoming, bills, eating out, transportation, grocery store, other expenses). Turns out we swiped our card at a restaurant 104 times for $1,734 between Jan. 1 and Feb. 13. I am absolutely floored and had absolutely no idea the quantity or amount was so high! That's unreal. Further, our expenses surpassed our income by more than $500 meaning we spent $500 more than we earned over the first 45 days.
On top of that, I wrote down a budget for the remaining 2 weeks of the month. First time we'd done a budget of any kind. I wanted to account for all of the money we brought in with anything extra (from selling stuff, any money we don't know about) going into the emergency fund. I started small with just 2 weeks to see how we do. Then I will do one for the entire month of March when that time comes. Lastly, the rest of our tax refund with into an emergency fund. It started our emergency fund. Once we hit $1k, we'll move to paying off our credit cards. Then from there will build more of the emergency fund.
Eating Out
We did well in this regard last week. Only ate out 1 lunch (office paid for a 2nd). Ate out dinner on Thursday night then on Sunday when wife's brother, wife and baby surprised us by driving up from East Texas. So, we weren't expecting to spend that money (need to find a way to put surprise expenses like that into the budget).
Personal
Weight Loss
Didn't lose any weight, but I didn't gain any either. Goal is to try and get down to 260. From there, I hope to get down further. But I'm going to start there. Between Feb. 5-12, I gained 2 pounds from 274.6 to 276.8. However, when I weighed this morning, I was down to 276.1. So lost a little over half a pound.
Exercise
Walked 12.63 miles last week, with a high of 3.13 on Wednesday, 2.50 on Thursday and 2.40 on Sunday. Also did 61 flights of stairs for the week (18 on Thursday and 14 each on Monday and Tuesday). For the week, I had 34,315 steps. We don't have a goal on this one, but we just want to walk more during lunches or after work especially with the weather turning nice. Not necessarily trying to lose weight, we're mainly trying to get healthy.
Eating out is far and away our biggest money suck. We are very careful, but I'd HATE to know what we paid when we weren't. Even with us careful, we still spend $600-700 a month eating out, but we budget for this and can afford it. At points I'm sure we were paying triple that bc when my kids were little we got take out constantly and at times would go out multiple meals in a day. We have been really careful with that for over a year now and I'd love to know what we used to spend.Budget
Turns out we swiped our card at a restaurant 104 times for $1,734 between Jan. 1 and Feb. 13. I am absolutely floored and had absolutely no idea the quantity or amount was so high! That's unreal. Further, our expenses surpassed our income by more than $500 meaning we spent $500 more than we earned over the first 45 days.
Eating Out
We did well in this regard last week. Only ate out 1 lunch (office paid for a 2nd). Ate out dinner on Thursday night then on Sunday when wife's brother, wife and baby surprised us by driving up from East Texas. So, we weren't expecting to spend that money (need to find a way to put surprise expenses like that into the budget).
We will have a bit of a set back this month. Our daughter hit a deer on Sunday night. Thankfully she saw the deer quick enough to slam on her breaks and only hit the back end of the deer. If not she would have hit the deer head on and the damage would be a lot more. My headlight broke. The glass is broke and it pushed it off center. Their is also a crack in my bumper. Thankfully she had a friend with her and they are both ok. Her friend helped to keep DD calm. I am proud of DD. She did everything she should have. She has only had her license since early December.
If she was by herself I think this would have been the reaction too. Her friend is one that stays calm in situations and was able to keep DD calm. We offered to go get them but DD said she was good to drive home. We didn't have a car at home. DS was out with his friends. It is not easy to have 4 drivers and 2 cars (though it is keeping DH and I from going out and spending money). We would have called an uber to get us if she needed us to drive.Glad she's okay! I remember getting hit by a deer (I was stopped and it came flying out of the woods and slammed into the front corner of my car) not long after I got my license. I turned around and went home absolutely shaking and bawling my eyes out and stayed home from school that day.
Financial
Sharky Loan Update
We got our tax refund and COMPLETELY paid off our sharky loan. Hopefully I'm done talking to those people and a certain someone doesn't go and take out another loan without telling me. We refinanced $700 in January, made 2 payments of $178+ and paid off the rest today (the payoff was a little over $720). I specifically asked about penalties for paying off early, and they said there were none. The lady taking my call said they actually want people to pay off their loans early. Not sure why because they lose so much interest (free money). BUT THAT DANG THING IS PAID OFF!!!!!!
Turns out we swiped our card at a restaurant 104 times for $1,734 between Jan. 1 and Feb. 13. I am absolutely floored and had absolutely no idea the quantity or amount was so high!